Course selection is a recurring and important event for University of Guelph-Humber students. Every August and November, students are required to sign up for their desired courses for the upcoming semesters. While it can be exciting to plan out your school life for the next few months, the stress and worry about getting into the right courses and course times always loom.
“I wasn’t aware of how difficult it can be to get into certain courses,” says Zakk Rose, a first-year business program student, “it can make or break your entire semester. I didn’t get into my preferred section for a course I wanted because the system took too long to refresh and submit my course selections. I have a six-hour break between classes meaning I have to go back home between classes because I don’t want to wait around at school.”
The system that Rose is referring to is WebAdvisor. The website is students’ home to all things school related. This includes course selection, program planning, payments and grades. It was implemented at the University of Guelph in 1998, and more recently the Student Planning section (the system that runs course selection), was brought in to replace the old selection system in 2021.
Where WebAdvisor’s newer course selection system thrives is in its simplicity. It runs on a first come first serve process, meaning factors such as slow internet, timing and website traffic can greatly affect students’ semesters.
Identifying these potential barriers serves as the first step in having the best experience with course selection.
Before labeling potential hiccups and tips we need to understand how the course selection system works. Course schedules get posted two weeks out from the actual course selection date, allowing students to pre-plan what times and course sections work best for them. Then on WebAdvisor at 9 a.m. on the date depending on which year of student you are, registration opens up allowing students to submit their schedules.
“The system is opened to several hundred students at once and prioritizes the requests in the order received, like any ticketing system. Students do not always get their first choice of courses or their ideal timetable. The longer a student waits to register, the less space will be available in their desired course sections,” says Sandra Speller, assistant registrar of enrollment services with the university.
One of the flaws of the first come first serve system is how slow internet can play a big role in the submission of courses to the program on election day. A slow connection may take too long for the website to refresh, and courses could fill up before your submission can go through.
A solution to slow internet can be avoiding public internet services such as the internet connection you’d find at a coffee shop. A lot of people are typically on the same server and with many people it can impact your internet service.
In a test on coffee shops’ internet, it was found that the speed was only one megabit per second which can’t even load an HD image. So, with many people trying to all sign up on the same site with this internet speed, it would be very hard to land desired courses.
Another issue that can arise from course selection is the timing. Some students may be working during the summer or they are in class in the fall during the time registration opens making it difficult to be available.
The information on the time of registration gets posted two weeks in advance. This gives students time to prepare and make sure they are available.
“I let my professors know in advance that I need to take the time to submit my courses thanks to the school telling me when registration is way in advance. Since it’s school related, teachers have always been pretty relaxed around these times and have even paused lectures for us so we could get this right at 9 a.m. and get the courses we want,” says Bryce McDonald, a third-year business program student at Guelph-Humber.
Lastly, the biggest issue when it comes to course registration is website traffic on course selection days. All three of the University of Guelph’s campuses use WebAdvisor. This means course registration days see a ton of traffic on the site during this time.
“We often get 1,500 – 2,000 students per hour and 15,000 – 20,000 visits per day during GH (Guelph–Humber) course registration since there are other campus students logging in as well,” says Speller, “students can open WebAdvisor on multiple devices, that way if one of the devices doesn’t refresh and submit in time, the other can be used as a backup.”
The winter 2025 semester’s course registration will take place during the middle of November at 9 a.m. with fourth years selecting on the 12th, third years on the 13th, followed by the 14th and 15th for second and first years respectively.
There is also a tutorial on how to properly register for courses that can be found on Guelph-Humber’s website under the Course Selection & WebAdvisor section.
As difficult and stressful course selection at the University of Guelph-Humber can be, understanding these potential problems and using these tips will be able to help students achieve the courses and sections they all desire.
*Photo, jeshoots, Unsplash License