Sessions and deadlines

Everything belonging to a course sits in one chronological list — series, single sessions and deadlines side by side. The icon tells them apart: the session type or deadline type carries the main symbol, and a small overlay distinguishes a single entry from a series.

This page manages, it does not rate. Tapping a row does nothing; you change an entry with the pencil on the right — sessions, deadlines and series alike. Rating happens from the dashboard, while catching up, and from the calendar.

Editing and rating are two modes. The pencil opens the entry with its form and without the rating below it; the pencil at the top of that page toggles between the two. Come back to the same entry from the dashboard or the calendar, and the rating is there again.

Time of a deadline series. As with a single deadline, the time is optional: with it, every deadline in the series is due at exactly that time – say every Friday by 12:00 –, without it by the end of the day. The list shows it after the rhythm (“Weekly, 12:00”).

Changing a deadline series. The pencil on the series opens its rule: deadline type, label, rhythm, period and time. On save the app recomputes the deadlines:

• Missing ones are added — in the past too, so you can enter a series mid-semester and fill in the sheets so far.
• Future, unrated ones drop out when they no longer fit the rule.
• Anything rated or completed stays, even outside the new rule. The app tells you afterwards how many those were.
• The numbers follow: extend the series backwards and “Sheet 1” becomes “Sheet 2”. A deadline you named yourself keeps its name.
• A new time applies to the upcoming open deadlines. A deadline you gave a different time yourself keeps it; past and completed ones stay as they were.
• Anything moved by hand stays where it is. If you moved a single deadline — say a sheet due a week later — it keeps its day, and no second deadline appears on its original day.

The form opens in place of the series in the list.

The individual deadlines of a series are behind the calendar icon on the deadline series: all deadlines with their status. Tap one to open it, the pencil changes it — its day, for example — and swiping or the bin deletes it.

Two buttons add things:

• Add session — something you go to: lecture, exercise class, central exercise, tutorial, seminar, practical, lab, exam, oral exam, seminar talk, presentation, block course.
• Add task / deadline — something that has to be finished by a point in time: problem set, seminar paper, write-up, thesis, registration, withdrawal.

The app then asks “single or series?”. Since 6.1 a single session can be all day and span several days if needed – a field trip, a block week. It then appears without a time in the calendar's all-day row and on each of its days. If none of the offered types fits, pick Other — a field for your own wording appears, and that wording is what you see from then on instead of the word “Other”. Below it you choose your own symbol, shown in every list instead of the standard icon.

Which states an entry can take depends on its type:

As long as nothing is chosen, an entry is open. Tapping the chosen button again restores that neutral state at any time.

“Counts as an exam”. A written exam and an oral exam always are one. For every other type there is a switch on the single session — for a graded talk, say. The session then carries a result instead of participation and satisfies the “Has an exam” promise.

A deadline can have a time. The date is required, the time is optional; both can be changed later via the pencil on the deadline's page, without losing its state or rating. The ✕ next to the field removes a time again. Without a time the deadline runs until the end of the day; with a time it ends exactly then — at 14:00 the clock at 14:01 is too late, for the on-time tracker as well. No artificial 23:59 is stored: if you say “Friday”, you mean Friday.

Session series

A series is a rhythm, and the individual sessions follow from it.

• Session type — Lecture, Exercise class, Central exercise, Tutorial, Seminar, Practical, Lab or Other. A central exercise behaves like an exercise class when rating.
• Recurrence — Weekly, Every two weeks, Several times a week, Block course or Single sessions.
• Time — start and end.
• Room and Lecturer — optional, apply to every session of the series.
• Range — the period the series runs over. It is pre-filled with the semester's lecture period, not the whole semester.
• Mandatory attendance — at the end of the dialog; it is inherited by every session of the series and can be changed on each one.

Two ways in. If you have a list of dates, enter first and last session — the weekday follows from it. If all you know is “Tuesdays”, switch to Weekday at the top: StudyNow works out the first Tuesday of the lecture period for you and shows it.

Several times a week. If the course runs on Mondays and Thursdays, pick this recurrence and tap the weekdays. How many you pick is the “n” — nothing is guessed, because “twice a week” does not say which days.

From these, StudyNow creates the individual sessions.

Block courses and single sessions deliberately create no sessions automatically — there is no rhythm to derive anything from. Add those sessions by hand (see below).

Room and lecturer

You enter the room and the lecturer on the series, say “HS 2” and “Dr. Example”. Every single session may differ: a room change, a separate exam room, a stand-in. You will find the fields when editing a session in a series' session list; a value there overrides the series.

A session of a series is changed with the same form as a single session: date and time, room and with whom? — with a choice from the course's rooms and teachers — and the reminder. Only the session type and “all day” are missing: both belong to the series. An all-day session in the middle of a lecture series is a single session of its own.

Both are optional and never trigger an “incomplete” hint. They are shown in the series' session list, on the session's page (“HS 2 · Dr. Example”) and in the calendar (room).

Changing, deleting and getting sessions back

You reach a series' session list via Courses → a course → the calendar icon on the series.

• Deleting asks first — bin or swipe: drag a row to the left; a short drag snaps back. Either way a question opens below the row that says what goes with it – for a series, say, “with 15 sessions and everything recorded for them”. Only Delete deletes. This applies to a course's series, sessions, deadline series and deadlines and to the semester's own entries.
• Several at once — Select shows check boxes. “The last four sessions” is one action then, not four.
• Undo — after every deletion a bar appears at the bottom with Undo. It stays for ten seconds. Everything belonging to that one deletion comes back: for a series its sessions too, for a session its logged values.
• Shake — the same without looking, if you switch it on in the settings. The app reads the motion sensor only during those ten seconds.

Courses and semesters ask first. There is no undo for them: deleting a course takes its series, sessions, deadlines and all ratings with it, and deleting a semester takes every course in it as well. That is why a confirmation states exactly what goes.

Only this session, or all following ones?

If you change the date or time of a session in a series, StudyNow asks.

• Only this one — the session becomes an exception and is left alone by later changes to the recurrence.
• All following too — the date acts as a shift: if the lecture moves from Wednesday to Thursday, every following session moves one day along and keeps its weekly spacing. Times, by contrast, are set as they stand.

Room and lecturer never ask — on a single session they belong to it alone.

If you change the recurrence

Future sessions you have not rated yet are rebuilt. Rated sessions and any you added by hand stay untouched. Correcting a rhythm therefore never costs you data.