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Ad Astra partners share why they're feeling lucky
Through a survey conducted among more than 400 of its clients, it's evident that Ad Astra is not just a scheduling tool; it's a four-leaf clover, a rare find that brings joy and efficiency to those who use it. Let's explore the top four reasons colleges and universities feel lucky to be using Ad Astra.
Smart Scheduling Guidebook
In today's difficult enrollment climate, building smart, student-centered schedules is more important than ever. In the Smart Scheduling Guidebook, we reveal the four essential pillars required to create efficient, financially sustainable schedules that promote equitable student retention and completion.
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The Changing Landscape Of Academic Course Scheduling: Key Themes Emerging for 2024
Discover the key themes shaping academic course scheduling from data-driven decision-making to student-centric focus, explore the transformative changes happening in higher education.
Planning for Success with Annual Schedules
During this session, panelists explore problem-solving techniques and practical software advice to tackle the most challenging scheduling issues encountered by provosts, deans, and leaders in student success.
AACRAO 60-Second Survey: Operational Efficiency in Academic Operations
If it seems like your team isn't as efficient as it could be, you might be right. New research from AACRAO, developed with support from Ad Astra, shares why 78% of institutions believe they could be more efficient. See what teams are doing to improve in the coming year.
Top Five Course Scheduling Priorities for 2024
600 professionals in Higher Education were surveyed and asked what their top priorities were for student scheduling in 2024. Discover the top responses in this infographic.
Solving Essential Scheduling Problems with Efficiency
During this session, panelists explore problem-solving strategies and practical software tips to overcome the most challenging scheduling issues encountered by registrars and scheduling teams.
Navigating Pathways to Latino Student Success
HDF Scholars reveal challenges in our latest report, Navigating the Path to Latino Student Success. Based on a survey with Greater Kansas City Hispanic Development Fund (HDF) Scholars, the report highlights that 53% of respondents worry the inability to register for essential courses will hinder on-time graduation. Learn more about these challenges by accessing the report now.
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2024 Benchmark Report
This comprehensive analysis of more than 1.3 million students explores the impact of progress bands, flexible schedules, and financial sustainability on retention and completion. Discover key insights, including the pivotal role of "taking one more course," the importance of addressing BILPOC student progress gaps, and the influence of term duration.
Smart Scheduling Guidebook
In today's difficult enrollment climate, building smart, student-centered schedules is more important than ever. In the Smart Scheduling Guidebook, we reveal the four essential pillars required to create efficient, financially sustainable schedules that promote equitable student retention and completion.
Glenville State Case Study
Glenville State University faced the challenge of expanding the Second Chance Pell program with limited resources, leading to disjointed course offerings. To address this, they employed multi-term planning with Ad Astra to align course pathways, optimizing program schedules and benefiting both on-campus and Second Chance program students, aiming to improve timely degree progression
Degree Velocity®
Degree Velocity® can inform an institution whether they’re on track to attain graduation rate goals and the strategic interventions necessary to positively impact them. Benchmarking Degree Velocity® allows institutions to review programs for intervention and help students increase degree momentum.
Benchmark Report Key Insights
Quick overview of our forthcoming Benchmark Report where we've learned that 93% of students taking 11 credit hours or fewer annually do not graduate.
The Changing Landscape Of Academic Course Scheduling: Key Themes Emerging for 2024
Discover the key themes shaping academic course scheduling from data-driven decision-making to student-centric focus, explore the transformative changes happening in higher education.
Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) Case Study
CCAC brought together a decentralized process to build the foundation of a scheduling culture focused on student success and retention. Read the study to find out how.
Creating Student-Centered Schedules to Accelerate Completions at Lamar University
Discover how Lamar University achieved something many universities haven’t been able to do: multi-term scheduling centralized within their registrar’s office.
