Scheduling Procedure for Classrooms

Guidelines for Classrooms

• All classrooms are shared to support campus needs.
• Classrooms may be allotted to individual departments, but the room assignments are not considered permanent. These rooms may be reallocated as the needs, priorities, and demands of the university change.
• Credit-bearing courses and class events have priority over all other activities that would like to use the classroom.
• Planning and distributing classes across all days of the week and all hours of the day are strongly encouraged to departments to ensure the maximum use of classrooms and to minimize class conflicts for students.
• Departments or programs should make the maximum use of the enrollment capacity of a room where their course is scheduled. Capacity will default to the size of the classroom.
• Broader utilization of classrooms campus-wide throughout the day. (Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
• Stand start times are to be used. If a non-standard time is used it will be processed on a space- available basis after all other courses are scheduled.
• All events and other activities will use the scheduling software so, there is consistency.

For further information on classrooms, click here.

To Schedule a course

• Courses must have start and end dates that fall within the academic calendar for fall, spring and summer semester.
• Meeting patterns should be followed to meet the total number of hours in a week.

Prime hours are between 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

• Monday-Wednesday-Friday Classes
• Daytime classes begin on the hour before 4 p.m.
  • Class length is 50 minutes
  • Three-hour classes are schedule in three 50-minute blocks
  • Two-hour classes follow the same guidelines but may choose any combination of M/W/F
  • Four-hours classes can be scheduled any day following the guidelines
• Tuesday-Thursday Classes
  • Class length is 75 minutes
  • Day classes begin at 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
• Extended Day classes
  • Courses scheduled after 4 p.m. typically are scheduled with 50 weekly contact minutes per credit.
  • Evening classes must conclude by 10 p.m.

Deviation from standard meeting patterns

• Courses that receive prior approval may deviate from the scheduled time patterns reflected. Approval will be granted on a case-by-case basis and changes will be approved only if the standard patterns will not meet the needs of the department and are in the best interest of students and the University.

MSU defines one undergraduate credit hour as a minimum of 750 minutes of direct instructional time combined with a minimum of 1,800 minutes of out-of-class student work per semester. This definition applies to all course lengths. For example, in a 16-week semester, one credit hour would equate to 50 minutes of direct instructional time combined with 120 minutes or two hours of out-of-class work per week.  In a compressed 8-week session, one credit hour would equate to 100 minutes of direct instructional time combined with 240 minutes or four hours of out-of-class work per week. Similarly, in courses such as those offered online in which seat time does not apply, one credit hour may be measured by equivalent student learning outcomes and expectations for a face-to-face section as demonstrated by student achievement. For graduate courses, one credit hour is defined as a minimum of 50 minutes of direct instructional time combined with 120 minutes of out-of-class work per week, or a reasonable equivalent.

One credit hour assigned to an academic experience that involves guided instruction and explores concepts in an applied fashion (these may include clinicals, internships, labs, private lessons, and studio classes) should display an equivalent amount of work, even though these activities may occur in both University and non-university settings, as well as non-classroom environments.

Minimum Class Capacity Size

• Each course will have a minimum capacity of 25 for on-campus or 30 for online courses.
• Each course will default to 10 and the minimum is 5 in certain instances for the waitlist.
  • If an online asynchronous course has a full 10 student waitlist the department will open a new section, and 10 students will be enrolled into the new section with the waitlist process will run overnight and pull the ten off the waitlist. This must be done prior to the semester starting as it will have consequences with Blackboard.
  • If an online synchronous or on-campus section waitlist is full at 10, the department will need to open a new section and email the students on the waitlist that a new section is open and includes the new class number. This must be done prior to the semester starting as it will have consequences with Blackboard.
• A course will not be split unless it has approval from the VPAA or AVPAA. The course must be full, and the waitlist must have students on it.

Please note, the Minimum Class Capacity Size is different than the Minimum Class Size Policy.

Location of Students

Courses will not have a location requirement for online asynchronous or online synchronous.  Department consent will not be added to any course regardless of location or program.