Student FAQ

Workday Student is a component of Workday, a leading cloud-based enterprise software system. Workday provides a single, unified system to replace the legacy Banner system and associated student platforms.

Implementation, beginning in May of 2022, is expected to take 30 months. Unlike the last Workday implementation, there will be multiple deployments of different functionality instead of one launch date (referred to as a Big Bang). 

September 2024

Workday infrastructure, policies, and procedures ensure your data is secure and protected. Security threats and risks are mitigated through strong internal controls and a comprehensive security program. Workday regularly passes rigorous third-party compliance audits.

Workday Student is also a robust platform that can accommodate large volumes of transactions simultaneously. Workday has established volume thresholds that would require additional testing and monitoring. Given the size of Wake Forest University and the timing of key activities, WFU will not approach these volumes.

Plus, Workday applications are hosted in state-of-the-art data centers with fully redundant subsystems and compartmentalized security zones. The data centers adhere to the strictest physical and environmental security measures. The facilities require multiple levels of authentication to access critical infrastructure.

Banner: This is where faculty currently access information about their courses and enter grades and where students currently update their personal information, register for classes, and pay tuition. Additional systems that support the student academic experience are under review as the project timeline and plan are finalized. While we are updating our Student Information System (SIS), Banner, Canvas will remain your Learning Management System (LMS).

Workday Student, our soon-to-be Student Information System (SIS) and Canvas, our Learning Management System (LMS) will both be integral parts of our digital ecosystem. Workday Student will serve as the University’s main system of record for student-related data. Canvas will continue to be the platform for digital teaching and learning material.

Undergraduate students will register for Fall 2024 in Workday, but before they can register, they must meet with their advisor to remove their advising hold. Summer 2024 registration still will occur in WIN/Banner. Graduate student timelines and registration approaches will vary some by degree program, but graduate students will also use Workday for their academic records in the coming year. The registrar’s office in a student’s graduate or professional school can serve as the best resource for graduate students with questions.

The Project WakeDay website includes term and icon glossaries, a list of training opportunities, and links to job aids.

Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are recommended for the best functionality. Workday can also be used with the following: Apple Safari latest support version; Microsoft Edge latest support version; Internet Explorer 7.x and 8.x with Workday Open Frame add-on; Internet Explorer 9.x and 10.X. Also, be sure your browser is updated to the latest version. Read more here.

No

Yes, student photos will display on the Student Profile and in advisors’ lists of advisees.

Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are recommended for the best functionality. Workday can also be used with the following: Apple Safari latest support version; Microsoft Edge latest support version; Internet Explorer 7.x and 8.x with Workday Open Frame add-on; Internet Explorer 9.x and 10.X.

No

When a student changes their POS, their new POS becomes viewable on the Overview tab. If it is the student’s only POS, it will be set as the primary. The prior POS will be retained as a historical record but will no longer be active.

The “PINs” formerly used for many students will no longer be used to support the registration process. Instead, undergraduate and Divinity students must meet with their primary advisors to have an advising hold removed to permit registration. At any time, students can use the Academic Progress Report to check their progress towards the completion of their Program(s) of Study, and review relevant details. Students can also work with an advisor to build Academic Plans and Saved Schedules, which can help you plan for upcoming semesters or move quickly through course registration tasks.

The “PINs” formerly used for many students will no longer be used to support the registration process. Instead, undergraduate and Divinity students must meet with their primary advisors to have an advising hold removed to permit registration. You will also have a registration appointment, which replaces time tickets. You can find your appointment time in Workday. Once that registration appointment is open, you will be able to begin registering for courses.

It depends on the student. There will always be a primary advisor associated with your primary major, but there can be as many advisors as there are Programs of Study associated with a student. Additionally, some students may also have other individuals within their support network such as athletics advisors or other academic coaches.

Yes, this information appears in the Academics app or by selecting View My Support Network.

Students can see holds on their student profile under the Action Items and Holds section. In this section students will see tabs for Active Holds and Resolved Holds.

