Rate the elective choosing process

irlrobins

Thankfully I don't have to go through the hassle of online registration and elective choice that all you had to do on your arrival/return to UCD this term. Reading through the Elective threads it sounds a complete nightmare for a lot of you.

So I'd be interested if people could rate how they found the registration/elective process by voting on the poll (1=worst,10=best).

And if you want to comment further then add a post explaining why you chose the rating you gave.

But please don't let it descend into a Hugh Brady/Horizon/UCDD bashing. I think a collection of valid and personal experiences of the elective process will be more informative then a free for all debate. So maybe one post per vote/person.

If someone wants to start a debate/moan/rant thread about it please do so!

BKtje

Gave it a 7. When it worked the way it should it was very easy to use and simple. No problems at all.

However its after you finished enrolling that the problems really began (for me at least) with subjects disappearing etc.

If it had worked the way it should id probably given it an 8 or 9. Its just those bloody errors that keep cropping up.

Raphael

When it;s working, it;s a good system. But it isn't really. Thankfully it hasn't given me much hassle, so I'm lucky.

fish-head

On a scale of crap to crap I gave it a crap. It worked out fine for me in the end but I know countless people that were left running around like headless chickens for the first few days, relying on other peoples schedules to find lectures etc..

Sangre

10.
I enjoy laughing at other people's misery.

Red Alert

Although the user interface is a lot better than usual SIS-fare, the real complaint i'd have is that they haven't given much thought to the error messages.

Ideally they'd be in big red print at the top of the page (or a page on their own) and they would be in plain english. Some of the error messages are the raw PL/SQL errors, not meaningful to the vast majority of people.

There are also serious problems in some courses where the modules haven't been given enough places, and with the emphasis on first years there are a lot of undergrad continuing students (especially repeaters) having difficulties with it.

emeraldstar

i think it's very bad that there is no way of telling what times a particular class is on nor how many places available in it before you drop your module. To see what's available you have to first drop the module you've picked entirely and keep your fingers crossed that it's still available if you don't find a more suitable one. Last year you could view a list of all the available time slots for modules and the number of places left in each slot...granted you still had to drop your module first but it was a little better than this year's version. If only there was a list like this you could access while still remaining enrolled to the modules that you have got, then i think the system would be halfway decent!! ...i gave it a 4

rainbow kirby

I gave it a 2. Far too many errors thrown - again it's really bad programming to show raw SQL errors and such when something goes wrong, also there was no indication given that for 3rd science optional modules that there are constraints on them for certain courses. Plus there were problems with selecting language courses - I had to go up to the ALC to get a place in Japanese level 2.

/sigh

tribulus

I gave it a 1. Maybe it was just transitional years who a had a tough time of it but my online enrollment only became available last friday evening/saturday morning. As well as that there were missing modules that couldn't be chosen, the timetable doesn't update i.e it's still empty, after picking some modules they then disappeared along with the credits. Also we couildn't pick a language course and had to apply manually in the alc and were then told that we might be accomodated depends on places even though seemingly other years/courses could enroll online withouth hassle. Then there were the clashes of one of my core labs with a core lecture and a recommended option lmodule lecture.

One week later, it's still not properly sorted so all in all i think its a big pile of steaming donkey sh1t

beanyb

Great system in theory. However in practice it sucks donkey balls.

The theory behind horizons (or so we were told) is to give students more choice. My experience of it is that it has completely done the opposite. Many of my friends have been unable to do the courses they wanted and came to ucd to do in the first place. These include courses like english that nobody would have had any problem getting into under the old system. My boyfriend is repeating 2nd year and because they changed the maths course he'd done and passed in 1st year he doesnt have the required pre-requisite grades to repeat maths this year.

Another friend that is doing Mode 1 psychology isnt able to get into the extra psychology electives and is being told that she may now get a BA instead of a BPsy or whatever it's called. Psychology is a difficult course to get and to find out in 2nd year that you might not be able to do it properly is ridiculous.

I gave it a 2.

Le Rack

When it works it's pretty good, cuz it gives you so much scope but it's been down so much, it's prob caused the admin and the students WAY more hassle than it's worth...

fatal

id give it a 4 just cos i havent been too badly affected by it...not as bad as other people anyway

Feral Mutant

7. I got through the electives process without any errors and the got the ones I put down in the end but I went through about four or five ones that clashed with my timetable before I picked a second one.

arbeitsscheuer

1.

beanyb wrote:

Great system in theory. However in practice it sucks donkey balls.

Nuff said.

valor

Its a big pile of steaming crap tbh

Pythia

A lecturer told me it cost UCD €50 million and that IBM designed it.
Another PPARS I think...

snickerpuss

I gave it a 2.

My Irish courses still aren't up, the ones that are up are listed at the wrong times, there are serious clashes with loads of other subjects.. (and we're 3rd years so we can only take the 2 we have)

The Irish department didn't even know there was a problem. They don't seem to have any communication with the admin/etc people. They're also listing Irish courses that don't exist and my art tutorials are on at random times that the lecturers never put down.

HUGE MESS!!! Our lecturers told us to ignore it, that the admin created the problem, just let them solve it and go to whatever class you want. The departments are sending around lists in every class so as to find out whos taking it.

Doing it in person was so much easier.... That to me is just silly. And how do i know what electives i got?

gerry87

It would be handy if you could filter searches, semester one and semester two, and if you could add all the ones your thinking of to a page instead of having to go back and forth, over all i dont like it.

Red Alert

I think it runs on IBM Hardware, but the enrolment software is made by a company called SCT and it runs on Oracle Application Server.

Too bad UCD didn't make sure the interface for the average punter made sense (like telling you in plain english that you couldn't register for a module).

hullaballoo

I gave it 5 because I was expecting some teething problems. These things never work out on such a large scale without some hiccups. That said, there were some fairly elementary errors in terms of layout and presentation that made it unnecessarily confusing.

I mean, I'm in my fourth year in UCD, so I'm well used to hiccups like this, but as for first years! I really felt for you guys. I just wouldn't have had a rashers what I was doing.

Font22

my sister is a first year and thought it was brilliant. she registered for all her subjects in about 15mins. as for me............complete nightmare but i got everything in the end.

snickerpuss

About 2 weeks after complaining there still aren't any irish courses up for me to enrol to. What am i meant to do on friday when enrolling closes?

The department don't care but i'm sort credits.