A web application designed to help students and advisors at Oregon State University (OSU) generate an optimal course plan for the remainder of a student's time in school. The application considers multiple factors to develop a balanced and personalized course schedule.
- Degree Requirements: Automatically incorporates degree-specific course requirements.
- Course Preferences: Tailors courses based on student preferences in areas where multiple courses could fulfill the same requirement.
- Interests vs Ease: Balances student interests with ease of courses to create a more customized plan.
- Difficulty Levels: Assesses the difficulty level of courses to ensure a balanced course load across terms.
- Course Availability: Accounts for when courses are typically offered, updating dynamically when courses are canceled or added.
- Heuristic Scheduling: Prioritizes less frequently offered or degree-required courses in the planning process.
- Graduation Timeline: Adapts the course plan to fit the student’s planned graduation date and availability in upcoming terms.
The application generates multiple permutations of potential course schedules and allows users to:
- Adjust their schedule by locking in specific courses for particular terms.
- View detailed information about each course in one centralized location.
The primary goals of the application are to:
- Provide a useful tool for students to develop their course plans proactively.
- Enable advisors to better sort courses based on a student's interests, degree, and career path.
- Support student retention, improve graduation rates, and enhance college preparedness.
- Replace MyDegrees: Create a more intuitive and functional alternative to the current course planning system at OSU.
- Minimal OSU Integration Effort: Design the application to require minimal adjustments for integration into OSU’s existing systems.
- Registrar Integration: Centralize course planning and degree progress tracking by replacing or integrating with OSU’s registrar system.
- High User Capacity: Support many active users simultaneously, particularly during registration periods.
- AI Academic Advisor: Provide an AI-powered assistant that helps users choose courses based on their interests and career goals. The AI would:
- Deliver real-time information from OSU’s systems.
- Answer student questions, reducing the strain on academic advisors.
This project aims to create a centralized and dynamic tool that benefits both students and advisors in course planning, enhancing the academic experience and success at OSU.