Semester Transition Advising Tool Help

Video Tutorials

If you'd prefer to watch some video explanations, start here:

• Overview with On-Track student 7:45
  • How do I upload a course history file? (0:00)
  • What is the Track Table? (0:30)
  • What is the Course Scheduling Table? (1:00)
  • Green means passed, but what does the cyan color represent? (1:30)
  • Of what use is the Graduation Requirements section? (2:20)
  • How do I remove a course from the Course Scheduling Table? (2:35)
  • What happens if the plan doesn't have enough credits in key areas? (2:45)
  • What happens if a require course is missing from the plan? (3:05)
  • What does a calendar warning in the Course Scheduling Table mean? (3:40)
  • How do I move a course to a different term? (3:50)
  • What does an exclamation mark after a course mean? (3:55)
  • What does an exclamation mark after a credit total mean? (4:10)
  • What if I don't see a course in the Add Course list that I think should be there? (4:20)
  • How do I indicate the specific course a student plans to take to meet an elective requirement? (4:55)
  • How do I change or remove the specific course associated with an elective? (5:10)
  • How do I mark a term as being full planned? (5:15)
  • How do I "save" a plan when I'm done? (3:50)
  • Why do I see basically the same course in the Excluded and Added lists in the Graduation Requirements Table? (6:10)
  • How do I generate the Individualized Transition Plan (ITP) form that needs to be signed by the student? (6:40)
• Generating an Individual Transition Plan form (5:08)
• Overview with student who is ahead 5:06
  • How is transfer and AP credit shown? (0:05)
  • What does red in the Course Scheduling Table signify? (0:35)
  • Why do some terms have so few courses listed? (0:50)
  • How do I move a semester course into a quarter term? (1:20)
  • How do I get rid of a red credit threshold? (2:35)
  • The total number of credits is well above the treshold. How can I bring it down? (3:35)
  • How do I move or remove electives? (3:45)
• Overview with student who is behind 4:25
  • Why are there so many courses in one term? (0:35)
  • How do I change the courses in the upcoming term (cyan color)? (1:40)
  • What if a student wants to take summer courses? (4:00)
  • How do I add courses to a year that isn't in the Course Scheduling Table? (4:00)
• ITP Speedrun - six students in 23 minutes
  • What is the track table?
  • What is the Course Scheduling Table? (0:30)
  • What does a red course mean? (0:36)
  • How do I tell what the student is currently registered for? (0:46)
  • Why are there so many credits in the winter quarter? (0:49)
  • What does a red number in the Graduation Requirements mean? (1:20)
  • How do I increase the number of credits to meet graduation requirements without adding additional courses? (1:35)
  • How do I move a course from a quarter to a semester? (1:45)
  • Why does a course appear in red in the Excluded section, and how do I fix it? (2:00)
  • How do I add a course? (2:05)
  • How do I move a course to a different quarter? (2:15)
  • How do I tell if a course is not likely to be offered in the term it is currently placed? (2:35)
  • How do I move an elective from quarters to semesters? (2:50)
  • How do I remove an elective from the Course Scheduling Table? (3:05)
  • How do I mark a term as "planned? (4:20)
  • How do I select a particular course to meet an elective requirement? (4:40)
  • Why don't I always see the credit totals in the Graduation Requirements area? (5:40)
  • How are prerequisite violations shown? (6:50, 17:09)
  • How do I adjust the courses in a term for which the student is already registered? (7:00)
  • How are minors tracked? (8:10)
  • What if a student can't complete a quarter-based course before the end of the year and there is no similar semester-based course? (9:00)
  • How do I move courses from semesters to quarters? (16:00)
  • How do I add a minor? (21:00)
• ITP for Transfer Student 11:32
• ITPs for Double Majors 13:56

Overview

• Upload Course History — The primary way to use the tool is to begin with a course history file for a student that has been exported from Jenzabar or an exported plan (generated by STAT).
• Start Fresh — If no course history file is available, this option will begin with an imaginary student, Joan Dough who will begin in fall 2023 with a random major selected.

