Understanding Program Guides

An institution may choose not to implement PeopleSoft Academic Advisement or it may plan to do so in the future. In such cases, an institution can opt to implement the Program Guide and still offer its students the advantage of some of the self-service features. While the Program Guide is not a replacement for the Academic Advisement application, the Program Guide offers an alternative that displays the student's degree requirements so that the student can evaluate his degree progress. For example, the advisement report associated with the Program Guide displays the descriptions of requirements and attached course lists, and notes courses that the student has taken, has planned, or that are in progress. Most importantly, it offers students the use of the online planner and enhanced self-service enrollment functionality. The Program Guide is more simple to set up than the Academic Advisement application.

The Program Guide enables an institution to define degree requirements and to present them to students in a self-service format. The Program Guide advisement report is a self-service tool that enables students to view their degree requirements and to plan or enroll in a course based on those degree requirements. As part of Program Guide implementation, institutions set up course lists, requirements, and requirement groups. Unlike the Academic Advisement application, no degree audit is performed. Instead, the advisement report, which is based on the Program Guide rules, retrieves descriptions from the requirement and requirement group setup pages. The advisement report appears on self-service pages with links to the associated courses. Students can select courses for enrollment or for use in the My Planner feature. Because no degree audit is conducted, requirements do not appear as satisfied or unsatisfied.

Given the appropriate security access, individuals can view the advisement report that is based on Program Guide requirements on the following self-service pages: My Academic Requirements, Add Classes - Search by My Requirements, and My Planner - Plan by My Requirements.