By Megan Lambert (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: June 17, 2015
If you’ve ever paused to consider, halfway through your degree, what it would be like to take criminology instead of creative writing — UFV has a new system for you.
As general, arts, and science advice services move into the third floor of the SUB, UFV has purchased a new component called Ellucian DegreeWorks to accompany Ellucian Banner, the program that tracks your academic transcript. The cost of both DegreeWorks and Banner, including hardware and software costs as well as training for staff, totals $235,000.
The program allows the student to “try out” different degrees to see what program paths need and how the classes they’ve already taken fit in. DegreeWorks interprets the requirements in the academic calendar, such as the mandatory lab science in the bachelor of arts, and matches up the required courses with what the student has previously taken to see what’s left.
Deputy registrar Darren Francis says this is currently done manually, but that the new program will allow advisors to talk more with the student about what they are looking for.
“In my mind, a human advisor is to create a human connection,” he says. He adds that an advisor should focus on the student’s goals and aspirations, and the new program can do the grunt-work of figuring out how to get them there.
According to Francis, the program-specific advisors who are staying in their respective departments, like criminology, will also have access to DegreeWorks.
A year from now, students will also be able to access the second phase of the program, a student planner, online. Students will be able to log in and access “what if” scenarios to experiment with different program paths.
“A computer system can help give you more scenarios than just writing out the core requirements,” he says.
The program also has an analytic component, which will collect data on which courses are more in demand. Francis says this may help academic planning in the future.
“If we know what students are looking to take in the what-if scenarios, we can track that back and say, ‘Oh, maybe we should offer more Business 400 courses,’” he says.
The first phase of the program will be installed in time for the fall semester.
