Smart Planner: No More Gambling When it Comes to Planning Your ScheduleSession #33491

March 10th, 2014

• Heather Jepsen• Worked on Smart Planner/Degree Search for the past three years.

Academic Advisor, at the University of Arizona (UA), for five years prior to working on the Smart Planner. B.S. in Agricultural Technology Management, M.S. in Agricultural Education, from the UA.

• Ashlee Anderson• Over 12 years advising experience. Working with eAdvising/Degree

Tracker for its first year. B.A. in Business Administration and M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction

• Pattie Adams• Co-Creator of Smart Planner, io-Consulting.15 years hands-on

experience with PeopleSoft Student Administration software. Robust functional area expertise in Academic Advisement Module.

• Todd Yampol• Co-Creator of Smart Planner. The Burgundy Group, Director & Senior

Technical Consultant. Over 11 years of PeopleSoft technical experience

Your Presenters

The University of Arizona

• A public research university• Located in Tucson, AZ• Founded in 1885• 40,621 Enrolled for Fall 2013

• 31,670 Undergraduates• 8,951 Graduate & Professional

--------------• Campus Solutions 9.0• PeopleTools 8.52.19• Bundle 31 (32 going in this week)• Internally branded as “UAccess”

Boise State University• A public research university• Located in Boise, ID• Founded in 1932• 26,678 Enrolled through on-

campus and distance education programs

--------------• Campus Solutions 9.0• PeopleTools 8.51• Bundle 32• Internally branded as

eAdvising and Degree Tracker planning tool

The Burgundy Group• A specialized PeopleSoft &

Oracle consulting firm• Application Development• Consulting• Managed Services• Clients: Higher education

institutions and large corporations worldwide

• In business over 10 years• Based in Mesa, Arizona

io ConsultingWe help universities maximize and protect their investments in Oracle applications.

Io Consulting is the only firm focused exclusively on Oracle applications for higher education.

• 100% higher education

• 100% Oracle focus

• 100% customer success

Areas of expertise include:

• Campus Solutions

• Oracle PeopleSoft Applications

• Oracle Higher Education Cloud Applications

• Learn about new tool for recruiting, increasing retention and graduation rates

• Experience a new user friendly planner for Advisors and Students

• Learn about a successful case study of implementing a bolt-on, and adapting it to another university

Learning Objectives

Smart Planner

• Bolt-on enhancement to PS Academic Advising• The Smart Planner Engine uses advanced algorithms to

generate personalized multi-term degree plans, based on each student’s progress in their major(s) and/or minor(s)

• User-friendly self-service screens• Shopping-style course selection• Drag-and-drop to re-arrange courses

• Powerful administrative screens and processes

What is the Smart Planner?

• Developed at UA from May 2011 – June 2013• Team of 5-10 (functional, technical, management)• Created by advisors for advisors• Live for undergraduate majors since mid-2012

• Implemented at BSU from July 2013 – Spring 2014• First majors went live in about 3 months (Oct 2013)• Already live for majority of undergraduate majors

• UA & BSU rolled out majors college-by-college• UA Smart Planner (SP) = BSU Degree Tracker (DT)

A Brief History of the Smart Planner

Heather Jepsen, University of Arizona

Demo

Ashlee Anderson, Boise State University

Smart Planner Benefits

• Individualized degree plan based on all requirements completed, in progress, and planned

• Timeline to graduation is set by the student• More efficient communication with academic advisor(s)• Enroll from My Planner, using delivered screens• Intuitive tool with dynamic features, user-friendly navigation

Benefits for Students

• Predict enrollment demand for courses• Intervention reporting• Proactive outreach to students• Identify gateway courses critical to programs• Standardized format for advising students, from orientation

to graduation

Benefits for University Administrators

• Ability to have electronic record of the plan that is always accessible

• Same view for students and advisors• More efficient communication of requirements to students• Advising meetings allow for student and career

development

“Smart Planner allows the student to take initiative and understand not only their degree requirements, but how it looks for them tentatively scheduled over their academic career.”

Benefits for Advisors

• Clean-up process for all curriculum• Major plans vs. catalog vs. PS Advisement Report• Scheduled offerings of courses• Include advising groups for feedback• Brings all resources into one place• Emphasize this is a planning tool• Anticipate managing changes

Implementing Smart Planner

Pattie Adams, io-Consulting

Functional Overview

Functional Goal

• Making smart individualized term by term suggestions of requirements for all students

Functional Implementation• Prepare system for Smart Planner Setup, Loader,

Engine• Handful of bolt-on setup tables (most one time setup)

• Gather/Create typical major sequence• Using typical sequence-create a requirement for

every major (average of 5hrs per major)• Academic Advisement Delivered Setup Tables (Main

Menu>Academic Advisement>Academic Requirements)

• Added 2 new bolt-on tabs• 2 configuration reports

Todd Yampol, The Burgundy Group

Technical Overview

What is it?• 99% pure bolt-on – easy to maintain!

• 1200+ App Designer Objects• 15 delivered objects modified

• Main Components• 12 administrative screens & processes• 15 self-service screens• Smart Planner Engine

• Efficient: Engine usually takes 2-3 seconds• Re-use delivered functionality wherever possible

How does it work?

Smart Planner Engine

Advising Report

Smart Planner Report

Smart Planner Rules &

Sequence

Smart Planner Results

Student Data

Course Catalog

Schedule of Classes

PeopleSoft Delivered

“My Planner”

• UA: 2 years to create• BSU: 4-6 months to implement & enhance

• 2 months to install, adapt, generalize• 2 months to implement enhancements• 2 months of part-time assistance

• Additional enhancements• Issue resolution• Assist with migrations

• CSU: basic installation took a few weeks• Technical timeline will depend on enhancements

How long does it take? (tech only!)

For a longer version of today’s presentation, check out the archived webinar from February 12, 2014

Smart Planner Webinar

• Smart Planner 2.0 & Slides

(requires HEUG login)

Smart Planner 2.0 Webinar

Questions?

• Heather Jepsen• Business Analyst,

Degree Search/Smart Planner• University Information Technology

Services• The University of Arizona• E-mail: Jepsenh@email.arizona.edu

• Ashlee Anderson• Project Lead, eAdvising• University Enterprise Roadmap,

eAdvising• Boise State University• E-mail:

Ashleeanderson1@boisestate.edu

• Pattie Adams• Senior Consultant• io Consulting• E-mail: Pattie.Adams@io-

consulting.com

• Todd Yampol• Director and Senior Technical

Consultant• The Burgundy Group• E-mail: Todd.Yampol@tbginc.com

Contacts

Presentations from previous meetings are also available

This presentation and all Alliance 2014 presentations are available for download from the Conference site at

www.alliance-conference.com

Screen Shots of the Smart Planner

Smart Planner Main Page (1)

Smart Planner Main Page (2)

Edit Preferences

Arrange My Plan

Smart Planner Report (1)

Smart Planner Report (2)

Overview (1)

What-If Report (1)

What-If Report (2)

What-If Report (3)