Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

photo illustration by eric zitz

The transition to online registration

By heather templeton

hntempleton@vwc.edu

The days of camping out all night in front of the registrar’s office to get into classes are soon to be a distant memory. After running a test trial, the campus is set to convert to full online registration by next spring.

For Honors and Scholars students, class registration for fall was a tedious affair. The group was used as a test group for the new online registration process.

“We were able to completely register half the students,” said Institutional Technology Coordinator Robin Takacs. “I think it was a success.”

The small group of students was chosen for diversity of grade level and because they were a “small manageable group,” said Takacs. Also, because they were the first group to go, there would not be a conflict of classes already being full.

VWC is one of the few schools yet to make the transition to online registration.

“We have to meet the expectations of the 21st century,” said Takacs.

For the registration process, the students had to first meet with their advisers, who had to enter the classes that they wanted to take into a new program called WebAdvisor. On their registration day, the students then had to get online to WebAdvisor and select the classes approved by their advisers.

The process will not take away from the personal attention students already get from their advisers during registration. Because the advisers are responsible for physically entering in the classes, they are seeing the classes their advisees are taking.

Both students and advisers had to learn how to operate the new system in order for the registration to work.

“It was tedious, however easy,” said freshman Caitlin Barth. “I liked it, but it would have been just as easy to go to the registrar’s office.”

Each class had to be separately registered so students had to tediously search through lists then return back to the beginning for the next class.

“It was a little frustrating for all of us,” said Takacs.

The new program also had difficulty when registering for classes that needed prerequisites or consent. The system could not identify if the student was already in the class that was a prerequisite for the class the student was wishing to take for fall.

Sophomore Owen Davis experienced this frustration when he was unable to register online for any of his classes. Every class he had selected needed either a prerequisite or permission from his adviser.

“It was complicated, redundant, and does not account for courses which need consent, especially if the class needing consent is taught by your adviser,” he said.

Half the students had similar problems, but not to the extent Davis experienced. When the class could not be registered online, they were sent back to the registrar’s office.

“I think it’ll work better in the future, but right now it was really hard to do, considering prerequisites and status,” said sophomore Kathy Kern. “I registered for half online, and the rest I had to go to the registrar’s office anyway. It was too time-consuming.”

Takacs said that they are working on fixing these problems and will test the system out again this fall with the incoming freshmen. Once the system is fully completed, it is hoped that it will be easier both on students and the registrar’s office.

“The registrar’s office will then be able to give more individualized attention to students,” said Takacs. “They’ll be able to work smarter.”

Students will also have a window of time for registration and be able to register from the comfort of their own dorm or home, said Takacs.

“Change takes dedication,” she said. “Like everything, it will get better with time.”