Strategic Scheduling Summary
Cabrillo College
Presented by:
Benjamin Davis, Software Implementation Consultant, Ad Astra Information Systems
Introduction
• This PowerPoint will serve as a summary of the
critical findings of our scheduling analysis.
• It includes highlighted sections of standard Astra
Schedule reports run on Cabrillo’s data. These
slides will emphasize key data elements that
benchmark Cabrillo’s current standings and call
attention to areas for improvement.
• We conclude with strategies to use these reports
to build and monitor policy around more efficient
scheduling.
Objectives
• To guide your institution towards more efficient and
effective academic scheduling policies and practices
• Two-part learning exercise:
– Capacity Analysis
• Strategy 1 – Spread class offerings out during the primetime week
• Strategy 2 – Reduce unused seats in rooms by scheduling classes into
appropriately sized rooms
– Course Offerings Analysis
• Strategy 3 – Minimize class offerings that use non-standard meeting
patterns
• Strategy 4 – Evenly utilize prime hours by subject/department
• Strategy 5 – Reduce the offering of unnecessary sections
Strategic Approach
1. Drill down from high-level metrics to granular, measurable
success drivers for each course offered and room used
2. Benchmark granular success drivers
3. Understand relevant institutional goals and priorities
(enrollment growth, cost savings, student outcomes, etc.)
4. Identify and quantify opportunities
5. Select strategies that best meet institution's goals and
culture
6. Implement and refine policy supporting strategies
Strategic Study Metrics
Area
Business Problem
Metric
Growth Capacity
How much can we grow?
How quickly can we grow?
When will we run out of space?
•Space Utilization
•Seat Fill Rates
•Standard Week
•Enrollment Ratio
Space Bottlenecks
Where are the problem areas?
How do we build policy that is
relevant?
What kind of space to
build/renovate?
•Prime Time Utilization
•% of Sections Scheduled in
Prime Time
•Utilization by Room Type
•On-Grid Meeting Patterns
Course/Student Demand
Analysis
Are we efficient with our course
offerings?
•Reduction Candidates
•Low Enrollment Courses
Capacity Analysis
Introduction
Key Concepts
• Capacity – the maximum
enrollment that can be
supported in the current
room inventory without
compromising quality
• Efficiency – the extent to
which space, course
offerings and faculty are
allocated to effectively align
with student and
institutional needs
Strategies
• Strategy 1 – Spread class
offerings out during the
primetime week, and over
the entire scheduling week
• Strategy 2 – Reduce unused
seats in rooms by
scheduling classes into
appropriately sized rooms
Space Bottleneck Concept
Average Utilization does not reflect capacity or inform
space management
Campus “A”
Primetime Util.
Campus “B”
Primetime Util.
Classrooms (2)
50%
50%
Science Lab (1)
50%
10%
Tech Auditorium (1)
50%
90%
Average Util.
50%
50%
Room Type
Key Parameters Used
• Term used in Analysis:
– Fall 2014 (September 2 to December 20)
– 15 full weeks
• Campus used: Cabrillo College
• Standard Week Definition:
– 8:00 am – 10:00 pm, Monday – Friday
– Total Hours: 70
• Prime Time Definition:
– 9:00 am – 2:00 pm, Monday – Thursday
– Total Hours: 20
Capacity Analysis
Strategy 1: Spread Class Offerings during the Primetime Week
Identify your Bottlenecks in Primetime
Percent of Rooms in Use by Day and Time for Selected Room Type
Report Parameters
Identify Bottlenecks
(>80% utilization)
Identify Primetime
Policy should
only impact
Primetime
and
Bottlenecks
Determine Primetime Utilization
Space Utilization by Room Type and Size with Primetime
Report Parameters
Prime Ratio –
Monitors spread
balancing over
week
Look for Room
Type/Room Size
Combination Bottlenecks
Use Data to
Create Spread
Policy
•Monitor with
Reporting
•Prime Ratio
•% of Offerings In/Out
Primetime
•Prioritize Activities in
Optimization
Bottleneck Level
Capacity Analysis
Strategy 2: Reduce Empty Seats in Rooms by Scheduling Classes
into Appropriately Sized Rooms
Determine Seat Fill Utilization
Space Utilization by Room Type and Size with Seat Fill
Report Parameters
Additional capacity
exists where seat fill
based on actual
enrollment is low
Use Data to
Create Seat Fill
Policy
•Enforce with Optimizer
•Monitor with
Reporting
Capacity Analysis
Opportunities
• Consider use of underutilized rooms during primetime.