Higher Education Needs Its Own Version of Moneyball
Better use of real-time data can improve the likelihood that students stay in college and graduate. Sarah Collins and Charles Ansell offer 3 ways to be more strategic about collecting and analyzing student progress data for improved outcomes.
How Mohawk Valley Community College Used Leading Metrics to Improve Time to Completion
In 2018, Mohawk Valley Community College became concerned about the slowing rate at which its students were progressing through their degree programs. Only 20% of students were completing momentum year requirements, and the productive credit hour ratio was less than 70%. Discover how MVCC reduced average time to degree, improved Degree Velocity® and increased productive credit ratio.
How Scheduling Struggles Cause Student Struggles
Unpredictable schedules lead to lower registrations, stalled progress, and higher dropouts. Check out this tip sheet to learn how to create student-centered schedules, removing blockers and ensuring faster degree completion.
Strategic Academic Planning: Supporting Student Success
During this webinar, expert panelists explore the essential elements of integrated planning and how to align academic programs with student needs. Click to access their discussion on best practices for establishing goals and objectives that are measurable, achievable, and aligned with the institution's mission.
How Germanna Community College Achieved a 4-term Schedule
Germanna Community College’s student-centric approach to annual schedule planning removed friction points to enrollment, reduced time to completion, and boosted degree velocity by allowing students to plan four terms in advance. Is your institution ready to look ahead too?
Accelerating Completions at Lamar University
Luis Arevalo chose Lamar University to pursue his chemical engineering degree. With a clear path to completion created by Lamar’s academic planning team, Luis is successfully staying on course.
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Why Momentum Year Matters
Institutions that seek a leading, actionable indicator of graduation rates are choosing a Momentum Year approach to close gaps in outcomes. Tracking momentum metrics for students during their crucial first year of college allows for timely intervention and demonstration of a student’s progress along the way.
6 Strategies to Promote Persistence
The 2023 Persistence and Retention report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found nearly 76% of the 2.4 million students who started college in fall 2021 returned for their second year. Here are six strategies that Ad Astra partners are using to promote persistence.
Clearing the Path to Enrollment Health
Pandemic aftereffects, inflation, and economic instability continue to create uncertainty in the value and relevance of higher education for many prospective students and their parents. This uncertainty, and challenging demographic trends, have created an enrollment crisis for many institutions.
Transforming scheduling for student success at Colby Community College
Through the CSIE diagnostic survey and HESI™, Ad Astra found several areas ripe for infrastructure refinement. These included an underutilized course ratio, overloaded courses, and the need to decrease the number of unique meeting patterns.
Complicated Lives, Competing Priorities: Reimagining the Course Schedule for Today's Student
Students returning to colleges and universities post-pandemic are demanding higher flexibility in course modalities and schedules. Ad Astra explores how institutions are not only adjusting their modalities and scheduling practices to meet the needs of today’s learners but also the way they measure the success of these changes.
Manhattan Marymount Case Study: Maximizing Manhattan’s Space: How Ad Astra Transformed Scheduling
Marymount Manhattan College, located in the highly sought after NYC real estate of the Upper East Side, faced several challenges, including limited space, a complex scheduling process, and a lack of actionable data to drive scheduling decisions. In order to maximize its limited resources effectively, the college needed a new approach to optimize scheduling, improve room utilization, and reduce class cancellations.
Planning Schedules for the Future
Most institutions are looking for new ways to ensure students can sustainably meet the demands of work, family, and school. By introducing an annual planning process, you can remove blockers for students. What better time to take the first step in this process than summer break? Our guide below will walk you through seven simple steps to establishing an annual plan.
Power of Pathways
Used as the foundation of an annual schedule, intentional pathways help to ensure sustainable course offerings, maximize enrollment, and assist the institution in creating a stable and repeatable schedule to meet student demand.
Saluting Colleges’ Dedication to Supporting Veterans
We salute the numerous colleges and universities that go above and beyond to support our nation’s veterans in their pursuit of education. Ad Astra reached out to its college and university clients, and from their responses, we’ve identified several heartwarming themes that demonstrate their commitment to supporting veteran students.
