Degree Works has a new tool to help students plan and list their future course schedules for every semester they attend Ithaca College. Students can access the tool now on the new tab called “plans.”
The Office of the Registrar updated Degree Works to have the plans feature, which allows students to create templates and use them as planners for choosing what classes they want to take during their entire time at the college.
Degree Works is a degree evaluation website application that allows undergraduate students to remain on track to graduate. The Degree Works website remains the same except for the new plans tab, which is located between the worksheets and the GPA calculator tabs. The plans feature was launched Feb. 3.
The plans will allow increased collaboration and coordination with faculty advisers, the Academic Advising Center and students’ deans’ offices.
Registrar Vikki Levine said the plans feature was designed to allow students to not only plan their future courses but also to allow them to show and discuss their plans with their advisers and faculty. Levine also said it will help the institution with long-term planning.
“Let’s say every business student decided to do a plan,” Levine said. “Then we can look and say, ‘Oh look, in spring of 2022 every single business student wants to take an [economics] course.’ That we know could be a planning problem, and we can start to be strategic about what’s being offered on the schedule and hopefully adjust to meet student needs.”
Levine also said student workers helped to test and create the how-to materials for using the plan, and they will have YouTube videos for students to learn how to use it.
Freshman Carly Vallet said that, as an exploratory student, she thinks the plans feature will be a great way for her and other exploratory students to plan for their future majors.
“Last semester, I used Degree Works a lot because in exploratory we had to map out our next four years of college for our potential majors,” Vallet said. ”So especially for exploratory students, I think that’d be really beneficial.”
Junior Jackie Brown said although she probably would not have used the plans feature as a freshman, a lot of students would probably appreciate it as a means for guidance.
“Personally, I don’t think I would’ve needed it, but I know some people who are a lot less type A who could’ve gotten help from it,” Brown said. “I know there’s a lot of people who either don’t have great advisers or just would like to plan things on their own, so I think that’s a good tool.”