Although the Smart Classroom Room Type is the highest
utilized, there are a number of Classroom room types at
varying levels of utilization across the 70-hour standard
week and the 20-hour primetime. Equitable scheduling
across all Classrooms will help alleviate bottlenecks felt in
specific high-demand rooms.
• Improve seat fill. Even at bottlenecked times of day, many
Classroom room types have a significant percentage of
seats left unfilled. Better matching of section capacities to
actual enrollments will aid in scheduling appropriatelysized rooms to sections.
Course Offerings Analysis
Introduction
Key Concepts
• On-Grid Meeting Patterns –
the standard grid of times
to offer lecture-style
courses
• Enrollment Ratio – the ratio
of enrolled students to
seats offered in a given
course
Strategies
• Strategy 3 – Minimize class
offerings that use nonstandard meeting patterns
• Strategy 4 – Evenly utilize
prime hours by
subject/department
• Strategy 5 – Reduce the
offering of unnecessary
sections
Course Offerings Analysis
Strategy 3: Minimize Class Offerings that Use Non-Standard
Meeting Patterns
Scheduling “On Grid”
All Meeting Patterns in Use
Top on-grid
meeting patterns
Conflicting (offgrid) patterns
during primetime
Use Data to Create
Meeting Pattern Policy
•Enforce with Optimizer
•Monitor with Reporting
Meeting Patterns in Use
Sorted by Most Frequently
Used
Course Offerings Analysis
Strategy 4: Evenly utilize prime hours by subject/department
Identify Subjects with Greatest Primetime
Preference
All Subjects, sorted
alphabetically
% of sections
scheduled during
primetime
Prime Time Usage Ratio
Use Data to
Encourage EvenlySpread Scheduling by
Subject/Department
•Enforce with Optimizer
•Monitor with Reporting
Top Subjects offering 3+ sections with highest Prime Ratio
In Classroom - Smart Rooms
Subject
SPED
PHILO
SOC
ADAPT
READ
JOURN
ESL
# Sections
12
16
13
20
5
5
4
% Prime
100%
98%
92%
89%
84%
80%
79%
Subject
PS
GEOG
ECON
BUS
KIN
DMCP
PHYS
# Sections
10
5
7
8
96
27
23
% Prime
79%
77%
75%
73%
72%
69%
68%
Course Offerings Analysis
Strategy 5: Reduce the Offering of Unnecessary Sections
Determine Low Course Demand
Low Enrollment Course Analysis For Selected Term
Number of Sections Offered
Review Trends
Analyze action
candidates for impact
on degree completion
Total Empty Seats
Across all Sections
Identifies Courses with
<10 Enrollment and
<50% Enrollment Ratio
Shows enough Empty Seats
to Cut one Section
Potential Reduction Candidates
Low Enrollment Course Analysis For Selected Term
# Secs
Current
Avg.
Enroll
Avg. Max.
Enroll
Excess
Seats
# Secs to
Reduce
ADAPT 93
11
21.73
315
76
2
ANTHR 2
6
28.67
264
92
2
ART 80SB
8
0.75
65
59
7
ART 80SC
7
0.29
152
150
6
BIO 201
15
22.33
464
129
4
BIO 80SB
7
0.71
63
58
6
CG 51
19
23.68
615
165
5
CG 52
2
0.00
60
60
2
ENGL 100
19
24.68
551
82
2
ENGL 100L
25
15.60
671
281
10
ENGL 1A
26
24.77
754
110
3
ENGL 255
10
12.60
290
164
5
KIN 27A
9
16.33
385
238
5
KIN 27B
9
2.56
385
362
8
KIN 37B
7
4.43
280
249
6
KIN 50A
4
12.75
154
103
2
Course #
Low Demand Sections
Low Enrollment Ratio Sections by Subject For Selected Term
Report Parameters
On-Grid Class?
