February 2001 — Software/Courseware
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Focus on Administrative Tools
One of the most important aspects of keeping an institution running smoothly is organization. With students registering for classes, various departments submitting budget reports, and the need for secure, quick ways to establish student computer labs, maintaining order in administrative offices can be a challenge. This month's Focus On previews some of the new software titles that aid in administrative organization.
ResSched, designed for Windows systems, makes it easier and
more effective for schools to schedule their resources. ResSched can
help users create schedules for equipment, space, people or other 
resources by the hour, fraction of an hour, or day. The software
provides educators with a wide variety of options for scheduling
repeat bookings, and even handles bookings that are repeated
irregularly. Res-Sched checks for booking conflicts in any of the
involved resources. It also checks for bookings on weekends and for
bookings on holidays and other specially designated periods. When a
conflict is discovered, the software offers several options for
dealing with it.
Resources can be grouped together for easy scheduling and monitoring. Users can group items into teams (which includes different types of resources required for a booking), classes (which includes all resources of the same type) and any other way administrators decide. Scanning bookings for a resource or group is also possible. The software can schedule several units of an inventoried item, rather than having to identify each unit individually. ResSched also lets selected users administer access to resources without giving them the more powerful access of a system administrator. Further options include recording actual booking times, as well as scheduled times, and using individualized labels for resources, booking or clients.
ScheduleSoft is easy-to-use, versatile shift scheduling software. Unlike standard cut-and-paste scheduling spreadsheets, ScheduleSoft uses a rules-based decision-making system that makes it easy to accommodate scheduling needs. The program's step-by-step interview process enables administrators to quickly configure ScheduleSoft for their work environment without the need for costly site programming. The software also offers flexible reporting features, security features and compatibility with other personnel management tools and databases. ScheduleSoft easily conforms to a wide range of hourly and shift-based work environments containing anywhere from a handful of employees to tens of thousands of employees.
CyberMatrix Corporation has released version 1.0 of Cyber Matrix Class Scheduler. An easy-to-use, multi-user application for scheduling students' classes, the software displays class schedules graphically in a grid. By changing the schedule filter, a student can see the times of a class, when a classroom is occupied and where an instructor will be teaching. Teachers can also view the schedules of any student they wish.
A student can add classes by dragging available courses onto his or her enrolled class list.
