Filing a Plan of Study - Illinois Institute of Technology · Filing a Plan of Study GAA 12 | P a g e Plan of Study Approval Process Adviser, academic department, and Graduate Academic

GAA

ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Graduate Academic Affairs

[FILING A PLAN OF STUDY] Instructions on how to file a Plan of Study and associated Course Substitutions

Revision 2.0 March 16, 2016

Contents Plan of Study Overview ............................................................................................................................. 1

Important Facts ..................................................................................................................................... 1

MyIIT Portal Login ..................................................................................................................................... 2

Before You Create a Plan .......................................................................................................................... 3

Creating a Plan of Study ............................................................................................................................ 3

Course Substitution and Exception Request ........................................................................................... 10

Plan of Study Approval Process .............................................................................................................. 12

Filing a Plan of Study GAA

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Plan of Study Overview

A Plan of Study is required for all graduate degree programs. Master’s students must file a Plan of Study before completing 9 credits of graduate study and doctoral students must file before completing 18 hours of graduate study.

Important Facts

The Plan is arranged by semester. Each semester added to the Plan should contain the courses you plan to take during that semester.

The Plan is used for future courses only. You do not need to add courses that you have already taken or are currently taking. A Plan Audit will then show the courses taken along with the courses planned.

Concentration and/or thesis/project options must be approved prior to submitting your Plan. These options should be submitted and approved through eForms prior to submitting your Plan of Study. Otherwise, the Plan Audit will not display with the proper requirements and you Plan may be rejected.

Course substitutions must be approved prior to submitting your Plan. Courses you plan on taking or have taken that do not directly conform to the published program rules in the Bulletin, must be approved as a course substitution in order to apply to your degree. This requires a course substitution request to be submitted through eForms. These courses will show in Degree Works under fall-through until they are fully approved.

Degree Works displays an unofficial audit of your progress towards your current degree. This includes the Graduate Non-Course Requirements block which displays the status of:

a. Masters comprehensive examination, thesis committee and thesis defense and final documents

b. Doctoral qualifying and comprehensive examination, dissertation committee and dissertation oral defense and final documents

Before completing a Plan of Study or anytime during the completion of a degree program, eForms must be used to obtain approval for the following:

Change of adviser

Change of degree or major (restrictions apply)

Transfer credit

Co-Terminal shared credit

Course substitution and exception

Declare or change concentration (specialization)

Declare or change project option

Declare or change thesis option

Additional detailed instructions on how to perform specific tasks in the Plan is available directly in Degree Works. Click on the Plans tab first, and then the Help link at the top middle of the window.

More information about Degree Works and eForms is listed in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s).


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MyIIT Portal Login

Degree Works is accessed through the main IIT portal. http://myiit.edu

We suggest using Internet Explorer 10 or Mozilla Firefox as your browser. Newer versions of Google Chrome are not supported with Degree Works.

1. Students can access Degree Works from the Academics tab in the portal. In the right column, under the Graduate Academic Affairs channel, click on Graduate Degree Works for Students.

Note: Be sure to use the Graduate Academic Affairs channel as there is also an Undergraduate Academic Affairs channel just above it. These are different instances of Degree Works.

2. Degree Works should now launch without having to login again. You should not be prompted to login again unless Degree Works times out. A time out will occur if the webpage is not active for more than 15 minutes. Your Worksheet Audit will be displayed by default. Click on the Plans tab.


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Before You Create a Plan

Review your Worksheet Audit

Do any of the following apply to you?

I need to change my major

I need to add a concentration to my major

I need to add a thesis or project option to my major

I have courses in Fallthrough that I want to use to fulfill a major requirements

I want to use transfer credit to fulfill a major requirement

If any of the above apply to you then you must file the appropriate eForm prior to submitting a Plan of Study for approval.

Creating a Plan of Study

1. The initial Plans view will be different depending on whether or not you have any previous plans saved and if you already have an active approved plan.

a. Degree Works will display the current active approved plan by default if one exists. (The instructions will assume this case unless otherwise noted)

b. If there is no active approved plan (there can be only one), Degree Works will display the list of saved Plans.

c. If there are no saved plans, Degree Works will open a new, blank plan to begin editing.

2. If you already have a plan that you just want to modify, click on View Plan List.


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3. Select the plan you want to edit by clicking on it once. Double-clicking will open it in Compact view, not edit mode. Then, click the drop-down arrow next to view and select Edit. If no Plans exist, click on New Plan.

