This spring term, I was one of the many Carleton students who registered for their fall term classes using a new system of Workday. While I felt adequately prepared for the change, through the many online resources and Chipotle teaching sessions (yum!), I also know the change caused stress and worry for professors and students.
For example, some students felt the changes made it harder to look through all the possible classes they could take, it didn’t seem like there was an easy way to view all classes with their descriptions. I experienced a similar issue where it felt like multiple buttons had to be clicked just to add a course to a schedule and see descriptions for courses. One of my professors was worried the new system would affect enrollments for already small departments. It seemed harder for students to explore classes from departments they might usually not consider.
However, not everyone was disgruntled by the change. My roommate brought up how he found the Hub’s registration to be much more confusing: there were multiple ways to sign up for classes and figuring out which one to use and how to use them was a challenge each term. Another one of my friends found the possibility to have multiple “saved schedules” in Workday to be very useful, especially as they contemplated switching their major.
As always change does not come easy. My experience with the new Workday system, and from what I’ve heard from others, tells me that we have a lot we can do to improve Workday, but also a different system than the Hub was needed. Overall my peers seem to have positive reviews of Workday, hopefully next registration can come with less growing pains but more Chipotle.