Schedule Development
Building a Student-Centered Schedule
Step 1: Identify courses scheduled to be offered
Review your 2-year schedule plan to identify what courses you have planned to offer for the semester.
Step 2: Review the schedule data dashboards
- Estimate the number of sections you need: Identify how many students have each course on their Comprehensive Education Plan and how many declared majors you have for your programs.
- Identify the best sessions, meeting times & days, and modality: Review data on fill rates and success rates to determine trends in class meeting times, meeting days, and modality.
- Ensure you are offering the courses students need for their program: Review your program's pathway map. Ensure students completing your degrees and certificates can do so based on your schedule plans.
- Plan to meet your FTES target goal: Identify how many FTES you needed in prior years schedules based on census numbers. Anticipate how many FTES you will need for this semester based on that historical data and any plans for enrollment growth.
Step 3: Develop a plan
| Course Name & Number | Total Number of Sections | Number of Online Sections | Number of Hybrid or Hyflex Sections | Number of Daytime Sections | Number of Evening Sections |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engl 100 | 65 | 20 | 10 | 30 | 5 |
Step 4: Start Small and Add
The first iteration of the schedule should accommodate what you are certain will fill, no larger. Add classes as needed based on enrollment trends.
- Develop an initial schedule based on steps 1-3. Do not add additional classes just to get all of your FTES on the schedule. Start smaller and add sections as needed to meet student demand.
- Watch enrollment trends. As classes are filling at specific times, days, and modalities, add in additional sections to accommodate students with the same or similar times to those that are filling quickly.*
*Courses must be publicly viewable in the schedule at least 30 days before the first day of class.
Schedule Development Timeline
First drafts: Sent to divisions Sept 6. Due to Academic Affairs October 2
Second drafts: Sent to divisions October 16. Due to Academic Affairs October 30
Third drafts: Sent to divisions November 13. Due to Academic Affairs November 27
First drafts: Prepared in Student-Centered Schedule Development workshops in October and November. Due to Academic Affairs January 8
Second drafts: Sent to divisions February 12. Due to Academic Affairs February 26.
Third drafts: Sent to divisions March 11. Due to Academic Affairs March 25
First drafts: Spring 2024 spreadsheets sent to divisions February 26. First drafts due to Academic Affairs April 1.
Second drafts: Sent to divisions April 29. Due to Academic Affairs May 13.
Third drafts: Sent to divisions August 19. Due to Academic Affairs September 6.
Available Sessions
Fall & Spring Semesters: 18 week, first 15 weeks (15A), last 15 weeks (15B), last 12 weeks, first 9 weeks (9A), last 9 weeks (9B), first 6 weeks (6A), second 6 weeks 6B, third 6 weeks (6C), and 1 week as needed
Summer Sessions: 12 weeks, last 8 weeks, 1st 6 weeks, middle 6 weeks (starts with 8 week session), 1st 4 weeks (4A), middle 4 weeks (4B), and last 4 weeks (4C)
Plan Using Standard Meeting Patterns
Academic Affairs is working to move toward standard meetings times to help students enroll in a full load of classes. Here are some guidelines and resources for scheduling using standard meeting times:
- Start classes at the top of the hour with a passing period at the end of the hour. For example, a morning 3 unit 18 week class can be scheduled from 8:00-8:50 MWF.
- Schedule in standard meeting patterns: MW, TTh, MWF, TThF, MTWTh, M-F, and one day per week courses
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