4. Edit the Plan Description. This is the title of the plan and should be something meaningful such as the Program and Date to distinguish it from other saved Plans. Note: It is possible to edit the active approved plan but you must change the title in order to be able to save and submit your changes for approval.


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5. Add a future semester to your plan. Click the in the upper right corner of the plan and select a semester from the drop-down list. Repeat this step for all semester you plan on taking course for your current program.

6. Expand the Major requirements under Still Needed by clicking the arrow, , to show the remaining requirements for you Major. You should expand the requirements for your Concentration as well if you have any.

7. Requirements for specific courses can be easily added by dragging and dropping. You can drag the course from the Still Needed pane and drop over the semester you plan on taking the course.


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8. Requirements for course ranges can be manually entered or entered using drag and drop from the course list. Course ranges are often listed similar to “3 courses in ITMD 500:599”. In this case, any 3 ITMD 500 level courses would satisfy this requirement.

To manually enter a course a. Click the plus, , next to the semester you want to add a course and select Course from the

requirement list.

b. Enter a valid course Subject and Number in the Course Requirement area. The credits will fill-in automatically once the course is validated by clicking out of the Course Requirement box. Alternatively, you could use Search to locate a course.


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To drag and drop a course from the Course List a. Expand the course list by clicking on the arrow next to Courses.

b. Scroll down to the subject and expand the list by clicking on the arrow next to subject.

c. Drag the course you desire from the course list and drop it on the semester you plan on taking the course.

9. To remove a requirement you must first select it. Click on an area outside the input boxes to select a course. Notice the color becomes a darker blue once it’s selected. Then click the minus, , on the term to remove the course.


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10. Run a Plan Audit once you have entered all your course requirements. The Plan Audit will compare your Plan, along with the courses you have taken, to the degree requirements for your current program. Click the Audit button on the lower right side.

11. Remaining requirements, if any, will show with a red box, , next to them. If any exists, close the Plan Audit and add the outstanding requirements to your plan.

Note: Courses planned but not taken in previous semesters will not show in the Plan Audit

12. Fallthrough courses are courses taken or planned that do not directly fulfill the program requirements as they are listed in the Bulletin. A Course Substitution request must be approved prior to submitting a Plan in order for these courses to be counted toward your degree. See the next section to submit a Course Substitution and Exception Request.


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13. When have successfully planned for all your requirements, the requirements in your Plan Audit will display with only green checkmarks, , and blue tildes, , indicating completed courses and planned/in-progress courses respectively.

14. Save and Submit for approval once your plan is complete. Click the Save As… button, select Save and submit for approval and click OK.


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Course Substitution and Exception Request

Course substitutions are required if you take a course that does not satisfy the program requirements listing in the Bulletin directly. Submit a course substitution request through eforms.

1. Click on the eForms link at the top of the Degree Works window.

2. Select Transfer Credit and/or Course Substitution and Exception.

3. Select Add New Course Substitution Request.


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4. Use the drop-down lists to select the course you are substituting and select Add when complete.

If the Completed or Required course is not listed, use the – Course not found – option at the bottom of the list. Selecting this option will require additional details to be entered. Generally, if a completed course is not in the drop-down list, it will be listed in the Fallthrough section in Degree Works. Click Add when complete.

5. Click Save and Submit to submit for approval.


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Plan of Study Approval Process

Adviser, academic department, and Graduate Academic Affairs approvals are required before a new plan becomes official or before it may supersede an existing approved plan.

Only one Plan of Study can be submitted for approval at a time. Additional Plan submissions will be automatically rejected.

The Plan of Study is approved by the decision-makers through the eForms tab that appears at the top of the Degree Works window. Plan approval status is tracked from eForms until the final decision is made by Graduate Academic Affairs.

To check the status of your Plan of Study submission, follow these steps.

1. Click the eForms link in the Degree Works window.

2. Select View status of Degree Works Plan of Study (Form 401/406) Submissions

3. A summary of you Plan submissions will be displayed. Click on Details to view more information.


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Once a final decision is made, the status will be updated in Degree Works. Plan statuses are:

a. "Approved”, “Rejected” or “Pending” b. “Not Submitted” indicates the student has only saved the plan and never submitted it for

approval. This can be changed returning to the plan and submitting it for approval.

Additional eForms submissions are not allowed until the Plan of Study has been fully approved or rejected.

Documents

Filing a Plan of Study - Illinois Institute of Technology · Filing a Plan of Study GAA 12 | P a g e Plan of Study Approval Process Adviser, academic department, and Graduate Academic