The LRCFT contract does not specify how scheduling should be done! The contract does specify that the dean of a division has the right of assignment.
There are a few factors that determine how sections of courses are offered (without consideration of modality and actual schedule):
In terms of modality and schedule (days of week and time slot), there are many additional factors to consider:
To a certain extent, the scheduling of sections can be adjusted to meet the time constraints of faculty members.
There are some key criteria from the assignment (who teaches what) perspective:
Fully disclosing and examining the politics of section assignments is healthy, practical, and necessary in this discussion.
If there are additional factors that are neglected, please help update this document so that this section is more complete.
Assuming that the main factors are accounted for, some questions may help each colleague evaluate the proposed method. There is no right or wrong answer because value is individual.
Trying to step into a colleague’s shoes helps to expand one’s perspective on this matter. Having an open-minded face-to-face discussion is even better!
Terms:
The following proposed process is flexible. The process includes a rotating priority mechanism for courses by default. The rotating priority ensures an opportunity for every member to request teaching assignments.
However, the proposed process also includes a mechanism for members to close a course from rotating priority. The scope of the closure is variable. Modality and scheduling details add specificality. These additional constraints must be added if the course has multiple offerings in each semester.
A course (or specific sections thereof) that is (are) closed to rotating priority cannot be requested by members who are not on a mutually agreed list. This simply means the course cannot be requested strictly based on the rotating priorities. Members can negotiate on a per-semester basis and trade teaching assignments.
This process also offers a third option. A course can be on the individual preference list of at least one member, but it is not closed to rotating priorities. This announces that the course is preferred by at least one member, but otherwise is available to the rotating priorities process for others to request it without negotiation. Before requesting a course, it is collegial to contact those who express a preference, but still open the course to rotating priorities.
To facilitate better communication and potential collaboration, each full-time faculty member has the option to provide an individual preference list that captures the following information:
As an example, (this is just an example!):
There is no limit to how many courses can be on this individual preference, but the listed courses (and sections thereof) should be regularly taught by the individual, and the individual must be willing to help update the curriculum of the listed courses.
“Regularly” in this context means a high percentage of teaching a course/section whenever the course is offered. In the case of a new faculty member (on tenure track), “regularly” may not be applicable, the qualification can then be based on what courses the individual was hired to teach.
In the case that a course is on one single individual preference, the individual must be responsible for the maintenance and updates of the curriculum.
These lists will be compiled and published to the whole department. The purpose of these lists is to make it clear to all colleagues the preferences of each individual. Courses that do not appear on anyone’s list are, by default, open to rotating priority.
There is a possibility that the initial individual preference lists may have conflicts where at least two faculty members list the same course, and at least one does not open the course to rotating priority. Note that a conflict involves overlapping modalities and possibly scheduling constraints. If there is no such overlap, then there is no conflict to resolve.
In this situation, the preferred method is for the affected faculty members to work it out. The course may be shared by the individuals with an alternating schedule while remaining closed to rotating priority. If the individuals cannot come to a resolution, then the dean is the only person with the authority to determine the scheduling of the course.
The individual preferences can be updated. When a course curriculum is developed, the developer is the only person who can specify the new course in his/her individual preference list.
From the individual preferences, a course preference list is prepared to show the following for each course:
The following is an example:
The purpose of the course preference list is to facilitate an automated method to schedule classes, taking individual preferences and rotating priority into consideration. It also provides a quick way for any colleague who wants to take on a new prep to check whether someone else may be impacted (listed but open to rotating priority) or may need a personal negotiation (closed to rotating priority).
A somewhat random and fair way to change priority per semester is to serialize all possible permutations, and then use a large prime number to step through the generated results. This can be done using a script like the following:
"use strict";
module.paths.unshift('/usr/local/lib/node_modules')
const combinatorics = require('/usr/local/lib/node_modules/js-combinatorics/commonjs/combinatorics.js')
let x = [...(new combinatorics.Permutation([0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]))]
console.log(x.length)
const p = 1000861
for (let i = 0, j=p; i < 20; ++i)
{
console.log(x[j].join(','))
j = (j + p) % 3628800
}
The output of this script is as follows:
2,7,8,5,0,4,6,1,9,3
5,4,7,1,2,0,3,8,6,9
8,2,4,7,1,5,6,3,9,0
1,0,4,5,6,2,3,9,7,8
3,8,0,9,4,5,6,7,2,1
6,4,9,3,5,0,2,1,7,8
9,2,7,0,5,4,8,1,6,3
2,0,6,7,8,1,4,5,3,9
4,8,3,1,7,5,9,2,6,0
7,5,1,8,9,0,3,6,2,4
0,4,1,5,9,6,8,7,3,2
3,0,9,1,2,4,7,5,6,8
5,8,6,4,0,7,1,2,9,3
8,5,4,1,2,0,7,6,3,9
1,4,3,8,2,7,0,6,9,5
4,1,2,5,6,0,8,9,3,7
6,8,9,7,2,4,0,5,3,1
9,5,7,3,4,0,8,1,2,6
2,4,7,0,6,8,3,1,9,5
5,1,4,7,8,0,9,3,2,6
Each faculty member can be assigned a particular position in a list, and each list is for one semester. As a result, this quoted list is enough for about 6 years because there are three chances to sign up for classes per academic year (Fall, Spring and Summer). The complete list has 10 factorial permutations, and the use of a large prime number ensures a fair rotation of all permutations.
For the Fall and Spring semesters, each semester has 3 iterations of requesting sections after courses that are closed to rotating priority are assigned based on the individual preference lists and the course list.
First, courses that are closed to rotating priority are assigned according to the individual preferences and the course preference list. Exceptions can be made on a per-semester basis. A process may be used to confirm the preferences and allow per-semester alterations.
In the first iteration, the priority determines the order in which each faculty member can sign up for up to 0.5 FTE. This means the total FTE request in this iteration cannot exceed an entire section beyond 0.5 FTE. A faculty member who has at least 0.5 FTE of load that is closed to rotating priority does not participate in this iteration.
In the second iteration, the same priority determines the order in which each faculty member can sign up for up to 1.0 FTE. Again, this means the total FTE request of the first and the second iterations combined cannot exceed an entire section beyond 1.0 FTE. A faculty member who has at least 1 FTE of load that is closed to rotating priority does not participate in this iteration.
The third iteration is for overload. Faculty members are offered an opportunity in the same priority assignment to request overload FTEs. Combining the first, second, and third iterations, the total FTE requested cannot exceed 1.4 FTE.
In each iteration, timing is crucial. As soon as an individual submits priority-based requests, the schedule is open to the person with the immediately lower priority. The system times out and moves on to the next person if no requests are made within the allotted amount of time.