A lightbulb moment in CIS*3750
Ever spent way too long hunting down the perfect professor for a course, or refreshing Reddit threads for difficulty ratings? That was me last year—scrolling through 2024 outlines, pestering upper years, and waiting on Discord notifications. Course selection shouldn’t feel like blindfolded pinball, but that’s exactly how choosing classes at Guelph felt.
One afternoon in CIS*3750, I was venting to Harkirat about this mess of links and PDFs. We sketched out the idea on a whiteboard: what if there was one place to browse every course, filter by term or professor, and read real student reviews? I hit up Michael and he was down to help us tackle data scraping. In minutes, we had the core concept—uoguelph.courses was officially born.
Defining a clear goal
We didn’t need a flashy launch—that would only slow us down. Our mission was simple:
Build a no-nonsense course search that actually helps UofG students plan their semesters.
Key features at launch:
- Fast course search by title or code
- Filters for term, department, and difficulty
- Professor profiles with past teaching history
- Student reviews (guarded by Google-only login)
- Clean, responsive UI in Next.js + Tailwind
We looked at sites like:
—and thought, “Okay, something like this—but built for Guelph.”
From sketch to site
-
Frontend groundwork
Harkirat and I set up the Next.js pages, crafted layouts with Tailwind, and wired in basic search and filter components. -
Data gathering
Michael built Python scrapers to pull course listings from WebAdvisor and ratings from RateMyProfessors. Suddenly, we had hundreds of courses and professor records ready to display. -
UI polish & integration
I merged course and professor data into unified cards—now you could see who taught CS*3760 in Fall 2023 alongside real student feedback, all in one glance. -
Authentication & reviews
Talha stepped in to design our Supabase schema and add Google-account login. That way, reviews came from actual students, not anonymous bots.
In four weeks, we went from blank repo to a working v1:
- Search by code/title
- Filter by term & department
- Course cards with offerings, instructors, and average ratings
- Login-gated review system
- Feedback form for future ideas
Early reactions
We dropped the link in Discord and Reddit, fully expecting a polite nod and crickets. Instead, students dove in:
“This saved me hours—thank you!”
“Finally, something that feels built for Guelph.”
In the first week alone, the site logged 1.5 k unique visitors, 6 k pageviews, and an estimated 20–25 k total reach across social shares:
What’s on deck
With the core live and feedback rolling in, we’re already planning the next features:
- GPA calculator for planning course loads
- Schedule builder to spot timetable conflicts
- Advanced filters by difficulty, breadth requirement, and interest tags
- Degree planner to track progress toward graduation
- Course alerts for enrollment openings
uoguelph.courses isn’t done—it’s only getting started. If you’re a Guelph student and haven’t tried it yet, give it a spin and let us know what you need next.
—Faiz Mustansar