Administrators Refine Course Registration Process With Students’ Feedback

April 9, 2024

Business Teacher Kyle Byrnes teaches his entrepreneurship class. The Entrepreneurship Honors class is one of the many Business classes offered in the online course registration application form. Risisng juniors and seniors looking to challenge themselves in the business realm can apply for this course through the new streamlined academic application process.

With new adjustments to the course registration process, the administration has closely monitored the effectiveness of the new procedure. So far, the reviewing stage brought about feedback from several students which will help improve the system for the future.

Dean of Academics and Curriculum Erika Velez and other administrators working on the new process anticipate a 92% rate of meeting students’ first choices — a 14% increase since the 2020-21 school year and a steady 4% increase since last school year. The second phase of the process will allow the administration to dictate whether or not this newly implemented course registration process will continue.

“This review phase will allow us to determine if the new registration process doesn’t just check off graduation requirements, but also that it guarantees that the selected courses align and push each student’s academic capabilities in the right direction,” Velez said.

The shift to an automated course registration system — streamlined to assist both counselors and students — has sparked anticipation among the student body. Many students like junior Brooklynn Lodde appreciate the clarity of selecting future classes with the application form and counselors.

Newspaper staffer sophomore Levi Mbadiwe and Assistant Sports Editor junior Tommy Thornton edit on a feature package for the Raider Voice in the Multimedia News Production Advanced class. This one of the class offerings within the Digital Mass Media Department, as showcased in the automated application form for course registration. Students who want to learn about the field of communications and journalism might be interested in courses like this. (Otto Hellmund)

“I like the simplicity of overlooking my possible options of classes in the new course form before officially confirming what I plan on taking next year with my counselor,” Lodde explained.

Newly implemented systems at the school, however, bring about a number of challenges and questions for students. For example, sophomore Dakota Cohen feels that the form contains a lack of data and information for the various classes that she feels she might be interested in taking.

“I personally was not able to attend the Course Expo as I wasn’t at school that day so I couldn’t get to see the full picture of classes I was interested in,” Cohen said. She emphasized her desire for the administration to add detailed overviews of each course offering in the application form itself, so students do not have to switch back and forth between the form and the course guide handbook.

In order to further improve upon the automated course registration process, the administration plans on meeting as a team with different parties — students, parents, teachers, and the lead board — to collect feedback and see feedback from various perspectives. This can, in turn, facilitate the identification of aspects that work well in the system and what challenges there are that need refining.