How Does Coursedog
Compare to the Alternatives?

Coursedog’s Academic Operations Platform is designed to reduce manual work and the data risks of point solutions with its industry leading integrations.

Serving 300+ Campuses with 2.5M+ Students
St. Cloud State University

“Using Coursedog’s workflow logic and custom decision function we’ve created a variety of “expedited” workflow pathways in specific scenarios. In our old process, there was only one pathway and users were accustomed to it being rigid and inflexible.”

Dr. William Cook

Professor of Biological Sciences & University Curriculum Coordinator

Parker University

“I love that the Coursedog curriculum pulls directly out of our SIS and that it is the one place that I need to update. Now with changes going into a workflow, approved changes are now correct in the SIS and Coursedog for the catalog. When the curriculum council disbursed word documents with approved course descriptions or changes, they didn’t always get updated in every place.”

Andi Repp

Senior Director and Registrar

Northern Arizona University

"Coursedog has provided us with a system to ensure best practices are being utilized for both processes and policies which has assisted in making our course scheduling much more efficient. Coursedog is successful because of the flexible and collaborative approach they have taken in partnering with our institution, and we are excited to expand our partnership to further streamline our academic operations."

Ian Wischmeier

Registrar

Lehigh Carbon Community College

“We believe that Coursedog’s software will help us go from seven hours per change to three hours per change. Based on an average number of changes in a year, we foresee saving +580 hours every year.”

James Ayrton

Associate Dean of Curriculum, Assessment, and Articulation

John Carroll University

“Since the beginning, the relationship with the people at Coursedog has been one of mutual understanding and respect. Our sense of urgency, concern, interest, and desire to learn is matched by those at Coursedog. Additionally, when we need Coursedog personnel to be patient, they do so without question. The response to a problem is, many times, more important than the problem itself. Our contacts at Coursedog know how to respond quickly.”

Gabriela Wanless

Assistant Registrar for Catalog and Scheduling

Brigham Young University

“We really like the fact that Coursedog is instantly validating our rules, and showing the conflicts. I really like the data reports – it's live data.”

Laura Chapman

Curriculum and Class Scheduling Specialist

Pratt Institute

“It is very intuitive to use. We have some other software products that aren’t easy to use and it is hard to get people to use them. We’ve found with Coursedog that they are intuitive to use and to set-up.”

Luke Phillips

Registrar

Ashland University

"The quantifiable impact was just the ability to move the scheduling out of our office into other departments closer to where the action is. They know better what they're trying to accomplish, what classes they need to offer, all the uniquenesses of rooms and those kinds of things."

Mark Britton

Registrar

Illinois Central College

"The culture has improved with our faculty since implementation. They embraced using Coursedog for their curriculum. It was very tedious to look at course and program proposal revisions using our homegrown system. Now, when a new faculty member decides to do a program revision, all they have to do is log on and follow the prompts. Coursedog has also saved us a lot of time by not having to hold a lot of tutorials or videos to teach our faculty/staff how to submit their curriculum. We have noticed how much happier faculty is when they realize how easy Coursedog makes this process."

Stacy Gehrig

Dean, Curriculum and Scheduling

Laguna College of Art & Design

“(Coursedog) was definitely more intuitive. It's a fairly easy system to use and the number one reason that we went with the system is to know how much space we have and how much space we need. Now, we're able to actually quantify our space numbers presented to the Board and easily make a case for additional space. I can go, well, we're using 72 percent of our space on these days, or we've got space here.”

Laura Patrick

Registrar and Director of Institutional Research

Minnesota State Community & Technical College

“Coursedog is enabling us to empower students to really take ownership over their schedule. It’s going to be incredible to have the ability to put together a schedule that really matches the needs of our student demographics.”

Alicia Carley

Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Oklahoma State University

“I'm really excited to work with our CSM to propose and implement new tools or updates to Coursedog that could not only benefit OSU but other institutions as well. OSU has really prided itself on not raising tuition rates for several years in a row, and at the heart of that is a lot of cooperation between different departments and offices to make data-based decisions. I think Coursedog could provide similar analytics and data to other Oklahoma institutions to achieve similar results”

Jennifer Ferguson

Course Management & Classroom Scheduling Coordinator, Registrar’s Office

Catawba College

"It has empowered the faculty to think more intentionally about what they're offering and when they're offering it, rather than just rolling the prior semester or prior year schedule. Our previous process was very manual. We now empower one user in each academic division to load their classes rather than having a full-time Registrar's Office staff member completely build the class schedule off a spreadsheet."

Christine Lynn

Associate Dean, Ketner School of Business

What Are Your Options for Administering Academic Operations?

Option 1: Manual Processes

Institutions use manual processes such as forms, email, spreadsheets, and more to execute their academic operations.

Option 2: Point Solutions

Institutions implement disparate solutions that manage distinct but inter-dependent workstreams in academic operations. These solutions often still require pairing with manual processes.

Option 3: Integrated Academic Operations

Institutions can save time and drive more impact with a single platform that has the tools needed to execute truly integrated academic operations.

Option 1: Manual Processes

Most institutions rely on manual processes to manage each element of their academic operations. Typically the tools and processes lack integrations and require duplicate work to ensure data is entered everywhere it needs to be.

The specific tools vary from institution to institution ranging from forms to spreadsheets with complex formulas. Ultimately they all mean the same thing — academic administrators spend the bulk of their time doing manual work such as entering data into several sources and manually reviewing documents for accuracy.

