Schedule Development Best Practices
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Guideline For Creating The Master Class Schedule
Resulting from a 2003 Strategic Study Group focusing on the Master Class Schedule, this manual attempts to provide information to create a stable Master Class Schedule that meets the needs of our students and University goals and objectives with available resources.
The following is a set of general guidelines for your use when creating a stable class schedule providing sufficient flexibility for the needs unique to your department while fitting with the course offerings of other departments to maximize student satisfaction. If you have questions regarding the Master Class Schedule process, please contact the Coordinator of Scheduling for assistance.
The timeline provides approximate dates to follow in developing the Master Class Schedule. While you may need to begin the process before the start date, these timelines will let you know what is needed to arrive at the final published class schedule. A. Schedule development timeline The schedule development timeline is a framework to provide you with general due dates for the Master Class Schedule. While individual semester class schedules are due at various time during the year, you may find it more helpful in your planning process to start earlier and develop the schedule for the full year. B. Publishing the class schedule: The class schedule is published in several ways. The most accurate class schedule is shown in the secured login area of SCOTS. The information contained within SCOTS is real-time. A routinely updated snapshot of the schedule is shown in the public access area of SCOTS. The scheduling book links online are the least accurate source for a class schedule since they are snapshots of the schedule months before the semester begins. However, the links contain additional information regarding course offerings that does not appear in either of the other sites. C. Scheduling: Student scheduling for classes begins in April for each Fall Semester and Summer Sessions; November for Spring Semester and Wintersession.
What to gather A. Curricula for your department Degree requirements (including General Education) for each program offered by your department. These can be viewed in the University's on-line catalogue. The eight-semester plans shown in the catalogue may also be useful for your planning. B. Eight-Semester (4-year) Planners for Dependent programs
1. Courses outside your department needed by your majors: Identify those courses needed by your majors that are taught by other departments. Contact the department chairperson to discuss the number of your students that will need the specific course in the semester you are working on. Also identify if there are specific times the course(s) is needed to avoid conflict with other required courses.
2. Courses from your department needed by majors from other departments: Identify those courses taught by your department that are needed by majors in other departments. Contact the department chairperson to discuss the number of students that will need the specific course in the semester you are working on. Also identify if there are specific times the course(s) is needed to avoid conflict with other required courses. C. Enrollment Data 1. Historical: The University Fact Book (under 'Institutional Research' on the UPIRCI website) provides information regarding historical enrollment in all majors. It can be helpful in comparing previous offerings with class size or number of majors.
2. Projected: Enrollment projections for future years are available from your dean.
D. Master Class Schedule from previous academic year A template will be emailed to you from the Scheduling Office according to the schedule development timeline.. E. Classrooms Technology in classrooms increases each year. Click here for the updated list of classrooms with technology. F. Standard time periods To maximize student scheduling options and minimize time conflicts, it is important to schedule classes following the standard time periods. This reduces time overlaps and conflicts for students as well as optimizing class selection. Room utilization is increased when classes are scheduled according to standard times. Click here for the matrix of standard class times. G. Faculty (Example: Commitment for the number of faculty positions needs to be confirmed by October of the year preceding the Master Class Schedule development. For the academic year 2006-07, the commitment for a specified number of faculty positions within the department must be made by October of 2005.) 1. Positions
2. Retirements, Sabbaticals, Leaves, Replacements 3. Preferences 4. Qualifications for sections to be offered H. List of classrooms allocated to department: Sometimes a classroom is assigned to a specific department and only the identified department can use the room. Other classrooms are designated as being the priority for a department, meaning the specified department has first option on using the room. In the 'priority' scenario, if the specified department does not use the classroom when initially constructing the class schedule, it can be utilized by other departments. For this reason, it is critical that you fully utilize any classroom that is assigned as a priority to your department. Click here for a list of classrooms with technology. Please alert the Scheduling Office to any changes in a classroom that would change its availability or type of instruction that could occur there. l. Sections for special populations 1. Fall Semester Late Admits: Please be sure to identify any special sections offered for students beginning after the last day to add. 2. Distance Education sections: Distance Education sections can be stand-alone or cross-listed with other sections offered at one of EUP's campuses (Main, Porreco, Meadville). Please be sure to specify when a section is part of a cross-listed group. For example, a section may be offered on Main campus with the instructor and students in a campus classroom. There may also be students in another location receiving instruction via distance education. There will be two separate sections for this course; one located on Main Campus and one at the remote location. Please identify any special permissions required to enroll in the course such as "Contact Instructor to Enroll' if enrollment is restricted to students within a cohort. 3. Grant funded sections: Sections offered based on special funding should be identified as such. If enrollment is restricted to a certain group, please be sure to identify the group and the individual responsible for approving the enrollment. 4. Early Advantage or Regional Choice (high school students): Any sections specifically scheduled for this target group must be identified since special coding is required to insure correct billing. 5. Collaborative Programs
