The University of Central Florida today announced an enhanced class registration process that will allow students to secure classes faster, more efficiently and free of charge.

UCF has been developing this process as an enhancement to its current course registration system for some time. The enhanced process is expected to be ready this fall for students registering for Spring 2013 classes through the myUCF registration system.

Developments concerning an outside website accelerated the university’s plans to implement and announce this new process.

Recently, an outside website began accessing UCF servers up to 30,000 times a day, which represents about 40 percent as much use as all other users combined. Left alone, the outside website could have severely affected students’ use of the UCF system.

“Innovations often come from disruptive technologies, and this outside website certainly disrupted our computer systems and conflicted with university policy,” said university spokesperson Grant J. Heston. “The student website developer displayed an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit that is commendable; however, inadequate coordination with the university caused system issues.

“As we implement our enhanced registration process — one that is free and compatible with our systems — we invite the developer of the outside website, and others, to help us make UCF more efficient. Any idea that has the potential to improve services for students is worthy of consideration.”

The new system will be fully integrated with all aspects of the university and will not place excessive demands on university resources. The benefits this system will provide students include:

  • Automatic load: If a student is first in queue when a space opens in a class, the system will automatically load the student into the class and then notify her or him.
  • Data advantages: Colleges can see the number of students waiting for a given section or a class. This will inform staff and faculty members about when there is a sufficient demand to open an additional class section, as well as assist in planning for future semesters.
  • Fair to all students: Students will have a true reservation for the next open seat in a class. The only reason a student would not get that open spot is if she or he does not meet the registration requirements or course requirements (prerequisites, for example). In such cases, the process would move on to the next student on the list. However, the student will remain first on the list and will be able to be added as soon as the restriction or conflict is resolved.