Registering via the internet

This document is in two sections

1. Making up your class schedule (definitions - what it all means)

2. Registering via the Internet - how to do it

Making up your class schedule - Notes and Definitions

Academic advice

We encourage you to seek academic advice for course selection by contacting the director or head responsible for your program. All the necessary information for departments and schools appears with the course listings. To find out more about academic advising, click here.

Course numbering - what course is it and when is it offered

Example: BIOL 1113L F1

In the above example

BIOL	subject area
1113L	departmental course number
		the first number is the year in which it's usually taken
		L shows it's a lab
		3 is the number of credit hours (except KINE activity courses, with a value of 1.5 credit hours, represented by a letter. e.g. KINE 185A is a 1.5 credit hour course)
F1	is the section
		F shows it's a sectioned course (A, B, C, etc.)
		X in the section are offered as only one section
	1 is the term
		1 first term
		2 second term
		0 full year

Restrictions on courses

Some courses require specific prerequisites, corequisites, academic level or program, or permission before you can register for them. This information is in the course listings. Restrictions may be:

· By program (BA, BEd, etc.) or major (English)

· By academic level as determined by the number of credits completed. First year 0-24h; second year 25-54h, third year 55-84h or more; fourth year greater than or equal 85h

· Departmental or instructor permission required

· Corequisite course required - you need a course at the same time (e.g. labs with a course)

· Prerequisite course required - you need a different course before you can take this course

Course Load

You will normally take five courses per semester: 15 credit hours each term for a total of 30h for the academic year. Students in the applied science and music programs take more than 30h per year to complete program requirements. If you wish to take 33h and have achieved a sessional grade point average of 2.50-2.99, you may do so. To take 36h you must have achieved a sessional grade point average of 3.00 or greater in 2003-2004. All other overloads require the approval of your head or director and written permission must be obtained. An overload is not allowed in your first year unless required by your program.

To register in a course requiring permission

Before registering you must contact the director, or head of the particular subject area and be granted permission, which is recorded on the student information system. See the course listings for contact information.

Time slots

At http://www.acadiau.ca/registrar/slotsheet.pdf you will find a time slot worksheet (needs Adobe Acrobat). Use this to work out your schedule. Note that many slots meet on more than one day – slot 3, for example, meets at 10:30 on Monday Wednesday and Friday. Be careful your slots don’t conflict – for instance, you can’t take both a slot 2 and slot 21 course because the overlap between 9:30 and 10:30 on Mondays. Try not to schedule 4 courses in a row over lunch period – though you can bring a lunch if this is absolutely necessary – but do not worry about having 2 or 3 classes consecutively. You have 10 minutes between classes, which on Acadia’s campus gives you sufficient time to get around.

Semester hours

One semester hour (1h) represents one hour of instruction per week per term. Usually three semester-hour courses (3h) are completed within one term and six semester-hour courses (6h) extend over two terms. Laboratory and tutorial hours are not included.

Registering via the internet

Who: Acadia undergraduate students with access to a Windows PC connected to the Internet

When: Group A (within 39 hours of graduating) July 29

Group B (directly from high school or up to 12 credit hours) August 4

Group C (54-80 credit hours) August 10

Group D (all other students) August 12

Caution: If you have an outstanding financial account with the university, your registration will not be accepted. You can check your balance before you start entering your courses by clicking on the Student Accounts line before you enter the registration page.

If you are coming from high school, you will be able to register only after we have received your final high school transcript.

If you have been a student at Acadia and currently have a PIN (the PIN you used to check your grades, etc.), please use that pin for registration. Your account login name should be your Acadia login name (e.g. 012345a). If you do not remember your PIN, please click on the "Forgot Password?" by the login button at the top right of the page, enter your full Acadia ID number (100012345) and your alternative email address. Your PIN will be sent to your alternative email address if it matches the one we have recorded in the student system.

If you are new to Acadia and need a PIN, go to http://myacadia.acadiau.ca, enter your full student number and click on email me my pin. Your PIN will be mailed to active email addresses we have recorded in the student information system. Allow at least half an hour from the time you receive your PIN before trying the registration system.

