On-Line Registration
This article describes the first computerized registration system at ECU. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: "On-line Registration" ECU Report, Volume 17, No. 2, June 1985.
ECU inaugurated a computerized system for registration in March [1985] that will put an end to aggravating long lines.
Long registration and drop-add lines are a thing of the past at East Carolina University, thanks to a new computerized registration system the university inuagurated in March.
On-line registration, according to Registrar Gil Moore, enables students to register for classes quickly and efficiently by programming their desired schedules into personal computers.Students know immediately if space is available in the classes they want.
Under the old registration system, students had to wait months to find out if they go the classes they wanted. If they didn't, it meant going from one campus building to another to pick up appropriate cards, then waiting in long drop-add lines to make the changes official.
Because of their unfamiliarity with the new system, students were a bit apprehensive at first.That apprehension didn't last long, however. "The reaction has been fantastic from everyone so far," said Moore. "The majority of students are able to register in five minutes or less."
"All the students are very pleased to have their schedule in hand," said John Rainey, '84-'85 student government president. "They don't have to worry about it again until classes start next fall."
Decentralized System
With on-line registration, students can register for classes "just about anywhere on campus," Moore said."This is a decentralized system. Before, every student had to go to a central site. Now a student can do it in his or her advisor's office or at any one of 54 terminals located across the campus."
According to Moore, ECU is the first major institution in either North or South Carolina to implement a decentralized on-line system for registration.
Using the new registration system is simple, Moore said.Students go to their advisors' offices, make out schedules, and give them to computer operators in the building, who enter the schedules into the campus mainframe Sperry-Univac computer.Within minutes, the desired schedules are flashed on the screens, enabling students to find out immediately if substitutions are needed.
When the schedule is completed, the student is given the option to accept or not to accept the schedule. "If he accepts it," Moore said, "that is his guaranteed schedule as long as he pays his fees by the required date."
Once the fees for the semester have been paid, the student receives a copy of his schedule.No changes in the schedule are allowed after that point, Moore said, unless a prerequisitie has not been completed, a course has been failed, or medical reasons require it.
"I think the new system is going to have a real impact," said Dr. Ernest Uhr, dean of the School of Business."There should be very little need to go through drops and adds; that's going to be the dramatic improvement."
Plans Made
The idea of on-line registration was first discussed in 1971. Moore said, but we didn't have the equipment or the money."
In 1978 and 1979 a task force was appointed to study the total computerization of the campus, and the data elements were established based on needs of the academic units.
Fifty IBM personal computers were purchased last summer and were installed by December, 1984."All academic units received at least one computer," Moore said.
Once the computers were in place, training sessions began for the 250 employees who would be using them. In addition, a faculty committee began meeting weekly in January to study the system.
In March the newly-trained employees completed a successful test run."We had an operator at each of the 50 stations that entered a schedule on the system," Moore said. "Then we went to the cashier's office and actually printed a schedule."
The months of planning, tests and training have produced excellent results. So far the system has been plagued only by minor computer malfunctions. The software, which was developed by ECU's Student and Administrative Planning Department, has not created any problems at all, Moore said.
"It's going to be great," he said. "It's going to help us so much that a couple of years from now people are going to say, 'How did we ever live without it?'"