If a faculty member is on leave they will have a designated backup, but in the given scenario, undergraduates should reach out to the Office of Academic Advising for assistance with the hold.

Yes, students will use the Create Request task and select the Credit Overload request type.

Waitlists automatically move eligible students into a course if/when seats are available. The system will not let a student register for more than 17 credit hours. Students can get approved to go over 17 credit hours while they’re waitlisted. Otherwise, if they have a 17-hour credit limit they will be skipped over. An exception is law-school waitlists, which are not automatic and require the law student to respond to the waitlist within 48 hours before a spot is released to the next law student on the list. 

With the transition to Workday, WFU is moving away from the former “POIs.” Instead, when you do not meet a course section prerequisite requirement for a given course section, you have the ability to submit a Course Section Prerequisite Override Request. You can submit this request during the advising period (i.e., in advance of registration). Approval only allows you to register for the course section during your registration window, rather than automatically immediately giving you a seat in the course section. For example, Music sections that require an audition will be managed by the Music Department’s Academic Coordinator, and those course sections will require the permission of the department.

Students can go to their Academics Dashboard, and under Academic Advising there is a report called Evaluate Academic Requirements that will run a what-if scenario.

If they want, students can plan out their entire eight semesters. Plans include courses, like what is in the Bulletin. Saved schedules actually have course sections with times, days, etc.

The Academic Plan shows all courses available in the Bulletin. The Saved Schedule includes actual sections offered.

No, in Workday you only need to enter the first three characters within any search field to return search results.

Yes, just drag the same requirement block in a separate line and add the second course.

When creating an Academic Plan, students only plan for one intended course to fulfill the requirement. Once the course section schedule is published for a given term, students can create multiple saved schedules to have different options for fulfilling the planned academic requirement.

The plan is based purely on courses from the Academic Bulletin. When registration windows open and students/advisors can see sections, the student can pick the specific sections they want. They will be able to register from a plan. If there are time conflicts with the course sections they are trying to register for, they will get an error that will prevent them from registering until they adjust the time conflict.

Yes, and they can register from any of their Saved Schedules.

From the Plan tab in your Student Profile, click on View Saved Schedules. The student picks the term they want to view. The View My Saved Schedules window opens and the student can click on the Start Registration button if registration is open, they have removed all holds by meeting with their primary advisor to remove the advising hold and completing all onboarding tasks, and they have a registration appointment.

You can do this by using the filtering tools in the Find Course Sections report. You may filter by delivery method, meeting days, meeting patterns, and more. 

You can have multiple Saved Schedules.

There will still be a major minor period. Students can only declare once they reach 40-plus credit hours. They will not see the button until they meet that requirement. Students needed to make any major/minor updates through WIN by 2/26. Major/Minor updates are currently unavailable for continuing students and will reopen, in Workday, at the start of the Fall 2024 semester. Students who will graduate in May of 2024 can still make any necessary adjustments via WIN.

For undergraduates, there is a section at the bottom of the Academic Progress Report that lists the Bachelor Program Core Requirements.

The Academic Plan shows all courses available in the Bulletin. The Saved Schedule includes actual sections offered.

No, in Workday you only need to enter the first three characters within any search field to return search results.

Students can see holds on their student profile under the Action Items and Holds section. In this section students will see tabs for Active Holds and Resolved Holds.

Students can go to their Academics Dashboard, and under Academic Advising there is a report called Evaluate Academic Requirements that will run a what-if scenario.

Yes, and they can register from any of their saved schedules.

There will still be a major minor period. Students can only declare once they reach 40-plus credit hours. They will not see the button until they meet that requirement. Students needed to make any major/minor updates through WIN by 2/26. Major/Minor updates are currently unavailable for continuing students and will reopen, in Workday, at the start of the Fall 2024 semester. Students who will graduate in May of 2024 can still make any necessary adjustments via WIN.

You can do this by using the filtering tools in the Find Course Sections report. You may filter by delivery method, meeting days, meeting patterns, and more. 

