Case Studies Being focused on solutions means concentrating on client results. Our partner institutions have achieved great results with our software and services that easily justify their investment in Astra Schedule.
SCC Streamlines Scheduling by Eliminating Outdated System For close to 20 years, Southeastern Community College managed its scheduling process on a large white board, which staff coordinated with Outlook calendars and the college's student information system. The white board was divided into a matrix of columns and rows representing each classroom and each hour of the day. With two campuses, two other centers and more than 3,000 students, SCC recognized it needed a centralized scheduling system. Southeastern Community College Case Study
When Joe DeHart,
Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness
and Assistant to the President arrived at Des
Moines Area Community College in 2002, one of
the first issues he faced was campus concern
over a shortage of classroom space. At the time,
DMACC served approximately 11,000 students in a
fall term, and DeHart suspected they were
nowhere near capacity. When the economy
faltered, however, enrollment at DMACC started
to grow dramatically. Concerned they were
approaching capacity limits, DeHart decided to
bring in Ad Astra to conduct a Strategic
Scheduling Check-Up prior to implementing Astra
Schedule.
DMACC Case Study
U of C Makes Data-Driven Space Utilization Improvements Like many growing institutions, the University of Calgary struggles each year to prepare a balanced schedule of classes that offers a diverse group of academic programs. With new leadership on campus, growing enrolments, increase diversification of the curriculum, an aging classroom inventory and little prospect of new construction, many on campus feel that they were "out of space." University of Calgary Case Study
Matt McQuaig, Director of Media Services, and Alan Roberts, Director of Enterprise Services, from Grove City College knew that Astra Schedule came with more than 100 pre-packaged reports. However, when campus departments requested additional information, they used Crystal Reports, the full reporting system bundled with Astra Schedule, to customize these reports. To make distribution easier, they used Astra Schedule's report subscription service to send reports to stakeholders via email on a schedule that best fit their individual needs: Grove City College Case Study
NC State Seeks Strategic Changes to Absorb $80M Cut When North Carolina State University faced an $80 million budget cut, Holly Swart, Associate Registrar, partnered with Ad Astra to gain data to help with the institution's strategic realignment. Beyond the budget cut, NC State was slated to lose one of its largest campus buildings. Ad Astra's Strategic Scheduling Check-Up gave architects, schedulers and school officials valuable data about absorbing the loss of 30 classrooms and hundreds of seats. NC State's Check-Up also tagged 55 low-enrollment courses as potential cost-savings opportunities. Ad Astra is enabling NC State to recommend strategic scheduling policy changes that will ensure exceptional service, education and student success: NC State Case Study
WKU Saves $185,000 in Energy Costs During One Summer When Western Kentucky University's former Provost, Dr. Barbara Burch, suggested the idea of consolidating summer schedules, the university immediately started assessing opportunities. Jessica Steenbergen, Scheduling Appliations Coordinator, walked through the buildings with the facilities staff and analyzed energy usage to determine the efficiency of each space. Next, they picked the three lease efficient buildings and shut them down for the summer: WKU Case Study
Going Mile High with Astra for Room Scheduling Amber Moreland, Financial Planning Analyst, at Kentucky Community and Technical College System presented a great session at 2011 HEUG/Alliance in Denver. Session description: Manage space for growing enrollments and increase efficiency with event and scheduling tasks through automated room availability and checking. Knowing your current inventory, what is available, its occupancy and how it can be configured at the click of a button can increase your revenues while reducing your expenses. With the current economic environment the ability to maximize these resources and reduce costs at the same time is essential. Watch the video! JCCC Uses Data to Maximize Student Success, Efficiency and Capacity A nine percent enrollment increase and decreasing budgets were the catalysts Johnson County Community College needed to find new ways to be more efficient. JCCC commissioned Ad Astra to complete a Strategic Scheduling Check-Up to evaluate its space and course offering challenges and offer recommendations on scheduling policies: JCCC University Case Study
Baylor Creates an Academic Scheduling Policy from Strategic Findings When the Board of Regents of Baylor University inquired about classroom utilization on campus, no one knew the answer. However, Lois Ferguson, Facility Utilization Planner, knew that six years of classroom usage data were stored in Astra Schedule, just waiting to be analyzed. Baylor engaged Ad Astra Information Systems in 2010 to analyze its classroom and academic capacity management through a Strategic Scheduling Check-Up: Baylor University Case Study Video: Watch Part 1 and Part 2 of the Strategic Scheduling Policy Development presentation from TACRAO 2010 by Lois Ferguson, Facility Utilization Planner at Baylor.
