Hillsdale’s recent change to Self Service was unexpected but long overdue. 

After 15 years, the outdated and underpowered WebAdvisor has finally been replaced by Ellucian’s Self Service. This is the college’s first entire semester with Self Service, and students are beginning to integrate the program into their day-to-day lives.

At first, the idea of changing systems seemed inconvenient. WebAdvisor was familiar. People knew how it worked and were reluctant to change to a new system. With registration coming up, this is at the forefront of students’ minds. While WebAdvisor was familiar, it came with the unnecessary battle for the best Wi-Fi signal and the worry about who could get their course selections through the system before it crashed.

WebAdvisor’s underpowered application architecture caused long wait times during early registration mornings, leaving many students stressed and worried over whether they would be able to register for their classes of choice. Its lack of scalability became more apparent with the steady growth of the student body over the last several years.

While the change to Self Service requires an adjustment period, there is hope that this will be a positive change that solves WebAdvisor’s many problems by improving site architecture and its ability to host many students registering at once.

At first glance, Self Service’s Program Evaluation function is confusing with all its tabs and expansions. Viewing all the requirements for a major requires the expansion of several menus to see the full picture. While this is the case, Self Service provides students with a concise and easy to understand overview of graduation requirements by breaking down classes into categories to focus on. It includes a larger overview of students’ progress at the top, letting students focus on the bigger picture without getting bogged down in small details.

For student employees, logging hours on Self Service is simple and easy. Weekly submissions allow students to keep better track of their hours, and past earning statements, hourly totals, and tax information are all in one spot.

Having everything from registration to taxes and tuition in one spot makes everything streamlined and organized. As with any new program or tool, it takes some getting used to. Once you use it enough, Self Service is easy to understand and navigate.

After people figure out this first round of registration, it will be a great step forward for the college’s ability to handle more students registering.

While it might be uncomfortable in the adjustment period, that’s exactly what it is – a short period of time. The change to Self Service will prove to be beneficial for the college and its students for many years to come.