Liberal Studies This Week

A while back, unbeknownst to me (I’ve always wanted to use that word), the registration office developed a tool to help our Deans’ Office staff to work on the schedule. It allowed them to view future schedules as a calendar rather than a list. They thought it was so useful, they posted it on the schedule website – but didn’t mention it!

http://uisapp.uis.edu/schedule/Default.aspx

This is a great tool. Campus-based students can search for classes using the calendar view so that they can look for possible conflicts. It allows you to search the full schedule or limit your search by college or program. Even better, and unlike the dynamic schedule, this tool allows you to select multiple programs to search. So you want to know what’s being offered in ENG, HIS, and PHI? Now you can do it in one search rather than three.

In addition to general course searches, it also has search functions dedicated to ECCE course – search by ECCE group! – and online courses. I’ve suggested that if they provide the ability to search for General Education courses that the tool might be perfect.

So here’s what I need from you. One of my roles is to fill gaps and one of the more significant gaps I’ve attempted to fill is to provide a more detailed approach to searching for classes, specifically for online students. This is why I create web pages listing all of the online courses each semester. I think this tool address the gap I’ve attempted to fill.

Is there a reason for me to create schedule webpages?

Let me know what you think. This tool doesn’t address everything I add to my schedule webpages but it does include 95% (and maybe no one really needs the other 5%?) As I type this, I’m thinking that they are no longer necessary but they exist to serve your needs so, if you feel you have needs that aren’t addressed by the new scheduling planning tool, let me know.