Important

A selected course is stored temporarily in the backpack. Once you select the courses that you are considering they will be in a 'selected courses' list in the Backpack each time you connect.

A selected course only becomes registered (officially holding your place for you) after you select the course and click the Register button (the course is then recorded in the university records).

Getting started

Once you have logged in on the registrar's home page, you will see a menu of selections on the left side. If you are eligible to register during the time you log in, you will see an Online Registration button in the list. Clicking the Online Registration button will take you to a new page. You can maximize the page by clicking the second button in the upper right-hand corner.

Online registration allows you to see your weekly schedule in words or pictures at each step of the course selection process. Schedules can be easily manipulated with a few clicks of your mouse. Nothing will be changed in the University records until you 'register' and the registration is successful; therefore any number of possibilities can be tried in your backpack before your selections are submitted.

ABOUT THE WINDOWS

There are two separate display areas on the screen – the selection menu on the left which contains the Courses link; and the Main Window. In addition, once you have chosen your first course, you will see buttons at the top of the Main Window that will take you to the Information, Backpack, Fall or Winter Semester windows.

Clicking on the Courses link takes you to each course name and number arranged by department and faculty. To find a course, click the faculty name and then the department name. All the courses offered in that department for the Fall/Winter 2004/2005 term will be listed. Just because it is in the 2004/2005 calendar does not mean it is offered!!

The Information link takes you to a listing of all the courses for which you are registered or that are in your backpack.

The Backpack link also shows the courses for which you are registered or that are in your backpack. From the Backpack, you can register for the courses, view them in your schedule or remove them from your Backpack or from your registration.

Don’t worry about choosing the wrong courses! You can make changes to your registered courses through the Internet up to September 17.

How to register

Load your web browser (at least Netscape 7 or Internet Explorer 5.5) from a handy PC.
Connect to http://ares.acadiau.ca:7778/pls/portal/registrar.reg_home_proc.
Enter your Acadia account number (eg. 012345a) and PIN and click on the login button. If you have been a student at Acadia and currently have a PIN (the PIN you used to check your grades, etc.), please use that pin for registration. As well, if you have a PIN from using the admissions portal (myacadia.acadiau.ca), that will be your registration PIN.
To begin registering, click on “Online Registration” in the menu on the left of the page.
Expand the new window created, if necessary.
Find the course you’re looking for by clicking on the faculty and department of the course in the Courses link on the left hand menu.
Once you have chosen the first course, you will see the title, description and sections listed in the Main Window. The first available section of the course will be selected.
1. Choose the section you would like. If there is some restriction on a course or section, for which you do not meet the criteria, the information will show at the bottom of the section list. If you need a pre-requisite (a course before this course) or a co-requisite (course with this course), you can link to those courses by clicking on them.
2. To choose a section of a course, click on Select at the bottom of the list of sections.
3. If, at any point, you wish to change sections, you may do so by clicking the Swap with..., which replaces the Select button below the list of sections.
4. If a section does not have a button beside it, you are not able to register for it.
5. Select all the courses for which you would like to register, by choosing them from the Courses menu, or to see your current list, click on Backpack at the top of the Main Window.
To see the selected courses in your schedule in a day/time grid, click View in Schedule. Clicking Fall Semester or Winter Semester will take you back and forth between the two.
Select those courses you would like to register (Selecting them only puts them in your Backpack, you have to actually register for them before you actually have a place saved in that course) by clicking in the box on right beside the course. If you want to select them all, click on the box in the title area. Click on the Register button.
The system will show you which courses were successfully registered, or why some courses were not registered. If you absolutely can’t figure out why you were not able to register, please record the error message to relay when contacting us.
If you have problems with using the registration system, you can use the "Report a Problem" button on the left menu to send an email to us. Please fill in the details and include your email address. If you have problems with pre-requisites or permissions, please contact your department.
When you are finished, click the X in the upper right-hand corner to shut down the page. You can choose to log out of the main online student system or click on My Account to perform another function, such as book ordering or updating your personal information.