2024 Guidance for Scheduling Undergraduate Lecture

In recent years, enrollment growth, the new general curriculum, and inefficient scheduling practices have effectively reduced the University’s available classroom pool, making it increasingly difficult for students to enroll in the courses they need to graduate on time. An Internal Audit report issued in March 2023 confirmed the impact on students and included recommendations to begin addressing the situation. This guidance is a first step in complying with the recommendations of the Internal Audit.

The University issued similar course scheduling guidance in 2015, for many of the same reasons. While many academic units made efforts to comply, no formal monitoring mechanism was implemented. As a result, many departmental scheduling practices have again drifted towards an over-reliance on peak hours and non-standard meeting patterns

The internal auditors measured university compliance against the University Classroom Scheduling Requirements.

Standard classroom meeting patterns are posted here.

The course schedule maintenance timeline is posted here.  This timeline is very important, as most classroom scheduling decisions should be completed when course schedule maintenance opens for the semester.

There are several reasons why this is not currently possible. Until we begin using our limited classroom pool more efficiently, further compressing the teaching schedule into four days would make it virtually impossible to meet demand for classroom space. One-hour courses, recitations, and other instructional meetings cannot all be scheduled on Fridays. It would force academic units to offer even more courses during non-peak hours. Finally, the University would need to consider the impact of proposed changes on its implementation of the Federal Definition of the Credit Hour, adopted in 2012.

The Provost welcomes the opportunity to discuss proposals to modify the standard scheduling pattern once we are in compliance with our current policies and have made adequate progress on the findings of the Internal Audit.

Some academic units are already in compliance, while others may take several semesters to comply. This new guidance represents initial steps. The Provost’s hope is that academic units will make significant progress through voluntary departmental compliance. A monitoring system is being implemented to ensure that improvements are implemented in a timely manner and that the sacrifices necessary to comply are shared equitably across academic units. Additional guidance may be necessary to meet these goals.

Peak hours, also often referred to as “prime-time” hours, are MWF 9am-3:00pm and TTh 9:30am-2:00pm. Any time before or after these are timeframes are considered non-peak. While it is understandable that early morning and later afternoon class times are less popular times to schedule courses, spreading courses out over peak and non-peak hours makes it easier for students to enroll in the courses they need to graduate on time. Again, the University’s initial goal is to schedule no more than 70% of undergraduate lecture courses during peak hours. Currently, roughly 78% of undergraduate lecture courses are offered during peak hours.

The standard meeting pattern is the core schedule the University uses for courses throughout any given week. Adhering to a consistent pattern of start times, end times, and class duration facilitates the efficient use of classrooms and results in fewer conflicts for students seeking classes they need to graduate. For every lecture course that does not use a standard start or end time, we lose at least one opportunity to schedule another course on the standard meeting pattern. For single-day block courses, we lose even more opportunities and classroom space often sits empty for much of the week. Minimizing the number of courses scheduled off the standard meeting pattern is also critical to our ability to schedule more courses during non-peak hours.

All academic units should strive to minimize the number of instructional meetings scheduled off the standard meeting pattern. Academic units that need to schedule a limited number of courses off-pattern may have different pedagogical reasons for doing so (e.g., more than three contact hours per week, lab-lecture or performance courses that require set-up and break-down between classes).

The Provost’s initial guidance issued during the fall 2023 semester requires that all lecture courses START on the standard meeting pattern by Fall 2024.

Occupancy percentage is the percentage of seats occupied in a classroom during any given class period. Academic units should strive to ensure that the occupancy percentage for any given course is at least 66%. For example, a course with an expected enrollment of 30 students should be scheduled in a classroom with no more than 45 seats. This is not only a requirement at UNC-Chapel Hill, but for all system schools.

As student enrollment continues to grow, the University will at some point need additional classroom space. Unfortunately, developing new classroom space is a long-term endeavor and will not help us address immediate scheduling challenges. It is also worth mentioning that state funding for new classrooms/buildings is unlikely as long as we are making poor use of the classrooms we already support. The UNC System monitors classroom utilization for all system schools.

This initial guidance only applies to undergraduate lecture courses (<700 level). That said, academic units are encouraged to think about how their scheduling practices for other instructional meetings (e.g., graduate courses, labs, recitations) impact their ability to schedule undergraduate lecture courses under the new guidance.

