Office of the University Registrar

Today the Office of the University Registrar (OUR) introduces an improved way to search the UW’s online course catalog. This improved search functionality, available from the Course Catalog website, leverages the recently-released version 4 of the UW’s Student Web Services (SWS).  We encourage the entire UW community to try it and offer their feedback so the OUR can improve upon it.

What’s the search like now

Currently, the course catalog search uses a Google custom search box to find and display pages that contain the entered keywords. While this is certainly effective, it’s not optimal when you’re looking for something specific. Suppose you’re looking for the description for Psychology 207, the Psychology of Peace. With the current Google-based search the top result takes you to the Psychology page, but you still must locate Psych 207 on that page.

How is the improved search better?

The improved search gets results directly from the SWS rather than a set of regular HTML pages. (The SWS will also power the forthcoming m.UW iPhone application). This brings a number of benefits, including:

• Course-specific results – easily see all the details of the matching courses, from description to credits.
• Optional search by term – find the perfect class for next spring by narrowing your search to a specific quarter, if desired.
• Instant updates – updates made to the course data are immediately available.

What does “beta” mean?

The label “beta” indicates the improved search is not ready to replace the existing course catalog search. Some features are not yet available, such as Instructor Course Descriptions. Nor does the improved search page yet meet full accessibility guidelines. As additional functionality is added to the SWS, the course catalog search will improve. And the OUR would like to know what you think, too! We strongly encourage your feedback so we know what additional features to work on first.

Finally, the OUR would like to acknowledge the incredible efforts put forth by the Office of Information Management, UW Technology, and members of this office to bring course information to the SWS. The improved search and other innovations to improve the UW experience wouldn’t be possible without their work.

UPDATE: After 10 days of use and more than 2200 unique visitors, version 1.1 has been posted. Thanks to insightful feedback from over 90 people, this update includes a few important bug fixes and clarifies some of the language on the page. Much of the feedback included feature requests (primarily, the ability to search course descriptions, not just titles). More improvements are on the way!

This post is an update to a previous entry, available here: Carry the UW in your hand.

In late July, a post appeared on this blog about the contest to name the upcoming UW iPhone application. Well, the choice has been made and the winning entry—provided by Shane Bunker, a senior in Informatics—is m.UW. Congratulations to Shane, and look for further updates when m.UW becomes available.

Volumes of paper-based general catalogs, enrollment statistic reports, and other documents recording much of the University’s academic history line the shelves of the Office of the University Registrar (OUR). That data is an historical record that could be of immense value—if it can only be accessed.

That’s where we need your help.

The OUR today announces an archivist internship position. If you are (or know of someone who is) interested in the collection, preservation, digitization, and dissemination of paper-based documents, please review our internship description.

Last month, a useful and popular service (it’s the second most-visited page) on the Office of the University Registrar’s site, enrollment verification, got a little easier to use. The UW partners with the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) to allow students to view their enrollment information provided to student loan lenders, auto insurance, and other service providers who provide discounts for enrolled students. Viewing that information now requires only a single log-in.

Until mid-July, students were required to verify themselves to the NSC by entering their full name, date of birth, and social security number. That step seemed redundant because students had to first log in with their UW NetID to even be able to access the NSC log-in page. Thanks to the efforts of the Student Self Service team, the two processes now share authentication information. The time-saving measure is currently being rolled out and should be available for all students by autumn quarter.

On the surface, eliminating one redundant log-in procedure may not seem like a big victory. But in addition to saving a minute or two for each user (which can add up!), this improvement is a sign of bigger things to come. The term “federated identity management” describes the movement to simplify access to online services by sharing identity information. What does all that really mean? Potentially, it could render obsolete many of the accounts you must create on various online services. Instead, a trusted system would verify that you are who you say you are through a log-in process. Then you could access accounts at online services that work with the trusted system—without needing to log in again.

You’ll be hearing more about this topic in the months to come. The UW is one of over a hundred member organizations of the InCommon Federation, a group providing identity-management services.