Schedulator blog

As students begin to finalize their schedules for Spring 2010 semester, I just waned to let you know about two new features that we added winter break.  First off, I’d like to thank Niru for adding the “Remember Me” feature.  Now, you can remain logged in to the Schedulator for multiple days at a time from one browser by simply clicking the “Remember Me” checkbox below the password field when logging in.  This should make it easier to go back and forth during registration and drop-add periods to try out new schedules.  Secondly, as it was one of the features frequently requested in our feedback form, I have made the schedule links shorter so they are of the form dukeschedulator.com/l/[some short code].  Hopefully, this will make it easier to send schedules to friends.  We hope these features make the Schedulator more useful and are planning on implementing more core features in coming months. Welcome back and have a good semester.

Alex

We are pleased to have launched our new design for the Schedulator just in time for the Spring 2010 bookbagging and registration section. Our goal with the new design was to give the site a more professional finish while keeping it rooted in simplicity.

We’ve also beefed up our textbooks functionality, adding a separate page to just handle textbooks searches. Check it out here. Now, you can search for course textbooks at a number of different online vendors and modify some parameters related to the search.

We have also launched a facebook page in order to easily send updates out to our users. Become a fan here. In addition, follow us on twitter to get sparse updates on Schedulator progress.

As the site continues to grow, we hope to continue to deliver a refreshingly simple way to plan your course schedules. As always, your feedback is much appreciated.  In the coming months, we’ll hopefully be tweaking our textbooks interface to achieve the most fluid design, adding more advanced support for class searches, and whatever else strikes us at the time.

Niru

I am happy to announce that as the end of this summer, we have a new member to our team, Niru Maheswaranathan.  Niru is a good friend of both Nick and mine and is motivated to push the Schedulator forward, making it more useful for students.

With his help, we have rushed in the past few weeks to implement a new feature in time for this upcoming semester.  As of today, on every schedule displayed The Schedulator will get the textbooks required for those classes and display the amount of available savings with Amazon.com over Duke’s Textbook Store prices.  Clicking on the link below the schedule will show users a table of prices with the lowest price highlighted.

To be perfectly honest, we see this is as a win/win situation.  We believe this is a feature that will streamline the drop/add process and help students save money.  At the same time, by merely pointing out deals to students we have an opportunity to make a few bucks off Amazon, which will go towards internal costs such as upgrading our servers for the future.  So if you like The Schedulator, please contribute in a small way simply by doing what is best for you, saving money on your textbooks.

We are looking forward to making this feature more robust in coming months, pulling data from more sources and making the interface even more fluid; so make sure to check back in the future for updates.  We hope this feature comes in handy in the coming weeks and that you have a good first few weeks of school.

Alex

Hey Everyone,

Haven’t updated much in a while so thought it was about time I made some small improvements.  As the title suggests, I have upgraded Facebook Integration and search.  For FB integration, you can now easily publish possible schedules to your Facebook News Feed without needing to go through the hassle of saving your schedule to your computer and uploading it to FB.  To do this, simply click on the  button below the schedule.  This will make it easier to display your schedule on Facebook, let your friends see what you are considering or currently taking, and give them a chance to comment on your schedule.

The news feed post currently contains a small photo of your schedule and is linked to a page on our site that will show the larger image of the schedule along with a detailed description of each class.  We are working to upload a larger image directly to Facebook so there is less often a need for your friends to leave Facebook if they want to see your schedule, but will let you know when this is done.

As for the changes in search, simply check it out.  It should be less jittery and faster.  As always, let me know your thoughts and keep spreading the Schedulator.  Thanks.

Alex

Welcome to the official blog of the Duke Schedulator.  Check here for information about updates, instructions, and cool things relating to the schedulator.  To start off, here are some cool features that have been recently added (most require you create an account and login):

• Schedulator now remembers your bookbag information, no matter what computer you are on as long as you are logged in.  This includes what you have added to your bookbag and what you currently have checked along with your saved schedules.
• With new Facebook integration, you can display your schedule on your Facebook page and also through Schedulator see who else is planning on taking any given class.
• Improved search
• Personalized appointments can be added to your schedule, such as independent study, work, or weekly meetings.  These will be added to you bookbag and always be there when you log back in.
• Stats about classes and sections when click on the class/section.

These are just a few features so check back for more and enjoy using the Schedulator.