Pros

Deep knowledge of the process and data because you are so close to the work

Cons

Difficult to have big picture insights, hindering innovation
Frequent source of errors requiring last minute changes that ultimately impact student success
Not scalable
Major reliance on institutional memory, creating risk around specific individuals
No accountability or visibility needed for data-driven decision-making since everything happens in a black box
Expensive due to high requirement for manual labor
Less time can be spent on institutional priorities that drive improvements in student outcomes

Option 2: Point Solutions

Institutions may also use various point solutions to handle different their academic operations. Some solutions integrate with the SIS or another tool, however, many of them do not. Institutions adopting point solutions often end up with similar outcomes as manual processes because they're managing multiple tools with non-native integrations and are still working in separate places.

Typically, schools that rely on a various point solutions will have a one or a few solutions that specialize in specific areas, such as an event scheduling tool, a section scheduling tool, a curriculum management solution, and an online catalog creator. These tools are linked together either through manual uploads or non-native integrations that require more active management that increase risk of errors.

Pros

Ability to select specialized tools to create a suite of solutions that fit your needs

Cons

Integrations between so many tools can be precarious and unreliable
Significant manual work is often required to ensure data accuracy across platforms, which can lead to the same problems found in manual processes
Data is siloed in different tools and databases that may be owned by different teams
Increased costs in implementation, integration, and change management
Multiple points of service for billing/finance, legal, and customer support

Option 3: Integrated Academic Operations

A single academic operations platform offers an ideal alternative to both the manual and the disparate solutions with many advantages, including better data integrity and operational efficiency.

Coursedog’s Intelligent Academic Operations Platform unifies how higher ed manages scheduling, curriculum, catalogs, assessment, and more. Built on a layer of actionable analytics and seamless integrations with every major SIS, Coursedog empowers higher ed leaders to turn academic operations into a lever for driving student success.

Pros

Simplify and streamline your processes with a single platform that helps you save time
Reduce the number of last minute changes that affect students with better data integrity
Manage a single point of service with greater customer success support
Centralize user experience for administrators and faculty in one user-friendly tool
Extract actionable insights more easily by centralizing your academic operations data and leveraging powerful AI throughout the platform

Cons

Implementing a single platform can require a greater time investment than less robust point solutions

The Top Reasons Your Institution Needs Integrated Academic Operations

Save Time with a Single Platform

By switching to a single platform for your Integrated Academic Operations, you can:

Reduce your administrative load
Enter information on time and have it automatically populated throughout the tool
Use the time you save to re-allocate your resources to more high impact initiatives

Break Down Barriers to Student Success

Put your students at the center of your academic operations with a tool that will make it easier for you to:

Set up scheduling rules that prioritize creating a smoother path to graduation for students
Avoid errors that lead to last minute schedule changes with automatic rules validation
Make changes to your curriculum that automatically update in the catalog for your students to see

Dedicated Support from Kick-off to Launch, and Beyond

Leverage an industry-leading partnership with a dedicated support team that:

Work with you to build an internal implementation team of colleagues to ensure success
Designs tailored meetings on a regular basis to ensure your success
Ongoing access to our expert technical support team and extensive knowledge base

Make Informed Decisions with Integrated Analytics

Benefit from having all your data in a single platform and use the integrated analytics tools to:

Easily understand the big picture impact of your current processes
Visualize trends in academic operations with stunning dashboards
Extract actionable insights and implement changes right there in the platform

How does Coursedog Stack Up to the Alternatives?

Section Workflow, Rule Validations & Change Requests
Room and Space Optimization
Event Scheduling & Public Calendar
Online Course Catalog
Curriculum Management
Academic Reporting
Course Demand Projections
Assessment Management
Coursedog
Modern Campus
Courseleaf
Ad Astra Schedule 8 & Platinum
25Live
EMS
Manual Processes
Coursedog
DigArc
Courseleaf
Ad Astra
25Live
EMS
25Live
25Live
25Live
25Live
25Live
25Live
25Live

Coursedog Leads the Pack in Innovation and Usability

Download the Academic Operations StarChart Vendor Report to Learn:

How Coursedog outperforms five other top platforms in a head-to-head comparison
The must-have features your platform needs such as integration capabilities, scalability, and customization
Get The Report

Best-in-Class Integrations

Coursedog’s modern scheduling tools sit on your SIS and sync changes in real-time.

Explore Integrations
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TESTIMONIALS
“Our graduate enrollments have grown almost 200% in the last five and half years, with a net revenue increase of close to 40% — that was made possible in part because we partnered early on with Coursedog, which allowed us to redirect personnel from managing antiquated systems with the efficiency we gained from their Academic Operations Platform. We’ve been pleased with the product and it’s positive impact on our student experience.”
Dr. Jennifer Walsh, SVP Strategic Initiatives & Chief Strategy Officer
Hawaii Pacific University
“Coursedog’s analytics over the next couple of years will probably save us $400,000 to $500,000 in identifying the courses we need for our students to complete their programs on time and then allocating our resources effectively.”
Dr. David Taylor, Assistant VP for Academic Operations
Roanoke College
“There were a lot of manual processes that happened in the past and the ability to automate some of these processes has allowed the Registrar's Office to free up some additional time to think more strategically about what other operations we can be more efficient with.”
Christine Lynn, Associate Dean
Catawba College

See Coursedog in Action