By Hannah Gray
As the University of Portland expands structurally to accommodate its growing student body, so has the PilotsUP portal. Curriculum, Advising and Program- Planning (CAPP) - allows students to look at their schedule, perform "what-if" scenarios and see how much they have accomplished. In addition, the "What's UP" tab has also been implemented onto the portal. It has allowed for student polling, quick access to iTunesU and message boards.
Thus far though, few students have been informed about CAPP. It was only integrated this year as a part of Banner, the computer system UP runs on. The "What's UP" tab is more prominent because it has been mentioned before.
CAPP envelops something entirely new to the portal.
The most attractive and innovative function of the CAPP is the "what-if" scenario.
"If a student is considering changing a major or adding a minor, he can run an evaluation to see where his completed course work will fit into the new program," Christy Dunn, CAPP and transfer articulation coordinator, said via e-mail.
The "what-if" function is supposed to allow students to more easily keep track of their current and future schedule. Through the "what-if" function, students can easily add a new major or minor with a few adjustments, Dunn said.
The main purpose of CAPP is for students to to stay current on this progress and be able to check where they stand.
"With access to this information," Dunn said, "hopefully students will be able to determine any inaccuracies in their academic record and get any discrepancies taken care of in their school of major before it's too late."
Since CAPP is currently in a testing phase, students are encouraged to try their own evaluation and e-mail capp@up.edu with any problems, Dunn said.
Overall, CAPP will "hopefully eliminate some of the busy work that is done after every semester in the academic schools and allow more time for our counselors, deans and advisers to work directly with the students," Dunn said.
Although students will be able to map out their academic progress, the program will not replace the traditional advising process. Instead it will provide as a resource for students who are unable to get faculty assistance for whatever reason, Dunn said.
The Beacon election poll was one of the first uses of the "What's UP" tab, but it has since been developed to include message boards, quick access to iTunesU and a connection to communities, said Jenny Walsh, Web and Administration Systems director, via e-mail.
"However, we've had this concept in mind for a while and we're looking for a specific need to emerge to give it a reason to launch," Walsh said.
The tab allows other organizations and services to post polls, as well as "for students to connect with each other and university faculty and staff using the message boards, downloading university podcasts or joining a UP online community," Walsh said.
UP has also contracted with iTunes to post podcasts of classes. Many other universities, like Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley and Texas A&M are contracted with iTunes, according to Walsh.
"Basically we are trying to provide a quick, easy way for classes and departments recording podcasts or video clips around campus to get their material in front of our community and a place for the community to find that material," Walsh said.
To access CAPP, log on to your Pilots account. Log on to self-serve and click student records. Scroll down to the 12th option to "degree evaluation." From there, choose the desired term, on the "What-If Analysis" near the bottom of the page. Then do another entry term and the program registered for, such as business or nursing. Fill out the required information, including major, campus and the option to add more majors.
The program will again ask for a term. Plug in the evaluation term wanted. From there, choose the application you want to look at, such as general requirements.
To access the "What's UP" tab, log onto PilotsUP. It is the fifth tab on the far right.
Only time will tell whether these tools will be used by and beneficial for students.
"I think it will take time before CAPP is fully accepted and used frequently on campus," Dunn said. "As with any new program, there are still kinks that need to be worked out."
Hopefully, somewhere down the line, Dunn thinks this tool has the potential to help students, advisers and the whole academic community.
As for the "What's UP" tab, Walsh said, "We love feedback and ideas and will gladly add to this tab, create new tabs, and do what we can to make PilotsUP a useful, fun, relevant resource for students, faculty, and staff. Good ideas are always welcome."
