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PROGRAMS: Degree Maps

 

Table of Contents

Overview
Program Template
Creating and Editing Degree Maps
Creating Multiple Degree Maps
How Degree Maps are Structured
Creating Semester Requirements
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 | Primary Field Settings | Section Field 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.

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 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

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

Step 1: 

  • To build the requirement, click into the requirement and select “Edit”.

  • This will open up a modal to add and edit requirement types and other details.

 

Step 2: Select the “Requirement Type” from the dropdown.

 

Step 3: 

  • Select the items you want to add from the “requirement select” dropdown. 

  • You can add a combination of them, e.g. 2 courses and 1 course set.

 

 

Step 4: You can edit other fields in the Details tab.

 

 

Field Options

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.

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. 

Editing Mode

Saved Mode

Related Links

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