Students have access to advising site

By Ashton Smith, Assistant Features Editor

This week is registration for J-term classes and Spring. For the seniors, graduate students, juniors and sophomores, enrollment is already open. But, for the freshmen students, enrollment will open Friday, November 9 at 7:00 am.

With enrollment finally here, there are many things that students need to know that they may be unaware of regarding advising sessions and enrollment.

One thing students may not know is that the advising tool Degree Works is available for students to explore their degree plan, classes they need to take and classes they have already taken on their own.

This is the same service which professors use during advising meetings. Teri Walker, from the academic center, commented on the new involvement with the old software.

“I think we went live with it in 2005 or 2006,” Walker said, “and now it’s web-based. The only people who used to be able to use it [were] the faculty, and you couldn’t access it on a website, and now that’s what’s happening. It’s improved itself.”

A common misconception is that Degree Works can be used as a tool for enrollment. This is false according to an outline from Degree Works.

“Degree Works is not a substitution for consultation with an academic advisor,” the outline said. “Students will still need to see an academic advisor in order to receive access to register for classes.”

Students still need to meet with their advisors because they have to obtain their personalized pin numbers in order to enroll in their classes.

Students also have their own fair share of tips and tricks from years past for enrolling in the right courses and planning out your schedule.

“I would always make up my own schedule with what I wanted/needed to take according to my degree plan,” senior Ben Dingus said, “that way all my advisor had to do was make sure it would work and keep me on track.

“You should look at your degree plans and know what you have to take ahead of time.”

Degree Works is also constantly changing with your schedule as you add and drop classes. It’s able to keep up with your current schedule and much more.

“It’s live data,” Walker said. “If [a student] came in here today and dropped a class, then it would show up the next day.

“The system updates every night… if you logged in on Degree Works tomorrow, that class would no longer be in your Degree Works. Or, say if [a stu-dent] pre-register[s] for 16 hours [this] week, it will bring those classes up onto your Degree Works as well.”

If students don’t know how to locate their Degree Works, students should either contact their advisor or search the link: https://degree-works.okbu.edu:8443/dashboard.

“The first person [students] need to contact if they see something wonky in their Degree Works is their advisor,” Walker said. “It’s just smoother than every student in the world coming in with their changes.