Our website displays all the course details drawn from the student information system, allowing for minimal data entry and ensuring course information is accurate when students enrol. Despite being a medium-sized college, our student enrolment numbers are comparable to larger colleges, resulting in a relatively high administrative overhead. Therefore, streamlining the enrolment process is essential.
Our initial online enrolment system was launched a few years ago and required students to complete a web-based form through KIPS to register for courses. The form was sent internally and students were contacted over the phone for credit card information, providing an opportunity to confirm course availability and fees. Most of our courses have three fee levels: standard, concessionary (for students receiving benefits), and full-cost overseas.
Though an online form was used in t
...his process, it was not a complete online enrolment system since the transaction was not conducted electronically.
Although many colleges appear to allow online enrolment, our research found that the majority still require some administrative work. To address this issue, we implemented a full system that includes online payment. However, after a year of implementing this system, only a couple of colleges were genuinely using online enrolment. One college had even tried but withdrew their system due to issues with linking to the curriculum and charging accurate fees. There were three major challenges to overcome, including taking payment online and linking it into KIPS, accurately counting available places and fees, as students enroll simultaneously in person and by post. We considered Capita's online enrolment system but ultimately found it unsuitable for our requirements since the KIPS system offered more detailed control over which courses
appeared on the website and how they were presented, as well as the ability to conduct online fees assessments.To maximize online enrollment and free up resources at enrollment time, we developed our own system instead of relying on the Capita system, which required students to go through a registration process and remember a password. Our system only asks students for their student number for record matching and does not force them to provide additional information. We also wanted the system to perform data validation and fee assessment online, especially for students paying concessionary fees, which the UNIT-e system lacked. Our system intelligently asks questions based on previous answers and charges the appropriate fee based on the student's status. To handle full courses, we can simply display them as full on the website to deter enrollments. The requirements analysis and specification were done internally, but we outsourced the development.To avoid losing students to other courses, we must capture all interest in a course and offer alternative options. It is important to have knowledge of interest versus available places for effective planning. However, we must prevent frustrating students by collecting minimal personal details first to show if there are open slots. Our system utilizes a payment service provider, Protx, and undergoes thorough testing before being accepted by Barclays. While some colleges offer online payments for full fees, our system is unique in allowing students to pay for available courses. The stages of the system include selecting a course, recording initial details, displaying free slots, and proceeding with enrolment if available.The enrolment process is dependent on the type of student and course. Payment through Protx is necessary for
credit or debit cards. All enrolment details are recorded in the online enrolment system database. Phase 1 involves manual upload of enrolment data into UNIT-e as direct upload would create duplicates and result in data integrity issues. Handwritten enrolment forms have lesser problems with reading and have already been prevalidated, making data entry alongside personal and postal enrolments not difficult. Expectations of data entry being an issue only during peak rush periods prior to September (2006) led to planning for Phase 2, where enrolments will be uploaded into UNIT-e using Capita's back end for their own online enrolment system. This requires a manual checking process to link new enrolments to existing records with electronic data upload.Capita is currently making significant changes to the UNIT-e interface and database structure, which will be released later this year. Waiting for the release is crucial since there is no point in creating an interface before it is available.
Benefits of building our own form include incorporating validation rules that apply as the form is being completed, ensuring that invalid data is not entered, thereby reducing errors when funding returns are processed. Besides, we can use the system to collect overseas fees from students who are in different time zones and may be challenging to contact. Also, we can offer "self-service" enrollment from computers within the College for students who might not have web access and who would typically have to queue up, especially useful during peak enrollment times. If students cannot do a direct enrollment for interview courses, they can still pay online after being offered a place.
The only issue encountered was a technical glitch where the system initially
"failed unsafe" if enrollment occurred while the updating of available places from UNIT-e was in progress, defaulting to places available instead of showing full or busy.The occurrence of about 20 excessive enrolments was detected promptly. To avoid similar incidents, it is crucial to ensure that the maximum number of places for each course is accurately input into UNIT-e. While this was previously not considered significant, it is now essential due to the advent of online enrolment. Online enrolment can quickly fill courses with high demand and may book places before students on the waiting list. Moreover, concessionary fees must be managed through precise procedures to avoid erroneous charges. This issue is more relevant to overseas students, who may pay home fees mistakenly. Despite these challenges, the college has not encountered significant difficulties and invites students to test the online enrolment system, which is available on the college's website - www.kcc.ac.uk. Direct enrolment is possible, and students can complete the entire process and withdraw at the payment stage if necessary.
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