The Office of the Registrar has fully implemented DegreeWorks, a web-based tool to help students and advisers monitor progress toward degree completion in all 14 schools and colleges that provide courses in undergraduate programs.
DegreeWorks, which is replacing the Degree Audit Reporting System, combines UGA degree requirements and completed coursework into an easy-to-read worksheet that helps students see how courses completed count toward degree requirements.
“The worksheet acts much like a checklist so that when requirements are completed, they are checked off the list,” said Jan Hathcote, university registrar. “It helps the adviser and the student see what courses and requirements still need to be completed. It’s a satisfying experience since the list shortens as the student fulfills requirements and creates a sense of accomplishment.”
The system is designed to aid and facilitate academic advising, Hatchote adds, but is not intended to replace face-to-face advising sessions.
DegreeWorks first became available to students in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences in 2010, and since then, each school and college has been phased out of DARS and into the new system. Users in the Franklin College, the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, the Odum School of Ecology, the Terry College of Business, the College of Environment and Design, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the School of Social Work and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources will not be able to use DARS as of Aug. 28. The remaining six schools and colleges that recently implemented DegreeWorks—the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the College of Engineering, the College of Education, the College of Public Health, the School of Public and International Affairs and the College of Pharmacy—will continue to have access to DARS until January.
The next phase of DegreeWorks will include implementation of additional features within the system, including the Academic Planner and the Athlete Certification Audits, as well as a customized Generic Average Calculator.
“This is the best-fit model,” said Hathcote. “DARS is a static program written in the 1970s, which required advisers to physically make adjustments in the system and move courses; -DegreeWorks is more robust and makes automatic adjustments. Because it’s web-based, it’s also easier to read and has more information available for the students.”
UGA is in the beginning stages of implementing a new student information system based on Banner software licensed by Ellucian, of which DegreeWorks is a component.
