Annual Timetable Information Session

Leslie Chalmers

Nasim Razavinia

Rhea Saddick

Janet Martone

Jennifer Minnich

September 21, 2010

Leacock 232

Overview of Session

Changes in the Scheduling Process Information in Banner

Patterns Important Notes about Patterns Rooms Room Attributes & Max Enrolment

Scheduling Forms Course Section Constraint Forms Instructor Unavailability Forms Department Unavailability Forms Course Combinations How to Provide ES with the Scheduling Forms?

Website Timeline Questions and Answers

Changes in the Scheduling Process

Process

NEW: Labs and Studios for the 2011-2012 term will be rolled with the same time and room assignments as 2010-2011.

NEW: The draft schedule will be uploaded into Banner. (The Academic Units will no longer receive an excel file of the draft schedule) This will allow the units to run an overunder report (szrsovun) for easier

validation.

It is IMPERATIVE that Academic Units do not make any changes in Banner. Academic Units must provide requests for modifications to the Class Scheduling Office.

Information in Banner

Rollover New course section creation Existing course sections modification Max enrolment Validation of Pre-requisites Professor assignments (if known) Room characteristics Linked sections In order to create or modify cross listed groups, an

email must be sent to the Class Schedule Coordinator: classschedule@mcgill.ca

Patterns in Banner

Patterns: The time and room information MUST NOT be entered in the

meeting line, only a pattern should be in the meeting type field Patterns must be verified and any necessary changes should be

made in Banner (prior to the cut off date of Nov 16, 2010) Note: when creating a new meeting line, the meeting type is

automatically populated with “CLAS”. This must be changed to the appropriate meeting type

Important Notes about Patterns

3 times 1 hr pattern is indicated as 3X1. It includes: MWF, TRF or MTR

2 times 1.5 hr pattern is indicated as 2X15. It includes: MW, TR or WF

Indicate NTN in the meeting type field if a course section does not need a time or room Examples include Reading courses, Thesis courses etc.

Indicate FRC in the meeting type field if a course section must be offered at a specific time (also indicate the day and time ) Examples include Seminars with guest speakers, certain studio

courses, Adjunct Professors who can only teach at a certain time

Important Notes about Patterns (con’t)

Approved times for courses must be adhered to. The patterns start times for:

1 hour intervals starts at 8:30 and continue for each hour on the half hour (9:30, 10:30 , etc)

1.5 hours starts at 8:30; 10:00; 11:30 etc 2 hours starts at 8:30; 9:30; 10:30 etc 2.5 hours starts at 8:30; 11:30 and 14:30 3 hours starts at 8:30; 11:30 and 14:30 3.5 hours starts at 8:30 and 13:30 4 hours starts at 8:30 and 13:30

Some courses may be scheduled with a different pattern depending on exceptional circumstances

Rooms

Assign the building and the room if a course section must absolutely go into a specific room

Indicate “NOROOM” in the building field and “NEEDED” in the room field if a course section does not need a room Example: Course sections that take place in the Professor’s Office

If a course section must be assigned into a departmental room, indicate the appropriate department room characteristic Example: S138 for BIOL-DEPT

Room preferences must be indicated in SSATEXT as this information does not roll over.

Room Attributes & Max Enrolment

Indicate a max of 3-4 room attributes and identify their priority

New Room Attributes: Sidearm (S098) Movable chairs (S099)

Do not use both whiteboard and chalkboard room attributes for the same course section

Do not use: Slide projector (S032) Overhead projector (S024)

Do not inflate the max enrolment by more than 20% of the previous year’s actual enrolment . A valid reason is required by Enrolment Services in order to exceed the 20% inflation

Scheduling forms

Course Section Constraint Forms Existing course section constraint forms have been sent

to each Academic Unit for review If there are any new course sections being offered the

following academic year, a new course section constraint form is required

Instructor Unavailability Forms Each Instructor teaching a course section must fill out an

Instructor Unavailability form.

Department Unavailability Forms Department Unavailability Forms will be required by the

Academic Unit, if blockoffs are required.

Course Section Constraint Forms

Review existing course section constraint forms to identify changes/new information.

Indicate “No change needed” on the forms if no changes are required

Provide new course section constraint forms for newly created course sections

Only Blockoffs and Course section ties should be indicated as part of the constraint forms Examples of course section ties include:

• Lab and Tutorial must be on the same day and same time• Two course sections must be offered at the same time in

different rooms• Two course sections must be offered back to back

An instructor should not be attached to a course section in Banner if they will not be attending the session. Only indicate LT (for Lab Technician) or TA (for Teaching Assistant) in these cases.

Instructor Unavailability Forms

Instructor Unavailability forms must be approved by the Chair/Director or Delegate

Preference for 8:30 or 4:30 timeslot does not guarantee course sections being scheduled at that time

Indicate the number of research days in the comments field instead of the specific day of the week

Some problems Enrolment Services encountered related to Instructor Blockoffs: Instructor teaches a course section that is offered 3 times a

week, the course section must be offered on MWF and the instructor has one of these days blocked off

Instructor attends a lab section that must be offered in the afternoon until 5:30 and the Instructor has blocked off part of the afternoon

Two Instructors teach the same course section and have opposite blockoffs

Department Unavailability Form

Provide Department Unavailability Form Indicate departmental activities that require Instructors’

attendance or a departmental room Indicate only departmental activities that are scheduled in

advance If a departmental activity will not be attended by all

instructors, provide the Class Schedule Office with a list of the attendees so that we will only block the appropriate instructors.

Course Combinations

Inform us which courses/programs need to be scheduled conflict free by term.

Course combinations sent to each Academic Unit must be reviewed

Identify courses that no longer belong to the course combination

Identify a course that should be added to a course combination Identify if a course will be offered in a different term; for

example, if a course was part of a winter combination and now should be part of the fall combination.

How to provide ES with the Scheduling Forms?

Print and send forms to:

688 Sherbrooke Street, Room 750

Or Email electronically to:

timetableproject@mcgill.ca

Website

Website Address: http://www.mcgill.ca/classschedule/ Information includes:

Timeline Scheduling Instructions Checklist of items to be completed by the deadline date DOs and DON’Ts Forms Information Sessions & Workshop dates FAQs

Timeline

November 16th, 2010– Deadline to update Banner and to return all constraint forms

February 14th, 2011 – Draft of the timetable results will be available on Banner/Minerva for review. Do NOT make any changes in Banner

February 28th, 2011 – Feedback of the draft Timetable Provide the Class Schedule team with a list of required

modifications

March 17th, 2011 – Final Class Schedule will be available on Minerva

Questions and Answers

If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with us: Email us at timetableproject@mcgill.ca Contact us by phone:

o Leslie Chalmers @ 5705o Nasim Razavinia @ 5916o Rhea Saddick @ 1480o Janet Martone@ 00643o Jennifer Minnich @ 3491

Need a refresher? Register for a workshop