Positive ROI at Laguna College with Coursedog

"The system has saved me a lot of time (i.e. no paper, no spreadsheets…just Coursedog), and I’m able to complete the scheduling in one day as opposed to over several days as I had to do before."

When and why did you decide to look for class scheduling software?

Our English as a Second Language classes do not fit the typical University of Miami class schedule. As a result, we are not able to use the UM scheduling program, and I was doing all the faculty and class scheduling on paper and spreadsheets.

What other systems did you consider when making this decision?

I could not find a system out there that could customize the scheduling to our needs, so there were no options on the table (I continued to schedule the low-tech way) until Justin contacted me about Coursedog.

PRODUCT QUESTIONS

Why did you choose this system?

The most important thing for me was the time that Justin was able to put in to meeting with me about our scheduling needs, and the ability to create a platform that fit with our workflow in the office.

How does the system perform vs. expectations?

The system has saved me a lot of time (i.e. no paper, no spreadsheets…just Coursedog), and I’m able to complete the scheduling in one day as opposed to over several days as I had to do before. I utilized it for a first round of scheduling when Coursedog was in the start-up stages, so I would come across some glitches (e.g. reports not exporting correctly etc…). As soon as I contacted Justin, he would get back to me with an ETA for a fix on the issue. It was always updated/corrected within the hour.

What feedback have you gotten from the users?

Our faculty love it! They like putting their preferences through electronically (and on their phones) and looking at their course assignments electronically. They are able to create their course syllabi earlier as it takes me less time to roll out all the course information (days/times/room numbers/lab days for courses).

Did you have to customize the system? If so, why/how?

I assume the system needed to be customized for us, but in reality, I don’t know how much.

Is there anything that surprised you about the system?

Coursedog has recently rolled out some new report features that are going to make our administrative assistant’s life easier as well. Once I had the schedule set, our admin assistant translated that schedule into daily student schedules that were easy for our International students to read and understand. Now…those schedules can be created by Coursedog.

What significant benefits have you realized since implementing the system?

Saving time and going green!

IMPLEMENTATION AND SUPPORT QUESTIONS

How long did it take to implement the system?

I had about 2 initial conversations with Justin before starting to implement the system. At times, I didn’t foresee some things that our program would need in Coursedog, so as I was using it, Justin and I had several other conversations as I asked for more features to be added. He was able to add those very quickly, so the first implementation went very smoothly.

How responsive is Course Dog to issues?

Very responsive. I was very surprised by this part because some programs respond quickly, but the support and/or fixes take longer. For Coursedog, the response was fast and so was the fix.

What training was provided/is available? If you have used it, was it quality?

As I would talk to Justin, I sometimes asked questions, and he would show me how to do things, but I found the program to be very intuitive. I didn’t need to ask a lot. I know that there are training videos and a help feature if someone should need it.

WRAP-UP QUESTIONS

What would you do differently with regards to selection or implementation?

I’m not sure I would do anything differently.

Would you select this vendor/system again?

I would definitely select this vendor again. It has helped our processes a lot!