Allocation Definitions
Allocations
Described as the total shares available for use during a specific class period. An Academic Unit will be assigned a specific number of allowed shares per class period by the Office of the Registrar in accordance with anticipated need.
Active Usage
The number of allocation shares that an Academic Unit is using at each day and class period. This is sometimes known as “Actual Usage.” Every approved section by the Academic Unit at any given day and class period, including cross-referenced and co-existing sections are included in this number.
Time Slots
Defined as each one-hour period during an instructional day. For example, Monday 2:30 – 3:29 p.m. and Thursday 12:30 – 1:29 p.m. are each considered individual time slots. In many cases, 'class period' and 'time slot' are used interchangeably to refer to scheduled blocks of time.
Charged Allocation Usage
Charged allocation usage represents the number of allocation shares that an Academic Unit is charged for each class period. Similar to "Actual Usage,” each class period has its own "Charged Usage" value. Sometimes this is also referred to as "Active Charge.' Most of the time, this number is the same as the 'Actual Usage', except when cross-referenced and/or co-existing sections occur.
Use of Departmental Allocation
- All instruction scheduled on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. through 6:20 p.m. for which university classroom space is requested will be charged against the departmental allocation. Departments that make little or no use of university classrooms are not included in the departmental class-hour allocations. Currently allocations are not assessed in summer sessions.
- Each department is restricted to scheduling no more than its class-period allocation at any one hour in university rooms.
- Once the allocation has been met for a given time slot, a department will not be allowed to schedule additional classes at those hours in university classrooms. An alternate time slot offering a lower allocation offering would have to be selected for any additional course additions.
- Currently, instruction scheduled during the evening (after 6:30 p.m.) or Saturday will not be counted against the allocation. However, if usage of evening hours increases, it may be necessary monitor evening hours in the future.
- To measure past departmental room use and to calculate allocations, all cross-referenced courses are applied to the contact hours of the designated Administrative Home. Coexisting courses will be charged once within the course grouping.
- Each department is responsible for calculating its own departmental allocation and adhering to scheduling policies. Course Offerings will be checked for adherence to the allocation and regulations. Course offerings which do not comply will be returned to the department with instructions for adjustment. Assignment of the classrooms to the department will be delayed until the copy is returned appropriately altered.
How Allocation Usage is Determined
- The total number of section offerings by an Academic Unit in each class period is summed and compared against its total allocation figure to assess compliance with the published scheduling policy on the Office of the Registrar website.
- An Academic Unit's total shares by class period are totaled and compared to the total allocation value. These values should match, or adjustments will be made.
- If an offering occupies more than 30 minutes of a class period, that's "1" share.
- If an offering occupies between 15 and 30 minutes of a class periods, that's 0.5" share.
- If an offering occupies less than 15 minutes of a class period, no share is charged.
Co-Existing and Cross-Reference Allocation Usage
Cross-Referenced Courses
For cross-referenced courses, the administrative home is the only one that gets charged. For example, if Art and History has a cross-referenced course with Museum Studies and Art is the administrative home, only Art gets charged.
Co-Exist, Single Academic Unit
For co-existing courses within a single Academic Unit, only the lowest numbered course gets charged. For example, if Biology has an lower and upper course, BIOL:3172 w/ BIOL:5172, only BIOL:3172 gets charged.
Co-Exist, Multiple Sections in Same Academic Unit
For co-existing sections within a single course of an Academic Unit, only the lowest numbered section gets charged. For example, if History has three sections listed as co-existing with each other, HIST:1001:0001, 0002, and 0003, only HIST:1001:0001 gets charged. Sections 0002 and 0003 will appear in Charged Usage lists, but with charges of zero (0) to confirm there is no charge.
Co-Exist Between Different Academic Units
For co-existing courses between different Academic Units, both units get charged for use of the classroom.
Rare Occurrences
In the rare cases where a mix of co-existing and cross-reference courses with courses from different Academic units occur, the charges would be as follows: SJUS:3400:0001 is cross-referenced with GWSS:3400:0001. SJUS is the admin home. SJUS:3400:0001 is co-existing with GWSS:3900:0001. The allocation charge for classroom use is SJUS:3400:0001 since it is the Admin Home for the cross reference and the lowest number course in the co-existing group. Note: in this scenario, SJUS & GWSS belong to the same Academic Unit.
The Class Allocation Teaching Hour Pizza
Each Academic Unit Uses a Slice of the Teaching Hour Pizza
Imagine the entire teaching day as a whole pizza. This pizza (aka UCR classroom pool) represents all the periods available throughout the day.
Within this pizza, or our class room pool, there are a set number of teaching periods (or slices) that make up the whole pie that can be assigned.
This whole pizza now represents each teaching hour, 8:30 - 9:20 a.m.
Each academic unit is provided an allocation share or pizza slices within this teaching hour to utilize without exceeding the figure.
The Bottom Line: Exceeding your allocation = no pizza slices left to allocate.
Compliance with Allocation Allotments
How to Distribute Sections While Meeting Compliance
- Instruction should be scheduled from 8:30 a.m. through 6:20 p.m. through the teaching week, Monday through Friday
- Don't forget to use evening hours; they're free!
