Degree Planner was introduced to students at the end of the Fall 2022 semester as a tool that supports the SMU in Four – SMU’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) –SMU’s comprehensive approach to improving retention and four-year graduation rates.
The Degree Planner in the my.SMU Student Dashboard is a powerful tool that can provide students with a personalized, pre-populated degree plan to help them on their journey to graduation. This degree path provides a sequence of courses that will fulfill degree requirements and can be adjusted regularly to fit their future plans. This differs from the Degree Progress Report (DPR), the authoritative source for graduation requirements.
Initial adoption efforts focused on the 5,348 Common Curriculum students who matriculated in the fall 2020 semester or after (213 Spring 2023 graduating seniors were excluded). Students received outreach on Degree Planner’s purpose, support with completion, and notification of their progress in a variety of ways:
- 1,201 students completed their Degree Planner for all remaining terms.
- 1,484 students completed their Degree Planner for the Fall 2023 semester.
- 8 Degree Planner Support sessions were held (4 in Caruth, 2 in Hughes Trigg, 1 in Meadows, and 1 Zoom Session)
- 7 Blog posts were written introducing Degree Planner, sharing progress, announcing raffle winners (on 2/2/23, 2/13/23, & 3/16/23 ), and general information on Degree Planner
- 7 Student emails were sent
- 130 Winners were selected in raffles to win prizes for completion of Degree Planner.
- To-do tasks were added to students’ My.SMU accounts. These to-do tasks were updated and removed weekly.
We want to reward the following advisors with $100 Amazon gift cards for having the highest number of advisee completions University-wide:
- Dorie Beitchman
- Misti Compton
- Maria Crouch
- Christopher Logan
- Jennifer Malone
- Barbara Morhle
- Jeanene Renfro
- Caroline Rydquist
- Alyssa Wong
Special Acknowledgement is also given to Janet Stephens and Alyssa Wong for their efforts in encouraging student completion and advertising our student support sessions.