SCHEDULING TASK FORCEObservations 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

CommitteeName 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

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?

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,

cont. Composition

faculty chair (serves as chair with enrollment management job duties)

Deans Lead faculty Room coordinator Dean, Student Enrollment Services

Recommendation 1 Enrollment Management Committee,

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