McGill.CA / Class Scheduling

Raison d'être: why co-ordinated course scheduling?

Schulich School

There are several current problems that exist that will be addressed by adopting coordinated scheduling, aided by more sophisticated technology:


It is difficult to meet the pedagogical goals and needs of teaching faculty:

There is no well-maintained collection of information about the attributes of rooms – seating capacity, the availability of technology, or seating formats and other information - that is pedagogically relevant. Access to rooms that are appropriate in size or format for contemporary and emerging forms of program and course delivery is undermined by our current uni-academic unit approach to scheduling classes and room booking.

The large number of conflicting courses limit student enrolment choices and may delay graduation:

Program delivery is increasingly interdisciplinary and students are encouraged to take a multi-disciplinary approach to their studies, however classes are currently scheduled in a unidisciplinary manner (reflecting the needs of single academic units). It is difficult for students to create a class schedule that doesn’t conflict.

The number of conflicting courses limits their enrolment choices, perhaps delaying their graduation.

McGill needs more space for graduate students:

Better use of existing space for pedagogical purposes is expected to liberate space for accomodating graduate students. A number of academic units need more office space for current graduate students and/or to increase the number of masters and doctoral students in research disciplines.

The number of conflicting courses limits their enrolment choices, perhaps delaying their graduation.


The current absence of compelling space utilization data negatively impacts Quebec government funding decisions:

The Quebec government's benchmark and expectation is that classrooms are 70% filled for 70% of the time. The provincial government's expectations were reflected in Dr. Vinet's observations, who said in 2005 that the government is disinclined to fund McGill for the development of additional classroom space in view of our current utilization data.
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