Table of Contents
Overview
Program Template
Creating and Editing Degree Maps
Creating a Degree Map with Future-Dated Courses
Creating Multiple Degree Maps
How Degree Maps are Structured
Creating Semester Requirements
Viewing & Editing Course Sets within a Degree Map
Sample Degree Map
Related Links
Overview
Degree maps, or pathways, help you define the path students need to follow in order to complete a program of study. They can drastically improve student and institutional outcomes, as a cohesive academic plan empowers students to stay on track and realize their academic visions.
For tips and best practices, see 5 Hidden Barriers to Look For When Creating Academic Program Maps.
Program Template
Path | Overview | How It Works | Advanced Settings
Path
Curriculum Management > Settings > Program Template > Degree Maps Card
Overview
Each Program Template has a “Degree Maps” card.
Some Degree Map fields display computed data, so they are never editable to end users.
Others are editable, and editing access can be restricted for certain roles.
You can toggle visibility, edit-ability, and field names if you wish to customize individual fields within the degree map.
You can also require that users submit a degree map when creating a program.
The “Degree Maps” Advanced Settings modal contains two tabs: Primary Field Settings and Section Field Settings.
How It Works
Click the “eye” icon to adjust visibility (if you do not wish to use the degree map functionality).
Click the “gear” icon to access Degree Map advanced settings.
Click the “pencil” icon to adjust field-level settings.
Advanced Settings
Overview
Within “Advanced Settings”, you’ll have the ability to edit both “Primary Field Settings” as well as “Section Field Settings”.
Primary Field Settings
The “Primary Field Settings” tab allows you to define the name as well as visibility and editability settings for all of the fields on the Degree Maps card that are not semester specific.
Section Field Settings
The “Section Field Settings” tab allows you to define the name as well as visibility and editability settings for fields within the semester view of Degree Maps (including everything that appears on the “Edit Requirement” modal).
That includes the term “Semester”, which you might wish to rename depending on your institution’s needs.
The Semester, Year, and Minimum Grade fields also include an additional “Edit Field Options” button, which allow you to define options for the dropdown menu that end users can select.
Creating and Editing Degree Maps
PATH: Curriculum > Programs
Overview
When submitting a program, the Degree Map card appears to users as shown below.
Field Options
Map Details | Miscellaneous | Semester | Credits
Map Details
Degree Map Name – Name for the degree map.
Degree Map Credits – An automatically calculated sum of the credits within the degree map, calculated by adding credit values from each requirement in the degree map.
Degree Map Effective Catalog Year – Range of effective catalog years based on user entry to the prebuilt effective terms fields.
Degree Map Narrative – A free-form text field that allows you to input any text information they would like to provide with the degree map. |
Miscellaneous
Displayed in Catalog – Controls if the degree map is displayed in the catalog view for the program.
Set as default – Controls if the degree map is the first to display in the list of degree maps for the program in the catalog.
Semester
Adding new semesters allows you to structure blocks of requirements for each term in a degree map.
Credits
All listed fields (Total General Education, Major, Minor, and Elective Credits) are automatically calculated based on the sum of credits for each requirement type. You are able to assign a type of requirement in the degree map’s area field (+ New Semester > Click into Semester > + New Requirement > Click into Requirement > Edit). For instance, all courses that you assign as being type “major” will have a credit values sum in the total major requirements section.
Creating a Degree Map with Future-Dated Courses
Degree Maps support future-dated courses in Curriculum. If a program has a start term before the start term of a course, you’ll still be able to use that course to create a degree map within that program.
For example, a program with a start term of 2000 can include in a degree map a course with a start term of 2022.
By default, these future-dated courses will NOT be fetched. To include them in degree maps, navigate to Admin > Settings > Cross-Product Settings and Toggle “Fetch Degree Map's Courses Using Latest Revision Even If Future Dated" to “Yes”.
Creating Multiple Degree Maps
You can create multiple degree maps for each program.
Each degree map has its own name and data.
To copy an existing degree map in creating a new degree map, click "Duplicate map".
How Degree Maps are Structured
Overview
Degree maps are structured as years, then semesters within those years.
New semesters can be added by clicking "+ new semester", and the year and semester name can be customized using the drop-down fields.
Actual credits and progress credits (PeopleSoft) are automatically calculated based on the sum of credit values within the requirements for each semester.
Creating Semester Requirements
Overview | Building Requirements | Object Selection & Details
Overview
Each semester can have multiple requirements that can be added by clicking "New Requirement". Adding a requirement enables you to select the type of requirement and define the values of certain fields. Typically, one requirement within a term represents one course that students need to complete.
Building Requirements
How To Do It
Before you can start building requirements:
If a degree map doesn’t already exist for the program, click “+ New Map”.
If a semester doesn’t already exist for this degree map, click “+ New Semester” and define the semester using the “Yes” and “Semester” dropdowns.
From there, you can proceed to building requirements (Step 1 below).
Step 1: Click into the semester you wish to edit and click “+ New Requirement”.
Step 2:
Click into the requirement and select “Edit”.
This will open up a modal to add and edit requirement types and other details.
