No. 1 Bruins can now enroll on URSA OnLine

Friday, February 19, 1999

No. 1 Bruins can now enroll on URSA OnLine

REGISTRATION: Students pleased by speed, ease

of computerized process

By Jaime Wilson-Chiru

Daily Bruin Contributor

The hassle of enrolling over the phone is finally over, and with
a few quick mouse clicks students can now select their classes on
line.

The URSA web site now gives students the option to enroll in
classes using the Internet. The on-line enrollment system offers
the same options as the URSA telephone menu.

"It’s very convenient and very, very fast," said Claire Scharf,
a first-year mathematics student. "You don’t have to listen to the
menu every time."

Besides the speed of the process, students are impressed by the
study list that appears as they enroll in their classes.

"You just scroll down and your study list is right there," said
Christopher Young, a first-year spanish and physiological sciences
student. In addition, the time limit for completing transactions on
URSA has been extended from 10 minutes to 15 because of the new
feature.

Compared to the telephone version, the on-line enrollment
process is seemingly painless, students said.

"If I dialed a wrong number on the telephone, I always had to
hang up and try again," said Ming Ma, a first-year biology student.
"Now I don’t have to worry about typing in the wrong nine-digit
number."

Though on-line enrollment was scheduled after the integration of
on-campus systems in admissions, financial aid and student records,
this option instead became available Jan 31.

So far, URSA OnLine hasn’t experienced any problems, but
Associate Registrar Larry Inks said because the system is
relatively new, not many people have used it.

"We expect a heavy load on April 5 (the first day of spring
quarter)," Inks said. "We have a limited number of access passes,"
he continued, referring to the number of logins available at
once.

Inks said that there are 192 logins available at one time. If
these spaces are occupied by students, he added, anyone trying to
log onto URSA OnLine will be blocked.

Inks said that if the current setup is found to be inadequate,
faster hardware will be installed to allow 240 users to log in at
once.

On-line enrollment was installed due to the demand for an
enrollment system.

"We could have activated the system earlier, but it takes extra
resources, funding being one of the resources and people being the
other," Inks said. "We developed web applications first."

Aiming to inform students about the system, two Dykstra hall
resident assistants, Andy Cohen and Aaron Hand, conducted a
workshop demonstrating how to enroll using URSA OnLine.

"Online registration is something that’s brand new to all
students," Cohen said. "It’s an intuitive process, but we wanted to
give some inside information on the new tools."

Hand demonstrated how to enroll on line by actually enrolling
himself for spring quarter classes while students watched.

UCLA is not alone in adopting an on-line enrollment system. A
few other schools, such as UC San Diego, have already jumped on the
technology bandwagon.

"With the connection we have, enrolling on line is pretty quick
and easy," said Ryan Suarez, a UCSD student. "You just click on the
class you want to enroll in."

URSA users, however, did have complaints about the on-line
system.

"Even though it’s a lot better than the phone system, when you
hit the back button on your web browser, you need to refresh the
page, which is annoying," said Samuel Lo, a first-year business
economics student.

Many students found that using standard web browsing techniques
led to difficulties in using the system.

"I have to remember not to push the back button," Ma said. "If
you hit the back button, you could get kicked off."

Cohen said students should pay better attention to the
instructions on the web site and use the buttons on the web site
instead of web browser buttons.

But the one thing on-line enrollment lacks is the warm tone of
URSA’s voice, provided by Anita Cotter, associate registrar.

"I like the computer enrollment system," said Stacie Somes, a
first-year biology student. "But I’ll miss the way URSA’s voice
makes me feel."

URSA OnLine can be accessed at http://www.ursa.

ucla.edu.

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