Leslie Ovalle/ Staff Writer
leslie.ovalle@fiusm.com
OneStop Enrollment Services is doing away with the manual pen-and-paper scheduling for the 2015 summer and fall semesters with the launch of MyCourseScheduler.
The recently launched program can be found at the my.fiu.edu student portal under the Academics tab.
The software was first launched on November 2014, with much positive feedback.
“We’re thrilled that many students discovered [MyCourseScheduler] during the soft launch, began using it, and have spread the word,” said Luis Rodriguez, assistant director of OneStop Enrollment Services.
According to its website, the program allows the students to schedule their courses and personal responsibilities all in one place.
“Making registration a quick and painless process,” states the easy-to-use manual on the website.
The motto for the program is “scheduling made easy” and it stays true to this by allowing students to choose their desired courses and plan time for their personal responsibilities, such as meal breaks, work, study sessions, etc.
Through this program, the student can plug in different things, such as the desired campus locations and semester terms. There is also an online option for online students.
The program will showcase various schedule options that fit each student’s requests. They will be able to view them in detail and compare up to four schedules at a time.
On the University’s social media accounts, the program has received a great amount of positive feedback.
“I must try this!” commented Roger Paz, a student majoring in finance.
After comparing potential schedules, students can send their most desirable schedule to their enrollment shopping cart. Then, after logging in to their MyFIU account, they can import their cart and proceed to enroll in the courses.
University alumni in administration, Arturo Aviles, also commented regarding the University’s social media, stating his amazement on how the times are changing.
“When I registered, you had to pick up a course book at the registrar and call in and hope it wasn’t busy,” said Aviles. “You guys got it good now.”
Christopher Dittrich, a graduate student at the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, believes that the program is a bit superfluous.
“I find it unnecessary because us young adults shouldn’t need to have a specific break time,” said Dittrich, ”We have to adapt.”
However, he states that he sees the benefit that this can bring to students who are beginning to adapt to college scheduling.
Inspiration for this program comes from other universities in the nation like Arizona State University, Pennsylvania State University and Ohio State University, who already offer software programs similar to the MyCourseScheduler.
The software was created by a company called College Scheduler, LLC and, according to Charlie Andrews, the director of the Academic Advising Center and First Year Programs, the cost to the University for this software is less than one dollar per student each year.
This program will also be running behind-the-scenes reports on the data that students input in the software. This will help administrators view popular break times for students and demand trends for all courses.
“This will inform our decision-making and prediction-making of what classes to offer,” said Andrews. “Ultimately saving us time and money.”
According to him, besides making the process of scheduling much easier for students, this program will also encourage students to take more credits and therefore graduate in a timely fashion.
“If we can make it easier for students to build their schedule, they will be more likely to find the time to take more credits,” he said.