The ability to register for classes online is just a click away for undergraduates at the Homewood campus. The new student Web registration system also will allow users to update biographical information in the Registrar's Office, add/drop courses and view current and former course schedules, all from remote locations.

The service is being piloted to seniors as of Nov. 12 and upon successful implementation will be available to the entire Homewood undergraduate population in April 2002, in time for fall semester preregistration.

Hedy Schaedel, Homewood registrar, says this online system, the first of its kind at Hopkins, has been a long time coming.

"The students have wanted [Web registration] and have made that known to us over the last several years," Schaedel says. "So offering this is in response to their requests and our desire to provide improved services to the students."

The registration procedure now being used requires students to go to Levering Hall to drop off request forms, signed by an adviser, during two days of preregistration week. The collected forms are then keyed in by the Office of the Registrar, and it may take as long as two weeks for students to receive by mail confirmation of the course schedule or a notice if he or she has been wait-listed, falls below 12 credits or has selected a closed course.

"But by using the Web system, the student will know immediately which courses he or she got; there won't be that time lag," Schaedel says. "The student can also know what he or she is wait-listed for and can immediately make another choice, rather than coming into the Registrar's Office."

Before registering on-line, students must meet with their advisers to discuss course selections. Once the adviser is satisfied that the student has met all requirements to take the chosen courses, he or she will go online to release a "hold" on the registration form.

The student's logon will bring up a page listing biographical information--including home address, phone numbers, major, etc.--that must be verified or corrected. From there the user will be directed to a registration screen to select the desired courses. Once the student has registered, the adviser will receive an e-mail confirmation.

"The adviser can then go in and look up the student's schedule to verify that the courses selected were, in fact, what they discussed," Schaedel says. "The adviser can also reset the hold to stop the student from doing anything further. It is giving the advisers some measure of control."

To access the page, students and advisers need to input their Johns Hopkins Enterprise Directory logon ID and password. "That is the actual key into the system," says Joe McFarland, associate registrar for information systems and Web registration project leader. The system was developed by the Registrar's Office and Hopkins Information Technology Services. Alex Gogue of Hopkins ITS was the lead software designer.

After Nov. 12, nonseniors can use the Web registration system to update biographical information and view and/or print out current class schedules and room assignments. Schedules from previous semesters are also accessible.

Seniors will be able to add or drop courses using Web registration beginning the first day of the spring semester. Giving students the option of changing a schedule online at any time is a significant convenience, Schaedel says, as the add/drop period--which typically finds students standing in line at the Registrar's Office an hour before it even opens--is stressful for all concerned.

To add/drop, students in the Whiting School of Engineering need approval from their adviser; students in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences do not.

Online registration is not available for permission required/instructor consent courses, such as independent research and interdivisional and cooperative education courses.

Schaedel says other Hopkins divisions have expressed interest in online registration, and the goal is to offer it at other schools as soon as it is feasible.