Running head: COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE

Development and Delivery of a More Comprehensive Schedule

Jon Mandrell
IDSL 835
Ferris State University

Introduction

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE
2
Sauk Valley Community Colleges mission states that it is an institution of higher
education that provides quality learning opportunities to meet the diverse needs of its students
and community. The Instructional Services Department plays an integral role in carrying out this
critical mission to serve the community. The Instructional Services Department at Sauk Valley
Community College strives to meet the higher education instructional needs of the campus, as
well as through the K-12 districts, in which they serve. The department is responsible for
providing high quality instructors and scheduling courses to meet the diverse needs of the student
population and the community. Establishing a more comprehensive schedule and enhancing the
learning experience is a central part of the mission at Sauk Valley Community College. Working
with individual programs and learning of their diverse and unique needs is a critical component
in maintaining excellence within the colleges robust offerings. Delivering a more
comprehensive and balanced schedule to meet the diverse needs of the community poses a
difficult challenge, but this crucial strategic issue must be effectively planned.
Strategic Issue
An essential task of the Instructional Services Department is to fill scheduled courses
with exceptional and qualified instructors, based upon the need and potential for growth within
our academic programs. To meet the academic needs of the students and the community, as well
as the fiscal needs of the college, it is imperative that a more comprehensive schedule be
implemented and sustained. Sauk Valley Community College currently employs 40 full-time
instructional faculty, as well as 105 adjunct instructional faculty. Making more effective use of
these instructors, as well as adding more instructors, will be a part of this process. With budget
constraints being a concern and a decline in enrollment this year, hiring more full-time faculty
may not best serve the needs of the college. Full-time faculty currently are contracted to teach

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE
3
30 credit hours per fiscal year. While many of the full-time instructors teach overload to help
bridge the scheduling gap, a large proportion of unfilled classes remain after the full-time
instructors accept these additional assignments. These courses could be filled by other qualified
individuals on campus, such as administrators or other qualified staff.
There are consequences associated with this issue that should be considered. Academic
departments rely on both full-time and adjunct faculty to instruct courses to meet scheduling
needs. The college seeks to maintain its average lecture size of 21 students, which facilitates an
effective and positive learning environment (Sauk Valley Community College, 2012). Without
the strong representation of qualified faculty, class size could be forced to increase in size,
inhibiting the student and learning experience. Maintaining an academic program and meeting
student demand can be negatively impacted if such an experience is not offered. Maintaining
exceptional academic programs can also impact the local workforce as they are dependent upon
our graduates to make a difference in their industry. Also, as careers in STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) continue to rise, our institution must be prepared to
respond and facilitate such needs. Bertram (2012) states, Many communities recognize the
value of STEM education for regional economic development and are forging meaningful
partnerships between schools and nonprofits, as well as business and industry leaders.
The strengths of addressing this issue are unlimited, particularly how it is associated with
the overarching mission of the college, as well as the department. Meeting instructional needs is
achieved by offering a more responsive and comprehensive schedule that meets student
demands. This includes offering more hybrid or online courses that students are increasingly
interested in. The learning environment for students can also be greatly enhanced in this process,
as well as the sustainability of academic programs. Qualified and effective full-time faculty

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE
4
members provide a strong attachment and direction to the program, while adjunct instructors
often provide a component to an academic program in that many of them work within the
industry and provide valuable input and instruction from this experience. Creating a more
effective schedule balances the needs of both types of instructors on our campus.
In terms of opportunities, the Instructional Services Department must seek to provide the
most flexible and effective offering of courses that appeals to the diverse learning needs of the
community. This challenge should be viewed as an opportunity to plan effectively and make a
positive impact. In an institution of approximately 2500 students in a rural setting, scheduling
can be limited, but yearly growth since 2009 has afforded us the opportunity to evolve into a
more comprehensive and expansive schedule. Financially, the college is also able to operate
effectively and responsibly by generating more interest from the community and offering a
multitude of course offerings. The Instructional Services Department must create a new strategic
plan to increase the current schedule offerings, make more effective use of their staff, and
provide more learning opportunities for the community.
Weaknesses are certain an area that must be addressed in this strategic plan. The most
noted weakness is that our rural area may lack the education qualifications to instruct courses.
Expanding our advertisements beyond our district will be necessary. It should also be noted that
we must reach all voices of the student population. In the past this has been an issue and can
impact our ability to make informed decisions. Some threats that should be assessed include the
competition that we are facing from others schools. If we are unable to provide an adequate
schedule that is robust and responsive to the students, they will seek services elsewhere. Being
able to offer a variety of course sections in many different delivery forms will be essential to stay
ahead of competition. Another considerable threat involves funding. With a more elaborate

