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course catalog as WesMaps supplement by Anna Talman Assistant News Having discontinued the printed course book in favor of exclusively online course material, the Registrar’s Office has announced the publication of an annual course catalog as a supplement to the information available online. The Office of the Registrar discontinued publication of the course book June 1, 2001. The reasons cited for the change included the availability of current course information online and the fact that the course book becomes outdated as course changes occur between semesters. The course book continues to be available each semester as a PDF file from the Registrar’s home page. Registrar Anna van der Berg confirmed that the course book, “a hybrid of the course catalog and the course supplement,” will no longer be available. She said that an improved version of the University course catalog will be published annually, containing information about courses in both semesters. In the past, the course catalog had been published biannually. “We’re going to an annual course catalog,” van der Berg said. “This book has been used as an external book over the past few years; the Admissions Department sent it to prospective students. It is the complete course catalog at Wesleyan, which includes the academic regulations as well as the departmental regulations. We decided that we should really go back to making this an internal document.” She said that the improved course catalog would include information regarding whether a course will be offered in each semester. The course catalog will be available August 1, 2002, and will be distributed to all faculty members. Assistant Registrar for Course Information Beth Labriola said that WesMaps, the online course guide, will continue to have the most thorough information about University Courses. “WesMaps will have more detailed information,” Labriola said. “It will have the section information, when it’s offered, who the instructor will be, and where it’s meeting…The idea is that we want students to use WesMaps as the primary tool and [the University Course Catalog] as a supplement. WesMaps is the most up-to-date resource.” Van der Berg said that one of the main problems with printed material is the fact that it quickly becomes outdated. “We had a proliferation of published information about courses: the course catalog, the course book, and the course listing or course supplement. The moment you publish something it’s outdated,” van der Berg said. Some students and faculty members expressed their concern that the online WesMaps listings are not as useful as the printed version. “I do object strenuously to the discontinuation of the printed course book,” said German Professor Krishna Winston. “Although WesMaps is ‘searchable,’ using it gives one an utterly disjointed view of the curriculum. I have never felt so blind and ill-prepared as an advisor as I did in November, when for the first time there was no course book to peruse before I began meeting with my advisees.” She said that providing the course catalog is insufficient. “The catalog contains course descriptions only—without information on when or whether courses are being given, who is teaching them, whether they have prerequisites, or what the enrollment limits are,” Winston said. Van der Berg insisted that the improved course catalog would be an asset to students and faculty members as a supplement to WesMaps. “This does let a student see everything that is available within a department at a quick glance, [but]…WesMaps is the primary source for course information and always will be,” van der Berg said. Chapin Kelly ’04 was unimpressed with the new system. “There’s just some sort of comfort level that you get from the course book that you don’t get from WesMaps. It has something to do with staring at a blank screen and just feeling empty about the whole process,” Kelly said. |
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Wesleyan Argus
© 2001 Wesleyan University Questions/Comments: Min Ter Lim, Online Editor or the Argus |
