The time to start planning next quarter’s schedules is near, but as students register for summer classes, they might find that the self-service they are familiar with looks and functions differently than before.
Online registration is one of many aspects of Ohio University’s web services that will be upgraded by the Office of Information Technology’s Rufus Initiative.
Students will now be directed to the new My OHIO portal — under the “Academics” tab of their personal Student Centers — to view course offerings and register for classes.
This past weekend, the Office of the Registrar sent an email to OU students preparing them for the change. It provided instructions and a how-to video for navigating the updated registration page and their new Student Centers.
In addition to the online tutorials, live support will be available during chaotic registration times so that students have a resource if they get confused, said Brice Bible, OU’s chief information officer.
“On those dates, we want to be available to help faculty and students navigate the system,” he said. “It will be a little bit of a challenge to make the conversion, but the results will be worth it.”
With the new system, students will be able to access web registration at almost any hour of the day rather than working around set hours.
“We put as much as we could online that would be easily accessible for students at any time,” said Shelley Ruff, the Rufus Initiative program director.
The new web registration is much like online shopping.
Students must first retrieve the class number — formerly called the call number — from the course offerings listing. Entering the class number into registration will add it to the “shopping cart,” which can be viewed at the right of the screen.
Similar to any online store, the selected courses will sit in the shopping cart until the student clicks “confirm,” like a checkout.
This means any student panicked over claiming the last available seat in a class might want to confirm their selections one at a time. A green check mark will appear if the class was successfully added, while a red “X” will indicate any errors. Once all the courses have been added and confirmed, students can click “finish enrolling” to submit their schedules.
Although registering for summer classes doesn’t require students to meet with their advisors, the university will launch a new advising system in May, when fall registration begins. The new Faculty Center — administrators’ version of the Student Center — will allow OU to get rid of the RAC code that each student previously needed for accessing registration.
“The RAC used to be the techno way of doing it,” said Sean O’Malley, Information Technology communications manger and University College adviser.
“We had this secret code that only your advisor knows and you’ve got to go to your adviser to get your DARS, which has your code on it.”
Advisers will have a list of students on their Faculty Centers, where they can check “release hold” to permit students to register at the time listed on their DARS reports.
“Everything will be a different process because we’re getting rid of the RAC, but we’re not getting rid of the requirement to meet with your adviser,” O’Malley said.
Registration for Summer Quarter opens Wednesday, and fall priority registration begins May 16.
“The massive change that Rufus represents is going to be challenging even for (the Office of Information Technology),” Bible said. “We know that this is a big change and that our faculty, administration and students will have to adjust to it.”
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