As students prepare to pre-register using Banner this week, professors are crossing their fingers in hopes that the new software will run smoothly.
Faculty have had a number of opportunities to train with the new software, which will allow students to register for courses online for the first time today. But many professors still have concerns about Banner, and others said they cannot know if they are well-prepared until they see the system in practice.
Training professors to use the new software was a primary effort last fall, said Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, the Banner project owner. Dunbar and staff from the Office of the Registrar gave a demonstration of the software to each academic department. They also allowed departments to edit course descriptions, which can be lengthier under the electronic system.
Dunbar and others working on Banner also organized workshops for advisers and held sessions for academic department managers, she said, teaching them about "back-office" functions like using Banner to compile a list of concentrators.
Training this semester has largely consisted of the Banner project team following up with faculty and "repeating messages," Dunbar said. Faculty will receive flyers by mail this week with reminders about how to perform an override and access a course list. In addition, professors can now print the Web tutorials on how to view class and advisee lists and perform overrides.
Whether professors are well prepared to use Banner is "the $64,000 question," Dunbar said.
"We've all run into somebody who knows a lot and somebody who doesn't," she said. "But we all learn to access information when we need it, and after you've done it once, it's easy."
Professors have varying levels of both knowledge of the new system and concerns.
Professor of Mathematics Thomas Banchoff, who has taught at Brown since 1967, said he "suspects Banner will not be a problem" even though he is accustomed to the old system of registration.
Professor of Economics David Weil also had few concerns. Weil said he was offered a lot of training on how to use the software but did not take advantage of much of it. He attended Dunbar's presentation to his department and understood the processes and rules she presented.
"Beyond that," he said, "I figured I would just figure it out when the time came. And the time hasn't come yet."
Weil, who has allowed students in past years to take his course without having taken the prerequisites, also said he was not concerned about Banner's future enforcement of required classes.
"In the past it didn't really matter because these students could have taken the course anyway," Weil said. "Now with Banner, I just have to give them permission, and I'm fine with that."
Other professors have been more proactive in learning about Banner and preparing to use the system. Resource Efficiency Manager Kurt Teichert, who teaches an environmental studies course, said he hasn't looked through all the training materials available to him, but he said he is motivated to learn how the software works because of his role as an adviser. Teichert said he probably "wouldn't pay attention" to the new system if he weren't directly involved in advising, adding that, despite the opportunities, there are plenty of professors who haven't attended training sessions.
"My sense is that folks aren't embracing this, jumping right on saying, 'Okay, what's everything I have to know?' " Teichert said. "They're grudgingly moving forward with it."
Though Teichert said he is "amazed at how behind Brown is" technologically and is "glad to see things moving along" with Banner, he voiced some concerns about the software. Banner is not well set up for courses that, like his own, use an application process to determine the class list, he said. The new system is encouraging him to do the application process during pre-registration rather than during the first week of class.
But this has its advantages, Teichert said.
"This will just make the start of the class more efficient," he said. "With Banner, it's much more about registering for classes you're actually going to take, and that's a good thing."
Still, seniority by class and the first-come, first-serve basis of Banner may make it harder for underclassmen to find space in popular limited-enrollment classes, Teichert said, adding that it is "important to have a mix of students across years" in some courses. Teichert said he knows he will have to perform overrides on Banner to achieve this mix, but because he does not teach a course in the fall, he isn't "facing the mechanism" yet and has not figured out his approach.
Associate Professor of History Michael Vorenberg, who will face the mechanism this week, said he cannot know what knowledge of Banner he is lacking until he sees the system in practice. Vorenberg expressed some technological concerns about Banner, but he added that these concerns could be meaningless if everything runs smoothly.
For example, Vorenberg said he is not sure the parameters he requested have been placed on his courses. Since the 20-student history seminar he will teach next fall can fulfill a concentration requirement, Vorenberg requested that 10 of the spots in the class be reserved for concentrators. Vorenberg e-mailed Banner representatives for confirmation that these restrictions were put on his course but did not receive a response.
Sherry Gubata, a documentation specialist and technical trainer in the registrar's office, said she has received only "a handful" of calls from professors with questions about Banner. Most of these calls have been from academic department managers, whom most faculty contact with questions before calling the Banner hotline, Gubata said.
Resources like the hotline and Web tutorials have prepared the University for the transition to Banner, Dunbar said, adding that she has her fingers crossed for pre-registration this week.
"I don't know that individuals are ready," Dunbar said. "But as a community, we're definitely ready."
