Do you register for college on the web?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hey, can anyone help me out a little here? I work in the I.T. department of a relatively small private college. I’ve been given the unenviable job of implementing a web-based course registration system, which not everyone here thinks is a great idea. I e-mailed a list of questions to several of our peer colleges in an effort to find out more about what is (and isn’t) working for other places, but the response so far has been underwhelming. If you work for or attend a college that uses web-based registration, I would really appreciate anyone taking the time to give me your take on these. If some of them don’t apply to you, or you don’t know the answer, just skip the question. Post here or send me an e-mail, whichever you prefer. I’ll be much obliged.

And now, the questions:

  1. What software do you use for web-based registration?
  2. How do you determine when students are allowed to register? How long and during what part of the day are the web registration time slots?
  3. How was the order in which students registered determined before you went to the web-based system? Were students supportive of the change?
  4. What happens if a student misses their assigned registration time?
  5. What happens if a student cannot get into the desired courses? Can they wait-list themselves on the web? Who do they contact for help if they have a problem?
  6. Do you also allow registration on paper forms? If so, how is paper registration prioritized compared to web registration, approximately how many students use paper registration, and why?
  7. How do you ensure that students register for the courses recommended by their advisors?
  8. How are holds and courses which require special permission for registration handled? Does the web interface verify that pre-requisite course requirements have been met?
  9. Are charges assessed when the student registers, or at a later date?
  10. What prompted you to change from your previous system to web-based registration? Do you feel that the new system is more popular with your students than the old one was?
  11. Have you experienced any benefits that were not foreseen when you implemented web registration? Any unforeseen problems or challenges?
  12. What would you do differently next time? Any additional comments that you feel may be helpful to us?

Thanks much.
Lowell

2

Um, I don’t work in the IT department, nor was I a student here prior to web enrollment, but this is what I know.

The university I attend runs web enrollment. Each student has a Web ID that they use to access the intranet; the Web ID must be given to the student by his or her academic advisor when they meet to plan the classes (although there’s no way of ensuring that the student actually enrolls in the classes advised; the advisor does check up on you, though). This is the only way you can enroll in class; there is no paper enrollment. If you can’t get into the class you want, you contact the head of the department that runs that class, and he or she will help you. I don’t know what the software is. Students are allowed to register based on the same things they were based on before; all I know is that honors students get first pick. There is no “end” to your specific registration time; I, as an honor student, was allowed to register beginning at noon on X day (I forget the date) and can now register for classes anytime from X day until the end of the entire registration period, so there is no “missing your registration time” in this particular method. The web interface does not verify that prereqs have been met but it does keep track of holds and will not let you verify for any classes until all holds have been cleared. We don’t charge per class or semester hour or whatnot, like some schools apparently do, so no matter how many or how few classes you register for you get charged the same amount of tuition for that semester. I as a student find this way of registering for classes very useful, because I can just log on to the internet and play with my schedule if, for any reason, I need to switch course. No playing with paperwork, and I can register at 3 am and have the changes take place immediately if I so need or desire.

Hope this helps…

3

  1. What software do you use for web-based registration?
    TN3270 Which technically isn’t web based, but it is internet based. I’m not sure if you mean only web based or not, but here it is.

  2. How do you determine when students are allowed to register? How long and during what part of the day are the web registration time slots?
    We use the same system we used before web based registration. You’re given a time, e.g. noon on November 3. That is the time you can start to register. You can register any time after that, up till the last day of registration.

  3. How was the order in which students registered determined before you went to the web-based system? Were students supportive of the change?
    It’s always been based on the last digit of the student number. Didn’t change when we went to internet registration.

  4. What happens if a student misses their assigned registration time?
    Well, with the above scenario, you’d have to be pretty dense to miss your chance to register. But there are always other registration periods later on.

  5. What happens if a student cannot get into the desired courses? Can they wait-list themselves on the web? Who do they contact for help if they have a problem?
    No, there is no way to get an override or put themselves on a wait list online. You’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way and talk to the class instructor.

