Final examination schedules posted on time for past year
Emily Beaulac
Issue date: 2/20/04 Section: News
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The schedule for winter term final exams is and has been available since Jan. 7. The room assignments will be available Feb. 24 and can be viewed by going to http://www.drexel.edu/admin/sas/exam_schedules.asp.
The finals schedule is always intended to be posted Tuesday of the fourth week of the term, according to Director of Academic Communications Mike Giamo.
In recent years, the schedule has been posted late. A computer program decides available times for each test and does the scheduling so that no student has two at the same time.
"I think it's great that under interim provost Houshmand's leadership the final exam schedule was available in a timely manner," Undergraduate Student Government Association President David Lee said. "The late posting of the exam schedule in the past was inexcusable, and the students of the campus are due better service, and Houshmand has proven that. I commend his office for their efforts and should hope they continue. Drexel students deserve it."
"In the past, there have been many reasons for the delay, such as, not having a full understanding of the computer programming process, departments not sending back information in a timely manner and the fact that Drexel used to use block scheduling," Assistant Director in the Office of Registrar Kim Brown said. "There was a few times when it was computer related. There was data that didn't roll over."
The past four terms, the finals schedule has been posted on time, because about a year ago the process of scheduling was changed, according to Brown. During the first week of the term, an e-mail is sent to every department requesting the class load list and a "yes" or "no" answer as to whether or not each instructor will be giving a final exam.
Brown said that they used to wait for a reply and thus were unable to start the scheduling process until after the second week of the term, when the students' schedules were somewhat finalized.
Now they schedule a final for every class regardless of if a response has been received or not; finals can be removed from the schedule if they are take-home or non-existent.
The computer program takes one week to process information. Every student's schedule is put into the system and processed to fit within the four time blocks available on each of the six days of finals. A master schedule is then formed from this information, according to Brown.
It is still difficult to construct the schedule due to the limited time slots available, but by the eighth week of the term, the room assignments are added, during which the system must take in account how many seats are available in each room.
"I can understand students' concerns about planning spring break and vacation; for faculty as well, but it was a big thing at one time, departments weren't sending back information," Brown said. The information is still requested, but Brown no longer waits for the departments' responses before moving forward in scheduling final exams.
The finals schedule is always intended to be posted Tuesday of the fourth week of the term, according to Director of Academic Communications Mike Giamo.
In recent years, the schedule has been posted late. A computer program decides available times for each test and does the scheduling so that no student has two at the same time.
"I think it's great that under interim provost Houshmand's leadership the final exam schedule was available in a timely manner," Undergraduate Student Government Association President David Lee said. "The late posting of the exam schedule in the past was inexcusable, and the students of the campus are due better service, and Houshmand has proven that. I commend his office for their efforts and should hope they continue. Drexel students deserve it."
"In the past, there have been many reasons for the delay, such as, not having a full understanding of the computer programming process, departments not sending back information in a timely manner and the fact that Drexel used to use block scheduling," Assistant Director in the Office of Registrar Kim Brown said. "There was a few times when it was computer related. There was data that didn't roll over."
The past four terms, the finals schedule has been posted on time, because about a year ago the process of scheduling was changed, according to Brown. During the first week of the term, an e-mail is sent to every department requesting the class load list and a "yes" or "no" answer as to whether or not each instructor will be giving a final exam.
Brown said that they used to wait for a reply and thus were unable to start the scheduling process until after the second week of the term, when the students' schedules were somewhat finalized.
Now they schedule a final for every class regardless of if a response has been received or not; finals can be removed from the schedule if they are take-home or non-existent.
The computer program takes one week to process information. Every student's schedule is put into the system and processed to fit within the four time blocks available on each of the six days of finals. A master schedule is then formed from this information, according to Brown.
It is still difficult to construct the schedule due to the limited time slots available, but by the eighth week of the term, the room assignments are added, during which the system must take in account how many seats are available in each room.
"I can understand students' concerns about planning spring break and vacation; for faculty as well, but it was a big thing at one time, departments weren't sending back information," Brown said. The information is still requested, but Brown no longer waits for the departments' responses before moving forward in scheduling final exams.
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