Discuss the class scheduling work of higher vocational colleges

  Curriculum arrangement is an important work of teaching management in secondary and higher vocational colleges, the foundation of the entire teaching link, and the prerequisite for ensuring the orderly development of teaching work. At the same time, curriculum arrangement is a complex and burdensome work that involves a wide range of aspects and requires coordination from multiple parties. Combined with the actual class scheduling work of our school, this article discusses the class scheduling work of higher vocational colleges.   

1. Basic principles of curriculum arrangement   

(1) Strictly implement the principles of the training plan. The training plan is the basic program of the teaching work of colleges and universities, the main basis for the management of teaching organization, and the program document of the curriculum arrangement, which determines the rationality and science of the curriculum. The formulation of teaching plans must be rigorous and accurate, and the courses must be arranged scientifically and rationally in accordance with the training plan.   

(2) Consciously follow the principle of teaching laws. The teaching secretary should fully consider the work intensity and receptivity of teachers and students based on the nature, characteristics and specific circumstances of the curriculum to ensure a balance between teaching and learning pressure. The teaching secretary shall follow the following regulations.   

1. The total teaching week of each semester is 20 weeks, the course schedule week is 1-17 weeks, the 18th week is the examination week, and the 19th-20th week is mainly scheduled to end at the end of the term.   

2. Teaching tasks should be evenly distributed as much as possible during the week, with not less than 16 hours of class time per week and not less than 4 hours of class time per day.   

3. Each course is generally based on 2 class hours as the teaching unit, and generally there must be an appropriate time interval between two or two classes arranged every week for students to review and digest after class. The professional courses of the Department of Design can be connected in 4 hours due to special circumstances. If the courses of other departments need to be connected in 4 hours, they must be submitted to the Department of Academic Affairs for approval.   

4. Difficult professional courses and basic courses are generally arranged in the morning, easy-to-understand professional courses and basic courses are arranged in the afternoon, and public elective courses are arranged in the evening.   

(3) The principle of making full use of teaching resources   

With the development of the college and the increase in the number of students, teaching resources are increasingly scarce. Especially in 2013, the School of Ocean Information Engineering was newly established in the Beihai Campus of our university to share the teaching resources of the same campus.

Therefore, the Ministry of Academic Affairs must coordinate the teachers and classroom resources of the two colleges in advance to avoid conflicts. The most important of these is the coordination of multimedia classrooms. Before class, the Academic Affairs Department rationally allocates multimedia classrooms according to the number of students and professional characteristics of each department to avoid competition for classrooms.   

2. The basic process of class scheduling   

Our college adopts the second-level class scheduling model of overall management by the Department of Academic Affairs and independent class scheduling by the faculties. After several years of arrangement, a stable arrangement process has basically been formed.   

(1) Formulate a teaching plan   

The formulation of a teaching plan must strictly follow the requirements of the training plan. The teaching plan of each semester can be divided into two parts: the public basic course plan and the professional course plan.

Most public basic courses are jointly offered by the whole college, such as "University English", and each department does not need to report a special teaching plan.；

However, the requirements for the start of each department of individual public basic courses are different. For example, "Advanced Mathematics", these courses require each department to report the teaching plan as required.

Each department needs to focus on formulating a professional curriculum teaching plan, which shall be formulated by the professional person in charge according to the training plan, and reported to the Academic Affairs Department after review by each department.   

(2) Arrange the public basic curriculum schedule   

Since public basic courses involve students from all over the college, the Department of Academic Affairs arranges courses and coordinates teaching resources in a unified manner.

The arrangement of public basic courses is generally carried out in the following steps：

1. Submit a course application form to the Basic Department, clearly listing the courses to be offered, the number of students and

2. Arrange public basic courses into the academic affairs system.

3. After the public basic courses are arranged, personnel will be arranged to proofread them.

4. The Academic Affairs Department will notify the professional person in charge of the proofread curriculum, and the professional person in charge will confirm the curriculum and arrange teachers. If the teacher in charge has any objections to the curriculum, he needs to apply to the Department of Academic Affairs within the prescribed time, and the Department of Academic Affairs will make changes.

5. The Ministry of Academic Affairs publishes the public basic curriculum to all departments and informs all departments to proofread the curriculum. After proofreading by various departments, the schedule of public basic courses has finally been arranged.  

