Course scheduling software that places new sections where students can reach them, with every check cited and every change signed
New sections placed where students can reach them, each change signed and traced.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Course scheduling software helps a registrar build each term's schedule: which sections run, in which rooms, at what times and with which instructors. Course Scheduling is course scheduling software for colleges in which seven agents read demand from waitlists, degree plans and bell schedules, propose new sections only in open rooms that fit, and check each one against the faculty agreement, cohorts and bus routes. A scheduler decides each proposal, and the chair and the dean sign before anything posts.
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Course scheduling software usually stops at the open room, and the open room is the easy part. Every term a community college builds about 3,100 sections into 210 rooms on three campuses, taught by 640 faculty, and then spends registration adding sections where waitlists pile up. The slot also has to fit capacity, equipment and step-free access, the instructor has to be eligible under the faculty agreement, the section cannot sit on top of a cohort's required class, and an evening section on a campus whose last bus leaves at 7:15 PM fills with no one.
Raw waitlists overstate and misplace demand: a student sits on two waitlists, another waits for a course their degree plan puts next year. Mistakes surface after posting, as a grievance or a room move in week one, and changes reach the student information system with no record of the request, the checks or who approved. Course Scheduling puts seven agents in front of that work, so a Director of Academic Scheduling decides one proposed section at a time instead of rebuilding a spreadsheet beside the class scheduling software.
Estimated split of the business days behind one new section, by hand and with the agents; the 'after' column keeps the chair's and the dean's own review time, so it totals about a day and a half. Our arithmetic, kept modest.
Seven agents read demand, rooms, the faculty agreement, cohorts and bus routes and place each section; the scheduler decides, the chair and dean sign.
Brandvale Community College opened priority registration for Spring 2027 on October 19. Two days later, College Algebra is the biggest gap in college class scheduling. Here is what happens, screen by screen, in the working solution.
The placement board ranks seven courses by students who need a seat and cannot get one. MATH 120 College Algebra leads with 214 waitlisted and no open seats; the chair, Dr. Ansel Ruiz, asked for seats "where students can get to them". Monique picks it, and the agents' run plays in the rail step by step.
168 students need College Algebra this term with no open seat.
The 214 waitlisted seats are 181 students once the 33 on two waitlists are counted once, and 168 of them have College Algebra on this term's degree plan. The agent shows when they can come: 52 only in the evening, and 19 dual-enrollment students only after their high schools' 2:40 PM and 3:05 PM bells. Groups under 10 are folded into Other.
Of 210 rooms, 71 seat 36 or more, 58 of those are step-free, and 31 open slots fit the course. Three students on the waitlist have a room accommodation on file; the agent honors them without seeing who they are. A third-floor room is kept out because its elevator is out of service until November 30, and East room E-112 fails in one line: 28 seats, needs 36.
The agents propose four sections. The evening hybrid goes to West room W-214, Tuesday and Thursday 6:00–7:50 PM. The Contract agent found the first choice, adjunct Rhea Tamblyn, already at 15 of 15 weekly contact hours, and proposed Paolo Brandt, the next qualified instructor on the seniority list who is free Tuesday and Thursday evenings, at 8 to 12 of 15.
Every check names the agent that made it and its source. The Article 9.4 citation opens the faculty agreement passage the Contract agent relied on, ratified June 4, 2025, with the line highlighted. Hybrid sections count at their full scheduled contact hours.
An adjunct faculty member shall not be assigned more than fifteen (15) weekly contact hours in a term, counted across all campuses and all departments.
One section was first placed on Tuesday and Thursday at 10:00 AM, the hour the nursing semester 1 cohort has NURS 110, and 23 of the 168 are in that cohort. The Conflict agent moved it to Monday and Wednesday in the same room, and the board keeps a dashed marker where it was first placed.
Moved from here · nursing cohort: NURS 110
61 of the 168 live nearest West Campus, and 49 ride Route 12, which runs every 20 minutes until 10:40 PM. East is ruled out for the evening: Route 31's last bus leaves at 7:15 PM. Home areas come from ZIP codes, in counts of 10 or more, never an address.
Monique accepts all four sections at 2:52 PM and sends package SP-2027S-0147 to the chair. Dr. Ruiz ticks the attestation that each instructor is qualified and each assignment follows the faculty agreement, then signs all four. Monique placed them, so she cannot sign them.
The dean approves the four new sections at $21,040 at 3:12 PM, leaving $74,880 of the $180,000 added-section budget. Only then does the Posting agent re-check every section and post CRNs 31842–31845 to the student information system. Waitlisted students move into the 152 seats in that night's waitlist run; 16 students still wait.
The agents send no student notices.
The request, the agents' proposal and the instructor they replaced, the acceptance, the chair's signature, the dean's approval and the posting each carry who, when, why and the evidence. The auditor exports a review pack with a redaction profile, sealed with a checksum.
The same College Algebra package, seen by the five people in academic scheduling who carry it — what their day looked like, and what it looks like now.
Seven agents read demand, rooms, the faculty agreement, cohorts and bus routes and place each section; the scheduler decides, the chair and dean sign.
Turns waitlists, degree plans and dual-enrollment partners' bell schedules into the students who need each course this term and when they can come.
Keeps only the open room and time slots that fit capacity, equipment and step-free access, and honors room accommodations sent by Accessibility Resources.
Checks each proposed instructor against Articles 9.2, 9.4, 9.6 and 11.3 of the faculty agreement and the load records, cites the article, and proposes the next eligible person in the order the agreement sets.
Reads the program maps and keeps courses a cohort must take together out of the same slot, moving a proposal and saying why.
Prefers the campus students can reach by bus when the class starts and ends, from home areas in aggregate and the regional transit feed.
