UNSWide Timetabling
An Overview for
Academic Staff
Objective
 To provide staff with an understanding of the background and
context for University-wide timetabling
 Provide staff with an understanding of how the changes may impact
them and their academic unit
 To provide staff with an overview of new business and system
processes
 To provide a quick overview of myUNSW services for teaching staff
UTES
This presentation is part of the Student Services
User Training, Education and Support program.
Scope for 2007 Timetabling
 Kensington campus [except AGSM]
 Other campuses in future years
 Courses with very small enrolments [< 10] can be scheduled by
school with casual room bookings
 Standard main sessions [S1 and S2] initially
 All teaching activities
Key Objective
 To produce a timetable that is equitable, effective and complete;
takes into account the needs of both students and staff; and
maximises the efficient use of space and resources
 To provide the best opportunity for students to fulfill their academic
objectives by producing a student timetable which facilitates
enrolment in core courses and maximises choice of elective courses
where possible
Key Principles
 Address historical structural inequities and inefficiencies in the
timetable
 Level the playing field for new offerings
 Drive timetable by established need and policy
 Improve options and choices for students, especially combined
degree students
 Reduce extent of 'ambit' booking of teaching space e.g. hoarding,
phantom bookings, poor match to class size
Principles [continued]
 Improve ability to undertake 'what-if' scenario planning to investigate
options in relation to new campuses, buildings, equipment,
programs, courses or student numbers, teaching practices, and to
support such changes
 To develop a transparent understanding and University-level view of
the timetable (and the factors that drive it)
Governance/oversight
 Timetable will be based on policy and operational guidelines which
were endorsed by the Academic Board in June.
 Co-sponsored by DVC Academic and Chief Operating Officer
 Reference Group established for stakeholder guidance with general
and academic staff membership from each of the Faculties
 Academic Services Committee of the Academic Board to provide
policy and operational oversight
Change Impacts
 The timetable will change!
 Classes will be scheduled on different days/times, and in different
locations
 Teaching staff will teach on different days/times and in different
locations
 Schools' timetabling activities will change:
 Room bookings will not be rolled forward
 Scheduling requests rather than direct timetabling and class
scheduling
 Detailed and accurate information to be provided up front
Students
 Existing on-line self-service enrolment continues to apply, based
on a planning timetable produced ahead of enrolment using school
requirements and previous enrolment data to validate assumptions
 Better choice
 Better support for combined degrees
 Should be relatively seamless to students
Staff
 Allocation of teaching staff loads to remain responsibility of
Heads of School
 Teaching staff should be identified with scheduling requests
where known to ensure clash-free timetables
 Overall preference will favor clumping of staff timetables where
possible
 Staff will be provided with a research day, a break between 11
and 3, no late finish/early start
 Acceptable to swap staff between classes after timetable is
produced
 Team teaching arrangements will be supported
Special Staff Constraints
 Approved individual staff availability profiles will be recorded
where necessary
 Reasonable accommodations will need to be based on
individual circumstances of staff member
 Need to be limited as result in trade-off on other fronts
 Pro-forma to be provided to academic units in the near future –
provides for notification of availability for part-time staff,
restricted availability for full-time staff in special circumstances,
accommodations for staff with disabilities, requests for spread
teaching timetable
 Forms returned by 22 September for Session One
Meetings
 Each faculty will have a teaching ‘black out’ period in which to hold
meetings including Faculty committees and School meetings and
seminars
 Committees will need to be interleaved where appropriate into this
timeslot
 Small group activities may need to be scheduled into the timeslot
where taught by casual staff
 Attendance at major University committees will be accommodated
in the timetable where possible
Space
 No roll-forward of CATS bookings
 Specialist teaching space incorporated with appropriate controls
 Precinct preferences specified with scheduling requests. These are
defined at the level of individual buildings (with surrounding buildings
called on as alternatives where necessary)
Teaching Hours/Times
 Core daytime teaching hours:
 Monday -Thursday 9.00 – 18.00 Friday 9.00 – 16.00
 A range of other time bands, including evening time bands or
