Frequently Asked Questions

Please ensure you are using Microsoft Edge when launching Scheduling – Courses & Events for course scheduling.

Timetabler is opened in the minimized state. To fix this:

1. Hover over the Timetabler icon on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen until a grey box appears above the icon

2. Right click on the grey box and select Maximize

Timetabler should now open on your screen.

You can re-set your view to the default setting by going to Tools (at the top toolbar), Reset, Layout.

• Have you checked the room availability on the UBC Online Timetable?
• Does the planned size in the Activity Editor exceed the seat capacity of the room you want to book?
• Have you limited your search to a specific building or room?
• Have you checked your location requirements in the Resources tab of Scientia Timetabler? Remove all suitabilities including the zone, “Z:”. 
• Are your term dates and/or start and end time correct? If the room is booked on one of your scheduled days, you will not be able to move your activity in there.

To allow the double-booking of staff members, please do the following on Timetabler:

1.  Go to the Tools (top of page) drop down menu and select Constraints

2.  In the Constraints window, under the Avoid Double Booking Constraint category, select “Never” for Staff Member and click Ok at the bottom to apply the change

3. Write back this change. You can now double book staff members. A problem will still be triggered and the problem will need to be waived.

Please contact Scheduling Services via email at schedulingservices@students.ubc.ca with the course information for further investigation.

If an instructor is not viewable in Timetabler, they may not have an active appointment in Workday. As the instructor syncs from Workday, please follow up with your respective HR department.

There are several reasons why students may not be able to register for a course.

• The course may not have section capacity to accomodate the student in Workday.
• The course section may be hidden or not published.
• The student may not meet the restrictions.
  • Reserve Capacity restrictions: Restrictions at the section level are located in Workday on the Course Section Defintion. You may create restrictions that are only applied to the section. For more information about Reserve Capacity please see the Workday Student Course Scheduling Canvas Course.

  • Senate restrictions: Senate restrictions can be viewed in Workday. Senate restrictions are applied to all of the sections of the course. To remove Senate restrictions, contact Senate & Curriculum Services. 

  • Faculty restrictions: Also viewed in Workday, these restrictions are applied to all sections of a course. Students must meet these restrictions before they are able to register for the course.

• Registration may also be prevented based on the student account (e.g., financial holds, advising required, not eligible).

• Did you write back (save) your changes in Timetabler?
• Does the activity have a section ID?
• Did you change the original section ID? Once a section ID has been written back, it cannot be changed. If a new Section ID is needed, generate a new activity from the activity template with the new Section ID, and delete the old activity.
• Did you wait 30 minutes to allow time for data to sync from Scientia to Workday?

If you answered yes to the above questions, please contact our office for assistance via email at schedulingservices@students.ubc.ca.

• Is the "Arranged" tag attached to the section in Timetabler? If so remove the tag to have the meeting information sync to Workday.

If you answered no to the above question, please contact our office for assistance via email at schedulingservices@students.ubc.ca.

• The instructor may not have an Active Academic Appointment for the required Academic Period, please follow up with your respective HR department.
• The instructor may need the Designate Instructor Eligibility Task completed in Workday, please see the Workday Student Course Scheduling Canvas Course for more information. 

Please refer to the Resources page.

The Prime-Time Report identifies the number of sections that need to move outside of Prime-Time (10:00 am – 1:59 pm) in order to achieve the required distribution of no more than 55% of course sections per course code in Prime-Time. The report only applies to sections in general teaching space during the Winter session.

Yes. Academic Units can offer a Hybrid Mode of Delivery courses. 

Academic units are responsible for ensuring core or otherwise designated required courses are kept conflict-free.

Only section days and times from the previous Academic Session will roll to the new Academic Session (e.g. 2021W to 2022W). Departments have the agency to decide which, if any, sections need to be adjusted. As an exception, Restricted Teaching Space rooms will be rolled each year. General Teaching Space rooms do not roll from year to year.

Ensure you adhere to the Senate approved term dates. Incorrect dates will affect the withdrawal dates and may affect student loans and awards.

Academic units provide their room requirements, including AV or other room features, for sections in Web Data Collector (WDC) based on pedagogical need. 

