Online Registration

Overview

Online registration is a procedure partially defined in the SIS database, and partially dependent on external decisions and actions. The SIS uses data it contains or manages (such as a student's academic standing) to control student actions within online registration, but requires some actions (e.g. purging registration records for students who haven't paid their registration fee) to be performed by an SIS user.

The figure at right shows one possible broad timeline for online registration. It shows only steps required within the SIS to enable and manage the overall process. Most online registration activity occurs within the student- and faculty-accessible web portal (myShark).

Examples of controls that exist based on data in the SIS:

• students are allowed to manage their registration only during scheduled time periods (specified on the Term Control form)
• registration isn't allowed when students have registration holds, academic standing issues, or aren't a current student.

Examples of other required tasks:

• balance due holds created for students with past-due accounts (using Balance Due Hold report)
• registration records purged for students who haven't paid their registration fee (using Reg fee non-pay report)

Still other controls exist within online registration itself. For example, students aren't allowed to register for classes until after meeting with their advisor, which is recorded by the advisor in the myShark portal.

Registration Periods and Limits

The Term Control form is used to specify when online registration is allowed each term, and also manages some limits enforced during registration (the Online Registration Control section of the form applies to online registration):

Up to three time periods for online registration can be specified. If no corresponding time is specified (for a given date), registration is allowed that entire day (note that specifiying midnite, 12:00am, for the End Time doesn't work as expected; it causes registration to end at the beginning of the day rather than at the end). Also, a blank start- or end-date will allow registration to occur on any date prior to or after (respectively) whatever portion of a date range is specified. The Description is displayed within Online Registration if multiple time periods are available, or when the period is in the future.

Credit hour and section count maximums can be specified to prevent students from registering for an excessive number of classes or to enforce college policy. The defaults for both are 99, so must be updated each term if these limits are to be used.

The optional Fee Payment Deadline can be used to restrict registration after a certain date when no registration fee has been paid. Students will be allowed to register for classes until this date (inclusive) but will be warned about the deadline. After the deadline, registration is only allowed for students who, for the registrationt term, have made a payment, have a credit balance, or have more three or more entries on their account (this combination is designed to catch any type of activity that might reflect payment of the REG fee, since how it is recorded on student accounts can vary). If students lacking fee payment are to have their registration purged, the Reg fee non-pay report can be used.

Student Eligibility to use Online Registration

Students are allowed to use online registration only when none of the following are true:

• Fee payment deadline has passed and registration fee not paid
• Any "No Registration" hold present (see Hold Types)
• Three or more terms without enrollment (re-admission required)
• Graduated after the prior term (re-admission required)
• On academic suspension
• On disciplinary suspension

Most of these criteria use information managed by the SIS, such as a student's academic standing. Others use parameters defined within online registration, e.g. the fee payment deadline, and apply to all students.

Control over an individual student's ability to use online registration should be accomplished using holds. This allows a description of the specific issue to be supplied to the student via the hold's Notes field. See Holds for more information.

Holds can also be managed by reports or processes such as Balance Due Hold, which creates a hold for any student with a balance due from a prior term. This type of report allows college policy to be enforced broadly, but managed at a per-student level when appropriate.

Controls and Logs

The Online Reg Cntrl form provides some specific controls and overrides for online registration, and a per-student log of activity:

The advisor approval status for student in a given term (Advisor Approves Registration) may be changed here. This step can only be performed here, or directly by a student's assigned advisor, and only this form is allowed to revoke approval.

The activity log shows the most recent 99 actions in reverse chronological order (most recent at top of list). All registration, add, and drop actions are logged, as well as activity by the advisor.