BY: Jeremy Hollis
The days of WebAdvisor are nearing to a close at Daemen. The registration system will soon be succeeded by Student Planning. Students will start planning their class schedules with the service for the Spring 2018 semester.
The process of transitioning over to Student Planning was headed by Chief Information Officer, Kelly Duran. Before implementing a pilot of Student Planning at Daemen, Duran and other members of the Information Technology reached out to other local schools for feedback. Receiving mostly positive feedback, a pilot of the “Self-Service” was conducted with all the psychology majors and half of the physical therapy students, during the 2016 academic calendar.
According to Duran, after an “overwhelming satisfaction response” from the pilot program, they knew Student Planning had to become the new registration system. The complaints had mounted up from students when using WebAdvisor. Duran said that WebAdvisor had become increasingly outdated.
When asking Sabrina Fennell, Assistant Dean for Academic Support Services, the main complaint she heard regarding WebAdvisor was the mix-up between the course catalog and course schedule.
This sentiment was echoed by Daemen student, Matthew Skrypka. “I didn’t like how many steps it took to register for classes,” said Skrypka.
Both Duran and Fennell said that Student Planning will alleviate the chief complaint of WebAdvisor. Duran said there will be a course conflict tool, to help students see better just how their schedules would line up with prospective class registrations. Fennell stated the service has an overall “better visual perspective” when it comes to planning courses. Fennell also said that students will now be able to access a variety of relevant information all in one place.
Duran pointed out others who deserved some credit for making the transition. Included was the Registrar, Divisional Deans, fellow IT colleagues and Dr. Michael Brogan.
Beyond students, Fennell said the next greatest beneficiaries from Student Planning will be the academic advisors. The hope is that students will not need to be as dependent on advisors, come time to register each semester.
With the idea of making students more self-sufficient with the new planning system than previously, workshops will be held in the Duns Scotus 135. Fennell will be leading most of these workshops herself.
Students can contact studentplanning@daemen.edu if they run into any issues with the software, and students will be able to get in contact with the Registrar’s Office, IT and advisors.
As for what may be on the horizon from the IT Department, Duran states possibly a “financial aid interface.” This would allow students to glimpse more into possible financial aid packages, and even be tied into Student Planning.