The new course registration system is on schedule to be implemented this April for use during Fall 2006 course selection. With the end of advisor authorization, the registrar’s office can now collect the data from a trial run conducted during the recent registration period, for which over 500 students provided test data. The information collected will help the registrar’s office determine the effectiveness of the new system.
“We’re trying to make [registration] more fair,” said Assistant University Registrar Heather Alderfer.
The new system will have three different stages: planning, pre-scheduling, and adjustment.
Since the trial run occurred, one major change has already been made to the planning stage. In addition to submitting five classes, ranked in order of preference, students will now have the option of submitting a four class back-up plan. If students do not receive their top-choice class, the program will follow a second path of class requests. In theory, this step will allow students more flexibility in their selections by requesting, potentially, two different schedules.
The registrar’s office encourages students not to request permission of instructor courses or unlimited courses, but to use the planning stage to identify classes in which placement is not guaranteed.
“If you have a course [you know] you’re going to get into, don’t include it in your request,” said Associate University Registrar Beth Labriola.
Additionally, the new system will allow students flexibility when selecting courses that have several sections. They will be able to request one, several, or all sections of a class while only using up one slot in their rankings.
Students will be required to have their advisors approve their course plan before the end of the planning stage in order to be eligible for pre-scheduling.
Once requests are submitted, the system will assign classes based on up to four factors: class year, major, previous requests, and, if necessary, a random number tie breaker. The registrar’s office will begin to keep records of course requests with two purposes in mind. First, multiple requests will help a student’s chances of placement in a course. Second, departments will be able to accurately determine course popularity.
“We know kids are clicking on Sociology 151 and not getting it, but we don’t know how many,” Alderfer said.
The new system will use “bins,” which are spots in classes reserved for certain class years and majors. The new program will run several times, until classes are either full or there are no more requests. Once the scheduling program has been completed, course selection will be frozen for a 48-hour period. Students may use the frozen time to browse courses for open spots.
The adjustment period will allow students to independently alter their schedules and register for POI and unlimited classes. Students will acquire access to adjustment in a staggered fashion. Those assigned two or fewer classes during pre-scheduling will gain access on the first day, students with three classes on the second, and students with four classes on the third.
According to University Registrar Anna van der Burg, the new program is a combination of the old “batch” registration system and the current online system.
The current drop/add setup will be maintained at the beginning of each semester.