Typically, Engineering classrooms are assigned centrally, except for some department controlled classrooms. Most classrooms are R25 classrooms, which means that are centrally scheduled with some preference given to the college where they are housed and that supports the room. A small number of often-specialized classrooms (such as student laboratory rooms and departmental classrooms) are locally scheduled, controlled, and supported.

Scheduling a Classroom

R25 classrooms (most classrooms are R25) are scheduled in one of three ways:

• Pre-book request for a specific type of classroom such as a design room, an active learning room, a distance learning room, a room with tables and chairs, a room with moveable tables and chairs, and computer labs. Pre-book requests are due two weeks before pre-enroll starts and are most likely to be granted for specific teaching needs and if the time the course is offered has some flexibility.
• Bulk scheduling of classrooms requests are submitted by departments for all of their courses, and the University Registrar’s office runs a tool that matches courses to rooms. Information and instructions can be obtained from the department undergraduate coordinator or the Engineering Registrar’s office. The match is done primarily based on enrollment.
• Individual late scheduling of a course or course component happens after the bulk run for classes that did not get a room in the bulk run, and for classes or sections created after the bulk run. This requires someone to find an available room of the right size by hand using Scheduling@Cornell, then request the classroom through the departmental course coordinator.

Scheduling of Events in Classrooms

Any use of a classroom that is not a regularly scheduled course component is considered an event. This includes office hours, review sessions, student clubs, and project team meetings. Events are scheduled in classrooms through Scheduling@Cornell after courses are scheduled. Here are some tips for using it:

• You can search for available rooms at the given day and time.
• The scheduling system looks for rooms of the requested capacity and up to five seats larger. If you don’t find a possible room, you many need to explore what is available for slightly smaller or larger rooms.
• When you find a candidate room, fill out the form to request it. It may take several days until you hear back on your request.

Requesting a Specific Type of Room

Active learning rooms (aka design rooms, problem based learning rooms) have students sitting at tables facing their group rather than the front of the room. Many of these rooms have whiteboards on the walls. Mixed lecture and active learning rooms have tables and chairs with the students facing forward. They can interleave watching a lecture and collaborating with peers. Read about the available active learning classrooms in Engineering.

If you’re interested in requesting a specific type of room, please try and pre-book the room before pre-enroll.

Pre-Booking a Classroom

Engineering has a variety of special classrooms that are very popular such as active learning rooms, design rooms, distance learning rooms, dual screen rooms. To support faculty redesigning courses and teaching using various pedagogies and to fit as many classes as possible into these special rooms, engineering has a pre-booking process for room assignments.

Pre-booking is most effective done before pre-enroll when course times can be adjusted, so the deadline for priority for pre-book requests is two weeks before pre-enroll starts. Later requests are honored where possible, but do have less priority. Pre-booking is a negotiated, tentative booking that usually works, but it is still subject to further review and processing by the engineering and university registrar’s office.

Review the list of classrooms that are often available for pre-booking. Fill out this pre-booking form to make a request for your course. If you are teaching an Ithaca-based CS, INFO, BTRY, or STSCI course, do not fill out the pre-booking form. Instead fill out this form with your classroom request.