|
Touch-Tone Registration in Effect by Catherine Curran, Planning, Strategy and Administration
Students will no longer snake through the long line outside the Recreation Hall to register for classes. Thanks to R.S.V.P., registering in classes is just a phone call away. Short for Register Students Via Phone, R.S.V.P. is the new student touch tone registration system that went on line last month. "The system will be able to register 64 students every 15 minutes," says Bob Strobel, Associate Director of the Registrar's Office and coordinator for the R-S.V.P. project. "Telephone registration is designed to give immediate feedback to students regarding the status of their registration," says Strobel, who was involved in the analysis and selection of a similar system at another college before coming to UC Davis in 1990. "Students don't have to wait in line to register or wait up to three months to find out whether or not they got their classes. When they call to register, they'll know immediately if they have a place in the class," he says. Plans for implementing touch tone registration on the Davis campus began in the 1980s, but a system couldn't be installed until the campus converted to an interactive, online Student Information System (SIS) which updates student records right when the data is input. As a result, interactive registration has proven to be an interactive process. Staff from the Office of the Registrar, Information System Support, Administrative User Systems and Communications Resources have worked together to bring the new Student Information System and touch tone registration on line simultaneously. In addition, students and academic staff were instrumental in the design and testing phase of the touch tone registration system. "Due to the complexity, very seldom do you see a school implement a telephone registration system and a Student Information System at the same time. However, we were eager to have the students and the campus reap the benefits of telephone registration as soon as possible. It has proven to be a very big challenge," says Strobel. On May 8, touch tone registration officially went on line, and 100 students registered for classes via telephone. On May 17, touch tone registration for the summer session was opened up to all students. "We prepared for a war and we didnt even get a skirmish," says Strobel, explaining that the Registrar's Office was staffed to answer questions but received very few calls. "The whole idea was to make the system so simple that you didnt need written instructions. We wanted students to be able to call in and have the system prompt them through the registration process," says Strobel. The telephone registration system installed on campus is the same system used at UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and Arizona State University. "The advantage of the system," says Strobel, "is that the application development is menu driven and requires no programming." This allows Registrar staff to enhance the system easily and in a timely fashion. This fall all students at UCD except for those enrolled in the School of Medicine, will register for classes over the telephone. When students receive their registration packet, they will be given a window of time to R.S.V.P. Graduate students and seniors will be given an opportunity to register first. Students cannot call to register before their designated appointment times, but there will be open times on nights and weekends for them to call in after their initial appointment. Adds and drops also will be done over the telephone. To register, a student will dial 752-RSVP. A voice will prompt him/her through the registration process. Detailed instructions on how to register via telephone are included in the student registration packets and the Fall 1993 Class Schedule and Room Directory. 'We've tried to learn from other schools " says Strobel, noting that the real test of the system will come when over 20,000 students begin calling to register for the fall quarter.
|