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE
5
schedule comes the need to provide salaries, equipment, and resources to classrooms and
instructors. Raising tuition and negatively impacting the student should be avoided in bridging
this financial gap.
Strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats should all be assessed in this analyzing
this strategic issue. Understanding where our challenges are will help facilitate a stronger
planning process, which takes place in the step. The weaknesses and threats that remain allow
the institution to proactively prepare for unforeseen circumstances that may arise. Having a
contingency plan in place will ensure that the system continues to operate productively and that
problems are diverted.

Planning Process
Improving our course offerings and creating a comprehensive schedule to our students
will require a sound planning process. All stakeholders would play an integral role in the
planning of this process. These stakeholders would include the president, academic vicepresident, area deans, full-time faculty, adjunct faculty, students, the dean of institutional
research, and members of the community. The process should include effective communication
among the stakeholders in this step-by-step systems process. Within these processes, a strong
commitment and alignment to the mission and values of the college should be clearly
demonstrated. The Systems Analysis, as Bryson (2011) mentions, offers building a model with a
planning team (p. 207). The multiple approaches that a team of stakeholders provides could
assist in developing goals to creating the most complete and effective schedule. This process
would consist of scheduled meetings and conferences to unite in this endeavor.

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE
6
The first step would involve conducting an assessment of the specific needs of programs
and areas. This research should involve thorough discussion with the department chairs, faculty,
academic advisers, area deans, and the academic vice-president. The needs should be based on
growth, turnover, student demand, faculty overload, or lack of instructional effectiveness. This
process would inform administration where we have not met instructional needs in the past and
what great opportunities could still be explored. Understanding where our student needs are not
being met provides an opportunity to stay focused on our mission of meeting the diverse
educational needs of the community.
To also determine instructor needs for programs, evaluating the programs and their
potential growth would be essential. This would involve working closely with the Dean of
Institutional Research. Reviewing course data, particularly completion and persistence rates may
assist in the decision of how to better coordinate schedules and the types of instructors that may
be needed in this expansive process. This data could indicate which programs and courses have
high and low success rates, providing a glimpse of where students may struggle most. Reviewing
previous surveys or student evaluations could also provide valuable input. While it seems like
expanding the schedule and providing more instructors is rather simple, taking a more focused
look at data may resolve and improve instructional concerns or increase student success. With a
more focused view in mind, the creation of student focus groups could assist in providing
guidance and information.
The timing of this process should be taken into consideration. Creating such a schedule
requires planning well ahead of time and involving the input of the stakeholders, particularly
students. A part of the problem has been that adjunct faculty have not been hired in respect of
time or that class assignments have been assigned far too close to the start of the semester. Many

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE
7
instructors have been hired just days before class and having no background in education. This
lack of preparation contributes to not only student success and the overall student experience, but
it can result in lower instructional satisfaction, which can create turnover from semester-tosemester. Our commitment to the students must be greater and they deserve a better prepared and
competent instructor that can be sustained for the future in building a better schedule and
campus. As a result of the timing playing a significant part in the existing problem, the planning
of these processes should provide adequate time, such as 6 months prior to a semester. This
would ensure that all stakeholders, particularly students, were provided valuable time to
contribute to the processes, as well. These strategies would assist in providing the more
comprehensive schedule that meets the needs of the community and aligns with our
mission/vision/values.