From the Plan tab in your student profile, click on View Saved Schedules. The student picks the term they want to view. The View My Saved Schedules window opens and the student can click on the Start Registration button if registration is open, they have removed all holds by meeting with their primary advisor to remove the advising hold and completing all onboarding tasks, and they have a registration appointment.

If they want, students can plan out their entire eight semesters. Plans include courses, like what is in the Bulletin. Saved schedules actually have course sections with times, days, etc.

Yes, students will use the Create Request task and select the Credit Overload request type. 

Yes, just drag the same requirement block in a separate line and add the second course.

Yes, student photos will display on the Student Profile and in advisors’ lists of advisees.

They can have multiple Saved Schedules.

Waitlists automatically move eligible students into a course if/when seats are available. The system will not let a student register for more than 17 credit hours. Students can get approved to go over 17 credit hours while they’re waitlisted. Otherwise, if they have a 17-hour credit limit they will be skipped over. An exception is law-school waitlists, which are not automatic and require the law student to respond to the waitlist within 48 hours before a spot is released to the next law student on the list. 

The plan is based purely on courses from the Academic Bulletin. When registration windows open and students/advisors can see sections, the student can pick the specific sections they want. They will be able to register from a plan. If there are time conflicts with the course sections they are trying to register for, they will get an error that will prevent them from registering until they adjust the time conflict.

When creating an academic plan, students only plan for one intended course to fulfill the requirement. Once the course section schedule is published for a given term, students can create multiple saved schedules to have different options for fulfilling the planned academic requirement.

For undergraduates, there is a section at the bottom of the Academic Progress Report that lists the Bachelor Program Core Requirements.

• Changes to registration: Most students, including all undergraduate students, will register themselves in Workday for all their courses. You can create an Academic Plan, which is an opportunity to plan ahead for upcoming semesters, by mapping out possible courses based on your academic requirements. You can also create Saved Schedules, which are based on the courses mapped out in your Academic Plan, for each specific term and the specific course sections being offered and then register directly from these plans. Saved Schedules can be based on an Academic Plan but an Academic Plan is not required to create a Saved Schedule. You can also search for a course section via the “Find Course Section” Report and register for it in that way.
• Time slots: There are no longer short windows of time where individual students will register. You can find your registration date and time in Workday (the moment when you will be able to begin registering for courses). You will not need to wait for an email. Registration times will be assigned by earned hours for undergraduate students.
• System stability: Workday is a modern, cloud-based system hosted on servers operated by Workday, as a robust product designed to handle many students registering at the same time. We have tested the system, and we are confident it can handle all students registering simultaneously. In addition to Wake Forest, there are hundreds of other schools and companies on the same servers, which are equipped to handle the additional Wake Forest data.

Students should contact the Office of the University Registrar or the relevant registrar’s office for their graduate school or degree program.

Major/minor “pre-registration” will no longer exist in the sense that students will not obtain seats in courses ahead of time via a department’s Academic Coordinator. Instead, departments will do this work on the front-end of the advising and registration periods by specifically allocating anticipated seats in their classes to specific student populations.

For example, a department may want to ensure that only seniors can register for a class, and then the coordinator adjusts that allocation to allow in other students once they ensure the necessary seniors are enrolled.

Another example would be a department saying they want to ensure that in a section of 25 total seats, 15 are majors and 10 are minors, and only students who match that criteria can register for the course. This method ensures that majors/minors are still able to get the classes they need.

The primary change is that students have more responsibility to manage their own registration experience, which will be conducted in an online format.

If students do not have a full schedule by the end of the first week of undergraduate registration, they do not need to worry because with the reserved seating approaches being managed by academic departments, we anticipate students will continue to engage in registration activities throughout the last day to finalize their complete schedule.

Registration times will be assigned by earned hours, less any pre-college transfer credit, for undergraduate students.

Registration appointments will be visible on the Student Profile leading up to registration and will include the date when you can register for classes.

