User-friendly SOAR fully operational
Students can register for classes online

By CHRISTINE VIDAL
News Services Editor

Students now are able to register for classes online - instead of in line - thanks to Student Online Access to Records, better known as SOAR.

According to Susan J. Eck, assistant vice provost and coordinator of student services information technology, undergraduate education/enrollment management, online course registration made its UB debut on a limited basis in January and now is fully operational, just in time for students to register for their summer or fall classes

Students can register for classes from SOAR's homepage - located at http://soar.buffalo.edu - by clicking on "register" and following the prompts.

The registration system is user-friendly and self-explanatory, although visitors to the site are encouraged to learn about the electronic registration system by clicking on the "First Time?" prompt located on SOAR's homepage prior to registering because the system is "live" and anything that is dropped or added changes the student's schedule.

The most difficult thing about using SOAR to register for classes, Eck said, is "learning how to sign on-students have to use their UB IT name." And just in case they've forgotten it and their password, instructions are available by clicking on the "UB Userid" prompt.

Ease of use was not the only priority in setting up the system. Security also was a primary concern, Eck noted. "How do you make sure it's them (registering)? How do you make sure other people can't hack into it?"

The university spent nearly two years designing SOAR's encryption system, and its level of protection exceeds that used at most other colleges and universities that offer similar Web access.

Freshmen entering the university in the Fall 1999 semester will register via SOAR this summer during orientation. "Freshmen will be taught carefully in special sessions to know where (SOAR) is. They will be registering for classes for the first time on the Web," said Eck, who noted that offering computer-based services such as these is intended to dovetail with Access99, the initiative requiring all freshmen to have access to computers beginning this fall.

Nicolas Goodman, vice provost for undergraduate education, said he is "absolutely delighted" with the introduction of online registration for classes.

"The timing is perfect," Goodman said. "Freshmen will do their registration through SOAR, and that will fit in well with the rest of the message about the kind of experience we hope they will have at UB."

With the introduction of Access99, he added, the university needs to present a consistent message about the importance of technology, not only to students' coursework, but also because "we want them to use their computers to enhance access to a broad range of services.

"Online registration is an important contribution to making this a more modern and wired campus."

Registration via the Web also reflects incoming students' increasing computer aptitude. Each successive class of students is more technologically aware than those that preceded it, Eck noted. For example, she said, although the Degree Audit Recording System (DARS), the university's automated records system, has been available since 1995, it is students who entered UB in Fall 1998 who took to DARS most enthusiastically.

It was a "confluence of forces" that prompted that enthusiasm, she explained. DARS reports previously had to be picked up in person in Capen Hall during a one-week period. The reports went online in August 1998, making them more readily available to students.

"Those students really want DARS-it's more convenient to get, and they're actually reading it and sending email about it," she said. "They want to be able to get a DARS report at 9:30 at night because that's when they thought of it."

Likewise, students entering the university next year are more technologically savvy than their predecessors. This year, the Office of Admissions has received more email inquiries than it ever has in the past from prospective students.

"For them, registering online will be the only type of registration they've ever known," Eck said.

That's quite a statement, considering that just four years ago, students had to register for classes manually, sometime waiting in lines for hours just to drop or add a class to their schedule.

Eck recalled watching students gathering at 8:30 a.m. to stand in line, "probably for at least a couple of hours," she said, in order to make schedule changes.

UB offered its first alternative to manual registration-Touch-Tone Registration-in January 1995.

"We're trying to eliminate the things that students used to have to go and stand in line for," she said.

The SOAR Web site also solicits feedback from students who have used the system, and so far, the response has been positive. The only negative reaction has been the limited hours that students are able to use the system.

Students can register for classes through SOAR from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

"Students are used to having access to information on the Web 24 hours a day, seven days a week because most sites are static," Eck said.

But SOAR still needs human support. While a number of schools- such as Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers and the University of Maryland-also offer Web-based registration, none that she knows of offers that service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Even expanding online registration to seven days a week will require the university to think about its resources in a new way, Eck noted