early morning, may be specified with scheduling requests
 A choice of postgraduate bands is available e.g. evening, early
evening, late evening, afternoon
Systems
 Syllabus Plus Course Planner scheduling software
 Mature product used by many Aust and OS institutions
 Highly configurable to suit the timetabling priorities and objectives of
an individual institution
 myUNSW Term Planning is UNSW's way of collecting scheduling
requirements for use by Syllabus Plus without requiring schools and
faculties to become S+ users
 Sits alongside other complementary myUNSW services
 Familiar look and feel
UNSW Business Process
 The timetable will be based on a combination of clash-free
requirements, school scheduling requests, staff profiles and special
requirements
 Data Collection Phase
 Term planning
– What's running in 2007?
– How is each course structured?
– Which courses are centrally timetabled?
– What are the requirements for each course's activities (size and
duration, teaching week pattern, room characteristics,
equipment, precinct, time band/s)?
– Who's teaching them (large-group activities at least)?
– Specials: combined activities, interleaving, try to schedule
some classes close to lecture or in parallel
Business Process
 Scheduling Phase (09 Oct to 16 Nov)
 Five to six weeks of trial timetable generation.
 Scheduling will be performed progressively by scheduling activities
according to priority groups i.e. most difficult to schedule activities
such as large lectures and specialist activities first
 Trials released to staff for feedback
 Last chance to correct errors (but no preferential changes)
Business Process
 Provisional timetable published to staff 17 November (including
provisional teaching schedules)
 Corrections require justification, times most unlikely to change
 Schools may request change of room via CATS
 Schools may swap staff internally
 Schools may bid for leftover space for classes that are not centrally
timetabled
 Final class timetable published 1 December
Business Process
 Operational Phase (December 2006 onwards)
 Timetable remains stable, but classes may need to be closed or
created in response to enrolment demand (or lack of it)
 Cancelled or closed classes release resources automatically
 Larger rooms booked through CATS when enrolments approach
capacity
 New classes are pending only: can suggest time range as well as
usual requirements
 Response to auto-schedule request in minutes
 If successful, class is activated, and user notified by email
 If unsuccessful, SARU will be advised and will schedule manually
by progressively relaxing constraints
 Schools remain responsible for managing quotas (up to assigned
room capacity), communicating changes, updating class notes,
reserve capacities etc.
Key Dates
31 August
Release myUNSW Term Planning facility
Late Aug/Sept
User Education activities and support
22 September
Deadline to enter intended offerings for all 2007 Sessions
(hard deadline Summer & S1 for DEST; soft deadline X2
01 October
DEST course publishing deadline - Summer & Session One
06 October
Session One timetabling requirements deadline
Oct/early Nov
Iterative testing of Session 1 timetable
17 November
Provisional Timetable released to Faculties
01 December
Final Timetable released to students
11 December
Enrolment commences - Session One
myUNSW Services for Lecturers
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Options available will vary depending upon access assigned
Three roles ‘Lecturer’, ‘Academic Enquiry’, ‘Service Centre’
Apply for access via regular NSS access form
Also provides a range of informational links
Teaching Schedule
 View personal teaching schedule
 Must be attached to class records as instructor
 Will be enhanced to provide a week by week view in future [as will
the student personal timetable]
Enrolment lists
 View enrolment lists for courses and individual classes
 Can be printed or pasted into Excel
Class Utilisation
 Class Utilisation site provides a summary view of classes and
enrolments with colour coded alerts when classes are reaching
capacity
 Refreshed several times a day

Class Utilisation site - my.unsw.edu.au/classutil/
Class Maintenance
 Class Maintenance allows you set up and manage your classes
 Access depends on instructor role assigned on class record
Class Enrolment Management
 Class Enrolment Management allows you to close classes, move
students between classes and message all or selected students
in a class
 Students may be sorted in a variety of ways and
selected/deselected
Messaging
 Default text is inserted for close, move and message functions but
is editable
 Signature block can be saved
 Messages to <100 students within the hour, others overnight
Further Information
 Scheduling and Academic Requirements Unit (SARU)

timetabling@unsw.edu.au

Sarah Thomson s.thomson@unsw.edu.au ext. 58757

Lester Mata lesterm@unsw.edu.au ext. 58040

Nicola Plume n.plume@unsw.edu.au ext. 58056
 CATS

Marie Pruze m.pruze@unsw.edu.au ext. 54997