Faculty Workload Management System That Brought Fairness and Visibility to Course Assignments Across 80 Instructors

A private university's School of Business was struggling to manage course assignments across its 80 full-time and adjunct instructors. The department chair was using a patchwork of spreadsheets, email threads, and institutional memory to allocate over 350 course sections per year — a process that had become a recurring source of disputes, errors, and perceived inequity among faculty. Adjuncts in particular felt that assignments were opaque and inconsistent.

JSG was engaged to build a workload management system that would automate tracking, surface credential compliance issues, capture teaching preferences, and distribute course assignments equitably — with full visibility for both faculty and department leadership.

Client: A private university, School of Business

Employee Size: 80 full-time and adjunct instructors

Industry: Higher Education

Services: - Custom Software Development - AI Automation & Workflow Design - Process Optimization - Mobile Application Development

The School of Business had grown steadily over the prior five years, adding new degree concentrations and expanding evening and online sections. What had once been a manageable scheduling task for a single department chair had become a logistical burden that consumed weeks of administrative time each semester and generated friction that affected faculty morale.

First, the department chair was managing all workload assignments through a set of interconnected Excel spreadsheets that had been passed down and modified over multiple semesters. These spreadsheets tracked instructor names, course preferences, teaching loads, and credential qualifications — but they were fragile, error-prone, and impossible for anyone other than the chair to interpret. When the chair was unavailable, scheduling decisions stalled entirely.

Second, workload equity was a persistent source of grievances. Full-time faculty complained that certain colleagues consistently received preferred time slots and courses, while adjuncts reported receiving last-minute assignments for sections that full-time faculty had declined. There was no transparent framework for how assignments were made, no documented criteria, and no audit trail. The faculty union had flagged workload distribution as a concern in two consecutive contract negotiation cycles.

Third, credential verification was handled manually and reactively. Accreditation standards required that every instructor teaching a given course hold specific academic credentials or documented professional experience. The chair maintained a separate spreadsheet of faculty qualifications, but it was frequently out of date. On three occasions in the prior two years, the university had discovered mid-semester that an instructor lacked the required credentials for their assigned course — triggering emergency reassignments and jeopardizing accreditation compliance.

Fourth, there was no mechanism for faculty to formally submit teaching preferences or availability constraints. Instructors would email the chair informally, and those preferences were either noted in the spreadsheet or forgotten. Faculty who were more assertive in their communication tended to receive more favorable assignments, reinforcing the perception of inequity.

The department needed a system that would: - Centralize all workload data in a single, auditable platform - Automate credential verification and flag compliance gaps proactively - Capture faculty preferences through a structured, equitable process - Distribute course assignments based on transparent, configurable criteria - Provide the department chair and the dean with real-time visibility into workload balance

JSG designed and deployed a faculty workload management platform with AI-assisted equity analysis, automated credential monitoring, and a self-service interface for both faculty and department leadership.

Key Components

Centralized Workload Database A single platform replaced the fragmented spreadsheet system, housing all instructor records, teaching history, credential documentation, course catalogs, and section assignments. Every change was logged with a timestamp and user attribution, creating a complete audit trail for accreditation reviews and union inquiries.

Faculty Self-Service Preference Portal A Power Apps-based interface was built for faculty to submit teaching preferences, availability windows, course rankings, and load requests each semester. The portal enforced a structured format — ensuring that every instructor's input was captured consistently — and included a submission deadline with automated reminders. Adjuncts and full-time faculty used the same process, eliminating the informal advantage that had previously favored more vocal instructors.

AI-Powered Equity Analysis & Schedule Optimization Azure OpenAI was integrated to analyze proposed schedules against historical workload data, flagging imbalances in course distribution, time-slot assignments, and teaching load across full-time and adjunct pools. The system generated optimization suggestions that the chair could accept, modify, or override — maintaining human judgment while surfacing patterns that spreadsheets could not reveal.

Automated Credential Verification & Expiration Alerts N8N workflows were configured to cross-reference instructor credentials against course requirements on a rolling basis. When a credential was set to expire, when a new course was added to the catalog, or when an assignment would create a compliance gap, the system triggered alerts to the chair and the affected instructor. This shifted credential management from reactive to proactive.

Schedule Conflict Detection N8N automation scanned proposed assignments for time conflicts, room overlaps, and instructor double-bookings before the schedule was finalized. Conflicts were surfaced in a dashboard view with suggested resolutions, reducing the back-and-forth that previously consumed days of the chair's time during scheduling periods.

Department Chair Mobile Review A Power Apps mobile interface allowed the department chair and associate dean to review, approve, and adjust assignments from anywhere. During the intensive scheduling period, this eliminated the requirement for the chair to be physically at a desktop to process changes.

## Quantifiable Impact

• 350+ course sections per year now managed through a single platform, replacing 14 separate spreadsheets
• Workload grievances dropped from 12 formal complaints per year to 1 in the first year of operation
• Credential compliance gaps identified proactively in 100% of cases — zero mid-semester reassignments since deployment
• Scheduling cycle reduced from 6 weeks of manual effort to 2 weeks with system-assisted optimization
• 80 of 80 instructors (100%) submitted preferences through the structured portal in the first full cycle
• Department chair reported reclaiming approximately 120 hours per year previously spent on manual scheduling coordination

• Frontend: Next.js (web dashboard)
• Backend: .NET API
• Cloud: Microsoft Azure
• Database: Azure SQL
• AI & Automation: Azure OpenAI (workload equity analysis, schedule optimization suggestions)
• Workflow Orchestration: N8N (credential expiration alerts, schedule conflict detection, preference submission reminders)
• Mobile & Self-Service: Power Apps (faculty preference submission portal, department chair mobile review)
• Reporting: Power BI (workload distribution dashboards, historical trend analysis)