The Mode of Delivery describes how each individual activity (lecture, lab, discussion etc.) within a course is going to be delivered. 

• In-Person – The course activity is taking place in-person 
• Online – The course activity is fully online and does not require any in-person attendance to complete 
• Hybrid – The course activity has a mixture of mandatory in-person and online activities as designed by the instructor 
• Multi-Access – The course activity allows students the choice to complete in-person or online 

Web Data Collector (WDC) is a Scientia tool T-Reps use to enter their course section information so that Scheduling Services can allocate General Teaching Space to course sections. WDC is not a scheduling tool, nor does it show location availability.

Please refer to our Timelines page for specific dates. Course information can be updated at any time while WDC is open and does not need to be completed all at once. The date of completion of WDC does not affect the priority in which course sections are assigned space.

Every section has a text box available to enter any comments that will help Scheduling Services allocate a room. The character limit is 255 (about 2-3 sentences). Please refer to the WDC User Guide or Canvas course available on our Resources page for more information.

There is no field to request a specific room in WDC. Academic units provide their room requirements based on pedagogical needs.

Yes. You can provide these considerations in the WDC Comment Box. Back-to-back sections into the same room may be considered if all other scheduling requirements are satisfied (e.g. both sections have a similar Planned Size and the same room can be effectively used for both sections).

Yes. There are reports available in WDC for this purpose. Please refer to the WDC User Guide available on our Resources page for steps on accessing the reports.

The Multi-Block pattern designates day(s) and start time combinations for daytime course sections (8:00 am to 4:59 pm). To view the complete pattern, please refer to our Academic Course Scheduling Operational Procedures.

Please inform Scheduling Services before the scheduling cycle begins if off-pattern sections (non-standard times) are required due to specific program requirements. Collaboration will occur in order to facilitate optimal space utilization while meeting program needs. It is recommended to use RTS for off-pattern sections wherever possible.

Yes. Daytime 4-hour sections can be scheduled on any day of the week with a start time that aligns with the 2-hour block start times of 8:00, 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, or 16:00.

Yes. That pattern exists within the Multi-Block pattern.

Yes. The Multi-Block pattern does not include Saturday or Sunday but academic units may continue to schedule courses on these days.

The Departmental Zone Room Allocation Model creates a group of General Teaching Space for each course code within 400m of a chosen centroid building. Scheduling Services schedules course sections within the zone according to the General Teaching Space Allocation Methodology available on our Resources page.

The current list of all departmental zones and centroids is located on our Resources page.

To request a different centroid, please email Scheduling Services at: schedulingservices@students.ubc.ca. 

No. If a section needs to be scheduled outside of the zone for its course code, this can be indicated in the WDC Comment Box for the section. Sections of Planned Size 300 and above do not have a zone; they are scheduled across campus according to room size and features only.

If Scientia can’t find a suitable room within the zone, it will allocate a room elsewhere on campus outside of the zone.

T-Reps need to:

1. Review the draft timetable in Scientia Timetabler and Workday
2. Complete course section details in Workday. See Resources page for more information
3. (Optional) Make changes to course sections in Scientia Timetabler
4. (Optional) Submit change requests to Scheduling Services

Once the draft timetable is ready, an email will be sent to T-Reps with the link for faculty, or anyone else without Scientia access, to view the draft timetable online.

Scheduling Services accepts the following types of change requests for sections in GTS:

• Increase/decrease in Planned Size
• Adding course section(s)
• Modification to day/time/duration/term
• Room changes if the assigned space does not meet the teaching requirements

T-Reps are responsible for all other changes, including updating staff (instructors), and all modifications to course sections in RTS.

Yes. T-Reps are given full access into Scientia once the draft timetable is published and can make any changes to their own sections. Submitting change requests to Scheduling Services is optional.

For the Summer Session, students are charged the U-Pass fee on a monthly basis.

Graduate and professional programs that do not follow the Senate approved term dates are advised to schedule course dates to accurately reflect the start and end dates for when students are in class. For example, if the first day a class meets is on June 30th and the last class meets on August 1st, the course should be scheduled from June 30th to August 1st, and students would be correctly assessed for the June, July, and August U-Pass.