2013 Texas Ad Astra Summit Monday, July 22 nd Creating and Scheduling for Clearer Pathways to Completion Presented By: Stacey White Vice President of Client Success

Focus Areas and Strategic Solutions System of metrics (key performance indicators) to track and manage Academic Operations – Measure through the analysis of historical schedules and resource utilization – Efficient allocation of time/space/faculty – Effective management of capacity and productivity – Facilitate student success via course access/course/facility/ faculty forecasting – Allow administrators to monitor real progress Building a comparative database of Academic Operation KPI’s – Peer comparison – Monitor progress to goal Software to manage resources and efficient allocation space Software to quantify course demand, measure completion velocity and model growth and attrition scenarios – Student Success (E.g. course access, schedule forecasting, degree velocity) Professional Services – Best practices, process refinement, change management and mobilization

Scheduling for Student Success Noel Levitz 2011 National Student Satisfaction & Priorities Report Identified key challenges for institutions Student Response: “Ability to get the courses I need with few conflicts” was the top challenge for 2 -Year Public institutions Institution Response: “Ability to get the courses I need with few conflicts” was not ranked in top 25 for 2-Year Public institutions

The Schedule: It is Complex!

Typical Schedule Building Process 1.Course offerings are based on a historical schedule, typically a roll-forward of a “like” term 2.Departments refine offerings in silos (distinct processes and decision makers, limited collaboration and decision-support tools) 3.Student Information System is updated 4.Room assignments are made/refined 5.“Final” schedule is posted (changes still occur after registration or even after classes start) The goal is commonly completion v. improvement

Student Success KPI Averages based on 2 & 4 year public institutions Completion Opportunities – Access to critical path courses should increase by 13% at 2 year institutions and by 29% at 4 year – At 2 year institutions 15% of classes are “Overloaded” and by 29% at year >96% Enrollment Ratio – At 2 and 4 year institutions 6% of offered sections are “Addition Candidates”

Capacity KPI Averages based on 2 & 4 year public institutions Growth Opportunities – At 2 year institutions Classroom space is utilized % of an average scheduling week but only filled to 60%. – At 4 year institutions space is utilized 44 % of an average scheduling week but only filled to 68% – At 2 year institutions 45% of space is scheduled off standard time/day grids resulting in 19% pure waste. – At 4 year 37% of space is scheduled off standard time/day grids resulting in 16% pure waste – At 4 year institutions 55% of the schedule is compressed into primetime

2 Year Institutions Cost Savings Opportunities – 11% of seats offered in a schedule are unneeded – 10% of sections offered in a schedule are unneeded 4 Year Institutions Cost Savings Opportunities – 26.41% of seats offered in a schedule are unneeded – 14.75% of sections offered in a schedule are unneeded – 8.29% of offered sections are categorized as Boutique Courses that are not needed for completion Efficiency KPI Averages based on 2 & 4 year public institutions

What is a Strategic Scheduling Checkup? Analysis of Historical Schedules Report on Effectiveness of Existing Scheduling Practices – Space Management – Course Offering Management Framework for Better, More Strategic Scheduling On-Site Presentation of Findings/Recommendations Policy Management and Enforcement Infrastructure KPI Dashboard Access for 6 months – Option to re-fresh data with an annual subscription

Course Offering Analysis Metrics Statistical Excess Seats – Seats offered in excess of Blended Demand Statistical Additional Seats Needed – Blended Demand in excess of Seats Reduction Candidates – Potentially superfluous sections of courses that can be removed Elimination Candidates – Courses that can potentially be removed from a schedule entirely Addition Candidates – Potentially needed sections of courses that can be added to a schedule Candidate Example CourseSeatsDemandEnrollment Ratio SectionsSections Needed ReductionAAA %63 EliminationAAA %10 AdditionAAA %1012

Strategic Scheduling Checkup Metrics AreaBusiness ProblemMetric Growth Capacity How much can we grow? How quickly can we grow? When will we run out of space? Space Utilization Seat Fill Rates Standard Week Enrollment Ratio Balanced Course Ratio Space Bottlenecks Where are the problem areas? How do we build policy that is relevant? What kind of space to build/renovate? Prime Time Utilization % of Sections Scheduled in Prime Time Utilization by Room Type Dominant Schedule Patterns % of Rooms Centrally Scheduled % of Rooms w/ Min Tech Capabilities Course schedule Alignment /Student Demand Analysis Are we offering enough classes/seats? Are we offering the right mix of classes? Historical Enrollment Analysis Enrollment Trends Predictive Program Analysis Program Analysis Student Plan Analysis Addition Candidates Reduction Candidates

Comparative KPI Dashboards Capacity & Utilization

Campus KPI Dashboards Capacity & Utilization

Campus KPI Dashboards Course Offering Actions

Dashboards to Monitor Policy Course Offering Actions

Typical Project Flow Benchmark Report card of existing academic resource efficiency System to improve academic operations and efficiencies Identification of Opportunity and Impact Alignment with California CC task force ( Course Alignment) Mobilize System-wide comparative KPI Dashboards to monitor improvement Collaboratively creating institution specific plans Implement Change Management Teams Vet Policy Candidates and Actionable Metrics Project Scoping and Readiness for Phase 3 Automate Implementation of software systems to automate efficiencies Enforce policy Measure outcomes and improvement

What is Platinum Analytics? A patented system designed to: -Analyze several types of academic data to determine student demand (need for courses) -Compare student demand with course offerings for refined schedule development -Ensure that courses/seats offered assist students with on-time graduation

Analysis Types Historical Baseline – What did we offer last (like) term and what did our students take? Historical Trend – What have we been offering over the past few years and what have our students been taking? Program Analysis – What do our students need to take to fulfill degree requirements? – What courses are we offering? – What students are eligible to take in an upcoming term? Predictive Program Analysis – When students have a choice of courses to take to fulfill a requirement, which one(s) are they more likely to take? Simulated Registration - This process models the competitive, open registration process used by traditional four-year institutions. It provides a pre-registration “sandbox” to model an academic schedule based on information derived from analytics combined with course demand and need Student Recommendation – Academic Planner – Student course recommendations are ed to students – Recommendations include other course options that are productive – Recommendations can be set up in campaigns to defined groups

Common Challenges with Academic Planners Student Engagement Student Adoption Simple representation of complex degree rules Productive credit validation Eligibility validation Capturing intent and availability

A Simple Approach Roadmaps are auto-generated All students are given a base, “starter plan” based on their progress against degree Plans are “pushed” to each student to view and refine The user interface displays recommendations Plans are automatically updated after each registration Schedule informs plan Plan informs schedule

Influencing Better Decisions

Simulated Registration finds seat availability, time availability and section-to-section conflicts for planned courses prior to registration Institutions can mitigate registration conflicts before they happen

Custom messages can be created Filtered student campaigns can be saved and ed

Alternate courses or rules are displayed in a simple model The user interface which only displays recommendations and optionally alternatives generated from Campaign to send to students

Student provides availability and intent data Student modifies “starter plan” if desired

Updated student plans, academic history and degree progress inform schedule development for next term