Academic Scheduling Center

Classroom facilities are designed primarily for use by students, faculty and staff to engage in activities that are directly related to the basic educational functions of teaching, research, and scholarship. Predefined policies have been established to ensure that courses are scheduled in a manner that permits access to available offerings by the greatest number of students, and that allow the most suitable instructional arrangement to meet the needs of the faculty and courses offerings within the existing facilities. Understanding that instructional facilities are a finite resource, and that the intention of established policies are to maximize room and seat utilization, as well as, apply scheduling policies consistently and equitably, are key to successful scheduling activities. These objectives and classroom utilization expectations apply to all academic departments and classroom space.

Scheduling of academic classrooms is a process that requires a flexible and dynamic approach each term with consideration for pedagogical changes, class size, and equipment. The assignment of a specific room at a specific time in a given term will not automatically guarantee a continuing assignment of that space, even if the room was used efficiently. Although some spaces are defined for exclusive usage, generally, academic departments should not expect to use the same space on a continuing basis.

Open learning courses are flexibly scheduled course sections that are offered by an academic department, but do not meet according to the University's established academic terms (or part of term). Open learning courses can be created by departmental schedulers in the Data Collection Utility (DCU) website, but must be created by the ASC once the window for a term's schedule build has closed and the sections have been transferred back to Banner. Final grading for Open learning courses begins on the last day of the course and ends on the final grading deadline for the full term in which the course is offered.

Note: Faculty teaching courses that begin or end after the final grading deadline for the full term in which the course is offered will have to complete individual grade change forms for each student enrolled in their course(s).

Class size and equipment requirements will be determining factors in disputes involving for credit courses. The Academic Scheduling Center will make every attempt to mediate room conflicts and develop a solution. However, in the event that conflicts cannot be resolved at this level, intervention may be necessary by the University Registrar, Deans, and/or Provost's Office.

Instructors are responsible for sharing the fifteen minute between classes. Every effort should be made to vacate the classroom in a timely way, allowing the following instructor to set-up and prepare, as well as allow the finishing instructor to make final remarks and gather materials. Students should be encouraged to meet with the instructor during office hours rather than during this time. Should conflicts develop, instructors should first attempt to resolve the concerns between themselves. If the result is unsatisfactory, conflicts must be mediated by department chairs.

Instructors/departments may not move their class, from an assigned room, or override another department's assignment without prior approval from the ASC. All schedule changes affecting class meeting time/days or classroom assignments must be requested via the Section Meeting Time Location (STML) Workflow. Once a room change has been approved, instructors should inform students about the change and encourage any student whose access to the class might be impacted by the change to notify the department as soon as possible.

In the event of an emergency evacuation, or if for some reason a classroom is unusable, the ASC will attempt to relocate classes to temporary space if desired.

Seating capacity has been determined in accordance with state and city safety regulations. Departments are not to over-enroll students beyond the maximum classroom size. If it appears that student demand will surpass the scheduled room, departments should contact the ASC immediately, before the class grows too large, to determine if alternate space is available. It is unacceptable for students not to have appropriate seating. Inappropriate seating violates building codes and provides a poor image of the University, and its ability to manage enrollment.

Furniture and equipment such as overheads, chairs, and tables are not to be moved from one room to another without approval of Media Services, or the Office of the University Architect. If a room does not contain adequate facilities to meet the scheduled maximum enrollment or equipment needs, the instructor should notify their department scheduler of the inadequacies and request a new classroom assignment. The department scheduler will then contact the ASC who will attempt to locate an available classroom that is more suited to the instructor's needs for course delivery.

A number of self help guides and reporting tools are available to assist academic departments manage their course sections, room assignments, and physical resources including equipment and door locks. Schedulers are encouraged to take advantage of these resources, and proactively monitor class and section assignments to avoid problems with the Schedule of Classes. In addition to the Conflict Report from the DCU, various Cognos reports are available for schedulers to run on an ad hoc basis to ensure the proper delivery of their sections, and to troubleshoot potential problem prior to the start of the semester. Some of the Cognos reports that can be found in Kent State University > Student > Official > Schedule include:

• SAAR 096-Schedule of Classes
• SAAR 097-Section Counts by CRN
• SAAR 208-Building and Room Schedules
• SAAR 210-Schedule Sections
• SAAR 239-Lock Types For Active Courses
• SAAR 240-Courses where Voice Response is Not Checked