Class Scheduling: Exceptions? What Exceptions?

T2.2February 5, 2013

1 Overview

This session will cover the process the University of Arkansas uses to manage class scheduling and room assignments, and the workflow developed within our student information system (ISIS) to submit and process these requests.

2 Presenters:

Lisa KulczakAssociate Registrar, Curriculum

Nancy L. UmphresBusiness Analyst, Student Records

States flagship campus

Public 4-yr & professional

Very high research university

Enrollment (Fall 2012): 24,537 students

4 PurposeWith record growth in enrollment and classroom space at a premium, the University of Arkansas recently implemented a new policy requiring that all classes be scheduled within officially established class times. Exceptions to these times must be submitted by term, and must be approved prior to the class being scheduled. It quickly became apparent that an automated process was necessary to efficiently handle the volume of exception requests.

BackgroundIn legacy system, room assignments rolled from term to term

With move to ISIS, needed an automated way to roll room assignments

Decision to purchase R25 software during fit/gap phase of ISIS implementation (2002-2003)

6 R25 goes live for first batch room scheduling in 2005

Batch room assignment process is voluntary at this point; College of Arts and Sciences is first to participate

R25 scheduling reduces a 6 week manual assignment process to less than 1 week for Arts and Sciences alone

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Setting the StageRecord growth in attendance over the last 2 years, with continued growth predicted14.6 % increase in enrollment since Fall 2010

Major renovation projects ongoingover 40 separate construction projects across campus resulting in multiple campus buildings being offline

Re-evaluation of classroom capacities conducted by Fire Marshall resulting in a loss of 700 + classroom seats across campus

8 The Facts

Currently, 29 buildings on campus with classroom space

144 rooms defined as general access classrooms; 451 rooms defined as special purpose rooms

Typically, anywhere between 6,000 - 8,000 class sections scheduled per term

Of those, 2, 000 4, 000 sections require room assignments

9 The Policy

Creation of Centralized Room Scheduling Unit coincides with directive that all general access classroom space will be assigned via batch scheduling process (Fall 2010)

All colleges must participate; first term for campus-wide batch scheduling is Spring 2011

Emphasis on effective room utilization

Revision to Official Class Times Policy to facilitate scheduling

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Academic Policy Series 1200.30

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Official Class Times Exception form and procedure implemented along with policy

Approximately 100 Official Class Times Exception forms processed for a given term14

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Processing Exception FormsInteractive PDF on Office of the Registrars website

Required approvalsdeans office and Registrars Office (impacts on general access classroom scheduling noted by Room Scheduling Coordinator)

Forms archived as they complete approval process

Data for all exception requests submitted entered on spreadsheet by year and term

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Email notifications to submitter, appropriate deans office, Curriculum and Room Scheduling Unit personnel

Net resulttoo labor intensive to continue as manual process!18 Specifications for Class Time Exception Policy RequestsBackground

Need ability to allow any academic user, other than student, to request an exception to a class meeting pattern time either before or after a class has been scheduled. User must be able to add a request, another user must be able to approve the request, and the Registrars Office must be able to give final approval.

Main Features of ProjectUsing delivered PeopleSoft workflow process and security, develop workflow which includes new request page and approval process. Using Official Class Times Exception Request Form (previous slide) as a template, recreate editable fields for purposes of the request.Security must allow for any user to request an exception. However, in the workflow of approvals, the appropriate deans office approver will need to be determined by the SUBJ/ACAD_ORG security. CLASS_TBL Class TableCLASS_MTG_PAT Class Meeting Pattern Table

User ProcessUser may search on criteria of Term, Subject, Catalog Number, Class Number, Section Number and Meeting Pattern.

User may elect to Add a New Value, with Term, Subject, Catalog Number, Class Number, Section Number and Meeting Pattern Number.

21 3. Values brought in from the Class Table which assumes class has been scheduled and values If class has not yet been scheduled, user will need to supply all criteriaMeeting pattern number will be important in training because inaccurate or blank values may cause data to not be presented as expected and lead to an error in the request.

22 4. User will be able to indicate with radio buttons if new section or new meeting pattern is being requested. Once chosen, the request form because visible.

5. User will be able to add justification in free form text field (which should allow for approx. 150 words).

6. After data and justification entered, user will hit submit button.

7. Data on the page will be grayed out and un-editable to the user (but not the administrator).

8. Submitter, and subsequent approvers and administrator will be able to see approval steps and progress.

9. Submitter will receive an email on each step of approval process.

10. Upon submission, an email is sent to appropriate deans office approver notifying of pending request.11. Deans office approver logs into ISIS, navigates to page and approves/denies request. 12. If denied, request is logged into table and not editable. Submitter is notified.

13. If approved, email sent to Registrars Office notifying them of pending request.

14. Deans office approver and submitter will receive email upon Registrars Office approval.15. Final email notifications to be sent to Associate Registrar, Curriculum and appropriate college room scheduler.

AssumptionsIf user makes error in data entry, administrator may access page, allow editing, fix error and save.

Security will tie the Subject or Acad Org to the functional security of the appropriate approver. Example, we want a request for an ARCH class to be sent to the ARCH deans office approver and not the ENGR deans office approver.

If request is denied, submitter will need to complete a new request.

Entries on UA ClassTimeException table WILL NOT be purged but remain archived indefinitely.

The workflow process WILL NOT update the Schedule of Classes programmatically. The update/change will be done manually at the college deans office appropriate room scheduler level.

Deans office approver and Registrars Office will be able to approve alternate designee for approval step.

7. Administrator can override to designate alternate designee.

Navigation

For Faculty requests (expected to be the originator of majority of requests), access should be given here: Faculty center>MySchedule>SelectTerm tab with a link RequestOfficialClassTimeException. Link will re-direct to the administrative navigation (see below)For Administrative requests, access should be given here:

MainMenu>Records&Enrollment>UASRCustomComponent>CurriculumManagement>UAClassTimeExceptioRequest (Requestor/Approver)Security

Faculty/staff: SR-AWE-REQ requestor roleSR-AWE-APPR approver roleSR-AWE-ADM administrator role

Setting Functional Security by Role and Component

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Questions?

Lisa Kulczaklkulcza@uark.edu(479) 575-7456

Nancy L. Umphresnyoung@uark.edu(479) 575-6634