QRG: Creating Roadmaps

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This Quick Reference Guide (QRG) provides a very high-level overview to staff on how to create roadmaps in the uAchieve^® Academic Planner.

NOTE: Your screens may look different depending on the functionality your institution has implemented, custom branding, and/or your permissions.

What is a Roadmap?

The uAchieve Academic Planner allows students to set up personalized plans that identify the courses they want to take each term to satisfy their declared programs and stay on track to graduation. They can plan directly from their degree audits, or they can plan from roadmaps, guided paths created by your staff with term-by-term course suggestions.

Members of your staff can be given permissions to create roadmaps for departmental programs.

To see programs available for roadmap building, click the Roadmaps icon or make a selection from the dropdown menu. Clicking the Roadmaps icon or the toolbar dropdown after entering uAchieve Self-Service takes you to the roadmap builder.

Select a program for roadmap building.

To create a new roadmap, enter the following at the top of the screen:

A roadmap name
A starting term (fall, spring, winter, summer, etc.)
An effective year (when the roadmap becomes valid)
The number of years the roadmap will cover (the number of years to complete the program)

Click Add Roadmap, then click its Name link in the list at the bottom of the screen.

If there are other roadmaps for this program, they will also appear in the list at the bottom of the screen. To work with an existing roadmap:

Click a link under Name

or...

Use the Action field to edit, copy, or delete a roadmap

You should now end up in the Audit and Roadmap View and can begin building your roadmap.

How do I Begin Building a Roadmap?

The Audit and Roadmap View is where you create your new roadmap: a collapsed degree audit for the selected program appears on the left while your blank roadmap appears on the right.

Every time the Audit and Roadmap View is opened, a fresh degree audit is run for our program and appears at left.

Use Expand All or individual toggles (>) to see audit details.

We use the audit to build out our roadmap with course options in specific terms to ensure that plans will meet program requirements.

How do I Add Terms and Change Titles?

To make changes at the year level, click an edit button ().

Here you can:

Add or delete terms
Change the year title
Change the term title

How do I Add Courses?

As courses, sub-requirements, and requirements are accounted for on your roadmap, their hours go to zero and they are marked with green check marks on the audit

Drag and drop a specific course onto the term title of the roadmap:

a. “Grab” the course with your mouse

b. Drag it to the intended term

c. Term turns bright blue when you are in the “drop” zone

d. NOTE: Both the course and the sub-requirement heading are pulled onto the roadmap

OR…

Drag an entire sub-requirement to provide all courses as options. These are referred to as roadmap requirements.

Move or copy roadmap requirements from one term to another by dragging and dropping. When the requirement is dropped to the new term, a prompt pops up to move it or make a copy. If you’d like it in both terms, make a copy. Otherwise, select move.

In this case, I’m going to split the Language requirement across two terms and edit both down to 3 hours.

To delete a roadmap requirement (and its attached courses), click the trashcan icon on the requirement. (Note the Art check mark disappears on the audit.)

How do I Edit Roadmap Requirements?

Requirement-level Edits

To make changes at the roadmap requirement level, click an edit button ().

Here you can:

Add or delete terms
Change the year title
Change the term title

Why Edit? (Examples: Requirement Hours, Add Instructions)

When you drag an audit sub-requirement to the roadmap, it pulls the entire required hours (and checks off the requirement as complete). If you are recommending a student to take a portion of the required hours, you will want to adjust this figure.

You might also want to provide additional instruction instead of just a label of "English" (for example).

Course-level Edits

To make changes at the course level, click Course Details after clicking the roadmap requirement edit button.

Here you can:

Add/delete courses or course lists
Change course titles
Change required hours
Add a course status (required, preferred, critical)
Change the order of courses

Why Edit? (Example: Course Status)

Adding a status to a course allows you to help students make course decisions. In this case, adding a preferred flag to ENG226 lets students know this course is particularly recommended (it is a required course in a major requirement, so taking it to satisfy the general education area would give the student a “double dip”).

How Can I Communicate Course Options?

ORing Roadmap Requirements

ORed requirements should appear on the roadmap in matching colored boxes with the word “Or.” Color is tied to the OR level—so if you don’t like a color, you can select a different level number.

