Understanding our tutorial registration system
The IT Help Center uses a tutorial registration system that was developed for use by all groups offering tutorials in the Office of Information Technology. If you don't carefully read the top of the registration Web page and/or the follow-up e-mail messages, some aspects of the system can be confusing, so the following is an explanation of the process.
You are able to register for the class you want to take usually one week before the class is to be held. As described in detail on the top of the registration page any course marked "NOW" is a course you can register for immediately. Any course marked with a registration date (instead of "NOW") is not yet open for registration. When you submit your name to a course that only has a date, you are simply expressing an interest in the class and asking to be on a reminder mailing list for when it does open for registration. The fact that you are on a list to receive a reminder does not guarantee that you have a seat in the class.
Once you are on the reminder list, you will get a reminder e-mail message on that date, letting you know that the course(s) you are interested in are "NOW" open for registration. Besides giving you a reminder, this e-mail message also provides you with a direct Web link with which to process the registration.
But I'm sure I got a confirmation and was registered!
When you sign up to get on the reminder list, you will receive an immediate notice explaining that fact. Sometimes people don't read that notice carefully, and falsely believe they are registered. Below is a paste of what that e-mail message says.
Dear [firstname],
This message indicates that you have asked to be notified when:
[course_name]
[section_date] from [section_starttime] to [section_endtime]
is open for registration. **This e-mail is NOT a confirmation that you have been registered.** On [date] you will receive a follow-up e-mail notification with which you can then register to reserve a seat.
This system seems confusing. Why do you do it this way?
If we had a more open system of registration, it would result in
an even greater number of no-shows; with empty seats that could
have been filled by other people. Please keep in mind that these
tutorials are a free resource and we make every effort to accomodate
as many people as possible. Given that the BU community is large
and we have a training room that seats only 12 people, the only
way for us to do this successfully, is with this controlled registration
system.
The class was already full when I tried to register!
The reminder is simply a courtesy, meant to refresh your memory. You will still be competing for a seat with anyone else who has requested an e-mail reminder for that class, which can sometimes be many people. You are encouraged to act on that message as soon as you get it but, even then, that might not be soon enough.
The good news
In spite of how popular are sessions can be, we almost always have several no-shows for each session. We encourage you to come by at class time, even if you were not officially registered. We use the reminder list as a waitlist once the class begins, and we also use it as a way to contact interested people if we do add more sessions. So...
- Please feel free to stop by at class time. We almost always have no-shows and make every effort to fill those empty seats with walk-ins. We cannot make a guarantee, but we can tell you that we have several no-shows almost every time we teach.
- We do keep an eye on our reminder lists. If we see that interest in a class may require us to add an extra, unpublished, session, we will do that by contacting you via e-mail to see if you can attend.
- You can download the handouts for our tutorial classes from www.bu.edu/pcsc/tutorials .
- If you need to find a training alternative, please review the options at www.bu.edu/pcsc/tutorials/#alternatives