SCHEDULING
TASK FORCE
Observations and
Recommendations
April 24, 2014
Charge
 Review
all Brookhaven College
scheduling processes through contacting
division staff, deans, and lead faculty
 Gather relevant data from at least the last
three years of enrollment trends based on
scheduled
 Develop, revise or refine a scheduling
process
Committee
Name
Area
Employee Group
Natalia Arredondo
Advising
PSS
Rhonda Bitner
Communications
Faculty
Sheila Brock
Workforce/CE
Administrator
Patti Burks
Business Studies
Faculty
Christi Carter
HHS
Faculty
Evonne Clark
Mathematics/Science
PSS
Brenda Dalton
Student Services
Administrator
Octavio Gutierrez
School of the Arts
Faculty
Debbie Hanus
Mathematics/Science
Faculty
Sarah Lopez
School of the Arts
PSS
Kevin Paris
World Languages
Faculty
Bill Sigsbee
Social Science
Faculty
Sarah Ferguson
LRC
Administrator
Data Collection
 Visited
with every division
dean/administrative assistants and with a
number of lead faculty/faculty chairs
 Asked all groups about processes, how
scheduling decisions are made and what
information/data they used to make
those decisions
Data Collection
 Requested
reports from Planning,
Research and Instructional Effectiveness


3 years of enrollment data with room
utilization
Number of Brookhaven students taking
courses at other DCCCD colleges, what
courses were taken and the delivery mode
Data Collection
 Visited
with colleagues from other
DCCCD colleges



Compared processes
Conducted an informal space inventory
comparison
Compared logistics:
days/times/flex/hybrids
Observations
 What



we learned:
Past enrollment trends play a key role in
future schedule development
Significant amounts of time, energy, effort
and commitment go into the development
of the schedule
Divisions and lead faculty track their
enrollment numbers during registration
Observations
 Space
College
General Use
Lecture
General Use PC
Labs
65
(81 with E & W)
22
Eastfield
114
(excludes W/CE,
Pleasant Grove)
40
Northlake
56
(110 all locations)
?
Richland
114
(excludes Garland)
47
Brookhaven
Observations
 Space,




cont.
Difference of 49 lecture classrooms at both
EF and RL
Each can offer 293 more lecture sections at
prime time
However, for several years BC has not been
full at prime time.
Spaces are left at the end of schedule build
and then from cancellations during first two
weeks
Observations
 Space,

cont.
Unofficial prime time spaces available
Semester
Lecture
PC Labs
Total
Spring 2014
23
14
37
Spring 2013
28
12
40
Spring 2012
13
13
26
(does not include
all cancellations)
Observations

Space Management




Every division tracks enrollment numbers
Many lead faculty track enrollment numbers
plus create detailed spreadsheets of daily
numbers, then archive for subsequent semester
builds
However, there is no group or committee
globally monitoring enrollment trends daily for
the duration of registration.
The compartmentalization of information leads
to unused space.
Observations

Space Management, cont.



Since there is no plus/delta at the conclusion of
registration, some of this information has never
been compiled or shared in this format.
Credit and W/CE have not used matching class
start and end times. Thus, we’re unable to share
any vacant spaces.
Since a larger portion of our students elect to
attend classes during prime times, it would be
logical to maximize our prime time spaces.
Observations
 Faculty


Hiring
Adjunct faculty hiring is a lengthy process
We have space, but we have difficulties
connecting space to available faculty for
last minute new sections
Observations
 Know


the Competition
We are not aware of the number of
sections or course offerings at surrounding
colleges
We are not aware of institutions outside our
county. We are unaware of NCTC, their
limited course offerings, their identical costs
and their lack of space.
Observations
 Timeliness




Our timing is off during registration.
The dilemma: when to add, when to
cancel.
We tend to wait too long to add another
section and we learn too late about
available spaces.
We’re not connecting the dots effectively
between new courses, new sections,
space, faculty and cancellations.
Observations

Marketing and Advertising





We don’t know our own marketing plan
We don’t appear to aggressively market our
affordability
We do not advertise during registration those
courses with spaces remaining
We do not appear to aggressively market our
distance learning opportunities outside our
county
Tech/occ faculty noted they recruit, market,
and advertise their programs in addition to
teaching
Observations

Marketing and Advertising, cont.



With the move from paper schedules to online,
the ability to alter the sequence of courses has
evaporated.
Specialty programs with an ordered progression
of courses are less apparent or “invisible”
because of alphabetical constraints.
Programs have created their own printed
material to advertise what is not apparent in the
online system.
Observations
 Colleague


training
We’ve not maintained our Colleague skills
Lead faculty can have access, but they
need to know the function screen name
and need to know what the function
provides:
 RGAM
 CSAR
 PSPR
Observations
 Growing




Indefinitely
“Elephant in the room” – district allocation
formula
Percentage of Growth = more money
Failure to grow = BC forfeits a portion of the
budget
Strategically:
 Are
we committed to growing?
 If so, what does the plan look like?
Recommendation 1
 An
Enrollment Management committee is
needed to globally monitor, review, and
suggest scheduling changes throughout
the registration process.
Recommendation 1
 Enrollment
cont.

Management Committee,
Composition
 faculty
chair (serves as chair with enrollment
management job duties)
 Deans
 Lead faculty
 Room coordinator
 Dean, Student Enrollment Services
Recommendation 1
 Enrollment
cont.





Management Committee,
Review daily enrollments
Identify additional courses/sections to meet
demand
Manage space
Review number and type of sections
offered at the other colleges
Suggest targeted advertising of low
enrollment sections
Recommendation 1
 Enrollment

Management Committee
Goals:
 Manage
limited space effectively
 Make timely decisions
 Review processes – registration plus/delta
Recommendation 2
 Student




Survey
Delivery modes?
Times?
Courses?
Enrolled at other locations?
 What,
where, why, what days, times, etc.
Recommendation 3
 We
need additional Colleague Training
offered at Brookhaven.
Recommendation 4
 We
need user-friendly and timely
Colleague reports. We recommend the
creation of canned enrollment/space
utilization reports available on demand.
Recommendation 5
 We
recommend that Workforce and
Continuing Education review their course
starting and ending times, similar to those
of credit courses, to increase
opportunities to share space.
Recommendation 6
 We
recommend the instructional
community strategize and formulate a
plan for what it means to grow
indefinitely.
Recommendation 7
 We
recommend the College seek a more
effective and aggressive manner of
marketing our programs and review
procedures to expedite all division
requests made to PI to prepare marketing
materials.
Recommendation 8
 We
recommend that this Task Force
continue to meet to review the requested
reports from Planning, Research and
Instructional Effectiveness.
SCHEDULING
TASK FORCE
Thank you for your time and
providing answers to our
endless questions.