ExCollege registration goes online

The Experimental College (Ex College) went digital this semester by allowing students to sign up for classes online.

The new system eliminated the long lines that used to form during registration in previous semesters, when students waited in Miner Hall to add their names to a list.

Students still need to go to the first class with an "Add/Drop Form" that formally adds the course to their schedule.

"The switch was made because last spring semester there were very long lines and it was freezing cold that day," Ex College Director Robyn Gittleman said. "Students complained, and it was obvious that a change had to be made. So, the [Ex College] board told us to look into going online."

The digital age has affected many services at Tufts, including housing lottery numbers, grade reporting, and class schedules. The ExCollege became one of the most recent to join the computerization trend in an effort to improve access to student services and the efficiency of the registration process.

"By putting the sign-up online, we wanted to make sure we don't look remote but open to new things," Gittleman said. "It was another experiment for us, and it was a success."

The sign-up period began on Jan. 6 and ended on the first day of classes, Jan. 15, enabling students without Internet access during winter break to sign up for courses. Three to four hundred students signed up during break and approximately seven hundred signed up after returning to Tufts.

All students are allowed to register in Ex College classes, but the size is narrowed down to twenty students through a survey administered by the professor during the first class.

Many students agreed that the online sign-up worked well. "I definitely thought it was a lot easier especially because coming back on the first day of classes is really hectic. It's more immediate, there is less waiting," senior Whitney Bennett said.

"The good thing about it was all you had to do was click on the class, it was really straightforward. The process of picking up a class can't get any easier than that."

However, the technology didn't make registration easier for everyone; students needed to have been checking their e-mail over the break to have known about the new process.

"I know a couple of people who still were scrambling to register by 4 p.m. on the first day because they didn't know about the web system," junior Shaina Wyche said.

Given the absence of any major glitches or problems during the spring semester registration, use of the online system will likely continue.

"We have to analyze the results and tweak it to make it better for next time because we want it to be as user-friendly as possible," Gittleman said. "We want to make it so easy that students can sign-up for our courses in their pajamas."