OCM Hiring Classroom Condition Monitors

"Inspected by Students, for Students"

• Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes to keep your classroom operational? 
• Are you looking for hours that are easy to fit into your class schedule? 

The office of Classroom Management is now hiring University of Minnesota students to visually inspect general purpose classrooms to determine readiness. Responsibilities include capturing data, resolving correctable issues, and reporting deficiencies that may negatively impact classroom functionality. If you have strong attention to detail and a desire to make a positive difference in students' lives, please email the OCM Operations unit at ocm-ops@umn.edu for more information.

Fall final exam room scheduling to begin soon

Fall 2015 final exam room scheduling will begin September 25. OCM only schedules final exams for classes that meet in general purpose classrooms. Final exams for classes that meet in departmental space need to be scheduled within the department.

Email ocmsched@umn.edu with any class sections that do not require a classroom during finals week. Use “Fall 2015 Final Exam” for the subject line and the course and section number(s) in the body.

• Final exam regulations, Fall 2015
• Fall 2015 final exam schedule
• Fall 2015 common exam times
• Scheduling Examinations, Final Examinations, and Study Days policy

Summer 2016 CCS period 1 opens Tuesday, September 29

Collaborative Class Scheduling (CCS) in PeopleSoft will be available Tuesday, September 23 for May/summer 2016 (1165) class schedule production. The following resources for scheduling summer session courses are available:

• Academic session dates by term
• Class schedule production instructions
• CCS production calendar
• General class scheduling tools

Confirm room assignments for spring semester

Room assignments for spring 2016 (1163) are available on the Class Search. Please review assignments for your department to ensure all classes requiring a general purpose classroom have been assigned. If a class does not need a classroom assignment, please notify ocmsched@umn.edu. 

OCM only finds a general purpose classroom for classes with a blank Facility ID in CCS. If the Facility ID field is populated, OCM will not actively look for a classroom for your class. This includes being populated with a virtual space, such as ROOM000TBA or AHCROOMTBA.

  

Room assignments are subject to change prior to the start of the term. While this usually only affects a small number of classes, OCM encourages instructors to verify their classroom assignment before the first class meeting.

Releasing reserved seats for fall (1159)

If reserved group seats have not been released by departments, OCM will do so for fall 2015 (1159) on Friday, September 4. Reserved group seats are always released the Friday before the first day of class each semester.

You may choose to release reserved seats prior to September 4 to increase enrollment. Guidelines for the Management of Reserved Group Seats are available to help department schedulers determine the appropriate release date. For questions on how to release reserved seats, contact the Student Records Training Team.

Are you offering that class this fall 2015?

There are a large number of classes in the fall 2015 (1159) class schedule that have a room assignment but no enrolled students (or fewer than 6 students enrolled). If you do not plan to offer a class, cancel the class in CCS as soon as possible. Changing the enrollment capacity to zero and checking the "no print" box in CCS will not release the classroom assignment.

Notify OCM Scheduling if you need assistance to cancel a class or moving a small class to a departmental space.

Fall final exam room scheduling to begin soon

Fall 2015 final exam room scheduling will begin mid-September. OCM only schedules final exams for classes that meet in general purpose classrooms. Final exams for classes that meet in departmental space need to be scheduled within the department.

Email OCM Scheduling with any course sections that do not require a classroom during finals week. Use "Fall 2015 Final Exam" for the subject line and the course and section number(s) in the body. 

Additional helpful resources:

• Final exam regulations, Fall 2015
• Fall 2015 final exam schedule
• Fall 2015 common exam times

Save the dates for Scheduling U

All schedulers are encouraged to attend Scheduling U this fall to learn about new information regarding scheduling. Sessions will be held October 26-30, 2015. Offerings will take place on both Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses. More details will be announced soon.

ASR Training Team feedback request

The ASR Training Team is looking for your feedback on one of their training tools. Please take their two-minute survey on the User Productivity Kit (or UPK, for short) - even if you've never used it or heard about it before, because that's important feedback, too.

Reminder: Finding a Class List

For faculty, instructors, and their assigned proxies, the class list and roster information can be accessed through the "Teaching" tab of the new MyU. This opens a list of courses, which can be clicked through to open the Faculty Center and access class rosters either through the class roster icon, that looks like a group of people, or tab. This information can be downloaded to Excel by clicking on the table icon with the red arrow, or printed by clicking the "Printer Friendly Version" link at the bottom of the page. Learn more with the PeopleSoft Faculty Center guide »

Online classes now get "Online" room designation

Online classes previously had their room designations set to Room TBA or No Room Required in the Facility ID field in CCS. This has been updated, and now all Completely Online classes are designated "Online" for their room assignment, so that when a student uses the Class Search this information will display clearly in the list of results. Please share this information with faculty, staff and instructors in your departments.

Welcome to fall semester 2015!

Summer classroom renovations and updates

Several general purpose classrooms received environment or technology updates during the summer, including the following:

·         Major renovations: Ruttan B25, Blegen 317, and Mayo C231 received new furniture, finishes, and lighting updates.  Blegen 245 and 255 were combined to create a larger room.

·         Technology feature upgrades were completed in more than 60 rooms. Room features can be found on the room inventory page.

o   Improvements include: wide-screen video projectors, HDMI input cables, and class capture output connections.

·         New learning spaces added:

o   Thirteen Mondale Hall classrooms were added to the inventory and updated with newer video projectors.  

o   Mayo C231 was added to the inventory and renovated as noted above.  

o   Blegen 317, Appleby 204, and Ford B53 were converted to classrooms and received finish updates.

o   Two more Computer lab classrooms were added to the inventory and are supported in partnership with OIT.

                                                                                                                              

Remember to locate your classroom assignment

Room assignments for fall 2015 are available on the Class Schedule. Please note: room assignments are subject to change prior to the start of term. While this usually only affects a small number of classes, verify your classroom assignment before the first class meeting. If you have specific questions about your room assignment, contact your department scheduling coordinator.

Resource for classroom searches

The General Purpose Classroom Search allows you to view the classroom inventory. You can filter by campus, building, capacity, and/or feature. You can also view room details, including capacities, layout, photo, links to campus maps, and room schedule.

Classroom technology instructions and videos

The classroom technology instructions for each building provide a list of equipment and additional features, as well as a representative image of the instructor station in each classroom. Orientation is available upon request for those who want to learn more about the technology features. For any questions, contact OCM Classroom Support.

Contact us

OCM is available to help with any questions, concerns, or comments regarding general purpose classrooms or central student study spaces. Contact us via the Classroom Support Hotline at 612-625-1086 or classrm@umn.edu.

OCM staff are available for classroom and scheduling-related calls Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Messages left at the hotline are monitored by an on-call manager after hours.