By Dana Leavitt
Keeping up with the trend of universities across the country, Fresno State made the switch on Sept. 6 to an exclusively online course catalog for a more consumer friendly approach that also saved the university money.
The decision to offer the catalog exclusively online was made more than a year ago to save money on the cost of printing, said Dawn Truelsen, associate director of web communications.
“There was quite a savings from the print catalogs,” Truelsen said. “The cost associated with printing now goes away. It was just a one-time cost to build the catalog.”
She said that, over the years, an increasing percentage of students gravitated toward getting information on the Internet, leaving the printed catalogs sitting on the shelves.
Dennis Nef, the dean of undergraduate studies, believes that this will help save students money.
“A student will save about $20 if they were to buy the catalog at the bookstore. It [the online catalog] will be easy and quick to access up-to-date information,” Nef said.
Although the catalog has always been available online, it has been improved to make it easier to find information without getting lost along the way. In addition to viewing the catalog on a desktop computer, people can now view it on their smartphones and tablet devices.
The new online catalog includes features that are supposed to make finding information on courses and degree requirements easier.
“What just launched was a catalog that is really optimized for the web experience and designed for the students””more than just administration and organizations of the university,” Truelsen said.
The process for creating the new catalog was time consuming, Truelsen said, but the investment made by the university helped integrate the system.
Fresno State used a centralized web content management system for all department websites and a vendor was hired to assist in building the new catalog.
“It actually is quite a different beast now because all the class information and the descriptions come straight from PeopleSoft,” Truelsen said. “Before it was a manual list that was maintained.
“When students log in to My Fresno State [Services], the courses that students see there are the exact same information they will see in the catalog. It is a much more intelligent website now. It is more of a system than just a basic website.”
Yvette Lewis, a new student orientation leader, said the changes are especially helpful for students who are unsure about a certain major they want to pursue. She said they can now easily check their catalog year and see what courses they need and what majors, minors and certificates are available.
“I feel that having the catalog exclusively online now provides an easier way for students to get a hold of it, instead of purchasing a hard copy,” Lewis said. “I can’t speak for all students but I believe it is more convenient. I don’t need to carry around another book just to see what specific courses I need for my major when registration time comes up.”
A major change to the catalog was the addition of the degree road maps that were previously located on another website under academics. A degree road map tells students what courses they have to take for
their general education requirements and what courses they can select to meet those requirements.
“I continuously check the catalog online just to make sure I’m on the right track,” Lewis said. “It has been so helpful while I was trying to decide what major to declare, looking up the specific courses and degrees. I have to say it is such a convenience to know that my catalog year is online and I don’t have to pay to use it.”
Truelsen said there is an archive section and every catalog year back to the 1980s is online. Students can download a full PDF of any year.
Fresno State released the new catalog at the beginning of the semester so students are able to get familiar with it before the rush of registration for the spring semester begins.
“Right now we are not getting much traffic,” she said. “When we look at the user statistics over the last year, usually in November and a week in the spring is when the catalog just gets hammered.
“That is why we launched it now because students are not in a panic. They can find out where everything is, look at it and not have the crunch to look at it right now. We are getting about 2,000 hits a day.”
The Catalog Office will be keeping an ear out to hear feedback so they can continue to make it user friendly.
“We definitely want people, especially students, to take a look and give feedback,” Truelsen said. “There is a link in the left navigation to give feedback and we would love to heard from students.”