On March 23, the College will launch a new course election platform, Courses @ Dartmouth, according to a presentation given by the Registrar’s Office at a Feb. 1 Dartmouth Student Government meeting. School of Arts and Sciences registrar Eric Parsons wrote in a statement to The Dartmouth that Courses @ Dartmouth will allow students to view course offerings, access detailed class information and use a shopping cart function to allow students to create schedules before enrollment opens.
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, deputy institutional registrar Andrew Ager wrote that the change comes after feedback from community members that requested “a more unified approach to information display and connected tools such as permission and overrides.”
“Courses @ Dartmouth allows us to both unify as much information as possible in a single interface and integrate key tools in the same system,” he wrote.
Parsons wrote that the current course selection system is “very old” and “difficult to enhance or add new functionality.”
“For instance, it is not very user-friendly if someone is accessing it on a mobile device,” Parsons wrote. “The new Courses @ Dartmouth platform is designed for mobile devices, allowing students to access course information on the go.”
According to Parsons, the new system will provide students with detailed information about courses.
“Dartmouth students will have access to more information about the classes they are selecting, thus resulting in less stress and an overall improved experience on par with Dartmouth’s peer institutions,” he wrote.
Students can preview schedules in a visual calendar display and swap course enrollments without risking being dropped from a current class if the course they want is full, Parsons added.
“By simply having more course details directly in the interface, students will not need to have multiple windows open on multiple websites to get the information they need,” he said.
Another new feature of the system is “conditional add/drop,” according to Ager.
Conditional add/drop “means when you try to get into a different section or course, you can tell it which course you wish to drop and which course you wish to add,” Ager wrote. “Then, you only get added to the new course if there is space, and you do not lose your space in the course you are already in. ”
Ager added that Courses @ Dartmouth has a “throttle” mechanism which will reduce server loads during course registration periods and prevent the system from crashing.
“This means that the outages that have occurred a few times over the past few years, right at the beginning of registration periods, will disappear,” he wrote.
Several students expressed frustration with the current registration system in interviews with The Dartmouth.
Michelle Wang ’29 said the winter term add/drop period was “stressful.”
“Everyone was trying to get in at the same time, and the website kept crashing,” she said.
Tina Huang ’29 said she has not gotten into courses she has elected during course registration.
“I really wanted to get into Professor [Ha Yan] Lee’s Economics 1 class … it filled up pretty quick because everyone wanted to take it,” Huang said. “If you don’t get into it, as a freshman, it affects you because it affects your courses later on as many classes have to be taken in a sequence.”
Courses @ Dartmouth marks the beginning of a series of software improvements to College systems, according to Ager. Dartmouth has plans to continue its partnership with academics operation platform CourseLeaf to revamp the major declaration process as well as the ORC/Catalog in the coming years, he wrote.
“These tools are in place at many schools across the country at this point, so it’s likely many of your friends at other schools use them already,” Ager wrote.
