In December 1972, amid complaints from faculty, staff, and students regarding the cumbersome system of scheduling classes and sections, the RIT Steering Committee created the Special Task Force on Scheduling and Time in Learning. The task force was charged with defining existing problems in scheduling, and providing a plan of action for solving those problems. A second charge was to determine if ways could be found to enhance student learning methods, increase the rate at which students learn, and determine if these methods would be appropriate for RIT. The improved system for scheduling and registration was to be in place for the 1974-1975 academic year. Evidence for issues regarding scheduling included: scheduling procedures appeared to restrict, rather than promote the growth of electives, despite student demand for these classes; information needed to plan, develop, and make scheduling decisions was often innaccurate or provided late; the correlation of information regarding existing students, new students, transfer students, faculty availability, and space utilization was often low; and the scheduling of faculty and Institute facilities frequently made student needs unnecessarily subordinate to scheduling convenience. Members of the task force were Fred L. Wilson (who served as Chair), William Stevenson, Houghton Wetherald, Leslie Stroebel, James Wilson, and John Adams. Only the second part of the final report is included in this collection. A Study on Time and Learning at RIT was issued in October 1974, and focused on learning and instruction processes rather than on scheduling and registration inefficiencies. Recommendations included: each college will submit a plan regarding strategies to evaluate techniques for tailoring the learning/instruction process to individual student needs; RIT will declare a high priority to carefully planned investigations of techniques for individualizing the learning/instruction process with budgets supporting carefully designed projects more likely to receive favorable reviews; and each college plan will include an explanation of how instruction will be quantitatively evaluated. The Steering Committee voted to receive, but not to adopt this second part of the final report. It is unclear whether the first part of the final report regarding scheduling and registration efficiencies was completed or released.
From the description of RIT Special Task Force on Scheduling and Time in Learning reports, 1972-1974. (RIT Library). WorldCat record id: 765399686