Initiatives and Measures

Having conducted a thorough analysis of the issue and collaborated with the essential
stakeholders, some excellent initiatives and measures could be implemented. Increasing our
marketing and visibility to the public, hosting an adjunct faculty career fair, and making more
effective use of our staff for instructional purposes are all initiatives that should be explored and
measured. Each initiative has metrics to measure the outcomes, available for data for review,
and are aligned with the colleges mission/vision/values.

Initiative #1:

Increased Marketing and Visibility to the Public

To facilitate a more comprehensive schedule, it is essential that we inform the community

about such opportunities that support our initiative to seek growth and be responsive to them.
While we advertise in common locations and forms of media, such as newspapers, it is critical

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE
8
that we expand this effort during peak times of the year. It seems the campus attracts a great deal
of alumni to be both full-time and adjunct faculty members. Advertising this need in the alumni
newsletters should be implemented, as well as posting the information to our alumni website.
The campus also attracts many adjunct faculty members from its contacts with local industry.
Sending posters, flyers, and e-mails to industry could also increase our outreach to the
community to encourage applying for such positions. Speaking with qualified high school
instructors that can instruct night courses has recently demonstrated signs of success and this
practice should also be increased. Also, informing the public and potential instructors that we
are seeking to expand and offer more innovative ways of delivering courses, such as online,
hybrid, or weekend courses can increase our scheduling effectiveness.

Metric: % of increase in applicants for adjunct faculty and full-time positions from
industry.
% of increase in applicants for evening, online, and weekend adjunct faculty
positions.
% of increase in forms of published advertisements for adjunct faculty
positions

Data Availability and Review: The data regarding adjunct and full-time faculty hires
would be available through Human Resources. The data for the advertising would be
available through the Public Outreach and Marketing Department. Both sets of data
would be reviewed at the beginning of each semester after instructors were hired and

placed into courses.

Alignment with Mission/Vision/Values: Increasing the visibility and outreach to our
community to meet the educational needs to serve the community.

Initiative #2:

Hosting an Adjunct Faculty Career Fair

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE
9
In an effort to increase our contact with potential adjunct faculty candidates and to make
ourselves more accessible, an adjunct faculty career fair will be held each semester. The event
will consist of two sessions, one on a Thursday evening to accommodate candidates that work
during the day, as well as a session on a Saturday morning for those that cannot attend during the
week. The event will consist of open tables from the various departments and programs of the
college, which will be hosted by full-time faculty and area deans. This will provide candidates
with the opportunity to discuss their options, as well as provide transcripts and resumes to the
necessary campus contacts. Candidates will also be provided with an opportunity to meet with
human resources, meet the college president and the academic vice president, as well as be
provided a tour of the campus and their perspective department.

Metric: % of increase in applicants for adjunct faculty positions

Data Availability and Review: Human Resources would have the data regarding the
increase in applicants for adjunct faculty positions. This data would be reviewed before

the start of each semester to determine if the efforts were successful.

Alignment with Mission/Vision/Values: This event would open the doors to our
community to apply as adjunct faculty members, assisting us in equally meeting
community educational needs.

Initiative #3: Making more effective use of current staff

As a part of the strategy to offer a more comprehensive schedule, reaching out to all
potential instructors already on campus should be utilized. This would include using
instructional support from the top-down. The administration, full-time faculty, and instructional
staff should be sought out and assessed for increased instructional use to meet student needs and
expand the course schedule.

