Those who have checked their finals online have probably seen the announcement at the top of the page saying that end of the semester grade reports will no longer be mailed home. Instead, the site says that grades, academic standing, and class rank will now be accessible through SIS.
These changes seem to be an improvement, as in the past, class ranks were only made available on the end-of-the-semester grade reports mailed out as well as on official transcripts. Class rank, while it does not seem to be used as often as it was in applications filled out in high school, can be asked about in scholarship applications, and having this information more readily available is a positive thing.
While there have been other improvements made to SIS while I’ve been at RPI, there are still a few more areas in which I think it could be improved.
One of its main purposes is online class registration. The calendar view allows us to view our schedule, and prerequisites on many classes are checked during registration along with major restrictions. However, this functionality is only available while a student’s time ticket allows them to register.
It would be great if students could add classes to a sample schedule that would not count as an actual registration, but would allow students to ensure that the classes could fit into a schedule and that when it is actually time for registration, no missing prerequisites or major restrictions would come as a last-minute surprise.
Another major feature of SIS is the online billing account summary. While it does allow for students to see the current balance of their account, it does not break down individual payments—or individual charges in one category (for example, separate bookstore purchases).
SIS also lacks the ability for a student to remit payment by credit card, even though the system is hosted on a secure server. This would both make it easier to pay from home and cut down on students’ trips to the bursar’s office.
It would also be an improvement if the online transcript format were changed to display the same information as appears on official transcripts. The security features present on official transcripts should be more than ample to differentiate between unofficial web transcripts and official transcripts and thus it would be a benefit if the same information that appeared online in our accounts was the same information being sent out for scholarship and job searches.
