With class registration beginning next week, Otterbein students are encountering unexpected issues with their degree audits. This is due to the campuswide switch from a four-credit hour model to a three-credit hour model.
“It’s not updated," said Emily Byrum, a junior business management major. "The basis of [the degree audit] is helpful, but it would be more helpful if it was updated all the way. It still says four credit hours on a lot of stuff.”
David Schneider, the university registrar, said that during any kind of change, issues are to be expected. He said that during the transition they cannot account for everything but are open to improving and refining the system.
“With any transition there’s going to be a lot of substitutions that have to be made because we took one set of rules that were kind of set in stone and phased it into something different," said Schneider. "If students are seeing something that we’re not, we want to know about it because if we can, we want to update things and make it work for every student."
In some cases, the degree audit program and three-credit hour model has benefited students.
“The audit is updated, and it has been very helpful because I actually changed my major from nursing to business administration," said junior Gavin Carns. "It helped me realize what classes I needed to take over the summer and get caught up."
Schneider said the university will work with students to fix whatever issues that may be occurring.
“We find a way to accommodate the student first and figure out the rest later," said Schneider. "The checkboxes that were there when you first started should still be the same thing. You may be taking a different course, but it will still fulfill the requirement just the same.”
He said that freshman and future students will not experience the transition issues that upperclassmen are.
The next change in the registration system will occur in the 2019-20 school year. Schneider said that it will be the “next generation of the degree audit tool” and will be more modern, allowing students and advisers to plan out course schedules multiple terms in advance.
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