Using the CLSS Time Block rule to support schedule distribution

Background

 STANDARD meeting patterns  should be used as much as possible on those schedule types that require meetings. (These types include LEC, SEM, REC, TUT - according to SACS, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.)

The main reasons to use standard meeting patterns include:

• Reduced class time overlaps/conflicts for students during registration; they can book full days of classes, from 8am to 5pm or later, if they choose. Instructors can also benefit from this.

• Classroom usage can be optimized across campus (which can’t occur if class times overlap/conflict, or if a class meets multiple days of the week but at different times, or if classes don’t standardize the groupings of which multiple days are used – ex: MWF vs MWR)

The examples below could all be considered standard meeting patterns (depending on a class’s number of credit hours):

(A list of standard meeting patterns for 3- and 4-credit classes can be found at: https://registrar.tulane.edu/scheduling/timelines-resources )

Time blocks

Since standard meeting patterns with multiple days of the week (either MWF or TR) are scheduled on more classes and for more students than standard meeting patterns with single days (ex: once-weekly seminars), the multi-day standard meeting patterns were used to designate Time Blocks in CLSS.

These Time Blocks  are the basis for a rule in CLSS that electronically monitors and reports on Tulane’s historic schedule distribution policy, which is intended to promote balanced schedule distribution throughout the week within each department (and by extension, across the university as a whole).

A complete list of the 15 Time Blocks is below:

CLSS Time Block rule

The CLSS Time Block rule counts how many of a department’s class sections have a meeting pattern (standard or not) that uses EACH time block.

• A class that uses the MWF 3:00pm-3:50pm standard meeting pattern is counted:

  • only once – in the MWF 3:00pm-3:50pm Time Block.

• A class that uses the M 3:00pm-3:50pm standard meeting pattern is counted:

  • only once – in the MWF 3:00pm-3:50pm Time Block.

• A class that uses a MWF 3:00pm-3:30pm non-standard meeting pattern is counted:

  • once – in the MWF 3:00pm-3:50pm Time Block.

• A class that uses a M 2:30pm-3:30pm non-standard meeting pattern is counted:

  • once in the MWF 2:00pm-2:50pm Time Block

  • AND once in the MWF 3:00pm-3:50pmTime Block

• A class that uses the M 3:00pm-5:30pm standard meeting pattern is counted:

  • once in the MWF 3:00pm-3:50pm Time Block

  • AND once in the MWF 4:00pm-4:50pm Time Block.

    (There is no standard meeting pattern OR Time Block for MWF 5:00pm-5:50pm, since that is outside the university’s office/business hours of MWF 8:30am-5:00pm)

• One class that uses the M 3:00pm-3:50pm standard meeting pattern plus a second class that uses the W 3:00pm-3:50pm standard meeting pattern and a third class that uses the F 3:00pm-3:50pm standard meeting pattern are counted:

  • as three classes in the MWF 3:00pm-3:50pm Time Block.

There isn’t a way to count these multiple classes as one, even if their enrollments and classroom needs are similar – they are still separate, individual classes.

There is no requirement or expectation that such class groupings should have similar enrollments or room needs. Because there is no expectation, it’s assumed that such classes might require different rooms assignments.

NOTE:

• Each time block includes multiple days (based on the standard meeting patterns of most 3-credit classes).

• Each class (whether it meets multiple days or one day) counts once in every time block that the class's meeting pattern overlaps in.
  Examples:

  • ONE class that meets twice weekly - TR 3:30pm-4:45pm - will count as ONE section in the time block TR 3:30pm-4:45pm.

  • TWO classes that meet once weekly - T 3:30pm-4:45pm, and R 3:30pm-4:45pm - will count as a total of TWO sections in the TR 3:30pm-4:45pm time block. This is how the rule counts sections; it is not considered inflation or inaccuracy.

Applicable sections

The CLSS Time Block/ Schedule Distribution rule counts only certain class sections:

The following sections ARE counted:

• Sections in Fall and Spring terms

• Sections on the Uptown campus

• Sections that have meeting patterns of any type* except the types not counted (below)

• Sections in department rooms as well as sections requesting general pool rooms

• Cross-listed PARENT sections, indicated in CLSS by two crossed arrows and “Also (child section(s))”

  Note: A group of cross-listed sections (no matter how many sections in the group) will be counted as only one section per time block.

The following sections are NOT counted:

• Sections in Summer terms

• Sections not on the Uptown campus (online sections are on the Distance Learning campus)

• Sections without any meeting patterns

• Sections with the following meeting pattern types:

  • STU

  • ACT

  • PRA

  • LAB**

  • ONL***

• Sections in these colleges:

  • SoPA

  • LAW

• Cross-listed CHILD sections, indicated in CLSS by two crossed arrows and “See (parent section)”

• Cross-listed PARENT sections that are in another department than the department running Validation

*Meeting pattern types are a class’s schedule type used on the meeting pattern. The only time the two types could be different on the same class is if that one class had multiple meeting patterns – then a different type could be used for a secondary meeting pattern.

In the example class below, the meeting pattern of TR 9:30am-10:45am (LEC meeting pattern type) would count once – in the TR 9:30am-10:45am Time Block – but the LAB meeting pattern type would not count at all.

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**LAB meeting patterns are still required to fulfill minimum required contact hours for SACS, based on their credit hours. But they are not counted in the CLSS rule, and they have no standard meeting patterns.

***ONL sections are not counted in the CLSS rule, even if they do have meeting patterns.

Heat map  

To see a heat map of all sections in a department that DO count in the CLSS Time Block rule, use the Filter linked below:

• First, update the term in the URL text if necessary. Next, change DEPT to your department’s code in the URL. Then click the link or copy and paste the URL into your browser.

• In CLSS, click the “Visualize” button. When the heat map appears, you can click on any red square to see which section(s) are scheduled at that time (note in the example below, that the cross-listed sections were counted as 1 parent):

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 Application of the CLSS Time Block rule

CLSS Time Block rule statement

Within a department:

• a MAXIMUM of 13% of the total number of counted sections can be scheduled in any of the 15 time blocks (so the actual max number will vary by department size; more on size below).

• a MINIMUM of 1 section must be scheduled in each of the 15 time blocks if the department has at least 15 counted sections (see below for more on department size).
  
  

How the CLSS Time Block rule is enforced

 Since there are a total of 15 Time Blocks…

A department with at least 15 counted sections is considered a “large department” – it has the ability to schedule at least one section in each of the 15 time blocks. (It doesn’t have to have exactly the same number of sections in every time block – but it must have at least 1 section in each block, and it can’t have more than 13% of its total number of meeting sections scheduled in any of the time blocks.)

Large departments will get an error if they try to submit an unevenly-distributed schedule (one that exceeds 13% in one or more time blocks).

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A department with fewer than 15 counted sections is considered a “small department” – it has too few sections to be able to schedule one in every time block.

Small departments will get a pop-up alert if they try to submit an unevenly-distributed schedule. They won’t be prevented from submitting this schedule to workflow (the way a large department would) because they don’t have enough sections to schedule at least one in every time block. (But because they would still be able to schedule more than one section per time block – not recommended – they will be subject to a manual check by the Registrar’s Office.)

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