New program eases scheduling stress

By Rachel Stengel

Students will not find the gray course selection booklets or the yellow scheduling grids littering the deans’ offices this semester because of the new Enhanced Course Roster program, which aims to assist students with the fall 2012 course selection process, beginning March 5.

Rather than students physically blocking out their potential class times on course selection grids, the Enhanced Course Roster system creates the schedule for them. The program is not used to register for classes, only to plan out one’s schedule.

Jonathan Millen, associate dean of Liberal Arts, said the motivation behind the Enhanced Course Roster was to make course selection a paperless, user-friendly process.

Students can access the Enhanced Course Roster by clicking the “View and Open All Course Lists” tab after clicking on the “Student Information” tab on their myRider portal. Upon clicking the Enhanced Course Roster link, the program will open to an interactive list with all available courses for fall 2012 on both campuses.

Students can filter their search by subject, course, section, title, instructor, days, times, restriction and prerequisites. Also, there is a general search bar located in the right hand corner for easy use.

Sophomore Heather Boner said the filtering features make finding specific classes much easier.

“[The Enhanced Course Roster] helps because you not only reduce the amount of time it takes to plan your schedule, but it allows you to choose classes much more specifically,” Boner said. “I have a class that I want to take with a specific teacher next semester and this made the process a lot more efficient. No one wants to play a guessing game.”

Clicking the star on the left side of each course adds it to the schedule. If a student should choose two conflicting courses, a warning will appear, but the course will still be added.

First-time users will be asked to experience a guided tour. If students wish to revisit the tour, they can access it through the help button at the top of the screen.

Once their rosters are complete, students can save the PDF files for print or to keep on record.

Sophomore Ashley Theosmy said she is pleased with the program and believes the simplicity of the system will attract students.

“Using the new Enhanced Course Roster has been a great experience for me,” Theosmy said. “I found that it was very easy to use and makes the whole process of course selection a lot easier. I’m sure that the rest of the University will enjoy the system update just as much as I have.”