Offered in Primetime?
Use Data to Create Class
Cancellation/Primetime Policy
•Monitor with Reporting
Enrollment Ratio
(enrollment fill)
Low Demand Sections
Low Enrollment Ratio Sections by Subject For Selected Term
*Crosslist Enrollments and Max Enrollments were use where applicable
Enroll
Ratio Course (Sec#)
(%)
54% ART 51L (84498)
11
60
Enroll
Ratio
(%)
18%
KIN 43B (85305)
5
32
45%
23%
KIN 43B (85306)
8
32
27%
26
46%
MATH 12 (85438)
21
36
58%
6
25
24%
MATH 12 (85442)
22
39
56%
ART 31B (86593)
6
25
24%
MATH 12 (85447)
21
39
54%
ART 50L (84491)
143
250
57%
SPED 210 (85832)
6
25
24%
ART 50L (84492)
61
150
41%
SPED 210 (85833)
5
25
20%
ART 50L (84493)
29
100
29%
SPED 210 (85834)
8
25
32%
ART 50L (84495)
0
30
0%
SPED 210 (85835)
13
25
52%
ART 51L (84496)
10
200
5%
TA 27 (85853)
3
30
10%
ART 51L (84497)
16
100
16%
TA 29 (85859)
5
30
17%
Act.
Enroll
Max.
Enroll
ACCT 151A (84375)
23
43
ACCT 151A (84379)
14
30
47%
ACCT 54A (86219)
10
43
AP 9A (84454)
12
ART 31A (84472)
Course (Sec#)
Act.
Max.
Enroll Enroll
Course Offerings Analysis
Opportunities
• Reduce scheduling conflicts during primetime. Cabrillo
has numerous conflicting meeting patterns in Classroom
room types during primetime, which impacts student and
faculty scheduling conflicts, as well as room scheduling
conflicts.
• Revise enrollment capacities to better align with
expected enrollments, to aid in efficient scheduling to
appropriately sized rooms.
• Scrutinize undersubscribed courses. Focus on courses
with multiple section offerings and excess seat count
greater than an entire section capacity to potentially
reduce, and better align with student need.
Strategies to Evaluate
Capacity Bottleneck Strategies:
•
•
Optimize Rooms – enact the suggested scheduling
preferences as recommended by Ad Astra
Prime Ratio – maximize the use of rooms during primetime
hours, and throughout the scheduling week
Course Offering Efficiency Strategies:
•
•
•
Meeting Patterns – consistent meeting patterns support
ideal utilization of rooms, and minimize faculty and student
conflicts
Evaluate Reduction Candidates for degree requirement
impact
Select Reduction and Elimination Candidates to remove or
rotate out of the schedule
Action Plan
What We’ve Done
• Installed and Configured
Astra Schedule 7.5
• Reviewed Strategic
Scheduling Summary
• Consolidated the various
“Smart Room” Room Types
into one Room Type
• Started using Astra
Schedule 7.5 for scheduling
Events
Next Steps
• 6 month goals
– Utilize optimizer to place
sections with space “turnedoff”
• 1 year goals
– Continued Enrollment
Growth
Professional Services
Strategic Checkup
Solutions that Fit
-Capacity Analysis
-Course Offerings Analysis
-Performance in Key Areas
-Academic Scheduling Policy
Recommendations
Policy Development and
Enforcement
Advanced Product Use
Astra Schedule
-Academic Scheduling and
Optimization
-Event Management
-Resource Management
Workflow
-Analysis and Utilization Reporting
-Enterprise Calendaring
Capacity and Financial
Modeling
Schedule Development
Schedule
Consulting
Development
Sandbox
Simulated
Registration
Timetabling
Faculty
Modeling*
Platinum Analytics
Course Need Analysis
-Historical Trend Analysis
-Student Specific Degree
Program Analysis
-Student Course Planner*