The Curriculum Advising and Program Planning report is now available for undergraduate students and their advisors. The report could be accessed through the Student Information System webpage, in the same way a student’s schedule and transcript are accessed. The report was released on Monday after a year of planning, implementations, and testing.
The report takes the courses that a student has completed or is currently enrolled in and uses them to fill in a template of their degree requirements. The report shows the courses that have been completed, are in the process of being completed, and that need to be completed for graduation. Professor Mike Abbott said that the report "will help both students and advisors evaluate degree progress, and will be especially useful for departmental degree-clearance officers."
Graduate and transfer students will not have access to the program and will use the plan of study, which is completed upon admission. Dual majors are also not available on the report.
"The CAPP report is a replacement of the old DPR," said Professor Henrik Hagerup. The Degree Progress Report was developed by the Registrar’s office but became defunct when the Banner system was introduced in 1998. Since then, many students and faculty members have constantly been asking the Registrar’s office to re-implement the DPR.
The same company that developed the Banner record-keeping system later released a version of the CAPP report that was compatible with its Banner system. However, the CAPP report in its original format was not what the Registrar wanted. "We had to make it look like the old DPR and tailor it for the needs of the RPI students," said Maria Zanotta, senior associate registrar and chairman of the committee that worked on the report.
Throughout the development process, many students and
faculty members were sent a prototype of the report. "We got lots of positive feedback and ideas that were useful," said Bob Conway, director of the Advising and Learning Assistance Center, who also worked on the report with the committee.
One of the committee’s main challenges was to make the report available online for all students. "We are one of the few who have the Banner and now the CAPP report on the web," said Zanotta. The report is used internally at other colleges, especially by advisors and degree clearance officers.
"It would be very useful, both to students and advisors," said Professor Joyce Diwan. Conway also agrees on its usefulness as an advising tool but cautions that it is not a replacement for a "face to face meeting with your advisor."
Training sessions will be held to answer students’ questions about the report.
