Building a Room Optimization Process Best Practices

Why do you need a documented optimization process?

Ad Astra’s room optimization tools are handy for bulk room scheduling term over term, scenario modeling based on space changes, and overall, making your room assignment process easier and more efficient. 

Using this tool requires proper configuration of scheduling preferences, determining your sandbox setup, and understanding how to interpret and work with the results of your optimization runs.  With all these moving parts, documenting your process is critical to replicating how you use the tool (with tweaks of course) every single term. 

Optimization Guidebook

Ad Astra recommends working with your schedule building stakeholders across campus to determine the best process to fit the needs of your institution.  That said, we are also all about providing best practices to help get you started on your journey to creating your process.  We have created a downloadable guide that breaks out the process into five parts:

1. Section Validation Phase: import your new section data, ensure its accuracy, and update your preferences
2. The Setup: configure your sandbox to meet your institutional needs
3. Results Review: interpret your results and adjust bottleneck and infeasible sections accordingly
4. Layering Process: continue to layer in additional optimization runs based on your setup and institutional needs
5. Publish Results and Final Data Validation: feel confident in your more efficient and well-executed room assignment process and send it back to your SIS!

Continue the Conversation

Building a process around any kind of scheduling takes teamwork. Connect with other Ad Astra clients in our community on their optimization process to find best practices and other discussions!