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LSA Course Demand Planning Project

Project Description

The College of Literature, Science, & Arts (LSA) Course Demand Planning Project (CDP) is a collaborative effort between LSA and MAIS to implement tools and processes to better assess student demand for classes. The focus of the CDP is to assist LSA in meeting one of its strategic goals - to improve the quality of the undergraduate experience - by helping students enroll in their required classes at the right time, so they can graduate on time or faster.

Project Purpose, Scope & Deliverables

1. Course Demand Planning is an extremely broad process that encompasses many different factors that need to be considered:
   • Student demand (e.g., program requirements, degree audit information, interest, students within and outside of the LSA Career.
   • Faculty preferences (e.g., interests, expertise, availability).
   • Facilities (e.g., room requirements and availability, scheduling of offerings).
   • Enrollment data (e.g., number of potential students due to lockstep courses, number of entry cohorts, past enrollment figures, wait-list numbers, degree audit requirements).
   • Scheduling of conflicts (e.g. students that need or want to take classes which are offered at the same time).
2. The first phase of the project is focusing on Requirements Gathering:
   • Understand work completed to-date.
   • Understand best practices across LSA departments.
   • Analyze other institutions and other industry similar work.
   • Develop baseline and benchmarks.
   • Research potential data analysis tools.
3. Three Pilots have been identified to look at trends over time by academic level, logistic regression models, and other analyses:
   • Freshman courses.
   • 200-level courses.
   • Senior courses.
4. This project will be a multi-year, phased effort that ultimately could give LSA decision-makers information for providing course offerings that more closely meet the needs of students and manage enrollments across sections during the registration process.

Business Need

• The LSA Dean's Office and academic departments do not have dynamic, interactive tools and processes to assess student demand for classes. At present, most course offerings are driven by historical patterns of offering, time and location.
• The Dean's Office and departments adjust course offerings to account for significant changes in first-year admissions to the College, but more detailed analyses of course enrollment trends, the effects of changes in degree requirements, and long-term shifts in student interests are needed.
• The current business practices and tools associated with course demand planning differ within LSA from department to department. They often require extensive use of staff resources and do not provide timesaving, consistent service to students during the enrollment process.
• Course Demand Planning could translate into cost savings for the University by providing a more effective use of faculty and space resources.

System/Application & Data Sources

1. M-Pathways Student Records data, U-M Data Warehouse
2. M-Pathways Recruiting and Admissions data, U-M Data Warehouse
3. Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Database
4. Business Objects (Query and Reporting Tool Software)
5. SPSS for Windows (Predictive Analytics Software)
6. Microsoft Excel

Audience/Users

The College of LSA would initially benefit from the results of this project, but it would ultimately result in better support the undergraduate students. It is the intent that the outcomes and deliverables of this project could be utilized by the other schools and colleges of the University.

Project Sponsors/Partners

Project Sponsors:

• Terrence (Terry) McDonald, Professor of History and Dean, LSA
• Laura Patterson, Associate Vice-President, MAIS

Project Directors:

• Anthony (Rick) Francis, Professor of Chemistry and Associate Dean for Budget, LSA
• John Gohsman, Director of Student Administration and Human Resource Management Systems, MAIS

Project Manager:

• Lynn Lyke-Whiting, Enterprise Resource Planning Business Systems Analyst Senior, Student Records, Curriculum, Academic Advising (SRCAA), MAIS

Duration/Timeline

• Phase 1: Requirements Gathering: June 2005 - March 2006
• Phase 2: TBD

Project Team Members

Team Leaders:

• Lynn Lyke-Whiting, Enterprise Resource Planning Business Systems Analyst Senior, Student Records, Curriculum, Academic Advising (SRCAA), MAIS
• Ellen Meader, Senior Research and Planning Analyst, Dean's Office, LSA

Core Team Members:

• Kelly Baugher, Chemistry Department, LSA
• Kortney Briske, Registrar's Office
• Mary Fallert, Romance Languages Department, LSA
• Phil Gorman, Student Academic Affairs, LSA
• Krista Maclean, Sociology Department, LSA
• JoAnn Peraino, Dean's Office, LSA
• Chris Psujek, Biology Department, LSA
• Kathy Teasdale, English Department, LSA
• Brian Wallace, Psychology Department, LSA
• Evans Young, Dean's Office, LSA

Team Consultants:

• Anne Curzan, LSA English
• Steve DesJardins, School of Education Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education
• Gus Evrard, LSA Physics
• Jan Gerson, LSA Economics
• Ruth Kallio, Office of Budget and Planning
• Kerby Shedden, LSA Statistics
• Rob Wilke, LSA Dean's Office

Project Contact

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Ellen Meader, Senior Research and Planning Analyst, LSA Dean's Office (E-Mail: ellenwat@umich.edu).