Degree Works Frequently Asked Questions
Degree Works-Logging In
Q: What login do I use to get to my Degree Works degree audit?
A: You will login through My Missouri State using your BearPass ID and password.
Q: What web browsers are supported?
A: Firefox is recommended, but Internet Explorer, Chrome, Edge, Safari and Vivaldi also work.
Degree Audit-General Usage
Q: When will a student first appear in the degree audit system?
A: Students will appear in Degree Works the morning following their admission to the University. For example, if a student is admitted on Monday morning, an extract on Monday evening will pull them into Degree Works, and their audit will be available for Tuesday morning.
Q: I registered for classes this morning, changed my major/minor, or got a grade change today. This is not showing up on my degree audit. What should I do?
A: Click the “Process” button to generate a new degree audit. This will also cause your academic record to be refreshed, therefore bringing in the new data.
Q: I need to request a course substitution/waiver/approval. What should I do?
A: Contact your academic advisor. They will be familiar with the process used by your academic department to process course exceptions.
Q: How is my major or minor GPA calculated?
A: These GPAs are made up of the courses that you find in the respective major/minor block and the failed courses that could have been applied to the block had they been passed. However, if you failed a major/minor course and end up taking an alternate course to fulfill the requirement where the original failed course was needed, you may be able to request for the failed course to be removed from your major/minor GPA if the course is not going to be needed to fulfill your major or minor requirements and it's causing you to have a major/minor GPA deficiency. Contact the Office of the Registrar for assistance in these situations.
Degree Audit-Returning Students
Q: I am returning to Missouri State and I'm not found in the current degree audit system. What do I do?
A: Once you are re-admitted, you will be pulled into Degree Works with your new program information. If you have not applied for re-admission yet, your advisor and/or department head can request for you to be pulled into Degree Works. When this is done, it will display your old program information, which may predate the programming found in Degree Works, but your information is there so what-if audits can be generated. Once you are re-admitted, your audit would update to the program you are pursuing upon readmission.
Q: I am returning to Missouri State after an absence and received permission to return to my previous catalog. I think I found a problem on my Degree Works audit that was not on my previous DARS audit. What should I do?
A: Please contact the Office of the Registrar for assistance (or the Graduate College for graduate students). For undergraduate students, we can review the old DARS system to see if there were any previously approved exceptions that are eligible for migration to Degree Works.
Q: I am getting a message that my major or minor requirements are not written in Degree Works. What should I do?
A: In most cases, the Office of the Registrar (or Graduate College for graduate students) has written the requirements back through fall 2009. If you find that your requirements cannot be found in your degree audit, please contact the Office of the Registrar so your program requirements can be written or an alternate method of verifying your graduation requirements can be used.
Degree Audit-Course Application
Q: I am looking at a degree audit where the student has taken the required course, but the course is not satisfying the audit requirement, and I don't understand why? What should I do?
A: There are several reasons this might be occurring. They include the below reasons. After reviewing the list, you may contact the Office of the Registrar (undergraduate students) or Graduate College (graduate students) should you have additional questions.
- The student is taking the course on pass-not pass and therefore the course is not eligible to apply to the requirement.
- The course has been substituted in another part of the requirement and therefore cannot apply twice.
- The course is in the "Not Counted" section as it is a course that is part of a rule where the student can only have one out of a group of courses to count towards graduation, and the student has completed another course in the group.
- The requirement requires a particular grade (e.g. "C" or higher) and the student did not complete the course with a high enough grade.
- The course is used in another portion of the degree audit where a sharing restriction prohibits the course from counting in both places.
Q: One of my courses is in the "Not Counted" section even though I passed it. Why is that?
A: There are several reasons a course could be in the "Not Counted" section. one is that it could be a course that is not eligible to count towards graduation such as ENG 100. It could be a course that is only allowed to apply towards certain degree types and the student is not pursuing that type of degree. It could also be part of a rule where the student is only allowed to apply one course towards graduation from a group of classes and the student has completed more than one.
Q: My course is in the "Not Counted" section because I have multiple courses from a group where only one can apply towards graduation. I want to use the one that is not counted instead of the one that is (flip-flop them). Can I do that, and if so, how?
A: This is allowed. You would need to contact the Office of the Registrar (undergraduate) or Graduate College (graduate). Be mindful of unintended consequences of such a request such as flip flopping an upper-division courses for a lower division course (reducing your upper-division credit). Keep in mind both courses apply to GPA no matter which course applies towards graduation, so your GPA is not affected by this request.
Q: My course is in the 120 minimum credit course list or 40 hour upper division course credits list, but it's not in the Not Counted section either. Is something wrong?
A: It's likely that your 120 minimum credit course list or 40 hour upper division course list is already filled with other courses. As an example, think of your 40 hour upper-division course list as a 40 ounce bucket. If you try to put 43 ounces (or credits) in, 3 of the excess credits will spill out. The same principal applies with these requirements. In the event that a course in these buckets is later dropped or failed, it would then pull in the excess course at that point.
Degree Audit-CourseLink (Course Description/Prerequisite/Date and Time/Seat Information)
Q: There are sections listed on CourseLink that have no date/time listed. Why is this?
A: These are typically online sections. Consult the class schedule for additional detail.
Q: What semesters appear in CourseLink?
