request new feature: different types of multiple teachers

Discussions about the Lesson Schedules Tool
Locked
User avatar
sasgrw
Member
Posts: 280
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:47 am
Location: Holly Springs, NC

request new feature: different types of multiple teachers

#1

Post by sasgrw »

I read the thread about having multiple teachers and understand you can assign one teacher to the class and then edit each lesson that has a different teacher. That's somewhat painful but is bearable for now.

It'd be nice if there was a way to assign multiple teachers to a class and have the lesson scheduler automatically assign the right person. I can see at least two types of rotations for teachers:

1. Alternating teachers - If you have 3 teachers, then they take turns teaching. If an event cancels a lesson, it shifts that teacher's schedule to the next week. The teacher is not skipped in rotation.

2. Fixed Sunday teachers - you have a teacher that always teaches on the 2nd Sunday. If an event cancels a lesson, the teacher doesn't have to teach that month. Their teaching day is *not* shifted.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34417
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

#2

Post by russellhltn »

I would agree with that in most situations. But there may arise a situation where a teacher may have prepared for a particular lesson and wants to give that lesson when it's moved "out of order".

More commonly, the schedule needs to be adjusted for things like illness, vacation etc. So some combination of "auto" and "manual" that works together needs to be available.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
User avatar
sasgrw
Member
Posts: 280
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:47 am
Location: Holly Springs, NC

#3

Post by sasgrw »

Agreed. That's why I implied there are probably more than the two types I suggested.
kisaac
Community Moderators
Posts: 1184
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:04 am
Location: Utah, united states

#4

Post by kisaac »

sasgrw wrote: It'd be nice if there was a way to assign multiple teachers to a class and have the lesson scheduler automatically assign the right person.
This feature would actually be a big enhancement of lesson schedules, especially if it could make adjustments throughout the year as new teachers are called or lessons are changed. I would love to see some kind of "vacation" or "substitute" teaching functionality within rotations as well- not affecting a rotation but inserting a different instructor or allowing two instructors to "swap" weeks. It appears currently the instructor is almost an afterthought as it is presently working, probably due to a tight programming schedule to complete the tool. But the current tool only deals with half of the problem!

In my experience as an organization leader, making a lesson schedule for the year has always had two components.
  1. Scheduling which lesson will be taught on which week, and notifying the students in advance so they can study. Lesson schedules assists us in this goal.
  2. Scheduling who will teach the lesson, and notifying the teachers, while accommodating any new calls or releases in teachers, accommodating vacation or substitute scheduling, surprise "regional" conferences and other changes. Lesson schedules has no abilities to assist in scheduling, other than recording who will teach a lesson, making this still a very "manual" process, even for simple rotations like "you teach every other week."
Primary or Sunday School leaders have the biggest challenge. They are trying to coordinate all the lessons AND a very large component of teachers over multiple classes, some teaching from different manuals. Child and youth ages would welcome more abilities to help them schedule which instructors will teach on which weeks. Am I the only one who has shown up to "visit" a youth class, only to see two instructors say "I thought you had the lesson today," or begin to give the same lesson that the other gave last week? We can do better, and lesson schedules is beginning to mature, and help us.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34417
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

#5

Post by russellhltn »

kisaac wrote:I would love to see some kind of "vacation" or "substitute" teaching functionality within rotations as well- not affecting a rotation but inserting a different instructor or allowing two instructors to "swap" weeks.
My concern is how to accommodate everything while still having an easy to understand interface. I have a feeling that the automatic functions would have to be limited to keep it understandable. But you do bring up a good point that from time to time one may need to have a instructor that doesn't usually teach the class. As such, the manual process needs to be able to pull from anyone in the ward while still keeping it easy to select from the normal instructors.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
kisaac
Community Moderators
Posts: 1184
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:04 am
Location: Utah, united states

#6

Post by kisaac »

RussellHltn wrote:My concern is how to accommodate everything while still having an easy to understand interface.
Very true, but right now you still must do the instructor scheduling in another application, like a spreadsheet, or on paper, so the complexity is already there. (I saw this as I helped my wife with primary schedules each year!) It may actually become simplified and streamlined by merging it with lesson schedules from a leaders and instructors point of view. More work for programmers.....
lisaan
Church Employee
Church Employee
Posts: 259
Joined: Mon May 14, 2012 2:16 pm
Location: Riverton, Utah, USA

#7

Post by lisaan »

Thanks for the suggestion. I've added it to the list of issues to consider for future versions of Lesson Scheduler.
QA Engineer
NanSedai
New Member
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:11 am

#8

Post by NanSedai »

I'm not so much concerned with a specific teacher being assigned to a specific lesson. It would be nice to list all teachers for a particular class so parents who are checking a lesson and have a question can easily contact any of the teachers they choose, rather than just the one that is listed, without having to manually navigate to the directory.
Locked

Return to “Lesson Schedules”