My aunt wanted to help sell Coursicle to universities, so we put together a document that she could refer to when she was trying to pitch.

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Scroll down below to see some student testimonials (screenshots from Facebook as well as excerpts from emails we’ve received from students). 

Scroll down to see an example email that we’ve sent to Registrars. Hopefully seeing this will give you an idea of the pitch we’ve tried. 

Scroll down to see a database of questions Registrars have asked and the responses we gave. 

Here’s the presentation I gave (Tara couldn’t make it) to SEARUG. A blurb about them: “The Southeast Atlantic Regional User Group is targeted to higher education institutions using or implementing Oracle systems in the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.” 
Presentation title: “Class Finder by and for Students”.
My speaking notes for the presentation: 
https://drive.google.com/a/pooch.us/file/d/0B8KQhFucmfcEcXh1NGo2Vm1TbEU/view
The presentation: https://drive.google.com/a/pooch.us/file/d/0B8KQhFucmfcENnJzR1Q3bTdOU0E/view

Pamphlet we handed out at our Elon demo: https://drive.google.com/a/pooch.us/file/d/0B8KQhFucmfcESkRHOUNhamtrdWs/view

Articles about Coursicle (formerly Class Finder) as well as Class Checker:
By the UNC IT Department:
http://its.unc.edu/power-of-its-student-collaboration/
http://its.unc.edu/carolina-student-developers-its-support-enables-app-success/
http://its.unc.edu/its-boosts-collaborations-with-students/
UNC Student Newspaper:
http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2015/11/class-finder-1103
UPenn Student Paper: http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/10/coursicle-penn-intouch-replacement
UNC Blog Post about Class Checker: http://blog.teachingandlearning.unc.edu/2015/01/09/track-classes-with-unc-class-checker/

Some additional things to note which we recalled from looking through our notes: 
UNC Academic Advising is already using our data analytics (a simple portal that downloads an excel doc) to figure out what courses have such a high demand that new sections need to be created. 
UNC Registrar has asked for our data to determine which gen ed requirements students were having the most difficulty satisfying.

Some of the ways UNC links to us (to help advertise our products to students): 
http://registrar.unc.edu/courses/schedule-of-classes/ 
https://connectcarolina.unc.edu/ (login portal for all students)

Student Testimonials

"As I am sure many students have told you, this website rocks. It is an invaluable resource in helping plan out courses. This is also one of the most user-friendly and intuitive websites I've used."

"I love the website and find this tool so useful! Thanks for your service."

 “I love the design. This is easily the most beautiful course schedule I've encountered.”

"I’d like to say that I love your website. I think it is so much better than searching for everything on [university's search]".


Example Email to Registrars 

Dear Mr. Keane,

I'm Joe Puccio, a junior at UNC Chapel Hill. I co-created two websites (screenshots attached) for UNC students that I'm looking to pilot at Haverford. The first allows students to truly browse the course catalog through an intuitive filter-based search and plan their classes for future semesters. The second allows students to get notified via email or text when a class has an available seat. So far, over 19,000 students have used them. 

Both can work with common student systems (e.g. Banner, Colleague, PeopleSoft), and we handle implementation and maintenance. Our services have been approved by UNC's IT department, and we provide reports on course demand before registration, which have been requested by the Registrar's Office and Academic Advising. 

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, and please feel free to forward this to whoever may be appropriate. 

Best,

Joe Puccio


Q&A excerpts from our emails 


•	 Can this be embedded in native .edu environments?
◦	Yes, while we have implemented our solutions at UNC as third-party websites, we could certainly set up our services on a designated .edu domain (e.g. “classfinder.haverford.edu”).
•	How flexible is the program and interface?  That is, can it be customized and/or enhanced to meet client wants and needs?  Or is it, for the most part, an "as-is" product.
◦	We are more than happy to build up the product to fit an individual school’s needs, and we have done so in the past. For instance, one university that we are working with provided us with a database of walking distances between their school buildings, so we created a custom feature for them that alerts students if they plan two classes back to back that take too long to walk between. 
•	Can it connect with two systems at once (say, Banner and PeopleSoft) in order to consolidate course searches in one platform?  I guess this would depend on how you interact with the raw data (extracts, direct interfaces, etc.).
◦	Yes, we could consolidate multiple course searches. If we were to work with two (or more) systems, we could extract course information from each system and feed them into our database. 
•	What data is needed to make this run?
•	We need basic course data for each class (department, course number, course type, etc). In fact, it appears as though all of the data we need is already publicly available on the Beloit Portal. 
•	How is that data acquired?
•	Our services can interface with your Jenzabar system in a variety of ways (e.g. flat file communication, web service/API, screen scraping), whichever is preferred by your IT department. 
•	Who is the host?
•	Typically, we Cloud-host the services and maintain them ourselves. However, if your IT department prefers to host our services, that'd be possible as well. 
•	Who would be an appropriate contact in the UNC IT department regarding their endorsement?
•	You could contact the IT Director at UNC, Maribel Carrion. Her email: mcarrion@email.unc.edu. Her phone: 919-962-5016. 
•	Which 19,000 students have tested this?
•	These are 19,000 UNC students who have used our services over the past 3 years. 
•	Have you tested this at a smaller school? 
•	We have not yet launched our services at a smaller school. However, we're currently in the contract phase with a smaller school (~6,000 students) and have begun preliminary development for them.
•	What have you learned from this test, and what modifications if any did you need to do as a result of the testing?
•	We've learned that it's important to integrate with universities' SISs (e.g. Jenzabar). Originally, when we started at UNC, we were not integrated with their SIS, so since partnering with their IT department, we've started using a web service that they provided us. We also learned that students really benefit from a visual way of planning their schedule for the upcoming semester, so we added a weekly calendar view.
•	What costs does piloting this project involve?
•	The costs usually involve an initial implementation fee and a recurring annual license fee. Both of these costs scale by enrollment. I'd be happy to provide an estimate given Beloit's size, if you'd like.