Georgia Northwestern Technical Case Study: Using analytics to achieve 9.8% enrollment growth
GNTC sought to eliminate manual processes and improve student success rates
Why Smart Scheduling Matters
You’ve done your best when it comes to predicting how many students will enroll in the upcoming semester, but can you adjust to real-time enrollment fluctuations?
4 Reasons Our Client Advisory Board Benefits You
Ad Astra’s Client Advisory Board (CAB) performs much like a Collegiate Advisory Board. Both provide guidance and direction to ensure offerings are high quality and relevant to users. This piece explores the four reasons CAB benefits every client.
Power of Pathways Webinar
Do you need help designing your degree maps, advising checklists, or degree pathways? You are not alone! We have assembled our best and brightest to come together in this webinar to help you tackle your pathway design.
Reimagining the Course Schedule for Today's Student Webinar
This webinar shares the results from a new survey with nearly 700 institutional leaders about the link between the course schedule and learner outcomes. Learn from a panel of experts how you can achieve a balance of structure and flexibility to promote student success.
Texas A&M, Acadeum & Ad Astra Case Study
Texas A&M leaders leveraged the assistance of higher education partners Ad Astra and Acadeum to boost student access and improve institutional efficiency. Together, Ad Astra and Acadeum demonstrated how reliable course scheduling practices can offer Texas A&M the ability to boost student progress, support academic innovation, and generate new revenue for the system.
Lamar 1 min Video feat David Short: Accelerating Completions
Learn how Lamar University is accelerating student completions with a multi-year scheduling approach.
St. Louis Community College Video: Empowering Academic Success with Student-Centric Schedules
As the President & Chief Academic Officer of St. Louis Community College's Forest Park Campus, Julie is consistently employs new strategies to support student retention and graduation. See how she partnered with Ad Astra to establish guided pathways and scheduling refinements to promote student success.
Lamar 1 min Video feat Katrina Brent: Accelerating Completions
At Lamar University, they saw a 15% increase in first time in college students taking 30 plus hours after implementing Ad Astra solutions.
How Bossier Parish Creates Schedules with Confidence
Post-COVID Bossier Parish needed to update their processes that were stalled during the pandemic and take on a renewed student-centric focus. They successfully achieved that by having a boost in scheduling accuracy and ease-of-use for students and faculty.
Planning for Success with Annual Schedules
During this session, panelists explore problem-solving techniques and practical software advice to tackle the most challenging scheduling issues encountered by provosts, deans, and leaders in student success.
Using Data to Improve ROI at WVNCC
When Jill Loveless joined West Virginia Northern Community College as Vice President of Academic Affairs, she knew there had to be a better way to build the schedule to ensure students get the courses they need. Click below to hear how Northern used data to improve ROI and assist financial health.
How Western Kentucky University Reassigned Hundreds of Sections
Western Kentucky University used Ad Astra reports to identify suitable spaces to relocate classrooms and offices. Using the Ad Astra data, they were able to consolidate buildings and save more than $350,000 in additional space costs over two years.
How West Virginia Northern Community College Connected Financial Health to Student Success
Learn how WVNCC dramatically reduced course cancellations through the power of data. With better schedules in place, Northern was also able to reach its enrollment goals, increase Degree Velocity®, and boost the likelihood of on-time graduation.
Transitioning from Efficient to Effective Scheduling at Bossier Parish CC
Discover how Bossier Parish Community College in Louisiana overcame pandemic-related scheduling challenges and achieved remarkable results. With a 10.9% growth in fall-over-fall enrollments and an 11.6% improvement in the enrollment ratio, BPCC transformed its approach to scheduling with the help of Ad Astra's student-centered scheduling solutions.
