CAO website fails stressed students
– posted February 1st, 2007 by Clodagh Kelly No comments
It was reported today in the Irish media that for the second day running, students have experienced significant difficulties logging on to the CAO website to complete their college applications, the closing date for which is today.
It has been reported that it is taking “hours to process applications”, with the system timing out and leaving students confused, frustrated and stressed. One student reported spending 5 hours trying to process his application and walking away still without having submitted his college choices.
“It’s not our fault!”
Last night the following notice appeared on the website:
Unscheduled downtime notice:
Our webserver is currently down - we apologise for the inconvenience. We are working to resume service as soon as possible.
Yet despite this, according to a spokesperson for CAO, the problem is not the fault of the CAO but rather “the system put those logging on into a queue however many were timed out by their own computers and had to start the process all over again” ( from today’s Irish Independent).
The website now displays the following message:
So, keep on trying kids!
..will someone please think of the children!
It’s one thing when a website irks you, or when it takes significant searching to uncover the information that should have been easy to find, it’s a whole other ball game when a website fails our future university students so badly.
With both mock exams and the real life leaving certificate exams looming, and after months of deliberation over their college career, the last thing these young students need is this nightmare when trying to submit their college application. It is eating into valuable study time and causing unnecessary stress and strain at what is already a a difficult time for students
It is no wonder college applicants are shunning technology courses, if this (along with others such as last years PPARS controversy ) is the type of example of “technology in use” they are witnessing.
It’s happened before
This isn’t the first time CAO has come under the spotlight for failures in its IT systems, in June last year, the CAO system came to a halt as students submitted their final change of mind forms.
The sole purpose of the CAO is to process college applications, and yet the last two times the website has been asked to ‘perform’, it has failed.
No extension to online applications
Despite President of the Institute for career guidance Frank Mulvihill calling for the deadline to be extended, the CAO has stated that applications posted today by students will be accepted (though they will incur a &euro 10 penalty), but no extension will be provided for the online applications facility.
CAO serves neither business nor customer
The main aim of technology is to make our lives easier, both for the business employing the technology and the customer they are serving.
The primary business aim of the online CAO system is to reduce costs and make the college application process more efficient.
For the customer, their aim should be to provide an easy to use service with minimum fuss which encourages students to submit applications online rather than by the standard postal system.
Clearly, on both counts it has failed. Due to failure of the online system, users are stressed and frustrated, and forced to send in applications by post, which causes increased costs and a breakdown in efficiency for the CAO staff.
Maybe next year they will get it right
My advice? At risk of sounding like my old school teacher, don’t leave it until the last minute! Until you are sure they have got it right, snail mail it, at least then you can be (almost) sure it will get there on time!
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