  6. Do you also allow registration on paper forms? If so, how is paper registration prioritized compared to web registration, approximately how many students use paper registration, and why?
    Technically, it all goes into the internet system anyways. If you fill everything out on paper, you go talk to the nice old registration ladies that put all your data into the computer program. One more thing to note: the other option is a telephone registration system. I don’t know how the two work together.

  7. How do you ensure that students register for the courses recommended by their advisors?
    That’s the student’s job.

  8. How are holds and courses which require special permission for registration handled? Does the web interface verify that pre-requisite course requirements have been met?
    As an engineering student, I have an advising hold on my account. Paperwork must be signed and turned in, and then the dean’s office releases the hold. The system does know if the hold is still present. And pre-reqs are not noted by the computer system.

  9. Are charges assessed when the student registers, or at a later date?
    The system notifies you of when the statement will be due. It’s normally a couple months after registration.

Can’t answer the last questions. But for what it’s worth, I really like the current system.

4

My university also uses web/telephone registration, with the STAR system, as did the other university I attended previously.

You can register by telephone or online. Your ID number is your SSN, and the initial PIN with it is your birthdate in mm/dd/yy form. There are options to change your password, add/drop courses, change grading options (like change a course from graded to credit/no credit), and make payment arrangements.

Like racinchikki’s school, your registration is at a specific time on a certain date, but you can register any time after that as well.

There are some classes that you cannot enroll in until you get the permission of the instructor (WPI). You have to see your advisor and then they input a code into the system that allows you to register for that course.

Wait-listing - your only option, AFAIK, is to see the instructor for the class, and hope someone drops. Luckily my program is not a crowded one! :slight_smile:

Oh - the time you register is based on a combination of factors:

  1. of hours you have earned so far - the more you have, the earlier you register

  2. GPA - higher grades/honors goes first.

  3. How close you are to graduation (#1 and this are not neccesarily the same - I have over 100 hours but it will take me another year and a half or so to finish up).

HTH! I registered this afternoon online for spring and it was fast and efficient. Very nice!

5

My school uses online registration. I love it and I couldn’t imagine registering any other way.

2.It’s done by class status and last name. Usually registration is spread out over a week or so, and each group has a specific time when they can register. You can also register any time after that time- just not before.

  1. I believe it was the same deal, but with telephone registration instead.

  2. You can register anytime after your assigned time, just not before.

5.We can get a real-time update of how many people are in a class. As people ajust their schedules often a space will open up eventurally. If that doesn’t work the only thing you can do is talk to the teacher privately or show up the first day of class and try to crash it. If you do get in to a class after the fact, the teacher provides you with a special code that will allow you to enroll in the class even if it is closed.

  1. No paper registration, but you can still use the phone registration system. A lot of people still use it even through it is far more cumbersome than web registration.

  2. That is their deal. They are adults and if they register for the wrong courses it is up to them to deal with the consequences.

  3. There are some controls as to what courses you can sign up for…the system knows if you have met enrollment conditions (such as pre-reqs, major requirments or class level). If you need to sign up for a class that you aren’t technically allowed to get in to, you can obtain a permission code from the teacher that will let you.

  4. Charges are accesed later, but if you don’t pay up you risk losing your classes.

6

My school used web based registration when I went there. I know nothing about computer stuff, but thinking that you might want a perspective from that point of view too, here you go:

Gosh, didn’t mean to write a novel there. Hope in all that there’s something useful!

7

  1. Do not know the software they use.

  2. Do not know exactly how the dates are determined. I suppose it is by credit and such, but somehow it escapes my understanding how I got to register the first day when I only have about 12 college credits by dual-enrollment approved. Meanwhile, my roomates with a complete IB diploma did not registrate until last week.

They give you an initial registration time. You can register via phone or internet starting at a certain date, and have until the end of the last registration day to choose your courses. There is also late registration later on.

  1. I do not know the answer, since this is my first year as a university student. Well, the first one that is not dual-enrollment.

  2. You can register later, as long as it is during the registration period.

  3. I think they can wait list from the web, but I do not know since I have had no necessity to do so.

  4. I think the only registration available now is either by phone or by internet.

  5. They do not check, they just assume you registered correctly. After you register, they show you your schedule, with all the courses you selected. I know some of my friends and I dumped the advisors suggestions, or convinced them that they should give us other options.