 (3) Professional course arrangement   

Each department should arrange professional courses in accordance with the published public basic course plan, and pay attention to avoid conflicts with public basic courses. The heads of each department should do a good job of overall coordination and coordination to ensure that the curriculum is in line with the teaching rules and the basic principles of the curriculum. After the proposed schedule is completed, organize teachers to proofread the schedule. After the timetable is confirmed, it will be signed by the head of the department and submitted to the Academic Affairs Department for review.  

 (4) Review professional courses   

The Academic Affairs Department reviews the schedule to be arranged by each department. If errors or irrationality are found, all departments should be notified of adjustments in a timely manner. After all the courses are reviewed, a final confirmed course summary will be generated.   

(5) Announce the schedule   

The Department of Academic Affairs will report the generated curriculum summary form to the Vice Dean of Teaching for approval, and formally notify all departments to print teacher schedules and student schedules for distribution to teachers and students.   

3. Urgent problems and countermeasures to be solved in the course of our school's curriculum arrangement   

(1) Shortage of teaching resources With the expansion of the school and the increase of the number of students, the shortage of teaching resources is becoming more and more prominent. The main problem is the shortage of multimedia classrooms and laboratories.

In order to solve this problem, the following methods can be taken：

1. Increase the cost of teaching equipment and gradually establish multimedia classrooms and laboratories.

2. Through flexible curriculum arrangements, such as setting up some courses with fewer total hours as segmented teaching, that is, completing a course in the first half of the semester and the second half of the semester, not only can the teaching arrangement be completed, but also the pressure of insufficient multimedia classrooms and laboratories can be alleviated.

3. Each department organizes secondary supervision to give lectures to teachers who apply for multimedia classrooms. For courses that do not require the use of multimedia teaching, teachers are required to cancel multimedia teaching.

4. Strictly control new teachers, help teachers use multimedia teaching, require teachers to use blackboard teaching, and exercise basic teaching skills.  

 (2) Shortage of some professional teachers   

At present, our college has 32 enrollment majors, covering mechanical engineering, electronic information, computer science and economic management.

Due to their own characteristics, it is difficult to introduce teachers in some majors, making teachers particularly scarce. The shortage of teachers in the major has led to many courses in the same class being undertaken by the same teacher, which has greatly affected the rationality of the curriculum.

It is recommended to solve the difficulty of shortage of teachers in the following ways:

      1. Appropriately reduce the threshold for the introduction of teachers, introduce relatively outstanding talents for training, so that teachers can gradually improve their academic qualifications and titles in their work.

      2. It is recommended that by optimizing the professional setting, the majors with insufficient individual teachers and poor enrollment conditions be eliminated to alleviate the teacher problem.

      3. Colleges should improve the professional treatment that is good in enrollment but difficult for teachers to introduce, and strive to attract highly educated and highly qualified talents. (3) Some course arrangements are unreasonable. At present, the course arrangements of our college for each semester are unreasonable. The main reasons are as follows：

    1. There is a shortage of teaching resources and professional teachers. If there is a shortage of some laboratories, courses can only be arranged in the evening or on weekends.

    2. The teaching arrangement of the major itself is required. For example, the professional training of students in the Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering needs to be arranged for a week of daytime. In order to avoid training time, some professional courses for students can only be arranged in the evening.

    3. In the process of arranging courses, each department has no restrictions on the unreasonable requirements of individual teachers. For example, individual teachers require that 7 or 8 classes per week and 7 or 8 classes per day cannot be scheduled on Fridays of the week.

     It is recommended to solve the above problems in the following ways：

    1. Strive to solve the difficulties of the shortage of teaching resources and professional teachers, provide the richest possible resources for curriculum arrangements, and optimize curriculum arrangements.

    2. Follow the needs of the major's own teaching arrangements, but explain to students so that students can understand the reasons for the unreasonable curriculum arrangements.

   3. The head of the department must co-ordinate and review the curriculum arrangements and reject the unreasonable requirements of individual teachers. 

  In short, the arrangement of secondary and higher vocational colleges is a complex, difficult and influential work. In the process of arranging courses, teaching managers must not only follow the basic principles of arranging courses, strictly follow the process of arranging courses, but also consider all aspects of influencing factors and solve problems in a timely manner, so as to arrange a scientific and reasonable timetable.