Next the tool displays the following sections:

• Track — Displays the nominal transition track specified by the program. If the student has one or more minors declared, they will be shown below the track.
• Course Scheduling — Displays the courses taken or planned to be taken.
• Graduation Requirements — Displays information indicating whether the plan displayed in the Course Scheduling section meets the graduation requirements.

Track Table

The track table contains the nominal transition track as specified by the program. The order of courses is based on the track, not the order in which a student took the courses.

Courses are colored based on the following:

• Green — The student has successfully completed the course.
• Cyan — The student is registered for the course but has not received a grade. Additionally, if a student has received an incomplete failing grade, the course will appear in cyan.
• Yellow — The course appears in a term of the Course Scheduling table that has been marked as planned.
• White — The course is included in the Course Scheduling table in a term that is not marked as planned.
• White with red outline — The course is not found in the Course Scheduling table.

Hovering over a course will display the course name.

If the Course Scheduling table does not contain a course in the track but contains courses that are sufficient to meet the requirements of the course, the status of the sufficient course(s) will be represented in the track table. Hovering over the course in the track table will display information about the course(s) that were used to meet the requirements for the course on the track.

Course Scheduling Table

The Course Scheduling table displays all of the courses taken (green or red), in progress (cyan), and planned (yellow or white).

• The total number of credits is shown in the lower right of each term box. Credits are shown as semester credits everywhere except in the quarter-based terms. If the total number of credits in a term is over 19, a red triangle is shown after the total to signify that the load for the term is above a full-time load.
• An Add Summer button is shown for each year where a summer term is not already present and the year is not in the past.
• Future terms that are not marked as Scheduled contain an Add Course option that can be used to add an additional course to the term.

• Here courses in the Fall 2022 term are shown in cyan to it indicate that the student is registered for these courses but has not received a grade (termed work-in-progress, WIP).
• Courses in the Winter 2022-23 term are shown in yellow since the Scheduled toggle (in lower left corner of the term box) has been clicked.
• Courses in the Spring 2023 and beyond are shown in white since the Scheduled toggle in those terms has not be clicked.
• Like Scheduled terms, the WIP term has a toggle to unlock. This is useful if you would like to make changes to the courses taken in that term. Clicking on the toggle will change all of the courses in that term to Unscheduled. Clicking the toggle again will make the courses Scheduled. It is not possible to return the courses to the WIP state without reloading the file.
• The footer of the Course Scheduling table includes:
  • Add Year — Used to add another year. It is not possible to remove a year once it has been added; however, if the plan is exported, any year with no courses will not be displayed when uploaded.
  • Trash can icon — A course can be removed from the Course Scheduling table by dragging it to and dropping it on the trash can.
  • Reset Scheduling — Used to reset all of the scheduling changes that have been made.

Graduation Requirements

The Graduation Requirements section provides an audit to verify that the courses included in the Course Scheduling table meet the requirements for the major. Each program specifies the graduation requirements as a combination of:

• Required topical content, specified by specific courses along with alternative courses that sufficiently cover the require topical content in the specific courses
• Credit thresholds in specific areas

This section has three components.

• Credit Thresholds — All MSOE graduates must have at least 6 semester credits of humanities, 4 semester credits of social science, and a total of at least 12 semester credits of humanities or social science. Programs may specify other credit thresholds for their graduates. For example, all engineering programs must have at least 30 semester credits of math and science and 45 semester credits of engineering. Programs must specify what courses contribute to credit totals in each category.
• Excluded — A list of all courses in the curriculum track that are not included in the Course Scheduling table.
• Added — A list of all courses in the Course Scheduling table that are not explicitly included in the curriculum track.

The red color indicates that a requirement for graduation is not met by the courses included in the Course Scheduling table. Hovering over a red item will display information on how to correct the deficiency.

