Six things you need to know about My Schedule Builder

Registering for courses and building a course schedule is a big part of being a student, but it isn't always the easiest. As part of the Student Experience Action Plan, the U of A heard that academic agency and flexibility are really, really important to students, and has committed to making improvements in this area. In fact, over 80% of student respondents to the survey identified that an easier course registration process was very important or essential to their student experience. In response, My Schedule Builder, an intuitive online tool, launched on March 11 (and having tried it out, it really improves building a course schedule). I was able to connect with Enrolment Systems and Service Innovation (ESSI) at the Office of the Deputy Provost (Students and Enrolment) to learn more about this new tool. 

Here are a few things they told me, as well as a few things I found when I was able to test out the tool:

There are online resources to learn more about it.

So, you just want to learn more about how you'll use it? There's a web-based user guide and video tutorial that covers everything from how to search for classes, create a schedule, validate your courses and enrol. You can also visit uab.ca/reg for a ton of resources.

You can block off personal time

Figuring out life commitments, like work, volunteering, family obligations or anything else (I am NOT a morning person) and fitting those things into an academic schedule is not always easy. Luckily, My Schedule Builder allows you to block out chunks of time to make fitting an academic schedule into a life schedule much, much easier. 

You can view all the options by clicking back and forth.

There are still a lot of permutations and combinations of courses with some personal time blocks. Perhaps someone is interested in four different courses, each offered at four different times, but some of them overlap. The tool will show the alternate options within the set parameters (this combination of courses within this time period) to make it easier to find what works best. Plus, you can save up to 15 different schedules as favourites, helping you to navigate to the best possible alternate on your enrolment date should classes fill up before you get a chance to register or you're still considering some options.

You still need to be mindful of your degree requirements.

An academic advisor with a program or faculty is the best resource if you are unsure of the program requirements or need a bit of support in planning your academic journey.

There's a new tile in Bear Tracks, and we'll start using it now. 

So when can we use it? The tool looks great and is a lot more intuitive, and you can see the tile in Bear Tracks now. If you haven't registered for your Spring/Summer 2024 courses, you can do so today using My Schedule Builder. You'll be able to register for Fall 2024/Winter 2025 courses once your enrolment dates for those terms come up.

This improved course registration came about because students told the U of A what matters to them. 

When the U of A sent out surveys as part of the Student Experience Action Plan, the responses strongly informed the decision to implement an intuitive and easier-to-use course registration tool. By participating in surveys and listening sessions, students today can have very real input on our own experiences as well as help improve the experience of future students.