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BRISTOL, R.I. – With the launch this week of a new feature to the my 51����app, students at 51���� can now register for classes using their smartphones.

In response to the growing demand for a more streamlined online registration process, the department of Information Technology worked with the University Registrar’s office to develop and test a mobile portal to offer enhanced services for the increasing number of students using smartphones on campus. It’s a major step in improving student success and retention efforts at 51���� through access to quicker and more efficient class registration.

This new tool provides an alternative method for online course registration – in addition to enrollment through the – that does not require the student to be connected to a laptop or desktop computer, says Brian Kacmarsky, associate director of administrative systems at RWU. Students must, however, have the 51����app downloaded to their phones.

“The student can be having lunch in the Commons, working out in the gym, or hanging in the quad,” Kacmarsky said, “as long as they have their device with them and are connected to the internet, they have the means to complete the registration process.”

Similar to online shopping sites, students search and add classes to their “cart,” Kacmarsky said. When they are ready to complete the registration, they head to the “checkout.” He noted that the app has been designed to verify that a class has not reached capacity, or require a prerequisite that the student hasn’t taken, among other system checks. Students will be notified by the app if an issue arises that fails to complete registration of any courses. If the selected courses pass the checks, he said, the student receives a message of the successful registration.

In some cases, Kacmarsky said, a student will successfully register for four classes but the fifth may not be approved by the system. Because there is an immediate alert, the student can promptly choose another class or clear up the issue preventing the course registration with much less delay than previous enrollment methods.

Those immediate notifications that a course cannot be enrolled in and most importantly, the reason why – whether it requires a dean’s signature, or the student must verify that a prerequisite had been already taken – are the most valuable features of the new registration tool, according to University Registrar Joan Romano.

“My goal as registrar is to cut down on the frustration for students enrolling in courses,” said Romano, “so anything we can do to make the process simpler and more efficient is, in my opinion, a homerun. I think this tool will make a big difference for students.”