This article was originally published Nov. 16, 2022.
With class registration for the spring semester rapidly approaching, Las Positas students turn their attention to LPC’s student information system, also known as CLASS-Web.
CLASS-Web has been used by students for years to access various student services, including class registration, payment of fees, the viewing of student records, transcripts and more.
While CLASS-Web plays an essential role in enabling students’ progress towards graduation, it has been the subject of mixed opinions surrounding its accessibility and efficiency for years now.
The site has long been criticized for its outmoded interface and unnecessarily complicated organization and system of accessing various student features.
“It’s understandable when you get used to it, but it definitely feels out of date. It’s a bit confusing to navigate, you know?” Elani Scott, a student at LPC, stated.
In a survey conducted with 35 LPC students regarding their opinions surrounding the accessibility and efficiency of CLASS-Web, it was found that a majority of students (29 students) actually felt CLASS-Web to be efficient and accessible. However, several students commented on the difficulties they often faced with navigating the website due to poor text visibility, poor web page organization, broken links and a cluttered user interface.
“CLASS-Web is accessible by computer but really difficult to navigate using a mobile phone. I recommend changing the CLASS-Web interface to be mobile phone friendly,” Tresina Bennett, a student at LPC, said.
Students’ opinions surrounding the altering of CLASS-Web appeared more varied, where 15 of the student participants believed CLASS-Web should be altered and 20 believed CLASS-Web should remain unchanged. Some students provided suggestions on possible improvements to the site, such as streamlining and reorganizing the site, and modernizing the user interface in order to make it more user friendly.
One anonymous student said, “Make it clear what’s in what category, or break them up. For example, the category ‘registration’ has other stuff inside it, such as a schedule. While it does say that in small print next to the ‘registration’ link, it’s not something one would intuitively know. The problem is not a lack of information on the site or even too much. It’s that it’s difficult to find stuff easily.”
The overwhelming majority of participants in the survey, 34 of the 35 student participants, believed that CLASS-Web should not be fully replaced.
Despite this, a new student information system looms bright on the horizon, Civitas Learning. Civitas Learning is projected to be applied with the purpose of optimizing registration, improving student support, resolving student issues faster and consolidating student data.
While the implementation of Civitas Learning has yet to be fully confirmed, plans have been discussed to progress from CLASS-Web to the Civitas Learning interface.
Whether or not Civitas Learning materializes at LPC, it is clear that CLASS-Web is in need of redevelopment in order to better meet the needs of LPC students.
Sagurika Ujjual is an arts and entertainment editor for The Express. Follow her @SagurikaU.
