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CCQ develops an integrated approach to class schedule optimization for students

Within the sphere of achieving academic excellence, and in response to the increasing number of high school graduates electing the institution as their higher education destination of choice, the Community College of Qatar (CCQ) is adopting an integrated approach to optimize its course offerings schedule and open more paths for students to meet their personal learning goals, while further enhancing the College’s overall functioning on an academic level.

The College’s integrated approach sets three measures in motion, at the center of which is the introduction of two consecutive sets of 8-week courses that run in parallel with the semester’s regular 16-week course offerings schedule. Combined, the 8-week and 16-week course schedules maximize the number of classes students can enroll into, without exceeding the 15-credits-per-semester limit that is put in place to protect students from overloading their schedules.

The data-driven selection of the 8-week courses offered is based on waiting-list information collected from registration records, which translates into more seats for high-demand courses, additional flexibility in students’ personal class schedules, and a timely graduation path for all students.

The second measure in the College’s integrated approach revolves around increasing the institution’s collective teaching capacity as CCQ is in the process of recruiting its biggest batch of instructors to date. All new hires are accredited and reputed faculty with proven experience in their academic fields and are handpicked to thoroughly support students’ needs. Within this context, the College is also putting to advantage its cooperation with partner universities in Qatar by utilizing their faculty members to teach courses in high-demand disciplines to CCQ students.

As for the third measure, the College is continuing to make headway in its expansion strategy, that latest success of which witnessed the launch of CCQ’s Al-Khor Campus, which is now serving students in the northern region of Qatar. To complement that, and as part of its recent agreement with respected national educational institutions in the country, CCQ is also making use of a number of universities’ premises and facilities to conduct its evening classes, which have been carefully selected to meet the College’s classroom standards and teaching requirements.

 Commenting on the College’s schedule optimization strategy, CCQ’s Dean Dr. Abdallah Hazaimeh, said:
“CCQ commenced the new academic year by further enhancing its operations across all areas. On the academic level, one of our main goals was to formulate and implement a schedule optimization strategy that considers course offerings, teaching capacity, and classroom availability, with the aim of guiding us in our mission to aid our students in achieving their very best. With this in mind, and owing to the significant increase in our student numbers, we rolled out two extra 8-week course schedules parallel to the 16-week schedule, which have thus far been in ‘beta’ phase.”

He added: “After putting the schedule to the test for two semesters in a row and watching a 1200-student waiting list quickly shrink to 136 this Fall Semester, we now know how effective our new measure is. We are also adopting a Time-Block Schedule for all new students, which runs for one year and enables them to earn up to 12 credits each semester. The synergy of this three-part approach ultimately means more opportunities for both timely graduation and accelerated learning paths for students, while maintaining our standards of academic excellence.”

CCQ is committed towards achieving quality of teaching and academic excellence by hiring accredited and reputed faculty members with proven experience, adopting data-driven schedule optimization, the use of approved curricula, and setting in place effective mechanisms to evaluate a set of clearly defined learning outcomes for every course and program. The College’s integrated approach further enhances its role in fulfilling the evolving needs of the Qatari labor market with high-level competencies.

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