Breland Outlines Upcoming Changes
Colleagues,
As we work to refine our processes to benefit students and faculty alike, there are some significant changes coming with the next round of schedule requests from the registrar. I have enjoyed working with faculty and staff colleagues in each of the schools and colleges on these updates, and if there are any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
- Making summer and winter terms visible one semester earlier.
- In order to help students better map out their 2- and 4-year plans, which often include our robust summer and winter session offerings, we will begin to make the successive summer or winter term “visible” to students when they register for winter/spring or summer/fall. This was very successful in this past registration cycle, when students were able to view Winter 2023 when they registered for Fall 2023. For this coming cycle, this means that colleges will submit Summer 2024 schedules when they submit Spring 2024. When students register for Winter 2023/Spring 2024, the Summer 2024 offerings will be viewable by the students on the NEST (though they will not be able to register for them). While this requires some advance planning on behalf of department chairs and program directors, the viewable schedules can have TBD where necessary in staffing or classroom locations, but the hope is that this not only allows students to plan ahead, but departments and colleges as well.
- Streamlining of summer offerings.
- Speaking of summer schedules, Creighton will be aligning with best practice and offering a 4/6/8/13 model, eliminating the 5-week course option. This change will provide predictable clarity for faculty and students alike, and the aligning of schedules will make planning and scheduling easier for students. Start and end dates will line up in an ordered manner, leading also to some efficiencies in enrollment management as well.
- Team-taught course data.
- As we continue to enhance our data collection efforts for improved planning and decision-making, we will begin to collect team-taught course data with the course schedule submissions. Percentage of responsibility for instructors has been an optional field, but beginning with the next cycle, it will be a required entry (like max enrollment, instructor, etc).
While each of these three changes separately are easily implemented, it is understandable how all three coming at the same time might seem disruptive to the “normal” flow. I greatly appreciate your flexibility and willingness to engage in these updated processes, each of which will help us better plan and organize, and ultimately, better serve our students.
A. Barron Breland, DM, Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs