The Brown Online Course Announcement will become obsolete today when its replacements under the new Banner system - called "Banner Catalog" and "Class Schedule" - go live.
The two systems serve distinct but related roles - Catalog will index generic course information such as course name, number and description, while Schedule will provide semester-specific information such as instructor, meeting time and course restrictions.
Course information typically becomes available after spring break, but now the information will be available nearly two weeks earlier. "There is a lot of curiosity surrounding Banner," said Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who leads the Banner project. "So I was anxious to get this out early."
Schedule, which Dunbar said will be students' primary source for information as pre-registration draws nearer, will feature new search options unavailable in BOCA, including the ability to make multiple selections within each field, such as calling up courses from multiple departments in one search. These features will make Schedule similar to Mocha, the student-run alternative to BOCA, but will not include Mocha's shopping cart or visual schedule features. In addition, Schedule may not look as polished as Mocha.
One complaint about the new course indexing systems is that information is split between two databases - students who decide a course description sounds interesting will have to switch databases to determine whether it accommodates their schedule.
"It is a bit strange, but the Banner software requires both of them," Dunbar said. "But each course description in Catalog will link directly to the corresponding Schedule information, so it won't be too much extra work."
The elimination of the popular paper-based Course Announcement Bulletin was a hotly contested issue at the Banner forums sponsored by the Undergraduate Council of Students in February. In place of the CAB, a printed list of courses containing semester-specific information such as meeting times but not descriptions of the courses will be distributed to students.
"It will be more like a newsletter layout than the bulletin," Dunbar said.
Though a Banner ID will not be needed to access Schedule and Catalog, students can now obtain a new Brown ID cards with their nine-character Banner ID added for easier reference, free of charge.
Dunbar said nearly 200 students have taken advantage of the option since it became available last Monday. Though Brown Card Office employees said they felt the process was going slowly, Dunbar said she was impressed at the number of students who have gone through the process, considering the low turnout at February and March Banner forums and demonstrations.
"I was amazed that many people had done it," she said.
The feature is now standard for any re-issued card, and all incoming students will have their Banner IDs printed on their cards automatically.