Assembles the fewest sections that cover the need by time window, as proposals in open slots, each with its checks and evidence.
Re-checks a package and writes it to the student information system only after the scheduler, the chair and the dean have signed; builds the review pack.
Place, sign instructors, approve new sections. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask about a section on the board, or tell the agents what to place. Every answer cites the load record, the agreement article or the room inventory it came from, and opens the screen that shows it.
Why can't Rhea Tamblyn teach the West evening section?
She already has 15 weekly contact hours this spring across four sections. Article 9.4 of the faculty agreement caps adjuncts at 15 hours across all campuses, and a MATH 120 section adds 4. Under Article 9.6 the next qualified adjunct on the seniority list who is free Tuesday and Thursday evenings is Paolo Brandt, 8 to 12 hours. Dr. Ansel Ruiz signs the assignment.
Which courses have the most unmet demand?
Ranked by students who need a seat this term and have none: MATH 120, 168 (214 waitlisted, 0 open); ENGL 101, 129, with the chair; BIOL 201, 118, where lab rooms are the limit; CHEM 110, 75.
Is there a step-free room for College Algebra on Monday evenings?
Yes. On West Campus, W-126 seats 38, is on the ground floor and is open Monday and Wednesday at 8:00 PM. At North, N-310 is not step-free until its building's elevator returns on November 30. Three students on the MATH 120 waitlist have a room accommodation on file, and every room the agents chose is step-free.
What needs a signature before MATH 120 can post?
Package SP-2027S-0147: 4 sections, 152 seats. Monique Faraday places them, Dr. Ansel Ruiz signs the instructor assignments, and Dr. Yvonne Castellanos-Reid approves the $21,040. Only then does the Posting agent write them to the student information system.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
The rules every proposed section is checked against are settings. Each save is a new version, approved by the Dean of Instruction and logged in the audit trail.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum seats for a lecture room | 36, for 4-credit lectures such as MATH 120 | 32, 36 or 40 |
| Contract confidence | 0.85 | 0.80, 0.85 or 0.90; below it, the chair decides without an agent proposal |
| Faculty agreement | 2025–2028 | The version the Contract agent reads |
| Time blocks | 6 blocks: 8:00, 10:00, 12:30, 3:30, 6:00 and 8:00 PM | 75 or 110 minutes |
| Prime-time cap | 45% | Share of a department's sections between 10:00 AM and 2:20 PM |
| Dual-enrollment buffer | 20 minutes | After a partner's last bell, plus travel |
| Room change or swap | 3 business days | 2, 3 or 5 days; escalated to the dean after |
| Smallest group shown | 10 | 10, 15 or 20; smaller groups folded into Other |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
Sources: The Hechinger Report, September 2, 2025, reporting 2021 research with Mathematica (community college students shut out of a needed course were up to 28% more likely to take no classes that term) · 28 CFR 35.150 (ADA Title II, existing facilities) · 34 CFR 104.22 (Section 504, existing facilities) · 34 CFR 99.31 (FERPA, de-identified records) · "target" = design goal, measured in the live solution · "demo" = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · "typical" = published figures · "estimated" = our arithmetic. Brandvale Community College, its faculty agreement, rooms and bus routes, and the people named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Course scheduling software helps a registrar build each term's schedule: which sections run, in which rooms, at what times and with which instructors. Course Scheduling is course scheduling software for colleges in which seven agents read demand from waitlists, degree plans and bell schedules, propose new sections only in open rooms that fit, and check each one against the faculty agreement, cohorts and bus routes. A scheduler decides each proposal, and the chair and the dean sign before anything posts.
It starts from the students who need the course this term, not the raw waitlist: students on two waitlists are counted once, and only those with the course on this term's degree plan count. The Placement agent then proposes the fewest sections that cover the need by time window, each in an open slot that passed the room, faculty load, cohort and commute checks. A slot that fails shows why in one line.
Yes. The Contract agent reads the version of the agreement you set and checks each proposed instructor against its articles on overload, the adjunct load limit, the order of offering and travel between campuses, using the load records and availability forms. It cites the article for every block and proposes the next eligible person; it never assigns, and the chair signs.
Accessibility Resources sends the room accommodation needs on a waitlist as needs and counts, never names. The Room agent keeps only step-free rooms and rooms with the equipment needed, and leaves out a room when a work order breaks step-free access. ADA Title II (28 CFR 35.150) and Section 504 (34 CFR 104.22) are cited on the room check.
No. The agents may not post, book a room, assign an instructor, send a student notice or show a named student. The Posting agent writes a package to the student information system only after the scheduler, the chair and, for a new section, the dean have signed, and it refuses a package missing a sign-off.
Yes. The scheduler accepts, moves or rejects every proposed section, with a reason code on a rejection. Whoever places a section can never sign it, a chair signs only their own department's assignments, and any agent result can be overridden with a reason code.
Yes. Time blocks, the minimum seats for a lecture room, the faculty agreement version, the contract confidence threshold, the prime-time cap, the dual-enrollment buffer, SLAs and privacy settings are all settings. Each save is a new version, approved by the Dean of Instruction and logged, so the academic scheduling software follows your rules rather than ours.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your faculty agreement, room inventory, program maps and a past term's schedule — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own term first.
Every graduate cleared with evidence, honors and names locked before printing.
1-min demoCurriculum Proposal & Catalog ManagementComplete on first reading, with every program a change touches listed before the vote.
1-min demoArticulation Agreement & Transfer Equivalency ManagementEvery partner change caught when its committee votes, before a student loses a credit.
1-min demoWe'll run Course Scheduling on a sample of your own waitlists, rooms and faculty loads.