The voice of De Anza since 1967.

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The voice of De Anza since 1967.

La Voz News

The voice of De Anza since 1967.

La Voz News

“MyPortal” registration system used by returning, new students

As the school quarter kicks off, new and former students flocked to the recently adopted MyPortal registration system to register for classes.

Despite some of the problems the new system has caused, here is my take:

After taking a closer look at the new registration system, it’s revealed that although it fulfills the same tasks that the older system, TouchNet, it handles tasks much better and features user interface improvements. However, that’s not to say it’s perfect; a few changes could be made to help make the registration period flow better.

Beginning with the login page, students no longer have the option to login with their social security number, and after logging in, the system requires students to change their password. Unlike the old system, MyPortal has certain requirements that a user’s password has to meet, such as the password must contain both a letter and a digit. Although most users may not pay too much attention to this, stricter password requirements make their accounts less vulnerable to unauthorized access.

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After users log in, they are presented with an iGoogle-like homepage where messages, news headlines of the day and weather are displayed. The messages box allows the college to broadcast information to students. This helps students take advantage of opportunities that they otherwise might not have heard about and avoid missing important deadlines.

Similar to the previous TouchNet registration system, the “students” tab in MyPortal allows students to do a wide variety of tasks, from one page presented in a less complicated, straight-forward format. And when it comes to registration, one of the biggest pros of this new system is that it can handle a larger load of simultaneous visitors. In other words, students won’t have to wake up one hour earlier before their registration date to login, nor will the system automatically log students off as they search for classes.

One con is that you will not be able to search for classes using MyPortal if it’s not your time to register yet. This needs to be changed so that students don’t have to go to the De Anza website and browse through the schedule of classes there. Furthermore, like in the older registration system, students should have the ability to add and drop classes as they browse. Currently, one has to copy down the course numbers, go to the add or drop classes page, and add the classes through there. Once they’re done, they have to repeat the same process in order to add other classes (that is if they did not write down all their course numbers the first time). This creates a hassle, especially if the classes they keep attempting to add are full, closed or waitlisted because they must go back and search for an alternate class.

One thing that did scare me during the registration process was a screen that showed up after making a payment. It said, “Do not press back, unpredictable results may occur.”

Although it’s not too much of a big deal, I definitely think that the newly installed system has a long way to go before it’s fully optimized. Nonetheless, it has been a great improvement over the previous system. 

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