Tarrant County CC Video: Leveraging Data to Support a $600M Bond
Learn how Ad Astra helped Tarrant County College build a case to pass a $600M bond and change operational behaviors to support over 46,000 students.
Western Kentucky University: A Financial Health Success Story
When Western Kentucky University had to reallocate offices, classrooms, labs, and auditoriums during a three-week semester break due to a building shut down, Ad Astra powered fast rescheduling decisions. It ultimately helped the university achieve a six-figure savings.
Ad Astra partners share why they're feeling lucky
Through a survey conducted among more than 400 of its clients, it's evident that Ad Astra is not just a scheduling tool; it's a four-leaf clover, a rare find that brings joy and efficiency to those who use it. Let's explore the top four reasons colleges and universities feel lucky to be using Ad Astra.
AACRAO 60-Second Survey: Operational Efficiency in Academic Operations
If it seems like your team isn't as efficient as it could be, you might be right. New research from AACRAO, developed with support from Ad Astra, shares why 78% of institutions believe they could be more efficient. See what teams are doing to improve in the coming year.
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Top Five Course Scheduling Priorities for 2024
600 professionals in Higher Education were surveyed and asked what their top priorities were for student scheduling in 2024. Discover the top responses in this infographic.
Achieving Sustained Growth Through Efficiency at Northeast Lakeview College
Northeast Lakeview College needed to continue a positive enrollment trajectory using a data-driven approach. Ad Astra provided a path to achieve up to 90% fill rates and 14% growth in contact hours.
Leveraging HESI® for Better Scheduling
When it comes to measuring your scheduling efforts, data is vital to your institution's story. HESI® is a benchmark of academic space utilization and course offerings that enables tracking across multiple terms. Using HESI® can ultimately improve the trajectory of on-time graduation, boost the use of existing space, and ensure clear completion paths for students.
A Foundational Approach to Improving Registration at Collin College
Collin College streamlined its registration process across seven campuses, exchanging Excel sheets and post-it notes for streamlined, reliable data and dynamic, actionable visuals.
Streamlining Manual Processes to Improve Efficiency & ROI at SLCC
Like many higher education institutions, South Louisiana Community College originally relied on manual scheduling processes. A spreadsheet-based approach made adjustments difficult and time-consuming. Read how Ad Astra helped SLCC streamline processes.
Five Ways Smart Scheduling Saves You Time
Click below to read all 5 ways smart scheduling helps make the most of your time and processes while keeping everyone on the same page.
How Northeast Lakeview College Created Efficient Schedules to Achieve Sustained Growth
Laura Boyer, VP for Academic Success at Northeast Lakeview College, shares how Ad Astra helped them reach their 90% fill-rate goal and add five new workforce programs.
Solving Essential Scheduling Problems with Efficiency
During this session, panelists explore problem-solving strategies and practical software tips to overcome the most challenging scheduling issues encountered by registrars and scheduling teams.
AACRAO 60-Second Survey: Measures of Effectiveness for an Undergraduate Schedule of Classes
In March 2023, Ad Astra partnered with AACRAO to research how modern institutions are measuring the effectiveness of their course schedules. With nearly 400 institutions represented, this research explores disaggregating data for key populations, the top changes institutions are making in their undergraduate class-scheduling processes, and more.
2022-2023 Report Guide
Scheduling is a complex issue, one that inevitably brings up more questions than answers. Cut through the ambiguity with simple-to-interpret data, quick dashboard views, and easy-to-run reports that offer reliable answers to your top scheduling questions.
5 Reports that Save the Day feat Pima CC
Whether you’re a registrar, a dean, or a department chair, accessible and easy-to-analyze reports make all the difference in creating a student-centric course schedule. Learn 5 reports that save the day for academic operation professionals as they make data-backed decisions.
Spotlight on Scheduling Innovators
The rapidly changing college environment demands a course scheduling process that’s equal parts creativity and innovation. Through collaboration with Ad Astra, these frontline higher education professionals are employing thoughtful strategies to enhance and streamline their institution’s scheduling process, ensuring student success today and in the future. Featuring Chris Patera, Jay Johnson, and Jill Loveless.
