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Posted on June 23rd, 2009 by Julia Ridge, OLLI National Resource Center
Fred Bassett, OLLI at University of Cincinnati, asks OLLI:
Because many of our moderators have similar preferences regarding when and where they teach, on certain days and times, the University of Cincinnati’s OLLI program has more courses and moderators wanting to teach them than time slots available. Have you ever had this problem, and if so, how do you address it? What criteria do you use to assign course time slots?
Posted in Management, Curriculum
University of Utah
We don’t have the problem as our instructors who are still working in the community often prefer the earliest and latest time slots while our current faculty work around their “regular” class schedules and our retired instructors are more flexible.
We ask each potential instructor to list ALL times they could teach and to choose their top three. We tell them the more flexibility they can offer in scheduling the more likely we’ll be able to schedule their class. So far we been able to shuffle it all around until it all fits and have been able to give instructors one of their top three choices.
If we ever did have a problem I’d prioritize the courses and seat the ones that I think have the most member interest first and work the rest around those anchors.
University of Richmond
We ask course leaders to give us their available days/times and dates/times to avoid, rather than their preferred dates/times. I take the availability info and put a schedule together that is checked with leaders before going to print. We are now finding that it’s necessary to sometimes schedule more than one OLLI class at the same time, but we try not to do this if possible, to conserve classroom space and to allow OLLI members to take as many classes as possible. This is not all foolproof but works fairly well - - and is admittedly the most challenging part of the OLLI program administration.
Stony Brook New York State University
Fred
OLLI at Stony Brook University, follows the time vectors used by the University to schedule student classes. This works well when we are assigning campus rooms. Fortunately, we also have 2 of our own meeting rooms and a Conference Room in which our “workshops” can be assigned mostly in the same time vectors. We can however, be a little more lenient and allow workshops to “extend”. As far as choosing, who teaches when - repeat workshops usually stay in the same time vector and hopefully in the same room (if requested) and I assign those first. New workshops then are assigned as close to day and time as the leader chooses. As you know, sometimes this doesnt happen, but then, you need to make personal contact and explain what you can provide. Our program runs some 71 workshops or classes a week; therefore, we sometimes have 3-5 workshops scheduled in each time vector, provided we can find rooms. Under those circumstance, it’s just ike being a student - each member must make choices as to what they attend and when. I hope this is clear and could work in your case.
California State University Channel Islands
There are two questions here: What to do when there are more courses than time slots, and what to do when several instructors want the same slot.
The first is a welcome problem, but in the end, not a problem. Instuctors (in our OLLI, paid profssionals) submit course proposals. These go through my hands first, then a member curriculum committee. Only those that meet our criteria of quality and potential member interest are then submitted to all membership in a survey, in which they indicate the courses they would attend. By the time they get to the survey, I and the curriculum committee have weeded some out, so there are not many more courses than there are time slots.
Now the second question. We ask instructors to be flexible and give alternate times, days, and locations. Then it is a matter of completing the puzzle by assigning people to days, times, and locations that they can make, sometinmes a secind or third choice on their part (the fourth choice may be not teaching!). This naturally favors those with more flexibility. If there is a conflict over a particular time slot and location and both instructors have no other alternatives, the tie goes to the class that would draw the most enrollment according to the survey. I can barter with people over slots because they are paid, and I am not under an obligation to satisfy a volunteer. One of the advantages of paid instructors.
Brandeis University
Ah yes. A big challenge. In our program…
** On course proposals we ask SGL (study group leaders) to tell us when they CAN NOT lead. We are strongly encourage SGLs to be flexible, more so than they have been in the past.
** When the classes are all selected, a staff member slots SGLs based on the information they give us, trying to balance the types of courses in various slots if possible, e.g., not all literature courses in one slot etc. and if there is a repeat, to offer it on a different day so folks who cannot do one day have the opportunity to take the class the day they can attend.
** Even though we use the information SGLs give us in advance, there are always cases in which 1, 2, 3… might have an issue and need to change things and usually, there are a handful or less who aren’t pleased with the outcome. This is not fun but it happens - depending on who the person is.
** We are aiming for all or the vast majority to accept a less desirable time slot occasionally so everyone has a chance to have the best and worst slots.