Hovering over the items in the figure above will display the following:

• Program — Below the 63 credit threshold
• CPE 4901 — Must add CPE 4901 OR CE 4000 to meet graduation requirements
• CPE 4902 — Must add CPE 4902 OR CE 4020 to meet graduation requirements
• IDS 2020 — Replaced by: OR 402 Progessional Guidance
• MA 262 — Replaced by: MTH 2480 Probability and Statistics
• MTH 2310 — Replaced by: MA 2310 Discrete Mathematics I

When printed, the hover information will be shown so that the Registrar's Office can adjust the graduation requirements for each student based on the Individual Transition Plan approved by the program director, advisor, and student.

Creating Individual Transition Plans

Students often do not follow the model curriculum tracks published by programs verbatim. The nominal transition plans published by each program will need to be customized for those students.

STAT facilitates such customizations by providing relevant feedback when changes are made.

Balancing Workloads

When a transcript is uploaded, the software compares the student's course history with the nominal transition track. All successfully completed, in progress, or planned courses are marked appropriately in the track. All courses in the track that have not been accounted for are added to the Course Scheduling table. Courses that appear earlier in the track are all placed in the next available term. As a result, there may be a term with an unrealistically high load and other terms with very light loads.

Unscheduled (white) courses may be moved between terms by dragging and dropping. Quarter courses (courses with a two letter prefix) can only be dropped into a quarter term, and semester courses (courses with a three letter prefix) can only be dropped into a semester term. If a term is already completed, in progress, or marked as scheduled, it is not possible to drop a course in the term.

When attempting to drop a course in a term, the border for the term will glow if it is possible to drop a course in the term.

Courses may also be dragged to the trash can in the Course Scheduling footer. (More on this in the section Managing a Student Who is Ahead or Behind)

Avoiding Prerequisite/Corequisite Violations

If the Course Scheduling table contains a prerequisite violation, a red triangle is displayed after all of the courses involved. Hovering over the triangle will reveal helpful information.

Corequisite violations are denoted with a red circle instead of a triangle.

Avoiding Planning to take a Course When it is Unlikely to be Offered

If a course is placed in a term where it is unlikely to be offered, a yellow calendar icon is displayed affer it. Hovering over the icon will reveal the source of the warning.

Managing a Student Who is Ahead or Behind

If a student is ahead, it may be desirable to move one or more semester courses into the 2022-23 academic year; however, semester courses will not be offered. Instead, we need to find one or more quarter courses that sufficiently cover the content in the semester course.

This can be done with a multi-step process:

1. Drag the semester course to the trash can.
2. Check the Graduation Requirements section to see if any graduation requirements are unmet. Removing a semester course will cause zero, one, or two of these requirements to be unmet:
   • Course content from the removed course is required for graduation — in this case the removed course will appear in red when shown in the Excluded list.
   • One or more credit thresholds are no longer met — in this case, one or more of the credit thresholds will be colored red.
3. If needed, add one or more appropriate quarter courses to resolve the graduation deficiencies.
   • If the course is red, hover over it to see what quarter course(s) could be added to resolve the issue.
   • If one or more credit thresholds is unmet, add appropriate courses to increase the credit count(s).

If a student is behind, they may not have enough room to complete all of the remaining quarter courses before MSOE transitions to semesters. The process for replacing quarter courses with semester courses begins by dragging the quarter course(s) that cannot be completed to the trash and then following a similar process to add the appropriate semester course(s).

Special Handling for Electives

Electives are handled differently than specific courses. It is important to understand these differences when creating Individual Transition Plans.

We gave considerable thought to how to best represent electives so that programs could clearly specify which electives must be satisfied and which electives could be removed from the requirements for graduation when developing an Individual Transition Plan.

All quarter based electives are prefixed with EL. All semester based electives are prefixed with ELC. Each program must specify what courses can be used to meet the elective requirement.

Programs can decide whether to allow an elective that appears in a semester term to be moved to a quarter term or not. It is recommended that programs allow all quarter electives to be moved to semesters since if a student does not satisfy the elective prior to the transition to semesters, they may not be able to meet all degree requirements.

