Resent-Organization: THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON
X-Acknowledge-To: <D1ARG@AKRONVM>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.cumrec-l
Date:         Mon, 28 Sep 1992 13:51:26 EDT
Reply-To:     Tony Gould <D1ARG@AKRONVM.BITNET>
Comments:     Resent-From: Tony Gould <D1ARG@AKRONVM>
Comments:     Originally-From: "Mike Dieckmann (216)775-8795"
              <BMIKE@OCVAXC.CC.OBERLIN.EDU>
Comments:     Warning -- original Sender: tag was CUMREC-L@NDSUVM1
From:         Tony Gould <D1ARG@AKRONVM.BITNET>
Subject:      More on On-line Registration

1.  If you have touch-tone telephone registration, is this your ONLY interface,
    or is this IN ADDITION to a terminal-oriented online registration system?

    We allow the students to register via telephone or in-person.

    We charge $5.00 for those students who register via in-person and
    there is no charge for those students who use the telephone.

    There is no mail registration or batch registration.

2.  Is the "telephone" portion of your registration system merely an interface
    to a "normal" (read terminal-oriented) online registration system?  If
    the system was provided by a vendor, who did the programming of the voice
    interface, you or the vendor?  Does ANYONE have a telephone system that is
    completely independent of your "main" computer system (e.g., one that
    initializes its database from your student records system, does
    registration completely independently, and then sends the results back
    to your student records system upon completion)?

    Our system was written in-house.

    The voice is provided via Perception Technology which also supplies
    our equipement.

    We wrote a generic interface that allows us to interface our
    touch-tone applications with each of the applications.  Basically
    this interface allows the voice response equipement to act like
    32 terminals.  Each terminal initiates a CICS transaction each
    time a phone call is made.  Each time a student hits the pound
    key (#) we initiate a new transaction with the data portion of
    the student's response attached to this transaction.  The
    interface then calls the appropriate transaction (in this case
    registration).  We have a file which keeps track of each
    line and we know what application should be running on this
    line, various statistics, and a location pointer into our
    application program (registration).  We wrote a new registration
    main program that would communicate with our interface via
    this location counter.  This new main program uses all of the
    subroutines which our in-person registration system uses for
    edits, pre-requisites, conflict scheduling, and updating of
    our database.

3.  Do you still have an "add/drop" period following registration?  If so, is
    it conducted on-line by the students, or by the student visiting the
    registrar?

    Yes, we process early registration, add/drop, and late registration
    via both telephone and in-person.

4.  Does your system provide any "prior to registration" information to help
    speed up the student's actual registration experience?  For example,
    providing information on already-closed courses and the like?

    We check for closed courses, time conflicts, cancelled courses,
    pre-requisites, permission, and many other checks.

5.  How does a student identify himself/herself to your system?  Have you had
    any problems with this identification method?

    The system was originally written with access via a social security
    number and birthdate (MMDDYY) but when we developed our grade
    inquiry system it was determined that we should use a student
    assigned four-digit PIN number.  The PIN number is assigned
    by the student on the first access to the system and remains
    with the student until he/she decides that they need a new
    number which can be assigned by requesting (in-person) from
    the Registrar's Office to delete the old PIN and then the
    student assigns a new PIN via in-person or telephone access.

6.  How do you handle things like "instructor permission required"?  Do you
    give the instructors numbers to hand out?

    We assign a 6-digit PIN number to Department Heads, College Deans,
    and Registrar's Office to permit overriding of certain errors like
    closed classes, pre-requisites, permission, holds, etc.

7.  If you have tested your system or gauged response to it via a survey,
    what questions resulted in the most beneficial information?

    If you would like a copy of the survey that we used please contact
    Gerri Chitty, University Registrar (216) 972-7844.

Tony Gould
Administrative Project Leader, Student Records
The University of Akron
302 Buchtel Common
Akron, OH  44325-3501

(216) 972-6386 - VOICE
(216) 972-5238 - FAX
BITNET:
D1ARG@AKRONVM
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