Enhancing the "What if" feature with smart, automated, and optimized degree plans
Death, taxes, and changing circumstances. Students often face changes that require them to rethink their current degree pathways, such as financial difficulties or wanting to pursue new knowledge and interests. However, rethinking and committing are two different stories.
What is a "What if?"
A "What if" permits students to simulate a change — or combination of changes — to a different major, concentration, or minor prior to committing to the change. Specifically, a "What if" helps illustrate:
- What requirements have already been satisfied to complete the new program
- What requirements are still outstanding to complete the new program
A "What if" empowers advisors and students to have more informed, proactive conversations as they contemplate the impact of changing circumstances.
Enhancing the "What if"
Historically, the "What if" has gone no further than surfacing an updated degree audit for a new goal. This means that students and advisors still need to create and manage the actual plan to achieve the new goal. Until now.
Ellucian Smart Plan elevates the "What if" to the next level. It does more than highlight the requirements; it automatically creates the plan — yes, a full course plan — to fulfill them.
With a "What if" powered by Smart Plan, students and their advisors also get an immediate view of:
- An automated plan to achieve the goal most efficiently and effectively
- The time it takes to complete the goal
- The estimated cost of completion
Smart Plan can generate multiple "What if" for students and advisors to decide the most suitable choice. For example, a student may want to add a marketing or finance minor. Smart Plan can generate "What if" scenarios to evaluate which new minor would add the least amount of time and cost for completion.
And just like any current plan for a declared goal, every "What if" factors student preferences (e.g., work schedules, campus locations, etc.), program details (e.g., requisites, course rotations, etc.), and institutional best practices (e.g., recommended sequencing, etc.) in every plan.
How Smart Plan's "What if" works
Here is an example of a Marketing major contemplating adding a Criminal Justice minor.
Chart the Fastest Course to Student Completion
Ellucian Smart Plan forms part of the Degree Audit & Planning ecosystem, which comprises Degree Works, Smart Plan, and Award. All three solutions work together harmoniously to empower on-time student completion and success — and award students with the credentials they've worked so hard to earn.
