Students Take Advantage of New Web Registration System

Contact: Ohio University Registrar Bill Jones, (740) 593-4211

ATHENS, Ohio (May 18, 2000) -- Ohio University students began registering for classes online this week through a new Web initiative that places the university among a small group of higher education institutions nationwide offering both real-time online telephone and Web-based registration.

The site, which can be found at the Registrar's Web page at www.ohiou.edu/registrar/, was activated May 15 for students preregistering for summer and fall quarters. Much like the university's telephone registration system, the Web system offers students the ability to make instant schedule changes without leaving home.

Ohio University was among the first higher education institutions in the country to offer telephone registration in 1992, when the Touch-Tone Registration and Information Processing System, or TRIPS, was installed. The phone registration system replaced the traditional registration process for all students on the Athens and five regional campuses.

"We've been doing this for a while, but electronic registration is still in the minority in American higher education," said University Registrar Bill Jones. "More institutions have phone registration now, but few have both Web and phone systems. We decided to keep both because we don't want to underserve any students who don't have access to computers."

Although both the phone and Web systems alert students of closed classes, the online system has one advantage over TRIPS -- it can help students find open sections of courses.

"For example, if students need to take English 151, and the section they want is closed, the Web system will help them find another section that fits into their schedule," Jones said.

Both systems allow students to listen to or view their schedules. Students also may retrieve grades via telephone or e-mail by submitting a request on the Web. The schedule students retrieve by phone or the Web is the same, reflecting all activity on both systems.

Students also can find on the Registrar's Web site an online schedule of classes that includes a complete listing of course offerings for a given quarter as well as information on class descriptions, who's teaching courses and the number of seats occupied in classes.

A team from the Registrar's Office and Computer Services' administrative systems staff began collaborating on the Web registration project about six months ago. They decided to develop the online system rather than contract the project to an outside company, saving the university about $150,000, Jones said.

The addition of Web registration also should ease demands on the phone system during peak registration hours, said Associate Registrar Debra Benton.

"There is a finite number of phone lines, and sometimes students receive busy signals," she said. "Web registration should help with that."

Student response to online registration has been positive so far. The Registrar's Office tested the site earlier this month by opening the system to a small group of students, many of whom e-mailed their comments to the Registrar's Office.

"It is terrific," said Zanesville Campus student Kathleen Cesa. "The site loaded quickly and was easy to understand and navigate. I like this much more than TRIPS because I can move at my own pace."

Students can preregister on either system from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. through June 2. Other registration periods are scheduled between June 5 and Sept. 19. Students can find registration dates in Ohio University's fall 2000-01 schedule of classes.

Another new service developed by the Registrar's Office and Computer Services will give faculty updated class lists on the Web. Before, when students made schedule changes through TRIPS, the system would alert faculty of the changes via e-mail or professors would wait to update their class lists when reports were printed twice a quarter. This process will continue, but in addition to this system, faculty can access their class lists -- updated every evening -- on the Web anytime. The Web class lists also include a link to each student's e-mail address, making sending individual or group e-mails easier. In addition, faculty can download class lists as an Excel file for easier grade management.