Semester Schedule
DRAFT 1.0: POLICY ON DEVELOPING THE COURSE OFFERING
Principles Related to Developing the Course Offering
- It is expected that when each school develops a program they will do so in a manner that will allow students to schedule courses consistent with normal degree progress as described in the College Catalog under "Satisfactory Academic Progress."
- The preparation of the course offering should be a well thought-out process. The key to a successful offering is planning. Three key elements must be considered when developing the course offering: (1) the type of courses being offered, (2) the sub-population of students the courses will serve, and (3) the faculty available to teach the courses. Offering units need to evaluate past, present, and future enrollments to determine which courses and how many sections of each should be offered. In addition, each academic unit must collaborate and coordinate course offerings that may affect more than one unit.
- Offering units must schedule their courses across the days of the week and throughout the scheduling periods in each day. This maximizes the opportunities for students to schedule courses and provides greater efficiency in the scheduling of rooms. Courses must use the existing scheduling time periods (see attached Mount Ida College Schedule Planner).
- When courses are offered for less than the full semester (15 weeks excluding the final examination), care must be taken to make sure students expected to schedule the courses may do so without impacting their ability to schedule a normal full-time load.
- The offering of under-enrolled sections of courses is strongly discouraged. Under-enrolled courses are those with 6 or fewer students. These sections should be dropped prior to the beginning of the semester, allowing students sufficient time to register for other appropriate courses.
1. Responsibilities:
Developing the course offering is a shared responsibility of the academic units and the Office of the Registrar. The academic units are responsible for determining which courses they will offer, section size and the number of offered sections, and the assignment of teaching faculty. The Registrar's Office is responsible for assigning general-purpose class rooms, recording controlled learning spaces, and publishing the Schedule of Courses. It is a joint responsibility of the academic units and Registrar to distribute the assigned times such that courses and sections are appropriately distributed across the days of the week and periods of the day, evening or weekend. This is required to maximize scheduling opportunities for students and to maximize the scheduling of learning space. Both the academic units and Registrar's Office are responsible for coordinating the course schedule throughout the college. Academic units offering courses for students in programs in other academic units must coordinate with the served academic unit to insure the viability of the both units' programs.
2. Planning:
The course offering process is an on going analysis of past, current, and future course demand, whereby the academic unit determines what courses should be offered in future semesters. This analysis should focus on the several different types of courses the academic unit may offer:
- All-college curriculum courses;
- Courses required for majors or electives for others;
- And special interest courses.
Faculty staffing issues such as proposed sabbatical leaves and pending research contracts, grants or consultancies that include released time must also be considered. The Office of the Registrar is available to assist in the planning process by providing the previous course offering, program summary, and student enrollment data to the academic unit.
3. Call for Courses:
Every academic unit will submit a course schedule to the Registrar. The due dates for the course schedules are as follows:
Fall Schedules for Next Academic Year:
- September - Schedule Information Sent to each academic unit by the Registrar's Office
- Draft course schedule due on or before the 3rd Friday in the prior November
- Review of Schedule due on or before the 1st Friday in prior December
- Final Schedule due the Friday before winter break in the prior December
Summer Schedules For End of Current Academic Year
- September - Schedule Information Sent to each academic unit by the Registrar's Office
- Draft course schedule due on or before the 3rd Friday in the prior November
- Review of Schedule due on or before the 1st Friday in prior December
- Final Schedule due the 3rd Friday in the prior March
Spring Schedules for Next Academic Year
- January - Schedule Information Sent to each academic unit by the Registrar's Office
- Draft course schedule due on or before the 3rd Friday in the prior February
- Review of Schedule due on or before the 1st Friday in prior March
- Final Schedule due the 3rd Friday in the prior March
Academic units should give consideration to the following guidelines in establishing their course offering:
- Schedule courses required in the major.
- Schedule all-college curriculum courses.
- Schedule other regular elective courses.
- Schedule special interest courses on a faculty- and space-available basis.
- As soon as possible, and ideally at the time of the initial offering, assign faculty to all offered courses and sections.
- Identify courses that should not be scheduled in time conflict with other courses.
- Identify specific classroom characteristics needed to support instruction, such as the need for technology.
- Specify course characteristics that will be helpful to students during registration.
- Where possible, set higher section limits for typically over-demanded courses.
- Avoid offering courses with histories of being under-enrolled.
All courses should conform to the official Mount Ida College Schedule (See Attached).
4. Publication Review:
Upon completion of the room assignment process, the Registrar's office prepares the consolidated draft version of the semester course offering. This is distributed to each academic unit for review and approval before the course offering is published. A review meeting or meetings may be scheduled when conflicts are complex or unresolved by unit reviews and when there are inter-unit disagreements. These reviews are intended to correct any minor discrepancies and to make necessary adjustments to the course offerings before publication and to address cross-unit needs and coordination. Academic units are strongly encouraged to complete their course offering as fully as possible starting with the initial publication. This action insures that the complete course offering is available to the largest number of students, advisers, and faculty.
5. Publication of the Schedule of Courses:
The course offering for a given semester is published in accordance with the academic calendar and advising dates prior to the semester for which that offering is intended. The Registrar is responsible for identifying the calendar date to start including the resident instruction courses.
6. Coordinated and Concurrent Courses:
Some courses are to be scheduled concurrently with other courses or as a set of coordinated courses. Academic units offering coordinated or concurrent courses should clearly identify these courses to the Registrar.
7. Distribution by Meeting Periods and Days:
In an effort to provide maximum scheduling opportunities for students and to maximize utilization of the classroom and other learning facilities, each location is encouraged to rely upon the Mount Ida College Schedule Planner (attached) and to create a matrix of courses. The course-schedule planner and matrix appropriately distributes the course offering among the class meeting periods per day and days of the week. Both the initial course offering and subsequent adjustments to the initial course offering must maintain the integrity of this distribution. The academic unit recommends course-scheduling patterns. The Registrar has the final authority for determining the meeting times for all courses and for the assignment of general-purpose classrooms. Academic units are permitted to schedule courses during the evening hours and on weekends and they work with the Registrar to accomplish this task.
This may involve service courses, all-college curriculum courses or others that are needed by majors in one school or unit but scheduled by another. Changes to the Schedule Planner must be approved by the School Directors' Council and the Vice President for Academic Affairs in consultation with the Registrar.