Oklahoma State University Adopts Data-Driven Scheduling to Elevate Student Success

Institutional Overview

Institution Type: Public 4-year

Location: Oklahoma 

SIS: Ellucian Banner

The Challenge

Disconnected Data and Inconsistent Visibility in the Scheduling Process

Previously, OSU managed academic scheduling with spreadsheets shared across departments and campuses, resulting in clunky, inefficient workflows that disrupted communication. Without a streamlined process, there was room for interpretation and errors that delayed finalizing schedules and pulled administrators away from other strategic tasks.

“... it's much easier for us to share scheduling information with departments - now they can review their class schedule with just a click of a button instead of filling out a form or email when they discover something wrong. And all of that happens in a single place.” -Jennifer Ferguson, Course Management and Classroom Scheduling Coordinator, Registrar’s Office

Manual Work Made Student-Centric Scheduling Very Challenging

Prior to Coursedog, faculty depended on the Registrar’s Office to provide available times and rooms through email and/or spreadsheets. There was no primary data source maintaining room availability. Without a primary data source, OSU ran the risk of double bookings and/or course conflicts, preventing students from continuing their degree path. Lack of awareness of high enrollment times put students at risk of having to choose between two required courses.

“We used to get a lot of questions about what class times are most commonly used, most popular class times and room availability . Faculty would ask: when can I schedule a class that isn’t going to interfere with other departments?” -Jennifer Ferguson, Course Management and Classroom Scheduling Coordinator, Registrar’s Office

The Solution

Coursedog Drives Scheduling Efficiency Up by 50x

Coursedog’s automated workflow enables OSU to move away from manual processes. By using the Coursedog platform, OSU eliminated back-and-forth emails and spreadsheet approvals.

"Using the class scheduling product alone, Coursedog has eliminated 98% of email PDF forms and has completely eliminated the excel spreadsheets that we previously used to process scheduling updates.” - Jennifer Ferguson, Course Management and Classroom Scheduling Coordinator, Registrar’s Office

Coursedog provides OSU the tools to have accurate scheduling data and the confidence that scheduling can be completed despite various and unforeseen circumstances.

“Nothing gets lost in an e-mail… if there's anybody on vacation, we can just add additional personnel as their backup in a workflow. Coursedog has improved the entire communication process.” -Jennifer Ferguson, Course Management and Classroom Scheduling Coordinator, Registrar’s Office

Increased Visibility Allows for Student Centric Schedule

With an unified data source, OSU's varying campus offices have full accessibility and visibility into one another's schedules.

“Coursedog has created a single source of scheduling data for campus offices to refer back to. For example, facilities management, IT, energy management, and custodial services now all have a one-stop shop for scheduling data.” - Jennifer Ferguson, Course Management and Classroom Scheduling Coordinator, Registrar’s Office.

Coursedog provides OSU with a more transparent source of data, making sure faculty input required information before submitting their proposals. Being able to set specific required parameters certifies accurate scheduling data back to the SIS.

“Previously, we did not have something that automatically clued faculty into what they needed to provide us to build the standard section. Having something as simple as the fields that are visible in the section dashboard streamlines the communication of those needs through visual methods.” -Jennifer Ferguson, Course Management and Classroom Scheduling Coordinator, Registrar’s Office

Coursedog has increased overall clarity of the scheduling process for all involved, resulting in greater faculty empowerment and confidence. Increased University morale helps drive focus on student-driven initiatives.

“I would say that increasing the transparency of the class schedule information and increasing efficiency for everyone provides a sense of empowerment to faculty." - Rita Peaster, Registrar

Using Coursedog Gives Faculty Ownership Over Their Schedules With Student-Driven Outcomes in Mind

Coursedog’s academic scheduling gives OSU faculty the tools to make decisions like class time and availability based on enrollment and demand in just a few clicks.

“Departments are now able to review their schedules using reports, and that's helped them anticipate schedule adjustments needed for future terms.” -Jennifer Ferguson, Course Management and Classroom Scheduling Coordinator, Registrar’s Office

Faculty and staff are empowered to make scheduling changes that accelerate student degree completion.

"I've heard comments from faculty saying, ‘we love Coursedog because if we have a situation where we've got an increase in freshmen coming in and we need to increase the number of seats in these certain classes, I can just go make that happen instantly.’ Faculty have really benefited from having first- hand control over their schedule building process." - Rita Peaster, Registrar

Coursedog vs. the Competition

The Winning Factor: Configurability

Coursedog provides OSU with the tools necessary to configure their scheduling to meet the needs of their institution. Coursedog’s configurability empowers administrators to manage changes themselves, add in required fields, and adjust workflows, etc. to accommodate any time sensitive modifications.

"Coursedog offers a lot of ways for us to configure our process and not be a black box type of solution. With some software solutions, you have to rely on the vendor to do all of the configuration for you. As changes happen in our environment and/ or policies, Coursedog enables us to be very nimble in making adjustments."- Rita Peaster, Registrar

Coursedog created a foundation of change at OSU, allowing them to envision processes more efficient than before.

“We are able to envision how we can do things better here… how we can make things more efficient for everyone.” - Rita Peaster, Registrar

Looking Ahead

Greater Room Utilization for Improved Student Classroom Experience

By increasing room and building visibility, Coursedog has allowed departments and faculty to optimize resource allocation. OSU hopes to continue to boost room and building utilization as their relationship grows with Coursedog. Better room utilization will benefit student’s learning outcomes by allowing them to interact with the best fit room/building for their course.

“We can see that departments who are becoming more confident in their schedule are starting to schedule their classes in areas of campus that they never knew about before because Coursedog has allowed them to see room availability in areas of campus that they were less familiar with.” -Jennifer Ferguson, Class Scheduler, Registrar’s Office

OSU plans to use Coursedog to create data-driven change to help make university more accessible to students.

“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 and Classroom Scheduling Coordinator, Registrar’s Office

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