University plans to launch system enabling online course registration

Say goodbye to course cards and add/drop forms.

Students soon will be able to register for classes and add or drop them in their rooms with the click of a button.

Registrar Joseph Greenberg revealed Tuesday that the University has been working for nearly two years on a system that will allow students to enroll in courses online.

"We don't have a set date for release, but we're putting together the necessary pieces that will lead to online registration," Greenberg said.

He explained that two years ago Princeton signed a contract with PeopleSoft software corporation to create an online course enrollment program that will be introduced within the next two years.

Many universities — such as the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern — already utilize an online system for course enrollment.

Princeton, however, has been slow to give up the pencil-and-paper method of enrollment.

"We wanted to make sure the software was developed enough and would meet our needs," Greenberg said.

PeopleSoft software is already used by University departments for accounting purposes. Northwestern operates its enrollment system on an early version of PeopleSoft, according to Greenberg.

He noted that the online program will make course selection more convenient for both students and academic departments.

"It will give a tremendous amount of flexibility to allow individual students to pick courses, but at the same time, when important, to enforce numerical limits on classes," Greenberg said.

Though the system is still a few years away from being a reality, several steps already are being taken to ease the transition to an online-based enrollment process. Department secretaries and managers are being trained to use the PeopleSoft software to post course offerings directly on the Web, Greenberg said.

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In addition, after next fall, student records will be moved to the PeopleSoft database.

The PeopleSoft software will also be compatible with Blackboard 5.0, an updated version of the University's CourseInfo system that administrators hope to have in place for students by the beginning of the next academic year.

Online advising

Greenberg also noted that he and several academic deans are currently developing online advising tools to complement the system.

"The tools will include things like an online transcript to indicate which prerequisites have been met," he said.

But despite the new online tools, the University will keep the existing faculty advising program intact. Greenberg emphasized the importance of such advising and said that students would not be able to utilize the online program without their advisers' permission.

"The adviser would have to release the students for course selection through either a PIN or a course enrollment flag that he would put up," he said.

Provisions for limited enrollment and adding and dropping a course will be incorporated in the system, but Greenberg said the specifics of these options have not been finalized.

"It's a very large project and it takes a lot of time and effort to complete," Greenberg said. "But we have started."