Registration has been scheduled for 7:30 a.m. in order to minimize the likelihood of conflicts with other student activities or classes.

Registration appointments are set by class level: 

• Tuesday: Students who have earned 87+ hours (less any pre-college transfer credit) 
• Wednesday: Students who have earned 55-86.99 hours (less any pre-college transfer credit) 
• Thursday: Students who have earned 25-54.99 hours (less any pre-college transfer credit)
• Friday: Students who have earned up to 24.99 hours (less any pre-college transfer credit)

Another important detail to note is that “in progress” hours will not go into these calculations, and this is just a calculation to determine a registration appointment; these credit hours still apply to degree programs and hours toward graduation as determined by the credit awarded by specific departments. 

Graduate Students will also have registration appointments visible in Workday and should reach out to their schools or departments if they have more questions related to how appointments are assigned.

Yes, you can see all courses. If you try to register for a course but don’t meet the eligibility requirements, the registration Troubleshooting task will tell you why you can’t register. However, if you don’t meet the requirements for a given course, you can neither register for a course nor add yourself to a waitlist.

In the Global Search bar on your Workday launch page, type FIND COURSE SECTIONS. Answer the questions (except for Location, leave that blank), and then select OK. This will show you every class offered this semester. Note that you have to search for POT (part of term) classes using a separate search. You can filter on the left to section status, and if section status is Open, it means the course still has capacity. If you want to see a specific number of seats available, then you need to click into the specific course section and then look at capacity.

If a student does not meet a course section prerequisite requirement but would still like to register for the course, they have the ability to submit a Course Section Prerequisite Override Request. Students can submit this request during the advising period (i.e., in advance of registration). Obtaining that approval will allow you to register for the course section during the assigned registration window (note the approval does not automatically and immediately give you a seat in the course section based on the approval alone). However, instructors cannot override the waitlist or course section capacity in this way.

Students should create an Academic Plan, as it is a helpful tool for planning ahead and thinking through your overall academic roadmap. Once course sections are published, you should also create at least one Saved Schedule before registration opens for that specific term. With a Saved Schedule, you can select the specific section of a course ahead of registration. Then, when registration begins, you can go to your Saved Schedule and register with “one click.”

In the event you cannot get into one or several of your desired course sections because a section is full, you can/should create a back-up Saved Schedule (or several) before registration to help make the process easier.

To ensure that undergraduate majors and minors, or any specific population of students, can register in courses they need, Workday offers Reserved Seating. This holds seats for students who meet certain program or level criteria, for example 15 seats of 25 seats could be held for Psychology majors in a Psychology course. Many or all reserved seating rules, except those reserved for incoming first-year students, will be removed during the third week of registration, at which point any student who meets the prerequisite requirements will be eligible to enroll.

Students can join a waitlist even if they do not meet the reserved seat eligibility. Note they must have the course section eligibility (prerequisite). Once the reserved seats are released, students will be auto-promoted into the course section should there be available seats and the student does not have any time conflicts.

Students do not need to worry if they do not have a full schedule by the end of the first week of registration. With the reserved seating structure, we anticipate students will continue to make adjustments to their schedule through the end of the add/drop period. Please see the academic calendar for specific dates.

Workday will display an error message.

Students can join a waitlist even if they do not meet the reserved seat eligibility. Note they must have the course section eligibility (prerequisite). Once the reserved seats are released, students will be auto-promoted into the course section should there be available seats and the student does not have any time conflicts.

If a course section has met the seating capacity the section status will update from open to waitlist, provided the course has an active waitlist. Students then follow the same process for registration. If a student selects the orange register button on a course section with a waitlist status they will register to the waitlist. If seats become available, they will be automatically promoted from the waitlist and registered in the class.

No, students cannot see their position on the waitlist. While Faculty can see waitlisted students on their course rosters with a status of waitlist, they cannot see the position on the waitlist.

Students can review their Current Classes section on the Academics page of their Student Profile to confirm the course sections in which they are registered. They can also see current registrations in the Academics Dashboard.

