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Sam Calhoun
Academic Affairs Beat
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Registering
for classes has forever changed at Appalachian State University.
The days of printed schedules and post office box announcements
are over, and a newly enhanced AppalNET registration and information
service has begun.
On account of the budget crisis and the university’s desire
to remove all printed materials from its waste stream, AppalNET
has been enhanced to handle all student services in a timely and
comprehensive manner, Registrar and Director of Student Information
Systems Don R. Rankins said Friday.
“If we don’t print it, we save money, but we also get
the schedule out a little bit earlier,” Rankins said.
Registration schedules for all 2003 summer and fall sessions are
already up and running on AppalNET and all students are encouraged
to go online and check out the new AppalNET look and functions,
Rankins said.
Building off state initiatives, information technology services,
the registrar offices and the Student Information System offices
have worked over the past couple of years to stabilize AppalNET
and to bring Appalachian State students to become fully web enabled
Rankins said.
“This collaborative effort is about delivering the best services
we can electronically, and now we think we have a 24-hour system,”
Rankins said.
Rankins and his colleagues worked on three fronts to enhance AppalNET.
They worked on the stability of the system so they could go fully
electronic with the schedule, worked on the overall look and feel
of Appalachian State web products and they enhanced the registration
system. For example there is now an interactive registration page.
“We have the most heavily modified student system in the UNC
system so we can try to accommodate the needs of our campus,”
Rankins said. “When you sign in, you’re one click away
from what you want to do now.”
“I think it will be a quicker time spent on registering,”
junior psychology major Charles W. Holliday from Waxhaw said Friday.
“I prefer to do it online; I can just do it whenever I want
to and pick a time that is good for me.”
By the time students returned home from Spring Break, many enhancements
were made to AppalNET. Enrolled students were alerted by e-mail
and mail, and first-time students and readmitted students received
a letter.
According to a Registrar’s Office press release, new direct
links were added to AppalNET to assist in searching for classes,
planning for registration and accessing key offices. Several options
have also been added, including two search routines to help check
class availability.
In addition, all student services options now appear in the same
window, forever omitting the file cabinet icon. Along with new registration
tips, a registration status page has been added that outlines the
numerous items that affect registration.
“We don’t want to send you something that’s dated
or outdated, so by having a registration status page you know at
that point in time exactly if you are okay, if you have to be advised,
if you have any holds … It’s real time,” Rankins
said.
Rankins said he sees the Telephone Registration System (TRS) dying
its natural death. TRS has only been used sporadically in the past
and the increasing technology of telephones should soon allow Internet
access as a main function.
“I don’t like online; it’s easier to have something
in front of you to look at,” Concord freshman elementary education
major Rebecca M. Cyrus said Friday. “I believe it will be harder
to access it when there is a lot of people online.”
Rankins said he wants students to go online, sign in and check out
the new system.
“Our goal is to create electronic systems that help you access
and control your own [education],” Rankins said. |
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