degreeworks planner user guide using your academic … · 2018-03-28 · using placeholders 24....

Questions about the DegreeWorks Planner, contact the Academic Achievement Center at [email protected]. Questions about the degree audit, contact [email protected].

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DEGREEWORKS PLANNER USER GUIDE

Using Your Academic Plan: Edit View (Students)

1. Go to http://www.bridgew.edu/ and select the link.

2. Select BSU Student Portal and log in using your username and password.

3. At the student portal page, select InfoBear and then BSU Self Service Login.

4. Select the Enter Secure Area link and then Log in using the Single Sign-on option.

5. At the Student Information Page select the Student Tab and then Student Records.

6. Select the DegreeWorks option and you will be redirected to your degree audit.

7. Select the Plans tab and you will be redirected to the academic plan for your declared major.

8. If you are accessing your Plan for the first time, confirm that your major, degree, and catalog year

are accurate. If you notice any errors in this information, please contact your assigned academic

advisor. Your advisor’s name can be found in the Student View section of your Degree Audit.

a. If you do not have a plan, see your academic advisor or follow the directions in the

Creating a Blank Academic Plan User Guide on the DegreeWorks webpage.

mailto:[email protected]


http://www.bridgew.edu/


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Understanding Your Plan:

9. Your plan includes all the courses required for your Primary Major as well as your Core Skills

requirements.1 To complete your plan, you need to add in your Core Distribution requirements

and any additional classes you would like to take to reach a total of 120 credits. You may also

want to edit your plan to make it fit your own schedule and needs. The goal is to have all the

classes on your path to graduation at BSU planned out in advance so you know what you need to

take and when you will take it.

10. Before making any changes to your plan, speak with your advisor and also read the notes

included in your plan. You can see notes by using the “Notes View” or by clicking the icon in

the “Edit view.”

11. To begin editing your plan, select the View drop down menu and then select the Edit option.

12. Once you know what changes to make to your plan, you can use the tools below to edit it:

a. Moving courses

b. Adding courses

c. Choosing between choice requirements

d. Deleting courses

e. Using placeholders

1 Note: If you are using a Blank Plan or an Undeclared Plan, you will need to add in additional required

classes. More information on blank plans is available at https://my.bridgew.edu/departments/AAC/

SitePages/degreeworks.aspx.



https://my.bridgew.edu/departments/AAC/SitePages/degreeworks.aspx


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Moving Courses:

13. To move courses between terms, you can just drag-and-drop them: select a course with your

cursor, drag it to the new term where you would like to place it, and drop it there. When you

look at courses in your plan, be sure to note the minimum credits and minimum grade required.

Adding Courses:

14. To add courses, look for the and buttons, indicated below with blue arrows. These buttons

allow you to add and delete requirements on each term of your plan. Note: use caution with the

and icons at the top of the page (next to the red arrow) – these add or delete entire terms.

15. To add a course to your plan, select the button at the top of the term. The Add Requirement

drop down menu will appear. The options for adding requirements to a term include Choice,

Course, & Placeholders. To add a course, click Course.




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16. When the new course is added, it will be blank at first. To pick a specific course, click the icon

and begin typing the course number. You will see the course appear – just click it to add it to your

plan.




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17. There is a second way to add courses to your plan – the Still Needed menu. The Still Needed

section includes course requirements that have not yet taken or included in your plan. To view

these courses, click on the blue drop down buttons to display all the options.

18. To add a Still Needed course to your plan, click on a course, drag and drop it into the appropriate

term. Click the Refresh button and your still needed menu will update to reflect any

requirements you’ve fulfilled by adding new courses to your plan.




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19. If you have a Double Major with two different degree types (i.e. BA and BS, or BSE and BA), you’ll

notice that the Still Needed menu only shows the requirements for your primary major. To see

the requirements for your second major, click the Degree drop-down, select your second major,

and then click the Refresh button. You’ll now see the requirements for your second major in the

Still Needed menu.




