[rlcollins@alaska.edu]

I would like to hear from any colleagues at institutions using Degree Works to track graduate student progress. I am particularly interested in how institutions are using Degree Works to track research progress after the completion of courses.
Regards,
Rich Collins
University of Alaska Fairbanks

[cantrell@mtu.edu]

Rich, We are in the process of adopting DegreeWorks. Deciding how to track the non-course requirements has absorbed a non-negligible amount of time.
-Will Cantrell
Michigan Tech

[rlcollins@alaska.edu]

Will, we are asking faculty to rate student progress in research and dissertation in their annual reviews. One question “Status of research” in quartiles, and One question “Status of Dissertation” in quartiles. We are investigating if we can put those quartiles into degree works.
Regards,
Rich Collins
University of Alaska Fairbanks

[coxka@ecu.edu]

I’m not sure I understand how you are using quartiles. However, we have non-course degree requirements programmed into Degree Works. For example, if a student does a capstone project defense, but it’s not connected to a course. The Graduate Program Director or Director of the Capstone then does a petition which tells the Registrar’s office to “check off” the capstone defense requirement. So, a non-course related degree requirement necessitates a petition to tell the Registrar to check it off. You probably could use non-course degree requirements for your status of research and status of dissertation milestones you want to document. Whomever is programming Degree Works may know other options, but this is working for us. Another one is Advancement to Candidacy. When a doctoral student passes their candidacy exam, the program submits a form to the Grad School and we are the ones that go into Degree Works and check off the candidacy requirement.

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