Nazareth College Provides Self-Service for Nursing Students Lab signups for students at Nazareth College used to involve a trip to campus, a piece of paper and a resource to manage the requests. Determined to serve its dedicated nursing students more efficiently, Nazareth found, in Astra Schedule, a more effective way to schedule lab time, track the time online and avoid the trip to campus: Nazareth College Case Study Classroom Space Optimization Leads to Big Energy Savings Like so many institutions, Eastern Illinois was under pressure to do more with fewer resources. Learn how EIU saved more than $85,000 in energy costs in one summer by making strategic scheduling changes on campus:. Eastern Illinois Case Study
Mississippi State Increases Student Capacity without Construction After a challenge to support a 5,000 student increase over the next few years, MSU engaged Ad Astra for a Capacity Managment Study. They didn't realize that their technology rooms had become the biggest bottleneck on their campus. Read about how MSU is addressing capacity issues head-on to support enrollment growth: Mississippi State Case Study
University of Iowa Stays Afloat During Massive Flood When the University of Iowa fell victim to a natural disaster, they were forced to shut down major areas of campus. The president did not want to cancel any classes, so schedulers had to get creative to find spaces for courses. Read about how their schedulers were able to reschedule more than 1,500 classes and hundreds of non-academic meetings in just a few days: University of Iowa Case Study
CSULB Attacks Capacity Bottlenecks to Support Enrollment Growth To accomodate the administration's enrollment groth goal fo 2.5 percent in the next 10 years, California State University at Long Beach planned renovation and construction projects. However, a Bottleneck Study from Ad Astra revealed that no new large lecture rooms, the type most heavily utilized by CSULB, were planned for the projects. Read about how CSULB used the findings and recommendations from the Bottleneck Study to make policy changes that would allow for growth in a shrinking environment: CSULB Case Study.pdf UBC Saves 4,650 Man Hours through Optimization Project After learning that they were about to lose more than 60 rooms to renovations and re-purposing, schedulers at the University of British Columbia had to devise a solution that would allow previously scheduled courses to be assigned into rooms while upholding an 80 percent fill ratio to maximize space utilization. Learn more about UBC's success reassigning courses to rooms while saving time: UBC Optimization Case Study.pdf LeTourneau University Optimizes its Scheduling Process Through sessions at the Astra Schedule Users' conference, LeTourneau not only learned how to use the pre-built interface with Jenzabar CX --nearly eliminating double data entry--but also learned how to layer scheduling scenarios to reap the greatest results. Find out how they've used these techniques to save time and increase efficiency: LeTourneau Case Study.pdf Santa Clara University Increases Visibility on Campus Three times per year, Santa Clara University was scheduling 1,200 courses with a pencil and paper. By automating room scheduling and combining events into Astra Schedule, Santa Clara was able to save weeks of scheduling time. Learn more about the changes the institution made to make its process more effective and efficient: Santa Clara Case Study.pdf
Cuyahoga's Five-Site Optimization Success After years of guessing a popular time for a course and shopping around in Banner to find a space, Cuyahoga Community College determined that another solution was needed. Tri-C used Astra Schedule to store course needs and instructor preferences and optimized all five sites with great success. Learn more about Tri-C's optimization results and how the institution is using preference data to make space upgrade decisions: Cuyahoga Community College Case Study.pdf
Stevenson University Averts Crisis during Exam Week When a thunderstorm hit Stevenson, MD during exam week, Stevenson University had to alert students and faculty of late exams and road closings immediately. Through the use of Astra Schedule, Stevenson not only greatly improved its exam scheduling process, but also was able to know which exams were meeting in which rooms. With this list, schedulers were able to spread the word about the roads and delayed exams. Read more about Stevenson's improvements to exam scheduling: Stevenson University Case Study.pdf
The University of Georgia aces final exam scheduling
The University of British Columbia tackles its space bottleneck Through collaboration with Astra Schedule, UBC has identified its space bottleneck (large capacity classrooms) and a plan for managing allocation of those rooms. In less than 30 days, UBC defined the problem, quantified the problem, developed an allocation plan, and presented a scheduling policy that supported that plan to the academic deans. To their surprise, the plan was received without resistance and is now in place. Learn more about this innovative approach to the common problem of academic space capacity: UBC Case Study.pdf
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