We all know how stressful it can be registering for classes each quarter but thanks to Scott Hardy, the process just got a whole lot easier. Scott, a junior bioengineering major, created SCUclasses, a site that helps cut down the time and frustration of registering for classes.
Scott got the idea for the site while preparing to register for classes. He noticed how time consuming and irritating the process can be, and was determined to find a solution. He had just finished a major development on SCUbooks, another site he created that tells you which books you need for the quarter at the best prices in just 38 seconds. Scott says, “I was already in the mindset of challenging the existing systems and infrastructure that SCU has set up for us, and Courseavail seemed like an easy target,” echoing the fact that there is room for improvement in some of SCU’s existing systems. From that, he had the idea to create “a better Courseavail that is designed to make it easier to create schedules.”
SCUclasses features a simpler, easier to read timetable to view your weekly schedule and includes the information that CourseAvail currently provides when you hover over the “More Info” button. Additionally, it includes links to SCU’s professor evaluations and the actual course description pages. By updating itself every hour, the site even automatically detects which class sections are full and whether or not the class will fit into your currently selected schedule. As of now, you are able to download your schedule from the site into an Excel file for safekeeping. However, Scott plans on eventually improving the site: “I’m going to add the ability to save multiple schedules from within the browser that will not get deleted once you close the window.”
Going through the development process, Scott knew that creating a site like SCUclasses was not unheard of so “its success or failure would come down to the implementation and user experience.” In terms of the actual process, Scott envisioned what the ideal procedure of searching and registering for classes would be like. He would then write the code for each experience. The site runs on Heroku, uses the Twitter Bootstrap framework, and uses Angular.js and Ruby Rails for scripting. Creating the site only cost Scott $10 for the website domain, and he does not have any plans for profiting from site because he thinks it “would detract from a tool that [he] wants to be purely useful for students.”
SCUclasses launched winter quarter on February 18th and has drawn 3,100 unique users as of the beginning of March. These same users have visited the site about 9,000 times! Scott says, “I’ve been working on the project since the second week of [winter] quarter, and I’m very happy that people are finding it useful.” If the numbers didn’t already say it, SCUclasses has already proved to be extremely helpful for students here, and we’re sure that its popularity can only grow in the future!