As the first day of class rapidly approaches, many students are trying to secure spots in their desired courses. Although class enrollment ultimately depends on the instructor, ISIS has undergone many changes, such as a "swap" feature and electronic waiting lists to make class selection and enrollment easier for University students.
The major changes to ISIS are highlighted by the addition of a course-swap feature, which allows a student to secure a spot in a course without having to drop another in order to remain within the school's credit-hour limit. The swap feature will forfeit the student's place in the class he or she is leaving only if there is space available in the desired class, according to Don Reynard, director of applications and data services.
Reynard said an electronic waitlist also was added to ISIS. Students can now directly add themselves to a waitlist from ISIS. The class waitlists are also available via a new Web site: http://waitlist.web.virginia.edu/waitlist. Last year, before the electronic waitlist was implemented, a student had to wait on ISIS or continually check back to see if a seat had opened up.
The third change, was automated final registration, Reynard said. While previously students had to log onto ISIS and make their presence known to the institution by completing final registration, the process is now completed for students automatically so long as they have satisfied all financial obligations to the University.
As of Wednesday night, 17,800 students had been automatically registered, he said.
ISIS also underwent many technical adjustments. Before the changes, students would be logged off the program before they were able to finish processing their information, due to excessive traffic. Now students are allowed 30 minutes on ISIS before being automatically logged off.
The number of users allowed on ISIS at one time also changed, increasing from 175 last year to 800 this year, Reynard added.
Some students have already begun to appreciate the changes.
"I think the changes are pretty good," fourth-year College student Allie Horan said. "In the past it's always been problematic, especially with ISIS crashing ... [but] I haven't had any problems with it so far."
Although the improvements to ISIS have garnered praise, the University continues to look for a more efficient way for students to access their student data, according to Charles Grisham, director of the Student Systems Project.
The Student Systems Project is intended to replace ISIS in the future, which will centralize all student data and give the University a more integrated system for organizing such information, Grisham said.
He explained that someday the new system will enable students to pay tuition with a credit card through a third party vendor, the COD will be integrated into the system and everything from Bookstore purchases to parking tickets will be available on the same system.
"Currently there are separate systems that manage student data that ISIS doesn't do, and wasn't intended to do," Grisham said.
However, the Student Systems Project will not be in effect for three to four years, he said.
"We have made a dramatic effort to improve ISIS online for every student ... to streamline processes and to improve the online experience, and we will continue to do so until ISIS is replaced," Reynard said.
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