Student Success

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Academic Planning For Equitable Success

Program Status: Monitor/Assess

The AASCU Project has concluded, but work still continues to improve Portland State University’s strategic scheduling.  This includes installing new software, new measuring tools and creating cultural shift around integrating schedules for student success. Although the AASCU Project has concluded, Portland State University is still actively working to enhance its strategic scheduling. This ongoing effort involves implementing new software, developing new measuring tools, and fostering a cultural change aimed at integrating schedules more effectively to support student success.

Accomplished

  • Universal Waitlist Policy and Implemented the Universal Waitlist Policy, which included a new community hour.
  • Developed new Waitlist Monitoring tools, supported by weekly reporting and recommendations.
  • Adjusted the time grid for Winter and Spring terms to align with the new institutional schedule.
  • Conducted a Pulse survey on waitlist outcomes for Fall term students and developed a corresponding report.
  • Successfully concluded the AASCU Project, yielding new recommendations for improving schedule success.
  • Participated in presentations sharing our process of change.

In Progress

  • Ad Astra Essential Scheduling Acquisition: We acquired Ad Astra Essential Scheduling, a platform that facilitates cross-personnel collaboration and provides real-time planning tools and benchmarking data via enrollment monitoring fields.
  • Initial Implementation: A pilot group has been selected and trained for the initial phase of Ad Astra data entry.
  • Course Planning Tool Development: We are currently developing training materials for course planning that utilize Ad Astra data.
  • AI Investigation: We are investigating the potential use of AI to develop integrated and complex course scheduling plans.

Project Health 

Measuring progress should consider these factors:

  • The implementation timeline for new software is inherently protracted.
  • Achieving necessary schedule alignment requires a significant commitment to institutional culture change.
  • Preliminary changes are discouraged pending the outcomes of the Pivot project and the General Education Reform.

Project Team

Executive Sponsor: Shelly Chabon
Leads: Katherine Barich
Team: Nicolle DuPont, Andrea Garrity, Amy Mulkerin, Cristina Herreral
Collaborators: Office of Information Technology, Registrar's Office, Office of Student Success