Using Celcat as a driver for cultural change, improving space utilisation by 52%.
Project summary
Suffolk wanted to use specialised timetabling software, as a driver for cultural change which would see better use of resources across all activities. The primary objectives were to:
- Improve space utilisation
- Reduce general purpose teaching space on campus
- Reduce time spent on room allocation
- Synchronise activities between the timetabling system and Microsoft Exchange and equivalent platforms.
The University of Suffolk was already using the Tribal SITS student information system to record events, but these were manually scheduled by course teams across the institution with no collaboration and then roomed by the Academic Rooming team.
- Students (circa) 9,600
- Locations 6
- Client since 2005
- Extensions used Attendance Monitoring
Background
The University of Suffolk is based in Ipswich, with partner colleges across the region in Bury St. Edmunds, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, and another location in Ipswich. The university operates six academic schools.
Solution
Appointed in June, Celcat worked with the Suffolk teams with the aim of a live implementation 15 months later. The project included integration with:
- Tribal SITS, student record system
- Omnivex, digital signage software
- Microsoft Exchange, email and calendar
- Telepen, attendance monitoring
- OASIS (the University’s implementation of Tribal’s eVision), accessing course level timetables
- SQL Server Reporting Services, operational reporting
- Active Directory, verifying student status
- Northgate Resource Link, staff information system
Following integration, a pilot was run, with participation which included student ambassadors and academic members, to complete user acceptance testing. Celcat Automation was used to auto-allocate general purpose teaching space and draft timetables for academics and then for individual students were created and tested. This included synchronisation with personal Office 365 calendars, followed by the introduction of Room Booker, allowing staff to search for suitable and available ad-hoc space.
Benefits in first year of operation
Space utilisation
By making effective use of Celcat Automation, the utilisation rate for general purpose teaching space was 32%, as was the predicted utilisation rate for the year based on allocated room usage and cohort size. This was a 52% improvement, leading directly to cash savings.
Celcat Automation also highlighted several opportunities to cease using two buildings altogether (including the 196 seat Atrium) and to reduce the number of General Purpose Teaching rooms on campus by 15%, from 46 to 39, creating further savings.
Calendar synchronisation: improved student experience
Calendar synchronisation of teaching timetables with Microsoft Exchange and Office 365 for both staff and students, gave accessibility to both groups and ensured information was updated automatically when changed centrally.
In the second term after implementation, postgraduate and second year undergraduate students were surveyed. Respondents were asked “Overall has the change to timetabling processes been a positive or negative experience for you?” and over 75% of the respondents stated it was positive.
Accessibility of student timetables via Outlook was considered useful by over 95% of these respondents, which would indicate that the synchronisation of timetables into Outlook is of significant benefit to the student experience, as one student who responded to the survey noted:
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