Schedule Building FAQ's

Selected WSU employees who build the Schedule of Courses by entering and modifying the necessary schedule information into Banner.

• Banner is an administrative software application developed specifically for higher education institutions by ELLUCIAN. Banner maintains student, faculty, course, alumni, financial aid and personnel data. Banner works with other software like WSU Reporting, Reporting Services, and Banner Self Service to input and pull information.
• Banner is where Schedule Builders will create and modify the Schedule of Courses.

Schedule Builders will work with their respective department chair and the department faculty directly to determine what classes will be offered. Please check with your supervisor on how this will be handled in your department. You will also have some of the previous year’s course offerings rolled for you as a starting point.

Rolling classes refers to the process of pulling courses from the previous corresponding semester into the target semester for departments to use as a starting point for building the schedule. For example, Spring 2020 rolls to Spring 2021 and Summer and Fall 2020 rolls to Summer and Fall 2021. The Registrar will roll the schedule and send Schedule Building instructions to the department chairs when the roll is completed and available for schedule building.

• Access WSU Reporting RO00082-Schedule of Courses to view what has been rolled for your respective department. Please note that all details of a CRN will not roll; for example, instructor, notes, and room do not roll. Schedule builders will update the CRNs created by the roll, as well as create new ones that are needed.
• See additional information regarding "Details of a Course Schedule Roll" here.

• WSU Reporting is a software that contains reports that pull information from Banner into easy to access and read reports. WSU Reporting is used to view the current schedule of courses and any changes that have been entered in Banner.

• Schedule Builders are granted access by the Registrar's Office to the Schedule Building folder within WSU Reporting. The folder contains various reports to be used for the schedule building process.
• For a complete listing of Schedule Building reports please visit the Schedule Building website.  wichita.edu/schedulebuilding  

• Twice a year in July and December.
• July training to enter the following Spring schedule and December for the following Summer and Fall schedules. 
• An email announcement will go out through WSU Today notifying employees when Schedule Building training will be offered.
• The full schedule building training is a 2-day training session and registration is available through myTraining. The training includes Banner Navigation, Banner Schedule Building pages, and WSU Reporting.
• For Schedule Builders who have previously completed Schedule Building training, a Schedule Building Overview session is offered. Register through myTraining.
• Schedule Building open labs are offered weekly during Schedule Building for questions and assistance. Register through myTraining for available sessions.

Department chairs must submit a request to stusecurityaccess@wichita.edu for access and training for Schedule Builders. This must be completed in ample time prior to when schedule building training occurs.

• Schedule Builders have access to view Banner forms at the catalog and schedule level. Schedule builders can create courses at the schedule level but only view the catalog.
  • Catalog= Registrar's level where courses are built: Modifications can’t be made at this level. Example: English 101
  • Schedule= days, time, hours, instructor, etc. Schedule Builders can modify this. Example: English 101, Fall 2021 MWF 9:30-10:45
  • Changes to existing courses or creation of new courses are completed via CourseLeaf CIM course proposal forms (link found in myWSU). A section of a course cannot be created until a course is completely through the CIM workflow approval process.

• Course Inventory Management or CIM allows departments to propose changes to courses and programs. Changes to courses include, changing a title or description, creating a new course, etc.
  
• Registration for CIM training is available in myTraining.
• Sally Fiscus is the Registrar point of contact for any CIM requests or inquiries. Sally.Fiscus@wichita.edu 

•  CRN or Course Registration Number - The number Banner assigns a particular class after it’s created for a specific semester.
• New CRN’s are added when a semester is rolled or when a Schedule Builder creates them.
  
• There are a limited number of CRNs provided to create the schedule with each semester, so it is important not to delete all rolled CRNs if they can be reused. Schedule Builders can create new and delete CRNs as needed during schedule building.
• Fall CRNs begin with 1, Spring with 2, and Summer with 3.
  

• A part of term is a block of time that a course is offered – the date when a class begins and ends. The RO establishes the start and end dates for each part of term in each semester. Schedule Builders are required to enter the correct POT that best fits these dates for their course.
• The POT impacts fees, refunds, grading.
• The POT’s that are included in the semester roll are 1, 1S, F10, S10 810 820
• A detailed part of term template for each term is located on the Schedule Building website.

• This is the method in which the class will be taught. It is the responsibility of Schedule Builders to know and understand the differences between all instructional methods used for each term.
• Complete details on Instructional Method are listed on the Schedule Building website.

• Cross-listing is when two equivalent CRN's, typically from different departments, have the same instructor, instructional method, and meeting time and place.
  
  • For example, CRN pairs of ENGL 536 & WOMS 536 are equivalent and may be cross-listed.
•   Cross-listing is done by schedule building staff in the Registrar's office. Send cross-listed classes during schedule building in this format:
  • Subj/Course # & CRN of cross-listed CRN's, i.e., ENGL 536 (26266)/WOMS 536 (26250)
• Cross-listed CRNs must be sent to schedule building before schedule building closes.

• View the Schedule Building website, WSU Today and the Schedule Building Memo for important dates and deadlines.
• After schedule building closes, Schedule Builders can no longer enter information or make changes in Banner for the schedule. Requests must be sent to schedulebuilding@wichita.edu with any additional changes.

Room scheduling is mostly done by the Registrar's Office.  After departmental schedule building is over, The Registrar's Office uses a process called "optimization" in a room scheduling software referred to as "EMS." During optimization the software assigns rooms based on preferences, meeting days/times, and quotas. It assigns rooms to all classes that do not need labs, specialized, or seminar/conference rooms located within offices.

During departmental schedule building:

1. Schedule builders CAN assign classes to their department's labs, specialized and seminar/conference rooms that are located within offices.*
2. Schedule builders CANNOT assign classes to general use classrooms- classes that do not require lab, specialized, or seminar/conference rooms that are located within offices.*

*Seminar/conference rooms that are not located within offices are considered general use, not to be assigned by schedule builders.