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Picking among choice requirements

20. You will likely see several choice requirements included in your plan. These allow you to pick

among several course options. These choices are often repeated because they cover multiple

requirements. For example, below you can see (PHIL 111 or MATH 180 or COMP 111 or @199)

listed twice because you must take both a Logical Reasoning course (PHIL 111 or MATH 180 or

COMP 111) and a First Year Seminar (@199). The choice requirement lets you decide which

option to take and when.

21. To pick a from within a choice requirement, first click the icon (above). A new box will appear

(below). Select the course you would like to take, then click Done and the course will be added to

your schedule.




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22. After you click Done, you may see a message saying this course you have selected appears

elsewhere in your plan. If you see that message, scroll down your plan and you will find the same

choice requirement listed again. Open this second choice requirement and select another choice

you would like to take. (If you can’t decide immediately, you can also delete the course you’ve

already selected from this second choice requirement so you know not to take it again).

Deleting Courses

23. To delete a course requirement, select the course you would like to delete, then click the

button for the corresponding term. Beware of the button at the top of the page (in red) as this

will delete an entire term.

a. Note: Because your plan is built to include required courses, you should only delete

courses that you added yourself, or that you have tested out of or transferred in.




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Using Placeholders

24. Placeholders are used to indicate requirements than can be fulfilled by many different courses,

or requirements that require discussing with your advisor. For example, you will often see a

“Core Skills: Mathematical Reasoning” placeholder in your plan, because it is important to discuss

with your advisor which math class to take to fulfill this requirement.

25. To update a placeholder, first read the notes in the “Value” column, and then see if there are any notes in

the icon. Use these notes, and likely a conversation with your advisor, to pick which course to replace

this requirement.

26. Once you have picked what course you will fulfill the placeholder with, add that course to your

plan (see “Adding Courses” above, if needed).

27. Then, delete the placeholder from your plan (see “Deleting Courses” above, if needed).




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28. You can also use placeholders to store notes for yourself. For example, you may want to add a

particular core requirement (i.e. a Lab Science course) to a future semester of your plan, but you

haven’t decided yet which specific course to take. Or, you may want to remind yourself to enroll

in a 1-credit Physical Education class in a future term.

29. To do this, click the button the same way as for adding a course, but then click Placeholder.

30. Once the Placeholder field appears in your plan, click the “Select” drop down menu.




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31. The Placeholder drop down menu will then show you a number of different placeholders for

core and program requirements. You can either select the appropriate placeholder requirement

(i.e. “Core Skills: Mathematical reasoning”), or you can just select “Comment” and write your

own note in the textbox to the right.




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Additional Useful Features

Looking up Course Information

32. The DegreeWorks Planner allows you to look up course information directly in your plan. Simply

click the icon at the top of a term and it will bring up the class info for each of the courses in

that term. You can do the same for individual courses. This is a great way to look up prerequisites

and to pick your class sections for the upcoming term.

a. Note, you may need to disable your pop-up blocker for this to work. If nothing happens in

when you click the icon, look in your browser bar and there should be a warning icon.

Click the warning icon, then click “Always allow pop-ups from this site.”

Clicking will open a window like this below:




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Audit

33. Once you have completed editing your plan, you can an Audit on your plan. This includes all of

the information you’re used to from your normal Degree Audit, but it also includes the classes

you are planning to take. This way you can make sure that your plan does in fact meet all of the

requirements you need for the Core, your major, and the 120 credits you need to graduate.

34. To view a plan in an audit view, select the Audit button at the bottom of the page. Your planned

courses will appear degree audit in in bright blue. You can also click on the dark blue links to look

up course information, just like you do in your normal audit. You may choose to print a copy by

selecting the print option.

Saving & Logging Out

35. Once you have completed editing your plan, select the Save button.

36. Once you have finished making changes to the plan, remember to exit the system by selecting

the LOG OUT button at the top of the screen.

Visit https://my.bridgew.edu/departments/AAC/SitePages/degreeworks.aspx to access DegreeWorks user guides, videos, and other helpful materials.



https://my.bridgew.edu/departments/AAC/SitePages/degreeworks.aspx

degreeworks planner user guide using your academic … · 2018-03-28 · using placeholders 24....

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