On Monday, University Information Services opened MyAccess, a new electronic information management system, for use by students and faculty. The system will replace Access+, the antiquated system that students formerly used to perform tasks like registering for classes. To our surprise, MyAccess – especially its unfriendly interface – makes us miss the old system.For UIS, MyAccess is a much-needed update. Access+ ran on an antiquated technology platform that would have lost support from its vendor in 2011. In 2005, Georgetown began preparing for the transition and the Board of Directors approved the migration of the registrar’s online services to a different platform, Banner.UIS has spent nearly four years coordinating departments and figuring out how every administrative process running in Access+ could migrate to the new system. This year, they finished that process and introduced MyAccess on Banner.For students, most of these technology changes are hidden in the background of MyAccess. What has concerned students so far, however, is the interface with which they access their information and search and register for classes. The old interface was the object of ridicule by the student body: Finding classes on the preregistration page was an ordeal, and the site was generally cumbersome.What’s frustrating about MyAccess is that even though UIS planned extensively for the migration of student registration services, the new interface is still clumsy, confusing and difficult to navigate.Registering for classes is no easier – course listings now take up far more space because they list not only each course, but each section as well. The compilations of cross-listed courses come without links, and the system is cluttered with drop-down lists.ore work remains to be done on MyAccess. UIS should consult the interfaces used by other universities to resolve the problems: For example, Yale University – which also uses the Banner system – offers a far more streamlined, user-friendly system that incorporates multiple frames for easier access to course information. According to Yale Associate Registrar Daria Vander Veer, when students search and select classes in their interface, the program drops selected courses into a block schedule so the student can see what parts of the day those courses take up.This is the sort of thing an updated system should offer – UIS must continue working to make MyAccess the 21st-century system it should be. In their planning process, UIS did not sufficiently consider day-to-day use of MyAccess – with these concerns in mind and a few adjustments to the interface, UIS can easily salvage MyAccess. They have already come this far.
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