Visualising seat layout in Exam
The new seat layout feature in TimeEdit Exam brings visibility and precision to seating arrangements, letting you move from lists of numbers to visual layouts.
Why visual seating is helpful
The seat layout is designed to help you:
- Ensure students are seated logically and fairly - especially when multiple exams are held in the same venue
- Allocate seats based on students special special arrangements
- Provide clear overview of the room and the seats allocated
In short, it’s a step away from static lists and a move toward a more intuitive view of how students are allocated across your exam venues.
How to configure
Seat layouts are based on room capacity and a new field to determine the number of columns, which you configure on each of the room (location) objects.
- Go to the location object type in Admin
- Add a new integer field on the location type for determine the number of columns. The ext.id of the field must be location.grid_column
- On each exam location object, add a value to the column field
The seat layout is then calculated based on the room’s capacity and your column setting. For example, a room with 100 seats and 10 columns will render as a 10x10 grid.
Only square/rectangular layouts are supported in this first version but we will continuously iterate to improve this feature.
Viewing the seat map
Once configured, head in to our new exam module and to the "Seat Allocation" tab in the top menu. You can select to view it per exam venue (capacity reservation) or per exam reservation.
- Click on one of the reservations to open up the drawer
- In the drawer, you’ll see a seat map for the room
- Each seat is shown as a small square, numbered and colour-coded by exam
If you’ve scheduled multiple exams in one room, the colour coding helps distinguish who’s sitting where for which exam.
Allocating students to seats
There are two ways to assign students:
1. Bulk allocation
Use the bulk allocation button as before, now with the added benefit of seeing how those students are placed in the visual layout. It’s useful for quickly spreading students across the room.
2. Manual assignment
Need to seat a student with specific needs in a particular location (e.g. near an exit or with extra space)?
- Click a seat on the map
- Choose a student from the dropdown
- Already-seated students are hidden from the list to prevent overlap
Manual assignment lets you make intentional seating decisions when standard rules don’t apply.
This is just the first iteration - support for irregular layouts, empty seats, and detailed seat attributes (like wheelchair accessibility or extra equipment) is on the roadmap. Feedback from early users will shape what comes next.
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