Banner's mock registration - the week-long debugging process designed to expose and rectify flaws in the program's online course registration module - ended Friday to praise from students and administrators.
"All of the systems were tested, and everything worked like it was supposed to," said Lisa Mather, associate registrar for registration services and the leader of mock registration, though she noted that some students had difficulty connecting to the system due to firewall restrictions unrelated to Banner itself.
A total of 62 participants completed the five-day program, which simulated an entire semester of registration, including pre-registration, shopping period and weeks of classes later in the semester. Members of the Undergraduate Council of Students, Meiklejohn peer advisers and various professors were given scripts that instructed them to enter and mis-enter data and then report Banner's response.
Students were mostly positive about their experiences with Banner.
"The whole thing was really easy to use and really fast," said Sean Kotkin '09, a Meiklejohn peer adviser. "You just enter the course reference number and you're registered."
"I loved that I got instant feedback about my registration," said Kaitlin Lemei '07.5, a Meiklejohn peer adviser and lab consultant supervisor for the Help Desk. "With the old system, I wouldn't find out how my request was processed until much later."
The main complaint expressed by students to The Herald regarded Banner's user interface.
"The only things I thought were a bit annoying were that after getting an override, you had to re-add the class," Kotkin said. "Also, you had to go back to the main menu each time you wanted to do something."
Mather said she was excited by the positive feedback from participants and that the Banner team is aware of some of the kinks in the system.
"We can't really change the site design by April," she said. "But we're taking all the student feedback we can get and plan to incorporate it into future plans for Banner."
A problem encountered by participants in the program was the inability to access Banner through Brown's wireless network and from local hospitals.
"We found that Brown's and the hospitals' firewalls were prohibiting students from accessing Banner," Mather said. The problem with the wireless network has been fixed, and administrators are working with the hospitals to resolve the issue.
"It's definitely a fixable problem," Mather said.
One byproduct of mock registration's success was to mitigate the concerns of previously skeptical students about Banner.
"A lot of people think Banner is this sort of Big Brother that's going to limit flexibility and make life difficult for everyone, but it's not like that," Kotkin said. "Once people realize that Banner is just as lenient and you can still talk to the professors and get into a class, people won't be as concerned."
Kyle Evans '08 - the first registrant during mock registration - said she thinks students are too worried about the change, which she feels will be insignificant.
"I don't think this is going to be that big a deal," she said. "It's just the natural evolution of a college. Everyone's going online, and so should we."
Evans said she doesn't think Banner threatens the nature of the Brown curriculum. "This doesn't seem to pose a threat to the Brown education I value," she said. "I honestly think students will be surprised when it turns out that the change to Banner is easy and not a problem."
Lemei was not as optimistic, but said she felt that Banner was a move forward for the University.
"The largest determinant of how Banner will affect the registration process is going to be how professors and students interact," she said. "This will be more of a transition than a difficulty."
Thomas Doeppner, associate research professor of computer science and a participant in mock registration, said the restriction override process was important and manageable.
"Obviously there is a greater need for communication under Banner," he said last week, as mock registration began. "But as long as faculty members are responsible, it shouldn't be a problem."
Mather said she was pleased with the overall response to Banner and mock registration, and that students shouldn't have a problem interacting with the system.
"Twenty-seven people took our tutorial, and 24 said it was useful," she said. "But the system is intuitive enough that even if students wait until the last day, they'll be able to register."
Kotkin expressed optimism about Banner's future.
"I've definitely changed my view on Banner since doing mock registration," he said. "I might even say I'm excited for it."