Each program must also decide whether or not it is possible to remove an elective requirement from an Individual Transition Plan. For example, the software engineering program has EL CHBI (chemistry or biology), EL LabS (lab science) and EL MS (math or science) electives. Even if a student exceeds the credit threshold for math and science, the program requires students to take chemistry or biology and an additional lab-based science elective above and beyond the required courses for the major.

Moving Electives

Electives can be moved between like-typed terms, just like regular courses. Unlike regular courses, most electives can be moved from a semester term to a quarter term or vice versa. This is allowed as long as there are corresponding elective for both quarters and semesters. For example, if EL HU and ELC HU both exist.

If a semester elective does not have a corresponding quarter elective, the elective cannot be moved to a quarter term. If a quarter elective does not have a corresponding semester elective, the elective cannot be moved to a semester term. In these cases, the semester elective must be completed in a semester term and the quarter elective must be completed in a quarter term.

Selecting Course to Meet an Elective Requirement

Each program must specify what courses can be used to meet the elective requirement. That is, a list of appropriate courses must be provided for each EL and ELC prefixed course code in the nominal transition track. Right-clicking on an elective will reveal a drop down menu.

The drop down menu lists all courses that can be used to meet the elective requirement. Courses that are found in the Course Scheduling table are excluded from the list (unless the course can be taken more than once, e.g., special topics courses or independent studies). Courses for which the student is missing pre/co-requisites are listed at the end of the list.

To deselect a course associated with an elective, right-click and then click away from the drop down menu.

Deleting Electives

Unlike regular courses, it is not possible to drop an elective in the trash; however, there may be times when it is appropriate to remove an elective from a student's schedule. For example, suppose that a program has a free elective but the student has exceeded the Total credit threshold by at least three credits. In this case, there is no need for the student to take the free elective.

In order to remove the elective, select the XX NONE or XXX NONE course from the elective menu. This will effectively remove the elective from the schedule. The number of credits for the term and the Total number of credits for the program will be reduced accordingly.

If a program requires a specific elective to be satisfied, XX NONE or XXX NONE will not be shown in the elective list.

Minors

If the student has declared one or more minors, they are displayed below the track. Minors declared prior to Fall 2023 follow transition plan requirements. The requirements include a set of required courses, electives, and a credit threshold (semester credits).

• The colors of courses here have the same meaning as the colors in the Track table.
• STAT will identify courses in the Course Scheduling table that meet the requirements for electives required by the minor. Hovering over the minor will reveal what course is being used to meet the elective requirement.
• Courses and/or electives not satisfied by courses in the Course Scheduling table are outlined in red.
• STAT does not add any courses to the Course Scheduling table when a minor is added. Courses must be added using the Add Course option in the Course Scheduling table in order to ensure the requirements for the minor are met.
• Even if all courses explicitly listed for the minor are satisfied, the credit threshold for the minor may not be met. In this case, additional courses related to the minor must be added.
• Clicking the minus sign under the minor title will remove the minor. Doing so will not alter the courses in the Course Scheduling table.

• Here the Mathematics minor is complete and includes two courses (MA 381 and MA 383) required in order to surpass the 21 semester credit threshold required for the Mathematics minor. The green triangles after these two courses signify that these courses were not explicitly required by the minor.
• HU 410G and EL GERM (an elective for the German minor) are outlined in red because they have not been added to the Course Scheduling table.
• The red triangle after the credit total indicates that the credit threshold for the German minor has not been met.

Changing the Catalog Year

If a student is significantly ahead or significantly behind, you may find it useful to shift the year in which the transition happens. If a student is significantly ahead, it may make sense to decrease the number of years on quarters. If a student is significantly behind, it may make sense to increase the number of years on quarters. For example, if a student transfers in a lot of credits, they may be able to graduate a year or more earlier. Clicking the left arrow just above the track table will shift to the transition track that contains one more year on semesters. If a student switched majors later in their time at MSOE, they may be significantly behind the track show. Clicking on the right arrow just above the track table will shift to the transition track that contains one more year on quarters.

A more complete demonstration can be found in the Transition Plan for Transfer Student video (11:32).