History

• McGill University's former provost, Dr. Luc Vinet introduces the Class Schedule Project to the Senate on February 2, 2005.
• McGill announces the new scheduling approach for the university.
• McGill purchases the new software (TPHI - Infosilem) in 2005 to provide the tools to capture appropriately all the necessary factors for the schedule (time, space, room attributes, and other constraints).

• Phase 1 is a pilot project implemented on Macdonald Campus for the 2007-2008 academic year. This pilot serves as an opportunity to determine the effectiveness of the selected software.
• Further to this, the pilot project aims to fine-tune the process of consultation with academic units, the development of the simulation and other elements of the methodology.

Simulation 1 – Basic (internal Enrolment Services simulation)

• It uses course-based data as captured in the previous scheduling cycle.
• Using data housed in Enrolment Services, the new system analyses information with input collected from academic units regarding scheduling practices. To better assess the program’s impact, we evaluate the simulation outcomes and determine the requirements for the next simulation.

July 2008 - Simulation 2

• Our team concludes the second simulation for the Scheduling Project. After retrieving and analyzing data from the system, the Dean of each participating Faculty receives a copy of the simulated master timetable for his/her Faculty at the end of the week of July 14, 2008.
• Class Schedule informs the results to the Chairs, Directors and Scheduling Coordinators of the academic units within each of the participating faculties during the week of July 21, 2008. The units review the results and provide ES (Registrar's Office) with feedback by August 2008.
• Simulation 2 aims to collect detailed data from academic units on the remaining factors necessary for scheduling. (Including time constraints of instructors as approved by the Dean/Chair/Director).
• We conduct simulation during June/July and provide academic units (scheduling coordinators) for analysis and feedback.

January 2009 - Simulation 3

• Our team concludes the third simulation of the Class Scheduling Project.
• Simulation 3 report results are sent to the departments, schools and deans.
• We schedule information sessions to walk through the material shared for Simulation 3. Our team explains how to fill out the constraint forms and respond to questions.
• Deans, Chairs and Directors provide complete information to the scheduling team to support the success of the project.
• Simulation 4 initiates during the spring of 2009.
• Final Simulation 4 results are released after meeting with each academic unit and incorporating any necessary changes because of the review of the draft results.
• Following the evaluation of the results of Simulation 3, the Provost decides to move the final implementation to 2010.

• Given the success of simulations 1, 2, 3 and 4, the Class Schedule moves forward with Phase 2 on the downtown campus for the 2010-2011 academic year.
• While phase 1 continues to meet the basic requirements for the production of McGill’s class schedules, phase 2 collects detailed academic unit requirements and results from the simulations.
• Having passed consultations and testing, phase 2 sets the new guidelines for the scheduling process across the board.

• Between 2012 and 2019, the vision for the Class Schedule comes to fruition during this period. The Class Schedule Office becomes the reference of course and space management across faculties.
• The scheduling process is implemented successfully through Timetabler.
• More members join the office: an area manager, two schedule coordinators and two administrative coordinators are now part of the project.
• The Office sees an increase in its operations: the academic schedule, room-bookings for Arts and Science, course and section configuration, among other duties.
• The communication between departments occurs mainly by website updates and a yearly conference to announce the beginning of each academic year.
• One-on-one training is available to ensure the system is used to its maximum potential.

• DCU is the most recent acquisition from Infosilem. The pilot project develops in 2019 and it fully implements in 2020.
• Incorporating DCU to the timetable process eliminates the submission of documentation to our office. This is pivotal to handle the process remotely.
• And what’s more, with the DCU the timetable process is now paperless! This is in sync with the McGill Climate and Sustainability Strategy.
• Departments have more autonomy to enter key information into the system by themselves.
• The Class Schedule supports the timetable across the university except for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and some programs from the School of Continuing Education.
• The Class Schedule Office offers self-video training for users and one-on-one workshops if required. These meetings ensure the DCU implementation runs smoothly within departments.