In a time of social distancing and safety guidelines, the University Advising Resource Center (UARC) has had to adapt quickly to find a way to make the registration process safe for University of Wisconsin Oshkosh students, staff and faculty.

Although the UARC has been unable to meet with students in person to provide guidance for class registration, they’ve continued to assist the campus community through the process by teaming up with the Registrar’s Office to create the new online Registration Toolkit.

The Registration Toolkit is a one-stop shop for information on each step of the registration process. It provides consistent answers to student questions, and any department, faculty or staff member can send students the link to the website to assist students with the process.

A large contributor in the success of the toolkit is Sam Retzlaff, UARC peer advising liaison and a graduate student in the professional counseling, at UWO. Retzlaff, a Fond du Lac native, used her experience with registering for classes as a student and as a peer adviser to help shape the toolkit into a student-friendly resource.

“We recognized how overwhelming registering for classes can be and recognized the need for a single place to house the information students may need,” Retzlaff said. It was important that the Registration Toolkit have concise, easy-to-follow instructions. Each set of instructions starts from the UWO website homepage so students can follow the instructions from start to finish. It also includes screenshots for each step, so students are able to not only follow written instruction, but also compare the instruction images to what they see on their screen.”

The toolkit is organized into three sections: Pre-Registration, Registration and Post-Registration. This allows students to find the information or instructions they need no matter where they are in the registration process.

As a student herself, Retzlaff considers the Registration Toolkit to be a valuable resource because it is available for students to use whenever they need it–even when offices are closed.

“Advisers have told me their students have found it very helpful. It’s also been a great resource for other Peer Advising Liaisons to refer students to,” she said.

Registration Manager Susan Jaeke believes that receiving input from students and others around campus was vital for the creation of the toolkit and enlightening for those involved in the registration process each year.

“It’s hard for us to understand the student side of things when we work in the administrative side all the time. It’s also good to get other perspectives not just from students, but other staff on campus as well when creating tools like this. I’m all for campus collaboration when it comes to making things easier and more efficient for students and staff,” Jaeke said.

Director of Academic Advising Elizabeth Whalley agrees that having student input was crucial to the success of the project.

“Students understand what students need, what is confusing and how to explain things effectively. They also understand how to present information in a way that makes sense to other students,” she said.

Ultimately, the rollout of the Registration Toolkit has been a success, and the toolkit will remain available to students even after in-person advising resumes.

“Students will benefit from it even when we are back to doing business in person,” Whalley said. “It’s one of those things we wonder why we never thought of it before!”

Learn more:

• Registration Toolkit
• University Advising Resource Center