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Title: The Schedule of Classes

Members: Marc Aten, Colleen Forest, Andrea Skinner, and Rebecca Slocum (team leader) 

About: º£½ÇÉçÇøCI’s Schedule of Classes (SoC) data is entered and maintained in CI Records. This data, once published, is then viewable to students, faculty, and staff on five separate platforms. These platforms do not have a unified maintenance support structure or effective use strategy. Our team investigated the five platforms, responsible units, and process workflows to look for inefficiencies and find ways to improve both the user experience and processes for º£½ÇÉçÇøCI staff.   

Summary of Findings: 

• Oversaturation & Inconsistency: There are more enrollment platforms than can be effectively maintained; inconsistent policies and strategies impede effective decision-making for platform prioritization and resource allocation; students are overwhelmed with options, but only use one platform with any regularity. 

• Student Use Expectations vs Reality: Employees believe multiple options are beneficial, but students still only use one; current marketing campaigns for increased use are not working; real data is needed on student motivations, wants, needs, and use to inform decisions. 

• Siloed Working Units: Multiple areas manage platforms for the SoC without a unified hierarchy; resources are being wasted on multiple platforms without a single cohesive strategy for increasing use of existing platforms; units operating in isolation creates information deserts for both employees and students. 

• Lack of a Unified Vision & Strategy: Existing platforms were brought online without a single, unified strategy or workflow; knowledge on which platforms should be used for what tasks is limited to subject matter experts; information on available platforms has not been effectively marketed to students or employees. 

Summary of Recommendations: 

• Streamline & Support: SoC platforms should be streamlined such that only 1-2 are maintained per campus role or use, with an overarching strategy implemented to ensure full campus awareness and buy-in; data collection on use and efficacy should be incorporated in current institutional research initiatives and individual units should be empowered to manage the platforms they are responsible for more directly.

  • Status Update: Facilitating departments agree that SoC platforms need to be reduced and streamlined; the timeline and approach for this work will be determined in fall 2024.

• Research & Data Collection: Implement methods to monitor SoC platform use data within Enrollment Management; incorporate technology use and digital user experience metrics into existing ITS and/or OIR data collection efforts; publish data to broader campus community to enable better use of current platforms; provide support for small-scale student feedback initiatives on digital user experience within individual units to inform department/unit-level or division-level decisions; increase opportunities for staff to engage in professional and academic research.
  • Status Update: Not yet started.

• Clarity of Roles: Formalize the authority of the University Registrar and Registrar’s Office staff over the student records and SoC data housed in CI Records, registration process, and all SoC and registration platforms; support expansion of Student Systems and/or Registrar’s Office staff to include a dedicated programmer to allow for consolidation of platform oversight under the Enrollment Management umbrella.
  • Status Update: The Registrar’s Office will collaborate with other departments to further define roles and scope related to the production of the Schedule of Classes. This work will begin in fall 2024.

• Unified Strategy & Goals: Pair platforms to user groups to maximize efficacy; implement a strategic marketing campaign to increase awareness and use of identified primary platform(s) by role or purpose.
  • Status Update: Not yet started.

This case study and the overall experience of participating in an operational effectiveness assessment has provided an exceptional opportunity to interrogate our assumptions and beliefs as an institution.

Click here to read our full report. (, 1.1 KB)