Overview
This article explains the application setting in the system under the display label “Institute active days”. This setting defines the recurring weekly working pattern of the institution – in other words, which days of the week the institution is considered open and active for its day-to-day operations. Once configured, this weekly pattern is used automatically throughout the system wherever a date has to be chosen for scheduling an activity, so that dates falling outside the institution’s normal working days are not offered as valid choices.
What This Setting Does
“Institute active days” is a multi-choice setting, not a simple on/off switch. It presents the seven days of the week (Sunday through Saturday) and lets the institution mark which of these days count as regular working days.
– Any day that is selected is treated as an active, working day for the institution.
– Any day that is left unselected is treated as a non-working day, in the same way a typical weekend day would be treated – even if the unselected day is a weekday. For example, an institution that does not hold any activity on Wednesdays could leave Wednesday unselected.
This is a single configuration for the whole institution. It is not set separately per academic year/term, per user, or per role – it represents the institution’s general weekly working calendar.
Where It Is Used
Setting location: Institute active days: (Main Settings > General Settings > Localization Settings > Time and Days)
Once configured, the weekly pattern set here is applied automatically, without any further action needed, in the date and calendar pickers of several modules across the system, including:
– Teacher Duties scheduling – when assigning or rescheduling a _Teacher_’s duty to a specific date.
– Online Meetings scheduling – when planning a virtual meeting or class session for a specific date.
– _Thesis_ (Dissertation) defense scheduling – when picking the date for a defense or evaluation session.
– Exam Scheduling – when scheduling an exam session, and when rescheduling an individual timetable session for a _Group_ or course.
– Availability and Constraints – when a _Teacher_’s weekly availability or scheduling constraints are set up.
– Transportation – when creating a route/bus exception (a one-off change to a _Student_’s regular transportation route).
– _Attendance & Progress_ (Absences) – when selecting the day for which attendance is being recorded.
– Activities scheduling, and other general calendar pickers used across Teacher- and Student-facing screens system-wide.
In all of these places, the practical effect is the same: any date that falls on a day of the week not marked as active in this setting appears disabled (grayed out and not selectable) in the calendar picker.
Business Logic / Behavior
– The setting stores a list of weekdays (for example: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday). Any weekday not included in the list is excluded from being an active day.
– Date pickers across the system read this list and disable any calendar date whose weekday is not included in it. A user scheduling an activity cannot even attempt to pick a non-active day in these screens.
– In at least one flow (rescheduling an individual timetable session from the Exam Scheduling area), the system also performs a direct check: if a date on a non-active day is submitted anyway, the action is rejected and a message is shown explaining that the selected date does not belong to the institution’s range of active days. This confirms the rule is actively enforced, not just a visual hint.
– This setting only defines the recurring weekly pattern. It does not manage one-off exceptions such as public holidays or special closing days – those are configured separately, in Holidays Configuration (Main Settings > General Settings > Localization Settings > Time and Days). In other words, a weekday can be marked “active” here (for example, Friday) and still be excluded on one specific date through a separate holiday entry.
– Inferred business rule: at least one day should always remain selected. If no day were selected, none of the scheduling actions listed above would have any valid date to offer.
K-12 Mode vs Higher Education Mode
Institute active days behave identically whether the institution operates in K-12 Mode or in Higher Education Mode. There is no difference in the underlying logic, the available options, or how the selected days are applied across the system between the two modes. Institutions of any type simply select the weekdays that reflect their own real operating schedule – for example, a typical K-12 school will often select Monday to Friday, while a Higher Education institution that also runs weekend or evening programs may additionally select Saturday.
Note: the choice between K-12 Mode and Higher Education Mode itself is controlled by a separate, unrelated institution-level setting that defines the institution’s overall operating mode. Institute active days does not control, and is not controlled by, that mode switch – it works the same way regardless of which mode is active.
Example(s)
Example 1 – K-12 school with a standard five-day week
Beta Elementary School configures Institute active days with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday selected, leaving Saturday and Sunday unselected. When the school secretary later tries to schedule a make-up class or a parent-teacher meeting using the calendar picker, only weekday dates can be chosen; Saturday and Sunday dates appear disabled and cannot be selected.
Example 2 – Higher Education institution with weekend classes
Alpha University runs most of its programs Monday to Friday but also holds weekend classes for its part-time evening program. The university therefore selects Monday through Saturday in Institute active days, leaving only Sunday unselected. Staff can now schedule exam sessions or transportation route exceptions on a Saturday as well as on weekdays, while Sunday remains unavailable in every calendar picker across the system.
Example 3 – Attempting to bypass the restriction
A staff member at Lakeside Elementary School tries to move a specific class session to a Sunday through a feature that allows typing a date directly instead of using the calendar picker. Because Sunday is not one of the institution’s active days, the system rejects the change and displays a message explaining that the selected date does not belong to the institution’s range of active days.
When to Use
Institute active days is not a simple on/off switch, so a traditional “When to Enable” / “When to Disable” description does not directly apply. The guidance below explains when and how to configure it instead.
When to configure or update it
– During the initial setup of the institution, before scheduling starts to rely on modules such as Exams, Teacher Duties, Online Meetings, Thesis/Dissertation, Transportation route exceptions, or Availability and Constraints.
– Whenever the institution’s real weekly working pattern permanently changes (for example, moving from a five-day week to a six-day week, or the reverse).
When a day should be selected
– Select a day of the week if the institution genuinely holds classes, work, or administrative activity on that day on a recurring basis.
When a day should be left unselected
– Leave a day unselected if the institution is normally closed on that day. This typically covers weekends, but can also include any weekday the institution does not operate on.
If this setting is left with an outdated or incorrect weekly pattern, staff may be unable to schedule legitimate activities on days the institution actually operates, or the system may allow scheduling on days the institution is actually closed.
Notes
Pre-requisites
– There is no other setting that must be configured before this one; Institute active days can be set independently.
– Because many scheduling modules read this setting, it is recommended to configure it as early as possible – ideally before configuring Transportation routes, Exam scheduling rules, Teacher availability/constraints, or recurring meeting schedules – so that those modules behave correctly from the start.
Related settings
– Holidays Configuration: (Main Settings > General Settings > Localization Settings > Time and Days): lets the institution mark specific one-off dates as non-working (holidays and days off), separate from the recurring weekly pattern defined by Institute active days.
– Set the starting day of the week: (Main Settings > General Settings > Localization Settings > Time and Days): defines which day appears first in calendar and timetable views. It is configured in the same Time and Days area but does not affect which days are treated as active.
– Bus exception in a past date: (Transportation > General Settings > Transportation Settings > Routes exceptions): controls whether a route/bus exception can be created for a date in the past; used together with Institute active days when creating transportation exceptions.
– Route types allowed in route/bus exceptions: (Transportation > General Settings > Transportation Settings): controls which route types can be used when creating a route/bus exception.
– Set max number of recurring route/bus exceptions for the Parents/Students: (Transportation > General Settings > Transportation Settings > Routes exceptions): limits how many recurring weekly exceptions a parent or student can request through their portal.
Assumptions vs confirmed functionality
Confirmed: the setting is a multi-choice list of weekdays; it disables non-selected weekdays in calendar pickers across multiple modules; at least one scheduling flow actively rejects dates on non-active days with an explicit message; and behavior is identical in K-12 Mode and Higher Education Mode.
Assumption: the recommended timing for configuring the setting, and the general rule that at least one day should remain selected, are inferred from how the setting is used across the system rather than an explicit rule shown in the interface itself.
