DegreeWorks (DW) Next Generation Planner for Graduate Students

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1 DegreeWorks (DW) Next Generation Planner for Graduate Students DegreeWorks Planner allows advisors to create, view, and save semester course plans for students. A plan can be approved by the Graduate School as a student s Graduate Studies Plan (GSP) and then used to replace the catalog requirements on the Audits tab with the plan requirements. Options for Graduate Students If a graduate student intends to follow prescribed catalog requirements and submit academic petitions to the Graduate School for any substitutions, then a plan is not necessary. Degree Services will update student s DW audit as approved petitions are received. If a degree program lacks prescribed degree requirements or offers broad ranges of courses a student can take, then a plan is required. Predefined notes are available on the Notes tab for the graduate department/program, graduate department chair and school/college dean to indicate approval of the plan (i.e. Graduate Studies Plan). Creating a New Plan from Scratch 1. Open the Plans tab to create a new plan. If the student has no existing plans, a message box will appear asking if you would like to create a blank plan or select a template (screenshot below). If the student does have existing plans, select New Plan from the top right of the screen to get the message box. 2. Select Blank Plan see below for template instructions. 3. Enter a Description in the required description field. (i.e. Graduate Studies Plan or MA English Plan) 4. Check the Active checkbox to the right of the Description field to make the plan active. When creating a plan, if you wish to have students edit the plan, leave the Locked checkbox unchecked. Checking the Locked checkbox blocks students from editing the plan. Students will still be able to create their own plans separately. 5. Select the Degree from the dropdown list. Only active degree types for the student are shown. If you are planning for a degree that the student has not yet been admitted to, select any active degree and then update it when the student is admitted to the correct degree. Plans will not be lost when the degree type changes. 1

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3 Creating a New Plan from a Template Templates are predefined plans specified by departments. If you re interested in developing a template for your program, please [email protected]. 1. Open the Plans tab to create a new plan. If the student has no existing plans, a message box will appear asking if you would like to create a blank plan or select a template. If the student does have existing plans, select New Plan from the top right of the screen to get the message box. 2. Select Template for a list of available templates. Click to highlight the template you would like to use, and then select Open. 3. A message box will appear asking you to select the starting term of the template. If you do not see the term you are looking for, select a term close to the starting term. You can update the starting term later. 4. The predefined template will now load into the student s plan. Opening an Existing Plan 1. Simply select the plan from the list on the Plans tab and click Open. 2. If you are opening a plan created before July 2013, you may need to adjust some of the placeholder requirements, which are any requirements that were saved with the dash in front. Placeholders will come over as type CONVERSION and can be changed to one of the following placeholder types: Elective, General Education, Other or Transfer Course. The placeholder types are for reference only. Adding Requirements 1. Select the + plus sign at the top right corner of the plan to add a term. The term will then appear in the plan. 3

4 2. Select the + plus sign in the top right corner of a term box to select a requirement type. There are three requirement types available (screenshot below): a. Course i. Option 1: Type in the course or use the search function (i.e. the magnifying glass) to find a course. ii. Option 2: Open the Still Needed menu at the right and click and drag a course into the semester. b. Placeholder i. Use the placeholder type for an elective, GER, transfer course or other. Select a Placeholder requirement from the dropdown list and enter a value (e.g. General Education placeholder with a value of Natural Sciences or Elective placeholder with a value of PSY or SOC course ). You can also enter a credit amount in the value field (e.g. General Education placeholder with a value of 4 credit Natural Science course ). c. Test Score i. Select a test from the dropdown list and enter a minimum score. ii. If you are unsure about the minimum score, enter any value (e.g. Pass ). iii. If you do not see the test you are looking for, please [email protected] and request to have it added to the list. Edit Plan Requirements There are multiple ways the plan can be edited: 1. Simply add or delete requirements and then save. 2. Edit existing requirements (e.g. replace SPAN A101 with ENGL A111 and save). Credits will automatically adjust. 3. Drag and drop courses to different terms within the plan. 4. Reassign terms: a. Click the Reassign button to reassign the term, then select the desired term from the dropdown menu and click OK. b. If a term has already been used within the plan, it will not be available in the term dropdown menu. If you are reassigning to a term that already has planned courses, you must first delete the existing term or change it. 4

5 Delete Plan Requirements 1. Click to the right of the paper icon (under Notes) associated with the specific requirement you wish to delete so that it is highlighted the darker shade (as opposed to the lighter highlighted color when hovering over the requirement or selecting a field). 2. Select the minus sign at the top of the term to delete the requirement. Saving Plans Save will resave your current plan. Save As will save a new copy of your plan even if the description does not change. Note: Changing the description and selecting Save will overwrite your previous plan. We encourage you to only have one active plan saved at a time so that reporting data is as accurate as possible. View Plan Requirements Select Audit near the bottom of the page to view the planned requirements within an audit. Note: Any changes made to a plan will not be visible within the audit until after the plan has been saved. Both planned and in progress courses will appear in the audit. Placeholder requirements are not available to fulfill requirements in the Planner Worksheet. Instead, they pull into the Not Counted section near the bottom of the audit, as they are not valid courses in Banner. However, the placeholders will later appear in the audit on the Audits tab when the GSP is approved by the Graduate School. 5

6 Plan Features Courselink The information buttons next to courses allow you to view the upcoming schedule for a planned course, and the information button at the top of each term (next to total credits) allows you to view the schedule for all of the planned courses in a term. Please note that the schedule information is subject to change. Still Needed Menu The Still Needed menu allows you to view courses that are still needed within the audit. Click and drag courses to terms within the plan to add them. Use the Refresh button to update the menu so that planned courses no longer appear in the Still Needed list. The Still Needed menu has the ability to find classes that meet wildcard requirements. For example, if a student needs a 600 level Accounting elective, you can expand on the requirement (ACCT A6@) to view a list of 600 level electives. Click on the course to view upcoming sessions with Courselink. Search The magnifying class next to a course requirement lets you search for a class. For example, if a student needs a Psychology elective, you can search for PSY to search for classes. Simply begin typing the course prefix, and a list of courses will populate within a few moments (screenshot below). 6

7 Notes Notes can be added to all levels of the plan, including the plan as a whole, notes for specific terms, and notes for requirements within the terms. Additionally, notes can be added to the main audit by clicking the Notes button at the top of the screen or by clicking on the Notes tab. These notes appear at the very bottom of the main audit (Audits tab). Plan Approval Once the Graduate School has approved a plan, they will convert the plan so that it is displayed in the audit in place of the original catalog requirements on the Audits tab. Students courses will populate the requirements as they register for and complete courses. The plan can be modified at any time. However, any changes need to be approved up through the Graduate School before they will be reflected in the audit on the Audits tab. Before awarding a graduate degree from a DW plan, Degree Services must see approval from the Graduate School in DW. It will be noted using the predefined note, Final GSP approved by Graduate School for XX. That way it is clear to Degree Services which plan has been approved should a student be admitted into more than one graduate program. Questions? If you have any questions about your DegreeWorks audit, please contact Degree Services at [email protected] 7