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Guidelines Regarding Time Schedule and Room Changes

Overview

Teaching is best done when the schedule and rooms are desirable. HCDE Instructors (including faculty, part-time lecturers, and pre-doctoral instructors) occasionally want to request changes in order to make the schedule and rooms more desirable. This policy/procedure document lays out how to go about requesting a schedule change and/or a room change. 

Based on the situation, anyone wanting to make a change will need to contact the program director associated with the course they are teaching, with the program coordinator CCed:

  • BS program director (currently Brock Craft)
  • MS program co-director (currently Mark Zachry)
  • PhD program director (currently Sean Munson)
  • Program coordinator (currently Alanna Daniels)

Importantly, change requests should be made as far in advance as possible--late changes can have negative impacts on students’ schedules as well as impacts on their ability to complete curricular requirements. 

  • Schedule changes should be requested at least 3 weeks before Period 1 registration begins for a given term. Requests made after this timeline are unlikely to be possible. 
  • Room changes should be requested at least 3 weeks before the quarter begins. Requests made after this timeline may not be possible. 

Schedule Change Requests

  1. When and where can I see the schedule?
    • A visual schedule is available relatively far ahead of each quarter. 
      • Autumn available January prior (Autumn 2024 is here)
      • Winter available June prior (Winter 2025 is here)
      • Spring available September prior (Spring 2025 is here)
      • Summer available in December prior (Summer 2025 forthcoming)
      • Note: Links that are available prior to the described availability timeline may be incomplete. For example, as of the time of this writing (May 2024), MS and PhD classes have not yet been scheduled for winter 2025. Once the courses are scheduled, the link will show them.  
    • You can also confirm the time and the room assignment through the Time Schedule once it is available (the specific Time Schedule publication date for upcoming terms can be found in the Time Schedule Production Calendar)
  2. What is important for anyone requesting a change to acknowledge, i.e., what has already gone into the schedule, as context for any requests:
    • Many considerations have already been taken into account.
    • Scheduling decisions involve tradeoffs and compromises. 
    • Changes to course scheduling are difficult to make as the beginning of a term approaches.
    • MS courses are scheduled to ensure students needing different kinds of courses can take them
    • BS courses are scheduled so there is no (or minimal) overlap between 3xx courses and between 4xx courses. 
    • Course times are often chosen to optimize use of specific classroom resources. 
    • Course times also must align with UW policy: Learning Spaces Policy.
    • Course times are often chosen to pre-emptively address calendar situations where holidays cause great disruption in the number of sessions (e.g., avoiding Monday classes in Winter because we tend to lose 2-3 Mondays). 
  3. What is the process for a schedule change request / Who approves the request? 
    • To request a change, an educator should reach out to the director of the program and cc the program coordinator. 
    • The program director will review the request, taking into account the criteria shown below and coordinating with others (such as program advisers) in order to fully understand possible impacts.
    • If the program director approves the request, they will submit a ticket using the Time Schedule Change Request Form (in Course Manager).
    • The program coordinator will then submit the request system to the Time Schedule office for processing, pending approval by the Time Schedule Office.
  4. What is the timeline for schedule change requests?
    • Schedule changes must be requested 3 weeks before Period 1 registration opens (see the UW Academic Calendar for quarterly registration dates), so it doesn’t impact students. Any changes requested after that point are extremely complicated and may not be possible. 
    • Changes typically take 7-14 business days or more, depending on the complexity of the request. This includes the initial request to the program coordinator and the wait times from the central Time Schedule Office.
  5. What are common reasons for the requests?
    • Reasons that are sometimes given
      • Disability accommodations/accessibility concerns
      • Childcare/family concerns (should be discussed by the program director and associate chair and/or chair to determine whether another course of action, such as swapping instructors, may be possible)
      • This time presents serious challenges for my commute.
      • I don’t want to teach back-to-back classes / I do want to teach back-to-back classes / don’t want to teach a late class followed by an early morning class/meeting
    • Criteria that guide decision making
      • What is in the best interest of the program 
      • What is in the best interest of students 
      • What is in the best interest of the educator
      • Impacts on other programs (for example, a change to a PhD course that could impact a BS course)
      • In many cases, tradeoffs must be made between these criteria. 

Room Change Requests 

  1. When and where can I see room assignments? 
  2. What is important for anyone requesting a change to acknowledge as context for requests? 
    • In some cases, a room change request has already been made. This happens when the initial room assignment is noted as problematic by a program director, a program adviser, or the program coordinator. The list of existing room requests and their status can be reviewed here. 
    • Many considerations go into the initial room assignments including information about room needs currently known by the program directors (and captured in the internal tool, Airtable). The internal tool has information on each class taught by HCDE. 
    • Room assignments for some rooms involve aligning with stated prioritizations. The program directors maintain a prioritization list for each of HCDE’s “design labs” and also a prioritization list that is used when assigning classes to rooms shared between ECE, HCDE, and ISE.
    • Tried to make considerations, this is where we ended up. It is hard to make changes down the road.
    • In general, there is a goal of putting design and project-based courses in one of the design labs. 
    • The HCDE design labs are highly sought after as teaching spaces.
    • There is a goal of putting research/discussion classes into more seminar style rooms with tables.
    • There is a goal of keeping HCDE classes close to Sieg Building, and trying to avoid south campus room assignments if possible. 
  3. What is the process for a request / who approves the request?
    • To request a change, an educator should reach out to the program director with the request, copying the program coordinator.
    • The program director will review the request, taking into account the criteria shown below and coordinating with others (such as program advisers) in order to fully understand possible impacts. 
    • If the program director approves the request, the program director will submit a ticket in the Time Schedule Change Request Form (in Course Manager).
    • The program coordinator will then submit the request system to the Time Schedule office for processing, pending approval by the Time Schedule Office.
    • If the program coordinator believes it is not possible to accommodate the request / is not sure how to accommodate the request, they will explain that in an email that includes the program director. If the instructor wants to continue the conversation, they can work with the program director.
  4. What is the timeline for requests?
    • Room changes that will not result in a schedule change must be requested 3 weeks before the quarter starts (see the UW Academic Calendar for dates of instruction for each quarter). Changes requested after that point are complicated and may not always be possible. For room changes that would also require a schedule change, refer instead to the timeline described in “Schedule Change Requests” above.
    • Changes typically take 7-10 business days or more, depending on the complexity of the request. This includes the initial request to the program coordinator and the wait times from the central Time Schedule Office to update the room.
  5. What are common reasons for the requests?
    • Reasons that are sometimes given
      • Room is in disrepair; Facilities issues with the assigned room
      • I teach back-to-back classes and my class locations are on opposite sides of campus
      • This room does not have the features necessary for the course pedagogy
      • Disability accommodations/accessibility concerns
    • Criteria
      • What is in the best interest of the program
      • What is in the best interest of students 
      • What is in the best interest of the educator
      • Impacts on other programs (for example, a change to a PhD course that could impact a BS course)
      • In many cases, tradeoffs must be made between these criteria. 

General note: This guidelines document does not address changes made by program directors themselves (and other departmental leaders) such as changes to course staffing, course offerings, course capacity, and instructional support). Guidelines associated with these changes are in a separate document.