To suggest that a student select a course from one of multiple sub-requirements, you can OR them together to indicate only one course from an area should be selected.

To OR roadmap requirements:

a. Drag all sub-requirements from the audit to the same term on the roadmap

b. Click the Edit button on the first roadmap requirement in the ORed series

c. Check the Or’ed? box and select a level (the same level should be selected on all roadmap requirements in the series)

d. An Or Group Name can be added to provide instructions/labeling for the ORed series

e. Click Save

f. Repeat the same process for each roadmap requirement in the ORed series (NOTE: the Or Group Name should autofill when the same level is selected) adjusting any other details (e.g., required hours) as needed

Course Ranges

Ranges are presented on the roadmap builder audit in yellow-banded boxes. You can drag and drop the entire box to present the whole range of courses on the roadmap, or the first and last course on the range individually. However, to add a course in the middle of a range, you will have a few more steps:

a. Drag either the first or last course on the range to the roadmap term

b. Click the Edit button on the roadmap requirement that is pulled over with the range course

c. Go to Course Details

d. Click Add Course and enter the course(s) you actually want from the range

e. Delete the course you dragged over first

f. Click Save

Wildcard Courses

Similar to ranges, individual courses within wildcard configurations require a few extra steps for the roadmap to associate them with an audit sub-requirement.

Below, any Sociology course is acceptable to the Social Science sub-requirement. You can drag the wildcard course as is to the roadmap. However, to add specific courses, you will have a few more steps:

a. Drag the wildcard course to the roadmap term

b. Click the Edit button on the roadmap requirement that is pulled over with the wildcard course

c. Go to Course Details

d. Click Add Course and enter the course(s) you actually want from the range

e. Delete the wildcard course

f. Click Save

Course Lists

Course lists are indicated on the audit by a page icon ().

Both the course list indicator and the actual courses (in this case, language wildcards) from the list.

A best practice recommendation is to either drag the course list alone—or drag the requirement then delete the course list.

ANDed Courses

ANDed courses are presented in brown boxes. You can plan for one of the courses in the relationship by dragging it individually—but then you might see a light blue circle like this one indicating it has a co-requisite. In this case, they must be taken in the same term.

In this case, you could drag the entire box over.

TIP: With ANDed courses, you might also want to make sure the hours are correct—this sub-requirement brings over 3 hours, but it would actually cover 4, so you could edit the roadmap requirement hours.

How Do I Publish Roadmaps for Student Use?

To make a roadmap visible to students:

a. Click the Mark as Complete button (). This activates the Publish button (), which was grayed out previously.

b. Click Publish to display the roadmap to students and advisors.

Once a roadmap is published, it will display a Read Only message. Students will be able to use it to create term-by-term plans (if enabled, advisors can also create plans for students). You should also see the status change on the Available Roadmaps screen.

To make changes to a published roadmap, you must unpublish it by:

Clicking the Mark as In Progress button () on the published roadmap (NOTE: This is different than the Mark as In Progress on the unpublished roadmap)

Or…

Using the dropdown Status menu in the Available Roadmaps list (at the bottom of the Manage Roadmaps screen)

Audit and Roadmap Icons and Special Notations

Audit Icons and Notations

View PDF: Displays in-progress plan as PDF

Sync: Synchronizes the roadmap against the audit to make sure requirements are being fulfilled

Roadmap Icons

View PDF: Displays in-progress plan as PDF

Refresh Roadmap: Updates course catalog data for the roadmap

Clone Roadmap: Makes a copy of the roadmap

In Progress: Changes a roadmap (in create/edit mode) status from completed or published to allow editing

Mark Complete: Indicates a roadmap is complete and ready for publication

Remove All Courses: Removes all planned courses

Add Term to Plan: Adds a new term to a plan (e.g., perhaps a summer or mid-winter term)

Not Approved: Displays on declared plans and terms before a plan is approved

Approved: Displays on declared plans once a plan or a term has been approved

Request Approval: Requests formal approval for a declared plan or term; once approved, it becomes read-only and can only be changed by requesting unapproval

Publish: Makes the roadmap available for plan creation; when activated (dark gray), the roadmap has read-only status and cannot be edited unless it is unpublished

Generic guide for download.