a. Nursing (with Clarion University): These sections are created according to rosters received from Clarion. b. Foreign Language (with Clarion University and Slippery Rock University): Foreign Language sections offered as part of the collaborative program should be submitted with the initial Master Class schedule. Special coding is required to insure correct billing. Please be sure to identify the University of the instructor. Also indicate any sections that are being received by Edinboro from either Clarion or Slippery Rock. These sections will have the notation to 'Contact Department To Enroll' attached since the "Visiting Student" form is required. 6. Porreco Associate Degree program offerings: Please work with Dean Terry Smith to identify the sections offered to meet these program offerings. Seats will be reserved for the Porreco cohort students and seats will be make available to the public. The seats will be in separate sections that are crosslisted. 7. GECAC offerings: Any section offered at GECAC in Erie must be specifically identified for correct billing. Students will be enrolled by roster provided by the instructor. If the section does not meet according to the standard University calendar, please provide the meeting date and time information. 8. International Courses: Any sections that include international travel are included on the Master Class Schedule. Arrangements generally include the International Studies Office. If advance deposit and registration are requires, please identify the individual or office responsible for providing the roster of approved students to the Scheduling Office. 9. Meadville Access Center offerings: Please contact Mr. Don Apel, Coordinator of the Meadville Access Center if you have questions concerning the facilities. (Phone: 732-1802) 10. Cohorts (i.e. ESP, East Erie, Online): If there are specific sections or seats to be reserved for this population, please identify them when submitting the Master Class Schedule. Also, include any restrictions for the sections (i.e. Contact Instructor to Enroll, Does not appear on S.C.O.T.S.)
Things to consider A. University priorities and objectives identified B. Course cycles C. Evening offerings: Undergraduate evening courses should be scheduled beginning at 6PM for the main campus. Earlier schedules prevent the enrollment of students working until 5PM. D. Cross-departmental Offerings
1. Courses outside your department needed by your majors 2. Courses from your department needed by majors from other departments E. Faculty Load F. Class Size G. Schedule of classes that are required in the same semester
1. Within your department 2. Between your department and others
Submissions A. What to include and for whom
1. Tentative faculty schedules (faculty): Please share the initial class schedule with your faculty. This may reduce the number of changes made after the schedule is submitted.
2. Initial Schedule (dean): Please provide your dean with the information required within the timeframe established by the Scheduling Office. This will assist in the timely preparation and publication of the class schedule. If the timeframes are met, you will have a greater opportunity to review the schedule before publication. B. Include the following information
1. Course Identifier (i.e., ENGL101)
2. Credits (if variable) 3. Meeting days: The abbreviations for the days of the week are as follows:
M=Monday, T=Tuesday, W=Wednesday, R=Thursday, F=Friday, S=Saturday, U=Sunday
4. Meeting time: If using AM/PM time codes, please be sure to indicate AM or PM. You can also use military or European time (24 hour). For example 1PM can be stated as 1300. 5. Classroom
a. Indicate any room that is required
b. Fully utilize those classrooms that have been allocated to your department.
6. Instructor name (Last name and First Name)
7. Maximum number of seats for each section. Room assignments cannot be made without this information.
8. Special registration instructions for that term: If there are instructions that would assist students in understanding their eligibility to enroll in a particular section, please include that information. This additional information would not include prerequisites. The following are examples.
a. Contact dean, department, instructor, or specific office to enroll
b. A roster of students to be scheduled will be provided to the Scheduling Office
c. Enrollment restricted to specified majors, Honors, class-level, specified group of students d. Section does not appear on S.C.O.T.S.
How to review your submissions A. SCOTS: You can view most sections via SCOTS once the schedule is made public. The schedule is not available during development. B. Banner: SSASECT [Course Section Information], SIAASGQ [Faculty Schedule], SIAASGN [Faculty Workload], are some of the forms in the computer system that are good starting places for information. These forms have links to other forms for additional information. C. Reports: Upon request adhoc reports can be produced for you by the Scheduling Office based upon information that has been entered into the computer system.
How to make changes Email to dean: The fastest method of initiating a change to the Master Class Schedule is via email to the dean. The dean can then simply forward your email which contains the pertinent data to the Scheduling Office with an indication of approval.
Include:
Term (Fall, Spring, Wintersession, Summer session)
CRN: To insure accuracy, please be sure the CRN and the Course Identifier information match.
Course identifier (i.e., ENGL101.001) Change to be made
