Online language course registrations clog up universities' data system

WebOodi crashes under weight of applicants

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Registration to take part in language courses arranged by the University of Helsinki has this week caused severe headaches for the WebOodi student information system. WebOodi is the student end of the Oodi information system, established for teaching staff and students, and in operation at 13 Finnish universities.
      The most catastrophic scenes came on Wednesday, when the server was hugely overloaded by students attempting to sign up for any of 160 courses at the University of Helsinki's Language Centre. Queuing was put into effect as a panic solution, but even this was less than perfect, with time-outs causing login verifications to expire before the user managed to get anything done.
      Many queued for several hours, often in vain, and apparently there were still around 500 users in line at 11 p.m.
     
In previous years, Language Centre courses have had as many as 20,000 applications. Courses are open to all of the university's 30,000 students. Fifteen languages are available, with around 16,500 students taking part. This was the first time that the WebOodi system was used for registration.
      In addition to Helsinki University, the system is used by a number of other further education establishments locally, and by the Turku School of Economics & Business Administration, which was also hit by the log-jam.
      Language Centre courses have traditionally had a good many more applicants than can be accepted. In some cases, courses will fill up in any event within the first hour or so, regardless of how well the registration system is performing, but on this occasion students quite simply could not get themselves logged in.
      Reportedly the only practical way to avoid snafus such as this in future is to stagger such registration arrangements over a longer period.
     
Registration ends officially seven days before the course begins. Students have been urged to get themselves registered on waiting-lists and to enquire from teaching staff about spare places after the course has got under way.
      The irony of the situation is that in a great many cases as many as half of those who have signed up for a course and got themselves a place will not ultimately show up in the classroom.


Links:
  WebOodi

Helsingin Sanomat