How do you schedule today? Email to coordinate schedules? Spreadsheets to keep track of equipment? Sign up sheets for conference and classrooms? Posters to publicize events?
Implementing a simple, automated scheduling solution can solve these and other scheduling-related problems typically found on a school or university campus. And when these problems are solved, communication improves, productivity increases, and perhaps most importantly, a demonstrable return on your investment.
Browse through the use scenarios below, or click on the one that most interests you to learn more about how PeopleCube’s suite of scheduling solutions can help your school or university graduate to higher scheduling standards.
Admissions Scheduling
The on-site admissions process is almost all about scheduling. From the campus tour to the interview itself, a prospective student’s time on campus should be managed well in order to leave a lasting impression on both the student and their parents. This is especially true on those visiting days when there tends to be a large number of candidates on campus at the same time.
By implementing WebEvent, prospective students can view the campus tour schedule in advance of their visit and sign-up online. The admissions department can also book the tour guide’s time, making sure they’re where they’re supposed to be using Meeting Maker. Further, the admissions staff can easily view the schedules of their pool of interviewers and schedule them accordingly with a prospect based on availability or specialty.
Resource Scheduler can also be used to reserve all the resources needed for the interviews. For example, there may be a pool of available interview offices. Using Resource Scheduler, either a central admissions administrator can assign an interview to a particular room or the interviewer can schedule it themselves.
Athletics and Recreation
Depending on the size of the school or university, scheduling and reserving the required resources can be extremely challenging. This is especially the case in athletic departments where an inefficient scheduling system will cause double bookings of playing fields and equipment.
By implementing Resource Scheduler, the resources needed can be coordinated and reserved quickly and easily. Whether it be the soccer fields, basketball courts or the weight room, the athletic director can use Resource Scheduler to schedule these resources at specific times for certain teams. They can even make adjustments to any reservation in real-time. This is perfect for those times when field schedules need to be adjusted following a rain out, especially since this change can be communicated via email, the web using WebEvent, or via a mobile device.
Resource Scheduler can also be used for general recreational activities. Students can reserve a single item such as a volleyball or a pool of equipment such as floor hockey sticks. This process comes in handy, particularly since it would be easy to identify who last used the equipment should it be returned damaged or if it simply isn’t returned at all.
Class Scheduling
Every school and university has a need for classroom management software. It’s not just the initial scheduling at the beginning of the semester, but also changes to classroom assignments in mid-year based on a number of factors.
With Resource Scheduler, class scheduling has never been easier. Resource Scheduler class scheduling software allows schedulers to book classrooms based on certain requirements of the class itself. For example, a user can search for and reserve a classroom that has the necessary A/V equipment for a film studies class. You can even easily reassign a room in the event that a class size has outgrown its existing classroom. Resource Scheduler classroom management software can easily show what rooms are available at what times, and you can book them for just one day or every Tuesday from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm during the entire first semester.
Event Calendaring
PeopleCube has a scheduling solution for every component of your campus events. WebEvent, for example, allows individuals or central administrators to post events on a web-based calendar, making it easy for students, faculty, staff and alumni to easily view the event calendars they’re interested in. They can click on any event to learn more about it and then export it into their own calendar. Then, should a change to the event occur, those event “subscribers” can be automatically notified via email or their mobile device. This is particularly useful for athletic departments or clubs that need to publicize their event schedules to a large audience.
Further, Resource Scheduler can be used to reserve the necessary items needed for the event whether it be the dining hall for an alumni event or the soccer field for the varsity team. Simplifying it further, groups of assets such as folding chairs can be reserved, and catering services can be requested all in conjunction with the same reservation.
Facilities Management
It's no secret that much of what school maintenance departments do around campus tends to go unnoticed, yet is crucial to the day-to-day operations of the school or university itself. Because they manage so many different areas, it is essential that the department runs efficiently, and that’s where PeopleCube’s scheduling solutions come in.
