New student-centric website enhancements rolled out

As a direct result of student input, we've added two new features to our website: the ability for students to create their own personal online accounts; and a new online 'shopping basket' functionality.

What does this mean for you?

Online accounts
In the upper right-hand corner of our website you will now see a link for 'Log in'. Clicking this will take you to a page where you can either set up your new online account. or log in to your existing account.

The main advantage to you in creating an online account is that enroling on courses will be faster and more streamlined. When you set up your account, you fill in your basic enrolment information just once. From that point forward, every time you enrol on a course, the information will already be there. You won't have to retype it.

Your details are stored and kept secure, and your information will never be passed to external commercial organisations.

Having your own online account has other advantages too: you can update your personal information - for instance, if you move, or your email address changes. You can adjust the settings for the sort of emails we send you, using the 'my interests' page. And you can see a record of all the courses you've taken previously at the Department.

Creating an online account also helps us respond more quickly to enrolment questions you may have.

The shopping basket
Our new online shopping basket lets you select and pay for multiple courses in a single transaction. This is a big advantage over the old system, where students had to enrol on courses one at a time.

You can also use your basket as a way to keep track of courses you are considering. They will remain in your basket for up to thirty days, and you can add or remove them as you make up your mind.

Future developments
We are currently working on a way to let you simultaneously enrol more than one person onto one or more courses. This is in response to feedback from students who like to complete enrolments together, whether they be from the same household, members of the same club, or just a group of friends.

We're also working to make it possible for students to apply online for our award bearing courses - something which hasn't been possible in the past, due to the required submission of supporting materials.

We'll keep you informed of future developments. If you would like to offer input, or play a part in future website enhancements (by helping us test a new system, for example) we'd love to hear from you. Please visit: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/98NLF2C

Published 5 January 2012