Q. How do I search for courses that I am interested in?
Q. I tried to search for courses with the Site Search box, but there is no course page link showing up in the search results.
Q. How can I find the date/time of a course?
Q. Can I contact the instructor about a course before the class starts?
Q. Can I audit the first meeting of a course and then decide if I want to register?
Q. How do I determine if a course I’m interested in is at the right level for me?Q. After I navigate to a course page, why doesn't the BACK button on my browser bring me back to my starting page?
Q. Can any of the lab tools be accessed remotely (through the Internet)?
Q. How do I search for courses that I am interested in?
A. If you know the course number (from a printed ad for example), you can click on the “Course Search” button on the upper left corner and enter the course number (i.e. for course 22324–001, enter 22324). It will return the precise course link. If you're searching with keywords for a subject you are interested in, you can use either the “Search Site” box or the "Course Search" box. It will return all courses with those keywords in the course descriptions. You can also browse for courses by selecting a certificate program on the left pane of every Web page. Active courses under each program will appear on the “Course Schedule” tab. You can then click on specific courses to read the descriptions. The Site Search box (above the Course Search) may or may not return all relevant courses.
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Q. I tried to search for known courses with the Search Site box. Why is no course page link showing up on the search result?
A. We are working on this issue. See the Q&A above. However, this Google-based Site Search can perform syntax associations to aid in search results. It can also search the top level pages which are not in our course database. These are the reasons we offer both search options on our site.
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Q. How can I find the date/time of a course?
A. All courses on the program page are active courses, but we only show the date/time for courses offered in the next 1-2 quarters. You can find the quarters in which a course is offered on the Course Schedule tab of each program page. If you are interested in a course that has no scheduled sections, please click the course link, then the “REQUEST INFORMATION” button. We will reply with relevant information about this course and we can send you an email reminder once the course is scheduled.
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Q. Can I contact the instructor about the course before class starts?
A. The majority of our instructors are working professionals that teach for UCSC Extension on a part-time basis. Our knowledgeable staff can answer most student questions. If a question requires a response from an instructor, we will contact the instructor for you. Please use the “REQUEST INFORMATION” link (on the course page) or send an email to program@ucsc-extension.edu. Our staff will responds to most queries within 48 hours.
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Q. Can I audit the first meeting of a course and then decide if I want to register?
A. Our policies do not allow auditing. Please review the course descriptions and prerequisites on our Web site. Ask questions before you sign up, and we will do our best to give you an accurate picture of the course.
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Q. How do I determine if a course I’m interested in is at the right level for me?
A. Read the complete course description on the Web (our paper catalog only shows the abridged version), particularly the Prerequisite(s) and Note(s) sections. In most cases, instructors do not cover skills which are taught in the listed prerequisites. We offer open enrollment, with no formal admission process, to make it convenient for students to acquire professional knowledge. Background and experience vary from person to person. Students are usually the best judges of which courses are the best fit for them.
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Q. After I navigate to a course page, why doesn't the BACK button on my browser bring me back to my starting page?
A. This may occur when you click the BACK button right after the page appears. The course information is stored on a different server. A session needs to be established between the servers. It takes more than a few seconds. When you run into this situation, a double-click on the browser BACK button will take you back. Or you can click on the UCSC Extension logo in the top banner to go back to the top page.
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Q. Can any of the lab tools be accessed remotely (through the Internet)?
A. The majority of our lab tools are open source software, and the instructor will provide the download source. For Adobe, Microsoft and Oracle tool suites, the companies offer limited evaluation copies to students. For VLSI Engineering labs, we offer the full-featured, industrial grade Synopsys tool suite under university license agreement. We do not have a practical mechanism to ensure compliance with licensing agreements through remote access. At this time we cannot offer remote access to such licensed tools. To access VLSI labs, you may use our computers or WiFi (limited range). If the situation changes, we will let you know.
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