Let’s start by scheduling a room. Resource Scheduler allows facility managers to search for and reserve a room with key requirements such as size, A/V capabilities, whiteboard, etc. They can even specify specific set-up and/or teardown times as part of the room reservation. Other services, such as catering, can also be built into the reservation and these services can be billed directly to a cost center by integrating with an accounting system. Further, these costs most likely need to be reviewed and approved. Fortunately, Resource Scheduler supports a centralized (approval-based) reservation environment, a self-service environment, or a combination of the two, making it easy to manage and allocate resources based on your specific environment.
Let’s also look at it from the maintenance perspective. Using Resource Scheduler’s reporting capabilities, resource utilization and other reports can be run to analyze resource utilization. This is especially useful when tracking the maintenance schedule of certain resources, such as when bulbs should be changed in projectors, when monitors should be replaced, or when a room should be repainted.
Resource Scheduler can also be used to help the maintenance department manage their large number of vans, trucks and other pieces of heavy machinery. By using Resource Scheduler, each item can be scheduled by the hour, day or week depending on what piece of equipment it is and how long it will be needed for a particular job. And if that job occurs on a consistent basis, a recurring reservation for that vehicle can be made.
Group Study or Library
Let’s say a group of students need to get together for a study session. That means scheduling the people involved and the location where the session will take place. Without a collaborative scheduling system, this can lead to multiple rounds of emails trying to get the session coordinated with everyone.
Meeting Maker is ideal for scheduling a group of students. Simply select the time, select the attendees, and the location. That's it. The invitation is automatically sent to each attendee at which point they can either accept or decline it. If they accept, the meeting appears on their calendar. The calendar data can even be transferred to their mobile device using NotifyLink for Meeting Maker.
When you need to reserve the room itself, Resource Scheduler is the perfect fit. Sure, they can use it to book the room themselves but maybe you need to have some control over what rooms can be reserved and when. Using Resource Scheduler’s Web Requests module, students can submit room requests to a central administrator who evaluates the request and either approves or denies it.
Resource Scheduler also integrates with PolyVisions's RoomWizard sign displays which make it even easier to schedule the study rooms. These displays, placed outside of each room, show the schedule for that particular room by day, week or month. If a student wants to reserve one of the rooms, they simply use the touch screen to book it for the time needed. In addition, each unit has a red and green LED indicating whether the room is in use or not, helping to prevent interruptions during those all-important study sessions.
Then there’s always Resource Scheduler’s hoteling capabilities. Commonly referred to as flexible workspace, it is a term used when remote staff wants to reserve a shared workstation for a specific period of time. In regards to a library environment, students can use hoteling to reserve small workstations in a particular area, such as the microfilm room or near the reference section, for a select period of time.
Student Union
Usually the central social point on campus, student unions are often THE place to host an event on campus. However, keeping track of these events can be a nightmare, especially for the event coordinator. That’s where Resource Scheduler comes in. Used as a centralized event management system, Resource Scheduler allows event coordinators to manage event components to make sure they're reserved for a specified event, that things are where they should be, and the services required for the event are scheduled properly. In essence, every aspect of the event logistics can be handled through Resource Scheduler, including catering and janitorial services.
Vehicle Scheduling
Many colleges and universities have vehicles that certain faculty, staff and/or students can check out. However, keeping track of who has the cars, when they’re booked and when they will be returned can be difficult. Using Resource Scheduler, users can search for vehicles based on certain criteria (a minivan, a hybrid, four-door, etc.) and reserve them automatically for a set period of time. This not only helps to schedule the cars, it also helps keep track of the users in case a car is not returned or it happens to be returned damaged.
This is also helpful for the maintenance department who tend to manage a large number of vans, trucks and other pieces of heavy machinery. By using Resource Scheduler, each item can be scheduled by the hour, day or week depending on what piece of equipment it is and how long it will be needed for a particular job. And if the van, for example, is always used to transport landscapers around campus in the morning, a recurring reservation can be made within Resource Scheduler. |