Step 3:
Select the “Requirement Type” from the dropdown.
You can add a combination of them, e.g. 2 courses and 1 course set.
Step 4:
Select the items you want to add from the “requirement select” dropdown.
See “Object Selection & Details” below for more information.
For courses, you can use the “+Add Course Choice” option to use “And” logic. See “Add Course Choice” and “And/Or Logic” below for more details.
ADD COURSE CHOICE
If you would like to use nested “And” logic in your degree map requirement, select “+ Course Choice” within a Course requirement.
For example, to define a requirement as “Take (Math 1 AND Math 2) OR (Math 3), a user would:
Add Math 1 as a course type requirement.
Click “+ Add Course Choice” to add Math 2 to the same line.
Use “Requirement Select” at top to add Math 3 using.
AND/OR LOGIC
Items connected using “+ Add Course Choice” within the same object are always connected via AND.
Selections across different objects but within the same requirement are always connected via OR.
Requirements themselves are always connected to other requirements via AND.
Step 5:
Click the “Details” tab to edit additional fields.
See “Object Selection & Details” below for more information.
Step 6: When you are done editing this requirement, click “Save”.
Step 7 (Optional): If you wish to add additional requirements, click “+ New Requirement” and repeat the above steps.
Step 8: Once you have finished editing your program, click “Save Changes” on the right-hand side of the screen under “Actions”.
Object Selection & Details
PATH: Programs > Select Program > Edit Program > Degree Maps Card > + New Semester > + New Requirement > Click into Requirement > Edit
OBJECT SELECTION
Requirement Type
This field allows you to select the type of requirement for each field. In the default degree map, you are able to select: courses, course sets, course attributes, requirement designations, milestones, and generic.
COURSES – Add active courses that students need to take.
COURSE SETS – Allows you to re-use the same course sets across multiple degree maps, which is very useful for things such as General Education Requirements that are used across programs.
COURSE ATTRIBUTES – Any course attributes you have, such as “Laboratory” or “Independent Study”. PeopleSoft Specific.
REQUIREMENT DESIGNATIONS – Maps to the PeopleSoft field of the same name.
MILESTONE – This is a free-text field; it is useful to represent any type of non-course milestone, such as “Internship”. PeopleSoft specific.
GENERIC – This is a free-text field, which allows you to type in anything you want; particularly useful when the only requirement is a number of credits (e.g. “General Elective”, 2 credits).
Requirement Select
Based on your input for the requirement type, you are able to select a requirement.
DETAILS
Course Requirement Group (Free Text) | Course Requirement Group | Minimum Grade | Area
Actual Credits | Progress Credits | Contact Hours | Clinical | Criticality
Course Requirement Group (Free Text)
Free text input that allows you to input unstructured course requirements.
Course Requirement Group
Displays course requirement group (PeopleSoft).
Minimum Grade
Allows you to select a minimum grade for a requirement.
It will say “list is empty” until you’ve created a list in the Program Template, as outlined above under “Section Field Settings”.
Area
Allows you to select if the requirement is for general education, major, minor, or elective.
Actual Credits
If a single course is selected for a requirement and that course has a credit value, Actual Credits is automatically populated with that value.
If that course has a min and max credit value only, Actual Credits is displayed as a hyphenated range that you can edit by clicking into the field.
If there are multiple courses listed for a single requirement, hard-coded logic will treat those courses as "either/or". Actual Credits will be an editable, hyphenated range with a min value of the course with the fewest credits, and a max value of the course with the most credits.
EXAMPLE 1
If three courses are listed under Requirement 1 and all three courses are 3 credits, the "Actual Credits" displayed will be 3.
EXAMPLE 2
If two courses are listed for Requirement 2 – and one is 3 credits whereas the other is 4 – Actual Credits will display as a range of 3-4.
Progress Credits
Derived from the progress credits field in the credits prebuilt card.
Same logic for calculation of credit values as in Actual Credits.
PeopleSoft-specific field.
Contact Hours
Derived from contact hours in the credits prebuilt card.
PeopleSoft-specific field.
Clinical
Number format input that allows you to input the number of clinical hours.
Criticality
You are able to indicate "yes" or "no" if the course is critical.
Viewing & Editing Course Sets within a Degree Map
Overview
If a Course Set is among the listed requirements for a degree map, users with permission to edit Course Sets and Programs can click into that Course Set to view and edit the full structure of the Course Set.
This helps ensure Course Sets are accurately structured within Degree Maps.
How It Works
When adding a Requirement or editing a Requirement in the Degree Maps card, select a Course Set.
The Course Set name and credits will be displayed in the Requirement.
The credits shown will consider the and/or logic of course sets to calculate the range of possible credits (e.g. If a course set allows a student to choose one of five 3-credit courses, it will display a credit total of 3 to reflect the OR logic between the courses a student can choose from.
To view the structure of the Course Set or to edit the Course Set, click on the Course Set. Clicking the course set link will open a new tab where you can edit the course set.
Sample Degree Map
The below screenshots show you a full degree map in both editing and saved mode. For screenshots of individual details, review the PDF attached at the bottom of this article.
