After two years of debate, the Educational Policy Committee (EPC) and ITS are now developing a new algorithm to replace the current class registration process. The algorithm will consider class year, major, listed priority, and class history. A student will list five possible choices, and come out of registration with four final classes. Students will no longer have to be in a designated computer lab at an assigned time, simultaneously staring at a countdown clock with their fingers on the mice, ready to click.
While the EPC’s efforts are admirable in the sense that they are reformatting a practice that some students deem too stressful, is the old clicking registration system actually broken enough to warrant fixing it? Using an algorithm to dish out classes eliminates the personal strategy involved in selecting courses. Students will be unable to follow their “in case of emergency plans” if their first click fails. Many people don’t get into their top class choice, so they have multiple back up schedules to look to.
Instead, registration will become a linear process based purely on rankings of a student’s five-item list. Isn’t this approach slightly over-confident in assuming that we will arrive at our perfect schedules with only five class choices? As the system stands, students often bookmark a dozen classes they find interesting. The resulting scramble to create appropriate schedules could potentially have the entire campus clicking simultaneously, causing the server to repeatedly crash.
We’ve all been in a situation when we wanted to get into a particular class and would prefer to be in the afternoon section, but should that be full, would settle for an early morning session. The algorithm doesn’t seem to take this situation into account. Would we rank all five sections to show his dedication to taking the course or should we just choose one and hope for the best?
Due to the disconnect between the selection process and the student, the new algorithm would potentially leave numerous students extremely dissatisfied with their schedules. The Drop/Add period could become a nightmare with much of the campus moving in and out of classes for weeks, obviously disrupting education.
If the EPC still insists upon installing this new algorithm, a mock registration should test the effectiveness of it before students use it. There’s too much room for massive error.
Ultimately, the algorithm doesn’t seem to be dealing with one significant issue: students can’t get into the classes they want because there aren’t enough professors to teach them. This solution merely covers up a deeper issue, placing one more important process into the shadowy realm of the computer world and out of student’s hands.
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