Track classroom features with Room Amenities

For the most part teaching rooms these days are pretty comparably equipped. Smartboard. Check. Projection. Check. Ada access. Check.

Fifteen years ago this was not so much the case, and you had to be careful about the placement of certain courses because of the professor or course's pedagogical needs. But these technologies have become more affordable and accessible making it less of a problem. Additionally, the construction of new buildings and the renovation of old buildings further addressed any lingering room inequities. But, as with so many things, we found ways to recomplicate matters.

So perhaps you no longer have to track which rooms have a Smartboard, but you may have spaces with 'other' characteristics, which can play into your schedule. Perhaps you have classes that would benefit by having a courtroom style layout. Or maybe the smaller research and writing courses have rooms that better lend themselves to those curricular needs. Or some rooms work for seminars while others not so much.

No matter the quirk, using our new Room Amenities feature, you can make such requests of your end schedule. And, these room amenity assignments do not have to happen at the course level but can be set differently for each course-professor pairing. Meaning if you're offering three sections of Contracts but only one of the professors has an individual need, then you can request it for the single section and let the others be scheduled more broadly.

This is not the sort of thing that gets used a whole lot, but when you need it, you tend to REALLY need it. And, as with so many of the features and functions in the ofCourse system, this set-it-and-forget-it approach helps you collect full breaths of air in the day and get full rounds of sleep in the night.

If you are a current client and not yet using the feature but would like to start, drop us a note, and we'll get you set up straight away. We can have you adequately out-fitted with little effort.

As always, see you on the scheduling pitch.

Troy.