- Distribute evenly between MWF and TTh offerings
- If a time slot is met, select a less-used slot for additional section additions or revisions
- Only administrative home courses count towards the department's allocation
- Note: the lower number of the co-existing section will be included in allocation count
- Any non-standard class times will count against the class hours crossed
- Utilize reports to guide course scheduling
Allocation Information in MAUI
Allocations: Then and Now
Prior to recent enhancements in MAUI and reporting, more manual work was being done by departments and Classroom Scheduling to monitor allocation usage. Much of the process was behind the scenes and there were challenges reporting out allocation information to departments.
New tools have been integrated into MAUI which make allocation data visible and intuitive. Departments can view their allocations during a chosen semester as well as within individual course sections. Adherence to allocation usage can now be tracked throughout the semester, providing more equity across departments.
These tools are accessible within the individual course section and also within the Section Heatmap by Day & Time report and other related reports.
Planner Open and Planner Closed
When the planner is Open the department can link directly into a course section in the new allocations table. When the planner is Closed, the "view" link in this area is not present.
Allocation Information within Course Section
A new "View Allocation Summary" link is now present within each course section in Offerings Planner. The link is below the Time/Location link.
Selecting the "View Allocation Summary" link takes the user into the Time/Location panel where a table displays the section's meeting pattern information, allocations charged for the section, and overall allocations charged during that time period across all sections within the Academic Unit.
Above the allocations table in the time/location panel is a link to the Section Heatmap by Day & Time report. The user must provide the following information to generate results:
- Session
- College
- Academic Unit
- Room Category (Select all, University Classroom, Programmed Space, Specialty Space)
- Planner Status (Select All, Approved, Planning, Pending Initial Approval, Pending Approval
Course Sections Not Using a University Classroom
The "View Allocation Summary" link is also present for sections not using a university classroom. Selecting the link takes the user to the "Actual Usage vs. Allocations" table with "No Official Allocations were found" listed.
Section Heatmap Day & Time Report
The section heatmap by day & time report provides vital information for departments regarding allocation usage.
This graph displays the actual usage by scheduled, on-campus sections at 15-minute intervals throughout the week. It highlights daily and hourly trends, peak and underutilized periods, and the distribution of class times on MWF versus TTh. Clicking on an interval generates a detailed list of sections that cross that interval using the selected values in the dropdowns. This list will appear below the graph. A legend detailing what colors are associated with which numbers appear to the right of the graph. Overall, these insights help optimize scheduling and classroom resource allocation.
The report provides the following information:
- 15 minute time intervals are listed vertically on the left side of the report.
- Days of the week are listed horizontally across the bottom of the report.
- A "temperature" graphic runs vertically along the right side of the report. Green indicates no allocations used, or within the allotted allocation, with varying shades of green, yellow, orange, and then red. Red indicates allocations are close to being reached or have been reached.
- Within the report itself there is a number within each half hour time block for each day of the week indicating how many allocations have been used during that time block. Cells are color-coded based on allocations used.
- Hovering over a cell provides more detailed information such as "Thursday has 15 sections at 11:00 a.m."
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- Clicking on a cell with a number greater than zero generates information at the bottom of the report. Please Note: You will likely need to scroll down to access this data. A list of the course sections across the academic unit which are using allocations during the selected time block are listed.
- Information included: Course, Course Title, Time/Location, Primary Instructor, Planner Status, Room Category, Section ID and TimeLocRef ID.
Example of Maximum Allocation Periods Reached
The heat map will show time periods where maximum allocations have been reached in dark red.
Departments should reference the heat map to ensure additional sections are not scheduled during the time periods where no more allocations are available.
Classroom Scheduling will monitor allocations and may contact the department to request adjustments be made if departments go above their allowed allocations.
Allocations Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What if I can't move my course sections? The class must be scheduled at this time.
A: The department should consider the following possible resolutions:
- Add seats to expand sections already on the schedule
- Modify and redistribute the class time or day to a lesser-used class time, or consider rescheduling another course section if meeting during that time period is not critical
- Use a departmental specialty space (see note below)
- Classroom scheduling may randomly reassign the section to a less busy class time block and make your original time slot available for the other department's course section.
Note: When over your allocation share for a class time slot, moving to a departmental special space is a "catch 22." In doing so, you've lowered your class hour need for the next like semester (fall to fall) which may affect your future allocations.
Q: What if a day/time/UCR I really want shows available on the Astra view, but I am over my allocation shares?
A: A shift can occur in your scheduling assignments to redistribute shares WITHIN your allocation total. Unreserved rooms are prioritized for sections with growing enrollment during key enrollment periods (i.e., early registration and orientation).
Q: My department is over the allotted allocations for a time period. How will I know if a course section is getting reassigned to a different time block?
A:
Additional Reports
In addition to the heat map report, the following resources are available to help departments create their schedule of courses while complying with allocation allotments.
Ad Astra Allocation Summary Report - Summary of allocation data from Ad Astra based on pre-session load. Use the tabs across the top of the page to switch your view.
Course Enrollment Capacity Trend - This report consists of the following data parameters: section count, average optimum enroll count, average enroll count, average vacant count and average fill rate, and average enrollment by academic year for the courses selected.
Schedule Conflict Finder - This report identifies potential scheduling conflicts or "collisions" across different statuses between colleges and courses.
View All Classroom Scheduling Reports
Additional Help with Class Allocations