Univ of Toledo Case Study: Data Storytelling to Improve Course Scheduling
The University of Toledo is matching supply and demand by combining critical administrator inputs with Ad Astra data to inform and improve the course scheduling process.
The Evolution of Events: Then and Now
While the ebb and flow of scheduling continues to look a little different in 2022, Ad Astra connected with experts to find out what's changed at their institution in the realm of events.
Ad Astra's Top Reports
This webinar dives into Ad Astra's top reports on benchmarking, student retention, time to degree, and more. Click through to learn from the experts how data can help you maximize student success and operational efficiency.
Northwest Missouri State University Video: Improving Student Success with Ad Astra
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Angelina College Video: Supercharged Reporting to Streamline Event Scheduling
Joy Medford, Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness, set out to bring a centralized approach to scheduling at Angelina College. Joy started the transformation by using Ad Astra solutions to streamline the event scheduling process. In the last year, she efficiently scheduled 300+ events and 2000+ meetings. Angelina is now expanding its usage of Ad Astra to data-informed course scheduling.
Chattanooga State Video: Efficient Scheduling with Ad Astra
Tabitha Banks of Chattanooga State Community College used to spend two weeks each term to prepare the course schedule. With Ad Astra, she's cut that time in half. See how improved efficiency in academic and room scheduling also resulted in an improved focus on student success.
Butler Community College: Streamlining the Scheduling Process with Ad Astra
For years, Butler Community College created its course schedule manually using spreadsheets and printed reports. See how Zach Cannady worked with Ad Astra to automate the scheduling process, saving 20-30 hours of work each term.
Navigating Pathways to Latino Student Success
HDF Scholars reveal challenges in our latest report, Navigating the Path to Latino Student Success. Based on a survey with Greater Kansas City Hispanic Development Fund (HDF) Scholars, the report highlights that 53% of respondents worry the inability to register for essential courses will hinder on-time graduation. Learn more about these challenges by accessing the report now.
Maximizing Momentum: The Course Schedule as an Effective Tool for Equitable Student Success
Montgomery College intentionally refined the college’s course schedule to ensure ALL students could access pathways to maximize momentum toward credential completion.
How Texas A&M Corpus Christi Utilized the Course Schedule to Decrease Bottlenecks and Equity Gaps
As a recognized Hispanic Serving Institution, general education bottlenecks were becoming a barrier to completion in this student population. In an effort to better serve students, they aligned their schedule with demographic needs and increased enrollments.
How Montgomery College Improved Equity Outcomes Through Scheduling Efficiency
Montgomery College achieved what seemed impossible: driving equitable outcomes and optimizing student, course, and faculty assignments without full knowledge of preferences and fixed timetables. See how this school's innovative approach brings predictability and flexibility to students' lives and drives remarkable outcomes.
The Course Schedule's Role in Ensuring Equitable Outcomes for Students
Learn how smart academic planning can reduce barriers to completion and bridge equity gaps for students.
UMKC & HDF Case Study: Supporting first-generation Hispanic students' success
How UMKC, HDF and Ad Astra are working together to improve Latino student success
Course Scheduling Through an Equity Lens - Community College Daily Op Ed
Monica Trent of Achieving the Dream and John Hamman of Montgomery College, make the case in Community College Daily that colleges must view their work through a student and equity lens and strive to make their institutions truly more student-centered.
UMKC: Improving Student Success through Smart Academic Course Scheduling
To meet the needs of its diverse student population, the University of Missouri-Kansas City committed to optimizing its course schedule in partnership with Ad Astra. UMKC now efficiently schedules more than 15,000 unique class sections a year. Registrar Amy Cole says the goal is to ensure students from all backgrounds are able to take courses when, where, and how they need them to graduate on time.
