SCHEDULING TASK FORCEObservations and Recommendations

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 schedule

Develop, revise or refine a scheduling process

CommitteeName Area Employee Group

Natalia Arredondo Advising PSS

Rhonda Bitner Communications Faculty

Sheila Brock Workforce/CE Administrator

Patti Burks Business Studies Faculty

Evonne Clark Mathematics/Science PSS

Brenda Dalton Student Services Administrator

Octavio Gutierrez School of the Arts Faculty

Debbie Hanus Mathematics/Science Faculty

Becky Knickel Business Studies 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

Brookhaven 65 (81 with E & W)

22

Eastfield 114 (excludes W/CE, Pleasant Grove)

40

Northlake 56 (110 all locations)

?

Richland 114 (excludes Garland)

47

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(does not include all cancellations)

13 13 26

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?

Recommendations The following 8 recommendations

reflect the recommendations presented at the April 2014 presentative and the additional comments and suggestions from the Convocation Conversations August 21, 2014.

Recommendation 1 An Enrollment Management

committee is needed to globally monitor, review, and suggest scheduling changes throughout the registration process.

Recommendation 1 Enrollment Management Committee

Composition Faculty chair (serves as chair with decision

making authority in consultation with lead faculty and/or deans)

Deans Lead faculty Room coordinator Dean, Student Enrollment Services Colleague content specialist

Recommendation 1 Enrollment 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 1 Enrollment Management Committee Additional comments:

Some on the committee and some at the convocation sessions stressed the need for one person to be responsible with decision making authority.

There were concerns that a large representative committee could be difficult to assemble and manage during crucial phases of registration.

Recommendation 1 Enrollment Management Committee Additional comments:

At issue, how much authority and how timely?

The compromise: The Chair makes decisions but in consultation with lead faculty and/or deans.

In reality, only the deans can manage their budgets and make hiring decisions.

Recommendation 2 Conduct a Student Survey asking

students their preferences for when and how courses are delivered. Delivery modes? Times? Courses? Enrolled at other locations?

What, where, why, what days, times, etc.

Recommendation 3 Provide on-site Colleague training

targeting “just-in-time” information, reports, and understanding how Colleague limitations impact enrollment management.

Recommendation 3 Colleague Training Additional comments:

In the discussions it became apparent that different groups “see” similar information in Colleague differently.

Colleague limitations impact building a student schedule and the length of time required to build that schedule.

Recommendation 3 Colleague Training Additional comments:

For example, advisors can only view 8 items per page - - there is no scrolling.

Advisors cannot see annotations. ECHS courses are not obviously tagged as

ECHS only courses New sections added do not appear with other

sections with the same days and times. New sections fall to the bottom of the discipline.

Recommendation 4 Create user-friendly and timely

enrollment and space utilization reports available on-demand to support enrollment management processes.

Recommendation 5 Workforce and Continuing

Education review their course starting and ending times to more closely match credit course times to increase opportunities to share space.

Recommendation 6 The instructional community needs

to develop a strategic plan for continual growth reflecting the District’s funding allocation formula.

Recommendation 7 The College needs to seek a more

effective and aggressive manner of marketing programs and review procedures to expedite division requests for marketing materials.

Recommendation 7 Marketing Additional comments:

This includes our web presence. There was much discussion during one of

the sessions about the District “rules” associated with Brookhaven advertising outside our county.

Recommendation 8 The Scheduling Task Force

recommends that the task force become a standing College committee.

Recommendation 8 Scheduling Committee Additional Comments:

This committee could review the current schedule planning process to look for opportunities to improve communication and optimize the schedule across the college.

The committee could research what the other college’s are offering compared to the BC schedule.

The committee could review room utilization information.

Recommendation 8 Scheduling Committee Additional comments:

At the end of schedule build the committee could summarize the number of sections and seats available by course and time.

And, the Enrollment Management Committee (Recommendation 1) could be a subset of the Scheduling Committee.

SCHEDULING TASK FORCEThank you for your time and providing answers to our endless questions.