This describes how to set up and use a custom seating chart in ClassQue.
Simple seating charts in which the seats are aranged in two rectangular
sections with a center isle, can easily be set up by putting the appropriate
lines in the
teacher configuration file.
Use the
left and
right key words to describe the seat numbers
in the left and right rectangular sections as viewed by the teacher when
facing the class. Each seat has a unique seat number which greater
than or equal to 0. Below is an example of two lines that can be
put into a teacher configuration file to describe a classroom with 34 seats.
left 34 33 32 31, 28 27 26 25, 24 23 22 21, 18 17 16 15, 12 11 10 9, 6 5 4 3
right 30 29, 20 19, 14 13, 8 7, 2 1
Each line has groups of integers separated by a comma, one group per row of
seats. In a given line, all of the groups must have the same size.
In the above example, on the left there are 6 rows of 4 seats and on the
right there are 5 rows of two seats. The first group represents seats in the
back row, numbered left to right. This will produce a seating chart similar
to the one in Figure 1. The seats with gray background correspond to seats
that have been assigned to students. They change colors as student sign in
and respond to queries.
Seat number do not have to be consecutive and are not restrictred to 2 digits.
A value of -1 is treated as a missing seat position.
If seat numbers have more than 2 digits, the numbers will not fit in the boxes
of default size. The default size is 20 by 20 pixels and can be changed
using the
seatsize teacher configuration option.
If the classroom consists of a single rectangular array of seats, the right
section can be left out by using the specification:
right !
Seating configurations can be stored in a file which can be referenced in
the teacher configuration file. This allows you to set up one file for
each classroom configuration and reuse it for different classes in that room.
Below is a seating configuration with an unusual assigment of seat number.
The result is shown in Figure 2. A student has signed in at seat number 1.
seatsize 40 20
left 200 125 147 16 188, -1 18 43 47 200, 1209 6 9 11 29, 47 -1 137 201 198, 20 21 22 23 24
right 1 2 3, 4 -1 6, 7 8 9
You can design a customized seating arangment in which the seats do
not need to be in rectangular patterns with the
classqueseating.jar program. Start this program by clicking
on it or by executing:
java -jar classqueseating.jar
This will bring up a window similar to the one in Figure 3.
The
File menu allows you to save the result in a seating
configuration file, load a previously created seating confiuration file,
or display what would be put into a configuration file if saved.
You can change the number of rows and columns by clicking on the appropriate
arrows in the
rows or
columns buttons and you can change the
cell size by clicking on the
Cell: button. When decreasing the number
or rows, if the bottom row is empty, it will be removed. Otherwise, if the
top row is empty, it will be removed. You cannot remvoe a row if both
the top and bottom rows contain cells, or parts of cells.
Initially, there are no seats in the chart.
The program has 5 modes of operation determined by the
Mode menu item.
The default mode is
Create/Move. The modes are described below.
Create/Move Mode
In this mode, clicking on an empty sell inserts a seat at that cell position.
This inserts a seat whose seat number is one larger that the largest seat
used so far, starting with 1. Clicking on an existing seat allows you to
drag it to another location. It does not have to be on a cell boundary.
The number of seats created is restricted to the number of available cells,
but the seats do not have to be in any particular cell, and can even overlap.
If
Snap (controlled by the
Snap menu item) is on,
then a seat moved close to the center of a cell boundary will move to the
center of the cell.
Delete
This allow you to delete a seat by clicking on it.
Change Seat
In this mode, clicking on an existing seat allows you to change the seat number.
You may not change the number to that of an existing seat or make it negative.
Select
In this mode, clicking on a seat either selects it or deselects it.
Selected seats are shown in blue. Selected seats are used by the
Shift
operations. (See below.)
Info
In the mode, moving the cursor over a seat or cell displays a tool tip
with information about that cell or seat.
The
Shift allows you to shift some or all of the cells by 1 pixel,
5 pixels, or 1 cell in the directions left, right, up, and down. In
Select mode, only those cells that are selected will be moved.
In other modes, all cells will be moved.
A move operation that will move any part of a cell outside the grid will be
ignored.
Figure 4 shows the seating program window after a number of changes have been
made. The corresponding seating chart is also shown.
Return to the main ClassQue page