At this time the only courses being targeted are those classified as undergraduate lecture courses (<700 level). However, all courses should match the standard meeting patterns whenever possible.

No. But, academic units, especially those that also offer undergraduate courses, are encouraged to think about how scheduling patterns for their graduate-level courses inform their ability to comply with the new guidance.

The new guidance applies to all undergraduate lecture courses (<700 level). The initial emphasis is on undergraduate courses offered by the College of Arts and Sciences, but professional schools that offer undergraduate courses are encouraged to begin reviewing their current scheduling practices.

The University’s 200+ general purpose classrooms serve more than 80% of undergraduate lecture courses. Ensuring their efficient use is an important part of meeting our overall utilization goals.

Academic units are expected to apply the new guidance to all undergraduate lecture courses, regardless of where they are scheduled. At some point it will be beneficial to revisit some aspects of the priority scheduling system. For example, some departments are not currently being served well by the priority classrooms they are assigned. However, changes to the priority scheduling system are not being considered at this time.

Academic units are expected to apply the new guidance to all undergraduate lecture courses, regardless of where they are scheduled. Departments that have to schedule courses off the standard meeting pattern should first attempt to place those courses in any classrooms that they manage (non-GPCs).

Academic units teaching undergraduate lecture courses should begin applying the new guidance as soon as possible. Because most Fall 2024 semester lecture courses have already been scheduled, it is expected that departments will begin making more significant progress complying with the guidance for Spring 2025 semester courses.

Most departments are either already in compliance or close to being in compliance. A few departments will likely need multiple semesters to shift enough lecture courses from peak to non-peak to be in full compliance. Departments may also want to reach out to their Senior Associate Deans for assistance with developing a realistic compliance plan.

Departments already in compliance should continue their current approach to scheduling across peak and non-peak hours. We hope that these departments will serve as models for those that have additional work to do to meet compliance requirements.  Departments should also strive to meet other aspects of the guidance such as adhering to the standard meeting patterns.

All department chairs in the College of Arts and Sciences and Deans in the professional schools have been provided with snapshot data from the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 semesters. Included are the peak/non-peak percentage splits for all undergraduate lecture courses offered by the academic unit. Course-level information is also included and has been shared in both PDF and CSV formats. If you need access to this data, please contact your department chair or dean.

All academic units should strive to minimize the number of instructional meetings scheduled off the standard meeting pattern.

Academic units that need to schedule a limited number of courses off-pattern have different pedagogical reasons for doing so (e.g., more than three contact hours per week, lab-lecture or performance courses that require set-up and break-down between classes). As a result, the percentage of acceptable off-pattern courses is likely to vary across units.

There are several initial suggestions in the guidance under the section Moving Lecture Courses Taught During Peak to Non-peak. They include the following:

• Take advantage of new non-peak afternoon MW 75-minute meeting patterns being piloted. The University Registrar is offering two optional meeting patterns MWF after 3:35pm.
• Schedule some core or required courses during non-peak hours.
• Schedule a mix of courses before and after peak hours.
• Rotate non-peak teaching assignments among instructional personnel.

We will be adding additional suggestions as we hear from individual units. It is up to each academic unit to determine how best to schedule and staff non-peak courses.

It is up to each academic unit to determine how best to schedule and staff lecture courses offered during non-peak hours. An obvious place to begin is asking for volunteers to teach during non-peak hours. For example, some instructors may be interested in taking advantage of the new late afternoon 75-minute MW pattern. Some units may consider a rotation for teaching courses during non-peak hours. Again, we will continue to add ideas to this resource as we move forward.

Outreach to departments who did not schedule courses on the standard meeting pattern has taken place.  Exceptions have been made for courses that qualify and other outreach is still ongoing.  The Provost’s hope is that we can make significant progress on these recommendations through voluntary departmental compliance. That assumes that academic units schedule courses off the standard meeting pattern only when there is a compelling pedagogical reason to do so.

Department chairs are ultimately responsible for the scheduling of courses offered by their unit. The scheduling process may also include student services managers and other designated faculty members.

All questions and/or requests for consultations should be submitted via this form. Submitting questions, comments, and requests via the form will make it easier for us to route your message to the appropriate person or organization.