Minnesota State Community & Technical College's Path to Equitable Scheduling

Institutional Overview

Institution Type: Community College 

Location: Minnesota 

SIS: Homegrown - Integrated Student Record System (ISRS)

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The Challenge

Equity 2030: A Call to Close Equity Gaps

As a part of Minnesota State's Equity 2030 plan, Minnesota State Community & Technical College leadership made an institutional commitment to eliminate educational equity gaps across its campuses by 2030.

"Equity 2030 is our top priority across the entire system. Our vision and mission is a success story for every student.” - Matt Borcherding, Provost

It quickly became clear that having the right infrastructure in place would be essential to a successful outcome.

“We know it’s an ambitious goal, so its critical to figure out what tools and resources we can obtain to accelerate our progress.” - Matt Borcherding, Provost

Manual Scheduling Led to Inequitable Schedules & Student Frustration

During listening tours across campuses, the Minnesota State Community & Technical College team heard from students, faculty, and staff that a rigid, manual scheduling process was creating inequitable schedules that stood in the way of the Equity 2030 goals.

"During our listening sessions, we were able to collect an immense amount of data on existing scheduling barriers. We realized it was critical that we figure out a way to adjust our schedules to better meet our students’ diverse pathways.” - Matt Borcherding, Provost

Due to the lack of real-time scheduling insights, there was no way for administrators to proactively ensure every student had the opportunity to follow a schedule that fit their needs.

"We know that students share our scheduling frustrations. We need to be able to optimize for a schedule that works for all our students. And when students can’t find a schedule that makes sense to them, we are forcing them into modalities that may not be appropriate for their learning style." - Brenda Mergens, Assistant to the Dean

Manual Scheduling Has Its Limits for Promoting Student Success

Historically, Minnesota State Community & Technical College relied on a manual scheduling process that the team estimates required over 10 months to work through. For example, determining the right number of sections to offer in a semester could easily take more than two weeks alone.

“Our current scheduling process feels like throwing spaghetti on the wall because we’re always having to guess at the numbers. By the time we get feedback, students are already in the enrollment process, and it creates a challenging experience for everyone.” - Alicia Carley, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Realizing that inequitable schedules were directly hurting retention and enrollment, the Minnesota State Community & Technical College team worked together to manually adjust each campus’ schedule. Although impactful, they quickly realized it was not a scalable approach.

The amount of human capital it required was insurmountable, but we did see increased enrollment as well as uptick in our on-campus enrollment.” - Matt Borcherding, Provost

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The Solution

Building the Academic Operation Infrastructure to Achieve Equity 2030

Minnesota State Community & Technical College chose Coursedog as their partner to establish an institution-wide academic operations platform to accelerate progress toward the Equity 2030 goals.

Their leadership team recognizes that centralizing academic operations is a key step to closing equity gaps.

“You can’t have a lofty goal and accomplish all of this without having an effective and efficient infrastructure. Academic Operations is at the core of that. If processes like scheduling aren’t streamlined and effective, you’re never going to reach your end objective.” - Matt Borcherding, Provost

Using Coursedog to Build Student-Driven Schedules

With an integrated scheduling solution, Minnesota State Community & Technical College has the real-time data to proactively build schedules optimized for student success.

“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

In addition, Minnesota State Community & Technical College can act on data insights within the Coursedog platform, so that adding or removing sections no longer requires hours of configuration every time.

“Across the board, when we need to add a section here or there, it’s no longer going to require multiple hours to figure out where it should go.” - Brenda Mergens, Assistant to the Dean

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Coursedog vs. the Competition

A Solutions-Focused Approach

Throughout the evaluation process, Minnesota State Community & Technical College was impressed with the solutions-focused mindset that every Coursedog team member brought to the conversation. It felt like a true partnership before there was even an official agreement in place.

“So many software vendors take the approach of, ‘here’s our product, how do you fit into this?’ With Coursedog, it has been the complete opposite. The team really focuses on understanding your specific needs, and figuring out a way to make things work for your institutional processes.” - Alicia Carley, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Collaborative Due Diligence Towards Integrations

Minnesota State Community & Technical College's IT leadership appreciated the careful technical due diligence that Coursedog prepared to ensure that Coursedog's Academic Operations Platform would integrate seamlessly with M State’s existing technology stack, especially with their homegrown Student Information System (ISRS).

“We were immediately impressed with the carefulness that the team took to walk us through the integration approach. It was probably the most careful integration call I’ve ever sat on in my whole career. There was true commitment to making sure we were brought up to speed and felt comfortable with the implementation approach.” - Chris Welle, Director of Apps and Infrastructure

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The Results

Hundreds of Hours Saved on Scheduling Work

The college anticipates significant time savings in the scheduling process, allowing staff to focus on more strategic initiatives.

"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, that will enable us to save +580 hours every year." - Alicia Carley, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Enhanced Data-Driven Decision Making

Coursedog's reporting capabilities allows the college to make data-informed decisions about course offerings and resource allocation.

“I see Coursedog as an integral part of our ability to meet the system’s Equity 2030 goals. We need to develop schedules that are completely student-centered. With Coursedog, we are going to be able to guarantee students a conflict-free schedule in the modality that they require.” - Matt Borcherding, Provost

Faster Paths to Completion Promote Equitable Outcomes

The college anticipates that a more efficient scheduling process will help address equity gaps and improve student success rates.

"I think that scheduling software will absolutely lead to that faster path to completion. And that's all the faster they can get into the workforce and better support their families. So, I think that's also an equity measure if we can get a faster path to completion." - Alicia Carley, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences

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Looking Ahead

System-Wide Integration and Standardization

As Minnesota State Community & Technical College moves forward with its Coursedog implementation, the team is already considering the broader implications for the entire Minnesota State system.

Minnesota State Community & Technical College is taking a leadership role in developing an integration package that could benefit other institutions in the Minnesota State system.

"As common as possible, as different as necessary. That is the approach that Minnesota State wants to take. Whether that's with our equity initiatives or having common course numbering across the college. We need the right infrastructure in place to support the necessary system-wide collaboration." - Alicia Carley, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences

With Coursedog, Minnesota State Community & Technical College is driving significant improvements in efficiency, collaboration, and equity across the System.

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