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE
10
Once the employee of our campus is approved for hire by the administration to instruct
courses, the new instructional member would be provided with all the necessary materials to
begin planning their course. At this point, they would be paired with assistance at the
departmental and program level to assist them in preparing for their first course, both inside and
outside of the classroom. The Instructional Technology Department could also provide
assistance to any new instructor in becoming more familiar with classroom technologies and
applications. Throughout the semester, the Dean of Instructional Services will observe the
classroom, as well as conduct student evaluations. The Dean of Instructional Services can then
provide feedback to the instructor about their growth, as well as any challenges. This increased
and consistent contact will help facilitate and enrich the teaching experience for new instructors
being grown from within our campus. Creating these great instructional opportunities for our
employees may contribute to our ability to retain and sustain quality instructors.
Increasing usage of current full-time and adjunct faculty would also be critical in this
process. Offering more courses to these instructors would be suggested, if their course load
allows so and the high quality of instruction can be maintained. Perhaps offering more flexible
schedule opportunities to the faculty, such as online or hybrid offerings, would appeal to
instructors looking for an increase in load, but cannot take on any further classroom time.
Metric: % of increase in new instructional staff that were existing employees
% of increase in credit hours taught by instructional faculty
% of increase in online and hybrid course offerings
Data Availability and Review: The Dean of Instructional Services and the Dean of
Institutional Research would have this data available. It would be reviewed at the

beginning of each semester.

Alignment with Mission/Vision/Values: This strategy would enable the college to
measure if instructional staff were increasing their course load, resulting in increasing
course offerings to students.

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE
11

Reflection
In completing this assignment, it reinforced that there are no shortcuts to effective
solutions. Sustainable solutions require a sound strategic plan. Also, attempting to solve a
strategic issue will have little success if its planning is not directly tied to the colleges mission
and values. Engaging the necessary stakeholders, if not all of them, is a tremendous asset that
can enhance the continuous improvement process. A commitment to the mission statement is
required to achieve success in this assignment, as well as on our campus. Bryson (2011) states
that mission statements should be targeted, activist in tone, and inspiring (p. 138). The strategic
planning process emphasizes Brysons points.
Each section of the assignment provided a valuable lesson on how to work across the
organization to create viable solutions that impact not only the campus, but the community.
Many may lose the message of our mission in the strategic issue solution and planning process,
but keeping it at the pinnacle in the process ensures that the mission is carried out, that multiple
perspectives from stakeholders are gained, and effective strategies are put in place that address
all areas of the campus and community. I previously thought many problems were solved at the
administrative level, but now I realize the power of collaboration is vital to ensure that a sound
strategic issue is resolved and sustained. The systems approach is perhaps the most valuable
piece of knowledge I have gained in the DCCL program.
A great part of the assignment that I believe deserves credit is that it requires the students
to become data-focused. In todays community colleges, making informed decisions is greatly
based upon the ability to collect effective data, locate data, and then analyze it. Those who shy
away from this may be setting themselves up for great failure, as well as the stakeholders. The

COMPREHENSIVE SCHEDULE
12
risk of failure in a strategic issue can be catastrophic. Taking the time to unpack the data must
become a part of the continuous improvement model within higher ed today.
In conclusion, the capstone assignment was an effective way for the DCCL student to put
the course content together into one exercise. Each step required that the college mission be at
the forefront of the process and that the necessary stakeholders be involved. Analyzing data and
implementing effective strategies is a challenge, but understanding your staff, students, and the
community will help strengthen this process. Kogler et al. (2009) states, We never want to
forget that strategic planning is a process not a report on a shelf (p.26). As leaders, we must
remember that strategic planning is a thorough process designed to produce effective and
sustainable results. Committing to those goals and strategies should be visibly demonstrated,
again reinforcing our commitment to the institutions mission/vision/values.

References
Bertram, V. (2012). Industry, educators build in roads to success. U.S. News. Retrieved from
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/stem-education/2012/08/15/industry-educators-buildin-roads-to-stem-success
Bryson, J.M. (2011). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to
strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. (4th Ed.) San Francisco: JosseyBass Publishers.
Kogler Hill, S.E., Thomas, E.G., & Keller, L.F. (2009). A collaborative ongoing university
strategic planning framework: Process landmines, and lessons. Planning for Higher
Education, 37, 16-26.
Sauk Valley Community College. (2012). College and student profile. Retrieved from
http://www.svcc.edu/about/college-student-profile.html