The changes which debuted this term and are intended to increase efficiency include students' ability to add and drop all courses online and a new customized timetable based on class year, according to College Registrar Meredith Braz.
Student response to the new system over the past week has seemed "mostly appreciative," Braz said.
"Some students still come in with questions, but when we explain [the system] to them, they usually say that they like it and it's easy to use," she said.
Hemayat Chowdhury '14 said that the new system makes selecting a specific class like a First-Year Seminar very simple.
"It's actually a lot easier to use [than the previous system]," he said.
In past terms, students were required to visit the Office of the Registrar in person to enroll in or drop courses that required instructor permission, according to Braz.
Under the new system, which is still operated through BannerStudent, students can electronically select these courses after obtaining permission from their instructors via e-mail, she said.
This policy will apply to situations in which instructor permission is needed to bypass prerequisite courses and closed courses that already contain the maximum number of students, according to Braz.
"Instead of carrying cards back and forth, the students can now just do the whole process online," Braz said. "I expect that this will reduce the lines that we usually see in the beginning of the term."
The new system also tailors the timetable of courses according to what courses a student is eligible to select. Different courses will appear depending on the individual's class year and status as an undergraduate or graduate student, Braz said.
Some students interviewed by The Dartmouth said they were confused by the difference between the public timetable and the customized timetable.
"I tried to copy the [Course Reference Number] from the public timetable and it didn't work for me," Kelly Erickson '11 said.
Faster processing under the new system also increases the probability that students will be assigned to their first-choice courses, so students no longer have to list alternative courses, Braz said.
Several students interviewed by The Dartmouth said that the inability to select alternate courses is still concerning.
"You don't get to choose the other three [back-up] courses," Tashi Wangmo '14 said. "And then the question is what happens if you don't get a capped course that you chose it's not clear and a lot of students have been asking about this."
The new website's increased efficiency will allow the registrar to process the course selection data and present reports on course selection patterns to academic departments, according to Braz.
Such data will help departments determine whether they should add additional sections for courses that are oversubscribed, Thomas Joseph, a member of the institutional information services and support division of Computing Services, said.
The new system will also be less confusing for first-year students, according to Braz.
"Typically, there is one day when the students talk to their advisors and then pick their classes," she said. "But now we can process the information faster and the extra day can be used for other activities."
A group of students tested the new features before the system "went live," Joseph said.
"We did some data testing and some students came in to play around with the system," he said. "The consistent look and feel was appreciated I mean, looking at the timetable [of class meetings] made [course selection] comfortable and easy."
Students participants in the trial also reported that using check-boxes to select courses made the process more efficient since there was more "searching and clicking" instead of "typing and entering," which they had to do under the old system, Joseph said.
Banner Team, a group that works within Computing Services and the Office of the Registrar, was responsible for redesigning the course selection page.
While revamping the system, Banner Team members aimed to preserve the values that guide course selection at the College, Joseph said.
"There are unique and philosophical approaches that Dartmouth has to course election," he said. "We wanted to apply it to the delivery functionality of [BannerStudent]."
