Moving forward on a 16-week
semester: feasibility
Do we have room? (a very specific
question)
Do we have room?
• Task force met in early September
• One graphic, showing that existing classes fit
into the room, was unconvincing
• Look at heavily-used rooms in classroom
buildings: can existing classes fit?
• Exercise was limited to fitting currentlyscheduled classes into the same rooms- best
schedules should be determined elsewhere
How did we proceed?
• Work group volunteers gathered on October 23
• Used Astra to view current (fall 2015) schedules
– We were given read-only access to these files
• Took existing scheduled and transcribed them to
16-week schedule (just moved classes to fit the
time slots in the same room)
• Excel templates were provided (hand-drawn
schedules)
An Astra file (fall 2015, D261)
(most classrooms are not in continuous use like this one!)
Schedule slots based on common start times
Hand-drawn template, based on common start times
Side-by-side analysis I: D261
All math, all the time (most heavily-used room on campus?)
Objective: fit all of the existing classes into the room (by any
means necessary, but we did veto 5-hour blocks!)
current
16-week
Side-by-side analysis II: D267
• Room is shared by many disciplines
• Not as fully booked; effects less drastic
• Best times and sequences?
•
current
16-week
Side-by-side analysis III: N8 (labs)
• Labs already scheduled in large time blocks
• Effects minimal
This type of conversion can be done
for all classrooms. But….
• As performed, it’s arbitrary
• It assumes room use will not change
• It is a snapshot, based on room usage during
fall 2015 only
• Who should decide what classes should be
offered when?
Nonetheless…
• These preliminary results suggest that we do
have the room capacity to effect a 16-week
schedule
• We have the tools to do the conversion
analysis
• This is an opportunity to discuss our schedules
collectively and suggest changes.
• We should do this at the discipline/area level
(with counselors!)