SCHEDULING TASK FORCE

1. SCHEDULING TASK FORCE Observations and Recommendations April 24, 2014

2. 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

3. Committee

4. 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

5. 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

6. Data Collection • Visited with colleagues from other DCCCD colleges • Compared processes • Conducted an informal space inventory comparison • Compared logistics: days/times/flex/hybrids

7. 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

8. Observations • Space

9. 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

10. Observations • Space, cont. • Unofficial prime time spaces available

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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?

20. Recommendation 1 • An Enrollment Management committee is needed to globally monitor, review, and suggest scheduling changes throughout the registration process.

21. 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

22. 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

23. Recommendation 1 • Enrollment Management Committee • Goals: • Manage limited space effectively • Make timely decisions • Review processes – registration plus/delta

24. Recommendation 2 • Student Survey • Delivery modes? • Times? • Courses? • Enrolled at other locations? • What, where, why, what days, times, etc.

25. Recommendation 3 • We need additional Colleague Training offered at Brookhaven.

26. Recommendation 4 • We need user-friendly and timely Colleague reports. We recommend the creation of canned enrollment/space utilization reports available on demand.

27. 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.

28. Recommendation 6 • We recommend the instructional community strategize and formulate a plan for what it means to grow indefinitely.

29. 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.

30. Recommendation 8 • We recommend that this Task Force continue to meet to review the requested reports from Planning, Research and Instructional Effectiveness.

31. SCHEDULING TASK FORCE Thank you for your time and providing answers to our endless questions.