Bucks students no longer need to check their mailboxes to find out course offerings for the upcoming semester, as a new webpage is now available on the Bucks website which provides an easier, faster and more accurate listing of current courses.
On Feb. 28, the Interactive Course Offerings Webpage went live in time for students looking to register for late spring or summer semester classes.
This new webpage was setup to replace the Course Offerings Mailer, a printed brochure that was mailed out prior to registration time each semester.  Now instead of the mailer, a postcard will be sent out reminding students to register for the upcoming semester.
According to Steve Bacher, director of e-marketing at Bucks, a decision was made to stop using the mailer because it killed trees and was expensive to print. “The mailer takes some time to publish and mail out; by the time people received it, it was full of inaccuracies,” said Bacher.
“This is a big change for Bucks.  We’ve always produced paper registration pieces which went out-of-date by the time the ink on them dried,” said Robert Maley, director of registration.
Bucks’ Senior Web Systems Developer Brant Steen was approached in January to work on developing a better option than the pdf version of the mailer.
Steen worked for several weeks to design and setup the webpage.  By combining his artistic eye in web design with his mastery of coding, he developed an interface that is both intuitive and easy to navigate.
Students will benefit not only from the ease and accessibility of the webpage, but also how quickly course information becomes available.
Graphic Design Coordinator Michael DiFiori, who was in charge of the layout and design of the mailer, explained that the old process—from the time he received course information to when the mailer was ready to be mailed out—would take about four to five weeks.
“What took about five weeks, now takes only 25 minutes,” said Steen in comparing printing the mailer to updating the webpage.
Course-offering information will be available weeks earlier than before because it will no longer go through the composition, proofing, printing and mailing cycle.
Last year, according to Executive Director of Public Relations and Marketing Communications Marta Kaufmann, the mailer for the 2013 fall semester was mailed out to Bucks County households around the beginning of June.  This year, course offerings for the fall semester will be available to browse online beginning as early as March 17.
Now that students can browse course offerings sooner than before, many might wonder if this could mean earlier registration as well.
Maley points out that “Registration can, within limits, begin earlier.  Because registration is tied closely to advising that’s where the limits come in.  Registration cannot begin unless advising is right there to support it and that has faculty contract and financial implications for Spring and Fall registration periods.”
He goes on to add, “Summer registration is not so dependent on advising availability, so we were able to begin it on February 26 this year instead of the usual mid-March start date.”
According to Kaufmann, “Priority Registration for the fall semester will open April 21.  In the past, priority registration didn’t open up until the middle of May.”
With these changes in mind, she emphasized how important it is for students to keep an eye on their BucksMail for registration and advising dates.
Students will still be able to search for courses on WebAdvisor, plus they will still need to register there.  However, the new webpage draws its data from the same database as WebAdvisor, while presenting it in a much more user-friendly way.
In addition to the Interactive Course Offerings Webpage, Steen recently improved the course syllabi.  According to Bacher, a given syllabus will now show what sections, if any, are being offered for that course in the upcoming semester.  The sections are listed in an eye-friendly way and contain a link to more information on the course offerings webpage.
The new webpage will be miles ahead of any printed piece, providing more accuracy at a quicker rate.  It will provide greater detail and the ability to search using several useful search parameters.
“We are certainly not the only college going paperless.  All in all, it’s the right time to institute this ‘green’ process,” said Maley, “With over 80 percent of students registering online and nearly 85 percent in summer, we’re confident that the vast majority of our students will appreciate and benefit from this switch.”
The new Interactive Course Offerings Webpage can be found at bucks.edu/register.
For specific semesters, go to bucks.edu/spring or bucks.edu/summer.  Fall course offerings will be available March 17 at bucks.edu/fall.