Strategic Scheduling with Course Demand Projections: How HCCC Boosts On-Time Graduation

Tackling Low Graduation Rates with Data-Driven Scheduling

Since 2018, Hudson County Community College (HCCC) has had two overarching priorities: student success, and institutional engagement and excellence. Driven by this strategic focus, HCCC proactively sought a solution that would strengthen graduation rates by improving both administrative efficiency and student outcomes.
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That need sparked the decision to implement Coursedog’s Academic Scheduling and Course Demand Projections, which was selected for its robust analytics and seamless bidirectional integration with the College’s Student Information System, Colleague. Leadership across the institution aligned around a shared goal: gaining real-time insights into course demand and scheduling to remove barriers to on-time graduation. Today, HCCC is leveraging these tools to streamline operations and proactively shape offerings around real student needs, which have been driving factors in improving graduation rates.

The Challenge

Paper Based Scheduling Process Created Delays and Inefficiencies

Historically, HCCC’s scheduling process was overwhelmingly manual and time-consuming. Coordinators and schedulers had to make updates by hand, often printing up to 800 pages, to manual transfer information into Colleague. To make matters more complex, room availability couldn’t be checked in real time, forcing additional steps and delays in assigning spaces for new courses. The scheduling process used to take about six weeks, but with Coursedog, it now takes half that.

"The scheduling part of our academic operations was very manual. We did the rollover and the coordinators would go in and make their updates. Then I would print out 800 pages and make those updates in Colleague. After I made all those updates, we wouldn't know whether there was room availability or not, so I would have to go back and search for rooms for the sections, especially for new courses. It was very labor intensive. In total, the process took us at least six weeks to put up one semester at a time, now it takes three." Irma Williams, Associate Registrar

Lack of Transparent Scheduling Process Led to Gaps and Missed Opportunities

Prior to Coursedog, academic leadership had limited visibility into the scheduling process. Communications about updates or changes relied on long email chains, which made it nearly impossible to track progress, resolve conflicts, or strategically plan ahead. The absence of live data and integrated workflows left the institution constantly reacting to problems rather than preventing them. This lack of oversight made it difficult to identify under-enrolled courses, resolve schedule conflicts, and catch prerequisite issues that could delay graduation. It also limited HCCC's ability to plan strategically based on enrollment trends and long-term program goals.

"There was no oversight from either the Academic Deans or the Vice President of Academic Affairs to see what was happening during the scheduling process. Now that we're getting in the swing of using the analytics, I can see where I need to adjust things. I felt like with the old system we were always playing defense and not offense. Now, we are getting ahead of it instead of being behind it all the time." Dr. Alison Wakefield, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences

Solution

Anticipating Demand to Align Schedules with Evolving Student Needs and Preferences

Many community college students are balancing academics with jobs, caregiving, and other responsibilities. For these students, course availability can make or break their ability to stay on track towards graduation. When the right classes aren’t offered at the right time or in the right format, students may feel forced to pause or stop, creating setbacks in their academic journey. By leveraging Course Demand Projections, HCCC can anticipate when courses are likely to overfill and proactively offer more sections. This helps ensure courses are offered in the formats and at times students prefer, enabling the college to build more flexible, accessible schedules up front. In doing so, HCCC is helping students stay on track and removing barriers that can delay graduation.

“As much as we would love for all of our students to have college as their top priority, at a Community College, oftentimes it's not. Our Students have so many other responsibilities, like families or work. Sometimes when they don't see the availability, whether it's the section or the time, they give up because they have so many other things on their mind. Proactively having the schedule available with more sections for them up front is beneficial. With Coursedog, we are able to look at what sections students like the most. We know they prefer remote classes, so we can be proactive in offering what students will most likely register for. The ‘red line’ on our Coursedog analytics lets us know which classes are overfilled and we can then understand the preference with registration trends and make changes quickly. As we continue to use Coursedog and gather more data, we will get even farther ahead of overfilled sections.” Irma Williams, Associate Registrar

Building Schedules Around Students: Real-Time Data Drive a Cultural Shift

The introduction of live data through Coursedog has sparked a significant cultural shift at HCCC. What was once a reactive, siloed process is now a collaborative, forward-looking effort focused on student success. Weekly insights into enrollment patterns help administrators identify trends early and recommend schedule changes before issues arise. This planning helps the institution align course offerings with actual student demand, including when and how students prefer to take classes.

"It's a cultural change because now we're being proactive instead of reactive. It’s easier and more accessible for me to oversee the bigger picture. I will go to Coursedog once a week and see which new classes and new sections we may need. Then I'll forward that to coordinators and copy it to the Dean. It is a cultural shift in our institution that we're embracing, which I'm so so happy about. You can tell that our faculty and our Institution really care about our students and they're trying their best to meet their needs.” Irma Williams, Associate Registrar

Beyond scheduling, real-time demand insights are also helping HCCC anticipate staffing needs and avoid last-minute hiring challenges. HCCC now has the insights to correctly staff sections based on demand ahead of time.

“For me, Course Demand Projections helps with staffing. It gives me the data to see whether I need more adjuncts for each semester. We have a very long process to hire new folks, so if I know how many I need for spring earlier, that's very helpful in the case I have to expand.” Dr. Alison Wakefield, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences

Year Long Schedule Goal Becomes Reality with Coursedog

A key initiative at Hudson County Community College is to implement a year long schedule. With better forecasting and streamlined workflows with Course Demand Projections, they’re on track to have schedules ready months earlier, giving students and advisors more time to plan ahead. This shift reduces administrative burden and aligns with the institution’s long-term vision for more efficient, student-focused planning.

"One of our goals is to have a year-long schedule to help students and advisors see what classes and sections are available each semester. In smaller programs, students have to be strategic about what they're taking and when in order to graduate on time. The year-long schedule will show the advisors where there may be a gap in the program schedule and gives them an opportunity to request to add a section - and if we can add it, we will. Coursedog gives us the visibility to customize our schedules for our students, especially the ones in the smaller programs.” Dr. Alison Wakefield, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences

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Looking Ahead

Hudson County Community College continues to use Coursedog’s Course Demand Projections not only to manage the current schedule but to plan strategically for the future. By analyzing both pre- and post-enrollment data, the institution is gaining critical insight into how students are progressing, where course demand is highest, and how to better align offerings with actual student needs. This forward-looking approach is helping HCCC make more informed decisions that support on-time graduation and improve long-term student success.

"Using Coursedog's Course Demand Projections, we're looking at pre-enrollment and post-enrollment data. It is informing HCCC’s decisions, because we're understanding how students are attending, what their needs are, and where students need the influx of courses - especially when it comes to prerequisites. This whole process is going to bring our students closer to success because we're going to offer courses based on what we see the need to be. The projection aspect is going to help us with recognizing specific needs and in turn we're going to increase those offerings and ultimately meet the student’s needs pertaining to their degree plan.” Fiona Approo Johnson, Executive Director, Enterprise Applications

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