Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) has significantly enhanced its approach to student support and academic progress tracking with the introduction of new academic advising tools. These platforms, PeopleSoft Academic Advisement and EAB Navigate, provide GRCC faculty and staff with robust capabilities to guide students effectively through their educational journeys. The video above offers a practical demonstration of these systems, outlining their key functionalities and how they integrate into existing academic processes.
The implementation of these advanced tools marks a pivotal step in optimizing student success, ensuring clearer pathways to graduation. Advisors, faculty, and support staff can now leverage real-time data and comprehensive planning features to offer more personalized and precise guidance. This strategic upgrade replaces older systems, bringing a more unified and efficient advising ecosystem to the GRCC community. Understanding how to utilize these powerful platforms is essential for all involved in student academic progression.
Navigating GRCC’s Academic Advising Landscape
GRCC transitioned to the new Academic Advisement system, which went live for all students and staff on August 31st. This shift represents a significant upgrade from the previous MyDegreePath system, which remained accessible for faculty and staff only until the end of October. The primary motivation for this change was to harness the power of real-time data provided by PeopleSoft, offering a more dynamic and accurate view of student progress.
This institutional move provides the college with superior insights into student enrollment patterns and program progression, supporting strategic planning for areas such as program discontinuation and scheduling. However, it’s crucial for users to distinguish between the two primary tools, as each serves a distinct purpose within the advising framework. While one focuses on auditing, the other prioritizes planning, ensuring a holistic approach to student academic support.
PeopleSoft Academic Advisement: Your Real-Time Degree Audit Powerhouse
PeopleSoft Academic Advisement functions as an interactive, real-time graduation audit tool, designed to assist both advisors and students in tracking progress toward degree completion. This robust system meticulously outlines all academic program requirements necessary for graduation, clearly indicating which requirements have been met and which are still outstanding. It acts as the definitive source for understanding a student’s standing against their declared academic program, directly assessing degree requirements based on course completion.
This tool connects seamlessly to the official catalog of courses maintained within PeopleSoft, automatically updating to reflect any changes to course descriptions or requirements. By providing an accurate snapshot of a student’s academic standing, advisors can offer targeted guidance on outstanding coursework. Furthermore, the system illustrates a student’s progress through a user-friendly, color-coded pie chart in their online Student Center, offering an intuitive visual representation of their academic journey.
Beyond the Basics: Advanced Features of PeopleSoft Academic Advisement
PeopleSoft Academic Advisement offers sophisticated features that extend beyond simple progress tracking, empowering advisors to engage in proactive planning. One significant capability is the “what-if” scenario, allowing advisors to evaluate program requirements if a student were to consider changing their academic program. This function is invaluable for students exploring different majors or certificates, providing immediate feedback on how their completed coursework would apply to a new path.
The system also plays a strategic role for the institution by providing better information on student enrollment patterns and progress, which can eventually aid in program discontinuation planning and scheduling. It is important to note that the Academic Advisement tool supports academic programs starting from 2017 forward; older catalog requirements typically require manual comparison with the online catalog. Moreover, the system only displays current catalog courses, with new offerings becoming visible only after their official class start date. Finally, this tool is strictly a degree auditing system, not a schedule planner, meaning it does not suggest specific course enrollment recommendations or provide transfer guidance.
EAB Navigate: The Student-Centric Course Planning System
In contrast to the degree audit function of PeopleSoft Academic Advisement, EAB Navigate serves as the primary student-facing tool for comprehensive course planning. This system empowers advisors and faculty to collaborate with students, meticulously mapping out their specific academic program plans. It facilitates the crucial process of sequencing courses, guiding students in making informed decisions about their general education requirements and elective selections.
EAB Navigate offers a dynamic environment where students can visualize their academic path, ensuring they select courses in the appropriate order to meet program milestones. This proactive planning tool significantly enhances the advising experience, moving beyond reactive problem-solving to strategic academic foresight. By providing a clear roadmap, EAB Navigate helps mitigate common advising challenges, such as delayed graduation or misaligned course selections.
Empowering Students and Advisors with EAB Navigate’s Interface
EAB Navigate provides a highly intuitive interface for both students and advisors, enhancing the collaborative planning process. On the left-hand side of a student’s Academic Plan tab, they will see their currently declared program, meticulously built from the GRCC catalog with faculty-determined course sequencing. This visual representation allows students to easily track required courses and see what has already been completed, with the system refreshing nightly to reflect any changes in declared programs.
Advisors, utilizing their access, can actively participate by dragging and dropping courses from the required list to specific academic terms on the right-hand side, effectively creating a personalized plan. They can also search for and add any desired classes, incorporating valuable comments and suggestions directly into the student’s plan. This feature, currently primarily for academic advisors, streamlines communication and ensures that students receive tailored advice, significantly impacting their ability to stay on track and graduate efficiently. The system also tracks a comprehensive history of notes, alerts, and appointments, providing a complete student support record.
Accessing and Utilizing Your Advising Tools at GRCC
Access to these critical academic advising tools varies depending on an individual’s role at GRCC. Faculty who teach classes typically access the Academic Advisement tile through Faculty Self-Service, a convenience for preparing in advance of student meetings. For faculty members who do not teach or for staff needing access, the Campus Solutions system is the entry point. However, irrespective of the access method, all users must complete mandatory FERPA training, underscoring the paramount importance of student data privacy.
When searching for students, users can employ either their name or ID number; however, a system limitation might display a student’s designation as “coach” or another role if they are also employed on campus. This simply indicates a secondary profile, and users can still access the student’s academic information and verify their identity with a RaiderCard photo. Pulling reports involves selecting either an ADVIP (actual declared program report) or a WHIF (what-if scenario report), with the option to view reports as a more detailed PDF for clarity and archival purposes.
Essential Considerations for Tool Access and Data Integrity
Ensuring proper access and maintaining data integrity are crucial for the effective use of GRCC’s academic advising tools. As outlined, mandatory FERPA training is a prerequisite for gaining access to student records within these systems, emphasizing the institution’s commitment to privacy. Any faculty or staff member who advises students, whether in a classroom, service office, or dedicated advising center, requires this access to fulfill their roles responsibly.
When generating reports, users should always choose to “add a new value” to avoid pulling up outdated or incorrect information previously run by someone else. Furthermore, when running a “what-if” report in PeopleSoft, copying the current program and carefully selecting the requirement term (which corresponds to the catalog year, typically Fall ’21 for the 21-22 catalog) ensures accuracy. This meticulous approach to data entry and report generation is fundamental for providing students with the most precise and beneficial academic guidance, contributing to improved student retention and successful program completion.
Strategic Impact and Future of Academic Advising at GRCC
The strategic shift to PeopleSoft Academic Advisement and EAB Navigate offers a profound impact on GRCC’s overall academic advising strategy, far beyond merely streamlining administrative tasks. These tools provide the institution with an unprecedented level of real-time data concerning student enrollment patterns and program progress. This data is invaluable for making informed decisions, from refining course offerings to proactive interventions that boost student retention rates.
For example, the ability to run “what-if” scenarios in PeopleSoft can significantly reduce the time students spend in undeclared status, improving their likelihood of successful program completion. Similarly, EAB Navigate’s planning capabilities help students proactively address prerequisites and course sequencing, reducing common roadblocks that lead to delayed graduation. The goal is to move towards a more data-driven advising model, fostering an environment where every student has a clear, supported path to their academic and career goals, ultimately leading to more efficient and effective credential awarding. GRCC continues to provide updates and resources, including training videos and reference documents in GRCC Today, ensuring the community remains informed about these evolving academic advising tools and their optimal utilization.