Degree Works & Student Educational Planner: Advisor Resources

Highlights and features of the Degree Works degree audit:

• The audit has a modern, mobile-friendly design.
• All degree-seeking students have a degree audit, including graduate students.
• Using the "Advanced search" link allows you to pull up an individual student by ID or name, or you can search for a list of students based on their program, level, classification, catalog, major, minor, college/school, degree, or student type. You can also search by student attribute, academic standing, or athletic sport.
• The student information block displays the student's classification, degree, college, level, major, total overall credits, and total transfer credits. It also shows degree progress in a friendly percentage calculation for degree requirements and total credits applied to the degree. 
• Advisors can view transfer-related course information, such as the originating institution's course prefix, number, and title, for accepted transfer work directly in the audit.
• The CourseLink feature (course hyperlink in audit) shows the description, course attribute(s), available sections, course times, and seat count for needed courses, and updates in real time

Using the Degree Audit and Student Educational Planner with advisees

Using the Degree Audit with advisees

• Review completed, in-progress, and outstanding requirements for a student's declared program during advising appointments
• Run a What-If audit with a student who is considering a new major, minor, or program, without changing anything on their official record
• Check how transfer, AP, IB, or CLEP credit has been applied

Using the Student Educational Planner with advisees

• Build a semester-by-semester plan collaboratively with a student, viewable by both of you in the same system as the audit
• Add planner notes to flag special instructions, such as a required minimum grade or a course that must be taken in a specific term
• Mark courses as critical to keep the plan's on-track/off-track status accurate
• Review and update the plan each term as the student's progress or interests change

Best practices for advising appointments

• Pull up the student's audit before the appointment so you can identify gaps ahead of time
• Use the What-If audit live with a student who's unsure about a major or minor change, rather than estimating by hand
• Encourage students to check their own audit and plan before registration opens each term
• If you notice missing or incorrectly applied credit, route it to the Registrar's Office or your department's authorized official rather than advising around it