If a course section has met the seating capacity the section status will update from open to waitlist, provided the course has an active waitlist. Students then follow the same process for registration. If a student selects the orange register button on a course section with a waitlist status they will register to the waitlist. If seats become available, they will be automatically promoted from the waitlist and registered in the class.

When a student’s registration appointment begins, provided they have cleared their registration holds, they will see a Register from Plan button on the plan screen. If a student opens their Saved Schedule, they will also see an orange registration button here as well as within any section in the find course sections report.

Registration times will be assigned by earned hours, less any pre-college transfer credit,  for undergraduate students.

Registration appointments will be visible on the Student Profile leading up to registration and will include the date when you can register for classes. Registration has been scheduled for 7:30 a.m. in order to minimize the likelihood of conflicts with other student activities or classes. Registration appointments are set by class level: 

• Tuesday: Students who have earned 87+ hours (less any pre-college transfer credit) 
• Wednesday: Students who have earned 55-86.99 hours (less any pre-college transfer credit) 
• Thursday: Students who have earned 25-54.99 hours (less any pre-college transfer credit)
• Friday: Students who have earned up to 24.99 hours (less any pre-college transfer credit)

Another important detail to note is that “in progress” hours will not go into these calculations, and this is just a calculation to determine a registration appointment; these credit hours still apply to degree programs and hours toward graduation as determined by the credit awarded by specific departments. 

Graduate Students will also have registration appointments visible in Workday and should reach out to their schools or departments if they have more questions related to how appointments are assigned.

Graduate students will have registration appointments visible in Workday and should reach out to their schools or departments if they have more questions related to how appointments are assigned.

No, students cannot see their position on the waitlist. While Faculty can see waitlisted students on their course rosters with a status of waitlist, they cannot see the position on the waitlist.

Students can join a waitlist even if they do not meet the reserved seat eligibility. Note they must have the course section eligibility (prerequisite). Once the reserved seats are released, students will be auto-promoted into the course section should there be available seats and the student does not have any time conflicts.

Students can review their Current Classes section on the Academics page of their Student Profile to confirm the course sections in which they are registered. They can also see current registrations in the Academics Dashboard.

Workday will display an error message.

Students will use Financial Aid functionality starting early Summer 2024. The only financial aid related item that students will see in Workday is Anticipated Aid. All other financial aid activities will continue to be conducted in PowerFAIDS via the “Your Financial Aid Portal” on one.wfu.edu.

Fall 2024 tuition will be in Workday.

Yes. All holds appear in the “Action Items and Holds” section of their student profile.

Students will use Financial Aid functionality starting early Summer 2024. The only financial aid related item that students will see in Workday is Anticipated Aid. All other financial aid activities will continue to be conducted in PowerFAIDS via the “Your Financial Aid Portal” on one.wfu.edu.

Fall 2024 tuition will be in Workday.

Yes. All holds appear in the “Action Items and Holds” section of their student profile.

Yes, all Programs of Study will populate for students in the Overview tab of the Academics section. One of the majors will be marked as the Primary Program of Study.

Changing a Program of Study is a business process, initiated by a student, that requires approval. This type of request routes to the academic department.

Yes, the view is the same with the same tabs across the top. Visibility to student information may vary depending on security access of the person who is viewing the student’s profile.

If you go to the Contact page of your Student Profile and select the Friends and Family tab, you can add friends and family to your profile, such as a parent, guardian or emergency contact. Once they are in the system you can determine what you would like to share with them using the third party option, such as an ability to see and pay your student bill or view your grades and current schedule.

If you go to the Contact page of your Student Profile you will be able to update your phone number as well as your home address. You will be prompted to do this as part of the onboarding process each semester, but you can also edit this information at any time.

If you go to the Personal page of your Student Profile, and then go to the Personal Information tab, you can click the edit button to update your pronouns, as well as other personal information such as your gender identity and race and ethnicity.