Although the Nov. 4 registration deadline for the second semester is still nearly a month off, Spring 2009 courses have now been added to Banner.
According to Lora Rossi, associate registrar for course information, Banner was updated Oct. 1 to include next semester's schedule of courses.
Despite some student frustration with Banner, Rossi said the office had encountered no problems using the new system.
In terms of the timeframe for updating Banner with the next semester's courses, about a month in advance of registration is "probably going to be our normal procedure from here on out," Rossi said.
The popular alternative to Banner among students, Mocha, which is not officially supported or managed by the University, has yet to be synchronized with the new data for Spring 2009 courses.
Adam Carb '07, a programmer at Mocha not directly involved in updating the Web site for next semester, said students can expect to see the spring semester's courses on Mocha soon.
"We'll put the spring courses up ASAP," he said. "We were waiting for them to go up on Banner."
For some students, the Banner updates have not been too pressing a concern.
"I had a vague idea that courses were up, but I haven't started planning anything yet," Gina Chen '11 said. Chen, a student in the Program in Liberal Medical Education, said she knows she will need to take BIOL 0280: "Introductory Biochemistry" this spring, but beyond that, has not yet put too much thought into the details of next semester.
Max Mankin '11, who has already checked out the course schedule for the spring, said he found the lack of updates for cross-enrollment courses to be an obstacle in planning.
"I'm trying to plan my schedule, and RISD classes aren't on Banner, so it's frustrating to figure everything out," he said.
