DegreeWorks - what is it?

DegreeWorks is a web-based auditing and planning tool that is used by students and advisors alike, to evaluate a student's academic progress towards completion of his/her degree. The tool provides an organized, convenient and accessible way for college students to be aware of where they are academically and how they can plan for their graduation.

DegreeWorks generally consists of three components that assist students and advisors as they work towards graduation success.

• The Degree Worksheet - A view of a student's academic progress, that lets users determine which requirements are met, in progress, or needed.
• The Academic Plan - A semester wise outline of a student's academic present and future, charting out a path to graduation based on remaining classes in the DegreeWork sheet.
• The Transfer Equivalency Self-Service - A mapping of the classes completed at previous institutions, to ascertain the requirements met by the transfer credit. After the transfer courses are determined, students can evaluate the courses they want to take.

The data in DegreeWorks is updated every night. Any revisions made (e.g., grade changes or classes added/withdrawn) will be reflected in by the next day at the latest.

How DegreeWorks Benefits Students

DegreeWorks will assist a student in achieving their objective of timely graduation by:

• Reducing paperwork and manual degree checklists through an online environment
• Assessing their progress towards degree completion
• Confirming the student's academic standing
• Recognizing courses that need to be taken, transferred or completed
• Electing courses that meet the student's degree requirements
• Designing courses to take in future semesters
• Determining a projected graduation date, and
• Selecting a new major, minor or concentration (What-If)

If a student is considering changing his degree program, the What If the feature allows him and his advisor to see how the courses he has taken fit into his educational program before making a final decision.

How DegreeWork Benefits Faculty and Advisors

DegreeWorks will help faculty and advisors, with their plan to equip students with the most current and accurate information by:

• Supporting real-time delivery of academic guidance, through intuitive web interfaces
• Presenting a clear outline of missing requirements to assisting students in picking the best courses
• Allowing advisors to search for students by school, degree, and/or major to inspect degree progress
• Examining GPA and academic growth
• Minimizing errors through consistent degree plans
• Saving time by utilizing the What-If scenario if a student is interested in a new major
• Facilitating the process of degree certification
• Formulating an Academic Plan to ensure students are on track for graduation
• Reducing manual program check sheets and paperwork

DegreeWorks is designed to help and promote academic advising. It is not intended as a substitute for valuable one-on-one sessions with academic advisors.

Organizing a degree audit

The audit is broken down into categories, called blocks. The first block at the top of the audit provides the student demographic information, which is followed by the blocks that contain the requirements. These blocks help students in overseeing progress in completing the degree.

When should the students look at the DegreeWorks audit

• Before meeting with the academic advisor to discuss registration for an upcoming term
• Before registration, to plan the student's program for the term
• After registration, to ensure that the courses selected apply to the students' expected requirements
• After the grades for each term are posted
• Before filing for graduation, to review the academic record
• Any time the student makes a change to his schedule

DegreeWorks audit is different from a transcript
The student’s degree audit is an unofficial document that can be viewed as a tool to provide him/her with academic information related to his/her degree progress and help him/her plan his/her academic schedule. The degree audit is not the official academic transcript.

Example of how DegreeWorks helped colleges and universities

Example 1

The challenge: Improve efficiencies in student advising at Connecticut State Colleges and Universities

Results:

• Students work with advisors to set the curriculum
• Advisors and faculty use dashboards to inspect student progress and make interventions when required
• Messages that improve communication and increase response time

DegreeWorks is part of the student advising module in Connecticut State Colleges and Universities. Students use DegreeWorks to set his/her educational plans. Unfortunately, in Connecticut, the ratio of advisors to students is quite staggering. So, what DegreeWorks does is it gives the faculty and advisors a dashboard so they can analyze which students are not making their academic plan, and intervene immediately to try to improve the situation. The advisors nowadays carry out the intervention through a mobile app, thereby providing quicker response rates. Students get an indicator in the form of a text message from an advisor through the mobile application. Thus, DegreeWorks has and is adding a digital advantage to the schools and colleges of Connecticut, thereby raising the ability to retain the students and help them graduate on time.

Example 2
The challenge: Guide students to reach their career goals at Pearl River Community College

Results:

• Increased retention rates
• Improved advising model
• Empowered students to take charge of their education

One of the top priorities of the Pearl River Community College is to try and offer its students a chance to succeed on a daily basis. Many students show up but are unaware of what to do. DegreeWorks gives them a direction through the Guided Pathways Program. The advisors determine the area of interest without forcing the students into any specific programs. So, if a student needs to get an associate's degree, work and then join back later, the college has the provision to accept.

DegreeWorks has helped Pearl College to ensure the students leave the college in good financial shape, allowing the opportunity to use the limited resources for a better advisement model.

DegreeWorks has helped the college with their goal setting and has equipped them to better serve the students by giving them clear directions. DegreeWorks diminishes roadblocks and keeps the goal out in front where the students of the college can see a very clear pathway to success.

To conclude, DegreeWorks is a game-changer, providing efficiency at an affordable rate.