  6. Many holds you can take out by just calling the admissions office and talking to everyone until someone who has the “big computer” hits the right buttons and removes the hold. When I registered for the fall, one of the courses(chemistry) said I did not had the pre-requisites. I just went to talk with the nice advisor down the hall where I was registering and told him I could take the class. He hit the right buttons and I was in.

  7. The system calculates what you owe, but you only have to pay it at the beginning of the next semester.

  8. Do not know.

  9. The university I took the dual-enrollment classes still do not have web registration. It gets ugly during registration period with all the lines and people wanting to change courses and sections. This is much better.

  10. Explain the waiting list better. I know some friends who need to use that option, and at the beginning it was a bit confusing.

8

Hey, just wanted to say thanks for the responses so far! Good information for me. Even if your answers are the same as the people before you, that still helps me a lot because I can show that a lot of schools are doing it that way and it works for them.

Definitely my favorite part has been the answers to “7. How do you ensure that students register for the courses recommended by their advisors?” A couple of people here just don’t believe it’s a responsibility that the students can handle(?!?!). If you’re too stupid to register for the right classes after they’ve been handed to you on a list, you don’t belong in college anyway. That’s my rant. Carry on.

9

Another answer from the perspective of a student.

1. What software do you use for web-based registration?

Don’t know.

2. How do you determine when students are allowed to register? How long and during what part of the day are the web registration time slots?

We didn’t have any time slots. We couldn’t register online until we received our pin number, which we didn’t receive until we had successfully completed a “How to register for college” workshop and had our classes approved by student advisor. I took one of the earliest workshops, and was able to register online several months before school started. First come, first served, all of my classes were wide open. The ones who waited had a nightmare trying to get a schedule worked out.

3. How was the order in which students registered determined before you went to the web-based system? Were students supportive of the change?

I don’t know what the procedure was like before at my college. My sister’s experience at the local university was a 3-4 day process of standing in line after line. I know that students were supportive of the change.

4. What happens if a student misses their assigned registration time?

Again, their was no assigned registration time, but the longer you waited, the less options you had.

5. What happens if a student cannot get into the desired courses? Can they wait-list themselves on the web? Who do they contact for help if they have a problem?

Sadly, no. I wish that system was in place. On the slip with the pin number was a phone number to call for help.

6. Do you also allow registration on paper forms? If so, how is paper registration prioritized compared to web registration, approximately how many students use paper registration, and why?

Yes, there was paper registration as well, but I don’t know exactly how it was prioritized. Since I didn’t use paper registration, I have no idea why one would choose to spend a whole day standing in lines when you don’t have to. I did have to stop during my registration time slot to get a new student ID and opt out of the health plan. Those two lines were long enough for me.

7. How do you ensure that students register for the courses recommended by their advisors?

Other than the required workshop, nothing. Hey, if you want to pay for classes you don’t need, I’m sure the college is more than happy to take your money.

8. How are holds and courses which require special permission for registration handled? Does the web interface verify that pre-requisite course requirements have been met?

The only situation that I ran into was that you weren’t allowed into the next level of a course (winter registration could also be done) if you weren’t registered for the previous level of the course. Same with labs - the registration wouldn’t take if you only registered for JUST the lab or JUST the lectures.

9. Are charges assessed when the student registers, or at a later date?

Later date, I believe. I had a student loan going directly to the college, so I didn’t bother much with the financial aspect.

10. What prompted you to change from your previous system to web-based registration? Do you feel that the new system is more popular with your students than the old one was?

It was popular with me! I got to register at home, in my jammies with a cup of coffee.

11. Have you experienced any benefits that were not foreseen when you implemented web registration? Any unforeseen problems or challenges?

Not that I’m aware of.

12. What would you do differently next time? Any additional comments that you feel may be helpful to us?

As a registering student, my only request is an easy to find, easy to read FAQ. There were a TON of pages at the college website dealing with online registration, but after skimming 15 or so, I wound up calling that college to ask something that should have been a really simple question.