The Challenge

Data Fragmentation During the Scheduling Cycle Led to Increased Errors

Prior to Coursedog, Ashland University’s Registrar’s Office manually collected and imported scheduling data from individual departments into their SIS. The fragmentation of data made it difficult to manage and integrate into Colleague, resulting in errors or lost data. This outdated process delayed scheduling and prevented faculty from creating schedules that optimized the institution’s resources.

“[Colleague] is a good service, but can be clunky. After working with departments to get all the necessary scheduling information from the Registrar’s Office, it’s not long before departments say ‘I can’t see our stuff in Colleague.’ While Colleague is excellent for holding this data and serving as a central information system, it’s not designed for end users to collaborate or innovate with their academic operations. “[Coursedog] is making what you are doing in your SIS fresher and easier. This sitting on top of your SIS makes a huge difference."  - Mark Britton, Registrar at Ashland University

Initially, Ashland’s faculty were hesitant to change their scheduling process despite the inefficiencies of the existing system. However, resistance quickly faded with Coursedog’s intuitive workflow and the ability for collaboration. Now, faculty member's are aligned with each other throughout each scheduling cycle to create an optimal schedule for both students and faculty.

“At first, there was a lot of resistance from faculty- we heard things like, ‘We don't have time for that. We don't have time. You know, we can't do that kind of thing.’ But very quickly, they realize how fast it was, and it's been crickets pretty much since then in regards to the time involved in getting the schedule put together.” - Mark Britton, Registrar at Ashland University

Decentralized Scheduling: Overcoming Fragmented Data

Previously, Ashland's scheduling process relied on inconsistent and informal pieces of information from varying departments. The lack of a centralized system meant the scheduling office had to consolidate disparate information, increasing administrative burden and the likelihood of errors. Faculty also lacked the ability to tailor schedules to student needs, course requirements, and the pathways that keep students on track in their academic journey. By transitioning to Coursedog, scheduling responsibilities shifted closer to individual departments, allowing faculty with firsthand knowledge of course needs, room constraints, and other logistical details to take ownership.

“In the past, each department created their own list, typically on spreadsheets, napkins, whatever the scheduling office could get…but being able to use Coursedog, we were able to move the scheduling information back to the departments. 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 at Ashland University

Delays in Curriculum Proposal Process Impacted Student Progression

Ashland’s previous curriculum proposal process was frustrating and time-consuming. Faculty often struggled to track the status of their proposals, leading to confusion, delays, and endless back-and-forth communication. Without a centralized system, forms were frequently lost, and approvals stalled. This lack of visibility made it difficult to align curriculum decisions with student progression and academic planning. With Coursedog, faculty can seamlessly track proposals in real time and enable unanimous curricular decisions to support student outcomes.

“With Coursedog’s curriculum management, we've seen a huge increase in the ability to track what we're doing. With our previous process, things were getting lost. Faculty would ask, ‘well, where is my proposal?’ We would then have to try to figure out who had the form and who hadn't signed it, etc. At Coursedog, we have the ability to know exactly where the proposal is and what groups need to work on it. Many people are able to see the proposal and process at the same time, so it’s been great.  - Mark Britton, Registrar at Ashland University

The Solution

Interactive Catalog Enhances Student and Faculty Engagement

Ashland’s previous course catalog was outdated and difficult to maintain. Students had to sift through old information, and faculty struggled to make timely updates. With Coursedog, Ashland now offers a real-time, interactive course catalog and streamlines the process for departments to make timely changes. Ashland students benefit from a more interactive catalog to gather important information about the upcoming school year, while departments can efficiently make modifications to ensure students always have access to the most accurate and up-to-date information.

”Our students are starting to see a far better catalog - more intuitive and more modern looking. The catalog was a manual process - it lived in a word document. It was very hard to manage, understand what was going on, and very hard to share and get information from other departments. Now with Coursedog, we're able to send it to departments for their updates and make them all online. Students are also able to be more interactive with the catalog as opposed to it in a word doc or print.” - Mark Britton, Registrar at Ashland University

Tackling Ashland University’s Strategic Initiatives

Ashland’s top priority is making information more accessible to students and faculty. Coursedog supports this goal by improving accessibility and collaboration, ensuring faculty can focus on enhancing the student experience.

“Coursedog is helping Ashland meet our strategic plans through being able to provide information to students and to the university in a way that can be accessed by multiple people at multiple times, removing some of the silo effect of the way universities are built. We can interact with each other and I can see what other staff is doing, even see what I'm doing, and we can kind of do that interaction together and also it's formalizing more of the approval process of many things and the ability to see where something is in the workflow.” [Coursedog] is something that changes with us, and that is something that will be so great for many years to come.” - Mark Britton, Registrar at Ashland University

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