Good-bye Lobby 10, Hello Online Pre-Registration

Lee Ridgway

Habitues of the Infinite Corridor will recognize the scenario: about a 
month before the end of a term, the Registrar's Office staff sets up 
shop in Lobby 10 for two days, surrounded by boxes of forms and 
pallets stacked with class schedule booklets. Staff from other offices 
hand out course guides and other materials. It's pre-registration time 
again. 

You may not have noticed, but this May, Lobby 10 looked considerably less 
crowded. Pre-registration has gone electronic! Starting with the Fall '97 
term, all continuing students pre-register through a new Web-based system. 

WebSIS
Electronic pre-registration is part of WebSIS, the new Web interface 
to the online Student Information System. It works in combination 
with the Registrar's Integrated Subject Listings & Schedule (ISLS).
 
The process is straightforward: from the WebSIS home page, 
students obtain Netscape certificates (for security), open the 
Registrar's Office Web page, log onto the pre-registration system, 
select subjects, confirm the selections, and send them off to the 
Registrar. Sounds simple enough, and it is, but there's more.

WebSIS runs on a secure Web server that requires students to get 
certificates to ensure that they are accessing an authentic server, 
and that they are authorized to access the system. Once students log 
on, they create their own database entry - the pre-registration form. 
Moving far beyond Lobby 10, students can now pre-register from 
anywhere in the world, as long as they can connect to the Internet.
 
From the WebSIS site, students can also get to personal financial and 
academic information, including grades, financial aid statements, and 
bursar's bills. They can also change their address records.

Filling out the Form
The pre-registration form is simple, with succinct instructions. You 
enter a subject number and the rest of the information about that 
subject is filled in automatically, including number of units, title, 
and status. Should you make a typing error, enter a subject number 
that has changed, or select a subject that is related to one of the 
lotteries, such as HASS-D or the Sloan School, the system issues a 
warning message. These messages, as well as comments related to 
courses, also serve as links to Web pages with further details.

One handy feature of electronic pre-registration is that a student can 
specify reserved time (such as for meals, work, or extracurricular 
activities). If you select a subject whose schedule conflicts with 
another of your selections, a notice appears and you can take 
appropriate action. You can add or delete subjects and make other 
changes at any time. When you consider the selection of courses 
final, you click on the Finished button and receive confirmation that 
your selections are recorded. You can print the form from the Web at 
any point in the process.

Integrated Subject Listings & Schedule (ISLS)
Most students will probably begin their pre-registration by selecting 
subjects from the Integrated Subject Listings & Schedule. The ISLS, 
also Web based, was developed a couple of years ago and modified to 
work with online pre-registration. In the ISLS you can search for 
subjects in several ways: by subject number, name, or keyword, or 
by requirements, time, or professor. As you select subjects, a 
schedule chart fills in so that you can see what a typical week would 
look like in the next term. You are warned if you make selections 
that result in schedule conflicts. You can make changes or print the 
schedule at any time. When you are satisfied, you can submit your 
selections directly to the pre-registration system and complete the 
process there.

There's nothing more to do until Registration Day itself which, for 
now, remains unchanged. Students will still pick up registration 
forms and get their advisors' approvals and signatures in person. 
However, online registration, with electronic advisor signatures, 
is probably on its way in the next eighteen months or so.

Development and Implications 
The development and implications of electronic pre-registration were 
discussed recently by Mary Callahan, Associate Registrar for Facilities 
& Scheduling, and Joanne Stevenson, Senior Analyst Programmer in 
Student Information Systems.
 
Development began in the spring of 1996, with a pilot in the fall. 
In December, students in the departments of Earth, Atmospheric, and 
Planetary Sciences; Mathematics; and the Sloan School tested the 
system by doing live pre-registration for the Spring '97 term.
 
The test was a success, but as always, there were a few surprises. 
The pre-registration Web pages include email links to the 
Registrar's Office, which many of the test students used for 
questions about the system and pre-registration. Under the old 
process, students seldom asked questions. Also under the old process, 
graduate students seldom pre-registered for classes - they just 
turned in blank forms. With online pre-registration, graduate 
students did select subjects.
 
In an effort to provide both students and administrators with more 
up-to-date information around subject selections, students will be 
able to change their initial pre-registrations for Fall '97 right up 
until August 19. This later deadline also means that subject offerings 
and schedules will be more final, and that more accurate enrollment 
figures can be given to the departments.

The Registrar's Office, in conjunction with the Adaptive Technology 
for Information and Computing (ATIC) Lab, will provide support for 
students needing help with the system, such as those who are visually 
or physically impaired; these will be handled on a case-by-case basis.