Queen’s leading the way in student academic experience

In a recent Toronto Star article, Faculty of Arts and Science Professor Jenn Stephenson discussed the revamped Queen’s University academic calendar, highlighting it as a positive option in a piece examining Ontario undergraduate students and their frustrations with course selection. The former Associate Dean (Academic) was instrumental in leading the university through these changes.

“Students perceive that registration is competitive and that if they don’t get right in there on the first day, in the first hour, they’re not going to get a seat in their most desired courses,” Dr. Stephenson said in the article. “That’s not entirely true, but it feels like that. It’s almost a sense of panic.”

The first phase of the project involved digitizing the academic calendar in July 2021. The new calendar moved away from PDF files and now provides an engaging, richly informative, and responsive student experience for course selection registration and degree planning. It also amalgamates into one place all calendars, previously published independently by the faculties and schools.

The second phase was launched in September 2022. That phase launched CourseLeaf CIM, software that streamlined and digitized the University’s curriculum management, integration with PeopleSoft, and improve transparency in curriculum governance contributing to students’ smooth progression through their degree plans.

The final phase of the project — in which a new mobile-first interface will bring the calendar, timetable, a degree audit tool, seat availability and a campus map all in one place — will be rolled out in the next few months.

“This will be most impactful on students,” Dr. Stephenson said in the Toronto Star article, explaining that previously, registration required juggling multiple pieces of information on different screens and in different formats, which made the process feel “quite overwhelming.”

As noted in the article, Dr. Stephenson said Queen’s will be the first university in Canada to offer this kind of registration experience. The interface is also going to be public, allowing even prospective students to “dream about their future. Courses are at the heart of the academic experience. This is what university is.”

Read the full story in the Toronto Star. Please note, this story is behind a paywall and only accessible to Toronto Star subscribers.