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The scheduling of academic resources - courses, instructional staff, and space - for over 35,000 students is a complex task in which the office plays a key coordinating and leadership role. These activities place the office in a unique position to be "in touch" with the trends of instructional activities in all academic departments and schools during both the planning and the operational phase of each session.
Data resulting from the scheduling process at the West Lafayette campus, as well as scheduling data gathered from the regional campuses, form the basic input to a number of studies and reports. These reports are used for internal operations as well as for reporting to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and other public agencies.
Class Scheduling
The Office of Space Management and Academic Scheduling works closely with the school and departmental schedule deputies to coordinate the scheduling of classes The resulting schedule is an important tool in meeting students curricular needs.
If a department decides to cancel a course because of insufficient enrollment or for other administrative reasons, the schedule deputy for that department must notify the Office of Space Management and Academic Scheduling. It is the instructor's responsibility to advise each student enrolled in that course to report immediately to his or her adviser to initiate a division change for the course. If there is no other division, the student must officially drop the course.
Changes to the official schedule of classes for a given session shall be modified only by joint action of the department head, departmental schedule deputy, and the Office of Space Management and Academic Scheduling. An instructor shall not make an unauthorized change in the time and place of a scheduled course.
Student Scheduling
The basic objective of Purdue's student scheduling system is to maximize the probability for all students to receive their first choice of courses, so as to meet their educational requirements and interests. Fundamental to the system is the policy of providing students with choice of courses rather than choice of times, and all energies are directed toward scheduling all students -- the first as well as the last -- into the courses of their first choice. This procedure is in contrast to many registration systems wherein students select both courses and times, usually on a "first come, first serve" or on some other priority basis.
To accomplish this scheduling objective, it is necessary to first build a Master Schedule of Classes which utilizes all hours of a broadly defined academic week. Secondly, it is necessary to keep in balance the number of course spaces remaining in the time patterns used by a course throughout the student scheduling process. This procedure prevents the early closing of classes offered at popular times.
Final Examination Scheduling
The Office of Space Management and Academic Scheduling is responsible for preparing a sixteenth week schedule in accordance with the policies prescribed by the Educational Policy Committee of the University Senate. The policy is to schedule a two hour meeting time for each class during the 16th week of the session, commonly referred to as the final examination period. The goal in developing this schedule is to minimize direct conflicts, minimize the number of students having more than two exams on one day, and minimize the number of back-to-back exams for students.
Over 130,000 student class meetings are scheduled within the thirty prescribed 2-hour class periods in the sixteenth week.
We now provide on-line access to final examination information for all courses offered by the university. Students can also access their personal final examination schedule via the Student Services Information System (SSINFO) by providing their password.
Evening Examination Scheduling
Scheduling of evening examinations is prompted primarily by the desire of some departments to give course examinations for their large multiple division courses. Also, some faculty feel that the normal 50-minute daytime period is insufficient to properly take their tests. This reason particularly applies to graduate level courses.
We now provide on-line access to evening examination information for courses offered by the university. Students can also access their personal evening examination schedule via the Student Services Information System (SSINFO) by providing their password.
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