Jun 30

Audit Your Timetable – Using Your Space Utilisation Survey Data

An institution’s timetable is the tool that determines where and when all teaching activities are taking place. Therefore, the timetable should also be the ideal tool to determine how well you are using your teaching space – or is it?
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In its simplest form, a timetable is a tool that shows who should be where, doing what and when. It would be an easy assumption to conclude that the timetable would be the ideal tool to determining how well you are using your teaching space.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. We have found that the accuracy of the timetable can vary significantly, with the number of timetabled activities taking place and the size of the classes occupying the rooms, often being significantly different to that timetabled.

Timetabling - why does reality look different?

But why does thein-the-flesh position look so different to that written down?
The reasons are many and varied but the bulk of inaccuracies are typically down to issues with the processes and practices connected to timetabling.

Some examples of this include:
Inaccurate and/or inefficient process for predicting planned class sizes during timetable planning stages. There can be different processes per department or sometimes even by module, for doing this.
Over estimation of the number classes required and the size of these classes, just in case student numbers are larger than expected.
Planned class sizes not being matched to the capacity of the rooms
Staff unaware on how to request timetabling bookings - that is, they are unaware they can specify a time-limit for bookings. They don’t have to be all semester!
Inefficient, time consuming or lack of process for cancelling bookings no longer required.
Room swaps!

In reality, every institution has their own process and practice issues that cause timetabling inaccuracies. The result is space being wasted causing the estate to provide more space than is truly required. But how do you know whether your timetable is accurate in the first place?
empty classroom

Timetable Audit - also known as Actual Space Occupancy Data

Actual Space Occupancy Data - the data collected from a space utilisation survey - provides an institution with an incredible resource for determining the accuracy of the timetable. This data includes the number of students recorded in each classroom, during each of the hours within your sample period, for example, 1,2 or 3 teaching weeks.

In order to audit your timetable data and find out how accurate your timetable really is, you need to compare your timetable data against your space occupancy data.
There are several analysis techniques that will highlight inaccuracies and the potential reasons for these inaccuracies:

  • Actual space occupancy frequency/occupancy/utilisation Vs. timetable frequency/occupancy/utilisation
Any difference here may indicate timetable inaccuracies but should only be used as an indicator and not hard evidence. For example, open access teaching space is often used more than it is timetabled, which isn’t a bad thing, but does result in differences.

  • How many bookings were (and were not) attended
Identifying hours when there were timetabled activities but 0 students were recorded as attending is also key in ensuring accuracy of the timetable.

  • Recorded class size vs timetabled “planned” class size
Look out for classes which are significantly smaller as well as any that are larger.

  • Recorded class size vs timetabled “actual” class size
Again, look out for those that are significantly smaller and any that are larger.

  • Timetabled “planned” class size vs “actual” class size
You don’t need the occupancy data to do this, but this check is just as important as the planned size should be very similar to the actual. For those that aren’t – highlight them.

Once you have complete the above analysis, it is possible to take it a step further to get an idea on why differences might be happening. For example, analysing the data by day, timeslot and space type to give just a few examples. This extra analysis will help to build some ideas on why these inaccuracies are occurring.

Why are these differences occurring?

Once you’ve determined how accurate your timetable is or isn’t, you will want to find out why any differences exist. The aim now is to pinpoint the processes and practices that have resulted in the timetable data being inaccurate, hence they can be resolved.

An effective method of doing this is to send any highlighted differences to those departments responsible, requesting feedback. This feedback can be used to pinpoint the processes and practices responsible.

If possible, meeting with each department to go over the feedback is also a great way of collection more detail.

For this to be truly effective, however, gaining senior buy-in from each department is highly recommended. In our experience, this can often make the difference between this fact-finding mission being a success or failure.
departmental meeting

The benefit of smoothing out these differences

If there are significant differences between timetabled sessions and those that are actually taking place, there are certainly benefits in resolving them:

  • Improved student experience
If the timetable is currently inaccurate, students may be attending more activities than they need to, the result of rooms booked and not used.

  • Free up space
Rooms that are booked and not used effectively reduce the number of timeslots available. This has a negative impact on student timetables, as the timetabling team is forced to timetable activities into a limited number of timeslots, reducing their ability to create student friendly timetables.

  • Student attendance
By surveying class sizes and discovering that some classes are smaller than expected may be a potential issue with student attendance. As a department, attendance barriers can be identified and resolved. Classes that are timetabled for larger rooms effectively remove their availability and so another class that is struggling to fit into a smaller space is not producing the student experience institutions crave.

  • Planned class size significantly larger than survey and/or “actual” class size
This can result in larger rooms being timetabled than required, again impacting student experience impact, as does late room changes. Again, this increases the pressure in space, reducing the availability of the larger capacity teaching spaces.

Successful timetable audit - now what?

Once you have determined what is causing your timetable to be inaccurate and why, the next step to successfully completing the audit is resolve these issues.

How you do this will, of course, depend on the issues raised. However, the successful projects we have worked on typically involve department senior buy-in as well as continuing close engagement with those departments involved.

Ultimately it is likely to be the processes they are responsible for, or at least engage with, that are resulting in many of the inaccuracies within the timetable and there are benefits to both the university and the individual departments in resolving many of the issues you will have highlighted.

Escentral Consultancy

This is rather of an extensive subject that I have condensed into article form. Typically, it requires a unique approach for each institution, therefore if you do have any questions or would like to discuss how you can successfully implement this approach at your institution, please do get in contact.
Similarly, if you are interested in improving the accuracy of your timetable, but do not have the time or resources to do so, we can certainly help. We provide a range of timetabling and space management consultancy services that we tailor to each client’s objectives, so please do get in contact if this is something you would like to discuss further.

Ben Moreland
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