Free up resources by setting start and end dates for short courses (partial semester)

Last month we talked about the leanest updates of the year, hiding 'deleted' items. This month's entry may easily qualify as the year's most significant update. This change initially emanates from our non-law school clients and seems to be somewhat of a staple when the subject is not legal studies. We call this feature Short Course support.

A short course is simply a class that does not run the full length of the semester. While I can describe the update using the word 'simply,' I can tell you that there was nothing simple about building in support for this feature as it touches nearly every step of the ofCourse workflow.

But now, after entering a class, you can attach a start and stop date to the class so that it only occupies a professor and a room for part of the semester. Obviously, you can to stack those short courses up like corded firewood moving classes in and out of rooms reserved for these abbreviated sessions. Of course, the scheduling algorithm and collision management system will account for these mini-sessions as you'd expect. Further, the schedule views, private and public, have also been augmented to properly highlight these unique courses.

Given the size of the update, it is a little surprising how quickly it can be described. Perhaps that is because of all the work we put into the update. It doesn't seem right that the biggest update in a while gets the shortest write-up ever. I guess this is a case where we will have the let the feature do its own talking.

If you are an existing client and would like short course support enabled for your school drop us a note, and we will get things turned on for you.

As always, see you on the scheduling pitch.

Troy