Students shop online for courses

By Ryan Borba
The Collegian

The my.csufresno.edu Web site upgrade seems to have been a success as far as registration is concerned, with most students giving the overall experience a good grade or, at worst, not really thinking much of it.

“It’s a bit easier,” said Michael Foster, an advertising major. “But it was harder to find my registration appointment and find how to start doing it.”

But Foster said, “Once I got it working and up, it worked great.”

Coleman Tuttle, a graduate student in the psychology department, said his experience was positive overall.

“I really didn’t have much of a problem,” he said, adding that he did have a little trouble registering for an undergraduate course. He said getting a permission number solved his problem, but that it was odd because he had no trouble enrolling in undergraduate classes last semester.

Apart from that, Tuttle said he thinks the layout of the revamped site is helpful.

“Actually, I think finding a class is a bit easier,” he said. “I like the way they display classes now, just the department and class number. So you don’t have to sort through so much at one time.”

Fresno State Registrar Tina Beddall said the registration period “has gone very well” and the few problems she encountered mostly had to do with students adjusting to the new site.

“Any time you have anything new, you’re going to have a learning curve,” she said. However, Beddall said students seem to have adjusted “very well” to the changes.

She said the new system allows for better prerequisite checks and that the various class departments handle those issues.

One of the more noticeable changes in the site upgrade is the addition of the shopping cart, which holds classes until each is picked, and then, in the final step, notifies the student of any problems adding classes.

Beddall said the hope was that students would easily adapt to the shopping cart method because they’re used to shopping online.

“Well, it was a little like online shopping,” said Ryne Santos, a senior music education major. He said he thought the method was a little redundant because he had to switch screens often.

“I like the shopping cart thing,” Foster said. “And how if you couldn’t actually get into a class you are trying to get into, like what happened to me while I wait for my [department qualification exam] results, they stay in your shopping cart till you remove them. Even if [the classes] are full,” he said.

Nicole Rios, a senior majoring in political science, said she thought the shopping cart process was tedious.

“It took a few minutes to figure it out, since you have to add one class at a time to your ‘shopping cart’ instead of being able to put all your course numbers in at once. I don’t think it was really any more complicated or even easier, just different,” she said.

Rios said because students have to add one class at a time, the registration process takes longer and she sees no benefits to the new method.

Foster said the site could use a few upgrades to make things easier to find.

“Maybe an updated search function for it,” he said. “Because there is no map showing where all the stuff in the old Student Portfolio section has gone to. And that was the stuff most people used when they went on the site.

Tuttle agreed, saying, “Navigating the new system can be a little difficult.”

Beddall said her department will evaluate the registration period and see what needs to be refined.

She said it’s possible a new feature allowing students to create a “wish list” could be added in coming years. She said this feature would allow different departments to see what kind of demand there is for certain classes, which would help determine how many sections of each class are needed.

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