A: The semesters that have the class schedule publically available. The current semester will display until just after second block registration ends.
Degree Audit-Exception Processing
Q: I am a dean or department head who wishes to grant permission to additional faculty/staff in my department to process exception requests. How do I grant them access?
A: If you wish to give exception processing access to additional designated faculty/staff, please email the name and BearPass number of the individual(s) to Nathan Hoff (Associate Registrar-Degree Programs and Advisement Support) in the Office of the Registrar. He will work with Computer Services to get the additional access request granted.
Q: I am a dean/department head/designee who wants to monitor the exceptions that have been processed for my department. Is there a way to do so?
A: In the future, you will be able to run a report to monitor exceptions that have been entered. Details are not yet available as Degree Works report training is currently being scheduled for Office of the Registrar and Graduate College staff. More information will be made available after this training. This would be beneficial both for monitoring who is entering exception and for how often particular exceptions are being made, which may be helpful for determining if curricular changes may be warranted.
Effective Degree Works 5.0.3.1, there is an Exception Management research tool available to assist in this regard. Please see your user's guide for additional information on how to use the Exception Management tool.
Q: Can exception processing access be limited to certain majors/minors?
A: No. Authorized exception processors will technically have access to make an exception to any part of the degree audit. However, authorized users should only make exceptions for the majors/minor that report to their perspective department (department heads/designees) or college (deans). As mentioned above, reports will be available to monitor exception processing. Any exception entered will display the name of the user who processed the exception. Academic units should not adjust the general education or degree level blocks as these related to overall University requirements. Users who are identified as processing exceptions outside of their respective majors/minor may have their exception access revoked. If your department believes an unauthorized individual has processed exceptions for your college/department, please contact the Office of the Registrar so we can review the situation for you.
Q: I am a department head (or authorized exception processing designee) who is trying to enter course exceptions and find my exception access that I normally have is missing. What should I do?
A: This most commonly occurs in the evening. There are some nightly update processes that typically begin around 8-8:30 pm that temporarily remove all exception access while the processes run, and restore it back later in the early morning hours. During this period, access to the exception tab will be removed, so exception processors should avoid late evening and overnight exception entry.
Occasionally, there are instances like this when an exception access user logged in like this and when they logged in the next time access was still missing even during the day as it had cached the previous session. If you run into this, just clear your web cache on the browser you are using and your exception access should return.
If the above does not apply to your situation or you have followed these steps and still do not have your exception access, please contact Nathan Hoff (Associate Registrar-Degree Programs and Advisement Support) in the Office of the Registrar. He can go into Degree Works and review whether your exception access is still applied.
Degree Audit-Grading Table Legend
| MSU Grade | Transfer Equivalent Grade | Grade Explanation | Grade Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | TA | Outstanding | 4.00 |
| A- | TA- | Excellent | 3.70 |
| B+ | TB+ | Near Excellent | 3.30 |
| B | TB | Very Good | 3.00 |
| B- | TB- | Good | 2.70 |
| C+ | TC+ | Slightly Above Satisfactory | 2.30 |
| C | TC | Satisfactory | 2.00 |
| C- | TC- | Slightly Below Satisfactory | 1.70 |
| D+ | TD+ | Passing | 1.30 |
| D | TD | Minimum Passing | 1.00 |
| F | TF | Failed | 0.00 |
| I | n/a | Incomplete | n/a |
| RG | n/a | Current or Future MSU course-Not Graded | n/a |
| n/a | IP | In-Progress Transfer Course-Final Grade Not Received | n/a |
| NG | n/a | Grade Not Yet Available/Extended Course | n/a |
| CR | TE | Credit by Prior Learning Assessment | n/a |
| P | TP | Pass | n/a |
| NP | TT | Not Pass | n/a |
| NR | n/a | Grade Not Yet Reported | n/a |
| V | n/a | Visitor (Audited) | n/a |
| W (or N prior to fall 2009) | n/a | Withdrew | n/a |
| XF | TXF | Failure Due To Academic Dishonesty | 0.00 |
| XM | XT | Academic Renewal | n/a |
| Z | n/a | Deferred Grade (only used at GR level) | n/a |
Degree Audit-Printing and Saving
Q: Are previous general degree audits saved?
A: The most recent version of the degree audit stays. Any previous versions are automatically deleted when a new audit is generated.
Q: Are previous what-if degree audits saved?
A: No. What-if degree audits are not saved. If you wish to save one, you will need to save it as a PDF.
Q: I want to generate a PDF version of the what-if audit,. What should I do?
A: Click the print icon and select "Microsoft Print to PDF."
Student Educational Planner (SEP)
Q: Are there any differences between student access and advisor access?
A: Yes. Students and advisors have the same general access to create and view a plan. The primary difference in access is that advisors have the ability to lock a plan after reviewing it. This turns on the "off track/on track" tracking and the student can no longer edit the plan without asking the advisor to make the change or having the advisor unlock the plan.
Q: Are SEP plans required for graduation?
A: SEP plans are not required for graduation. Usage is optional. If you are a student who is interested in having an SEP plan created, you should talk to your academic advisor to see if this is a tool your academic program is using with advisees.
Q: Do students receive an automatic notification when a plan is created?
A: No. A student would be able to see the plan if the student clicked on the "Student Planner" tab, but there is not an automatic electronic notification that goes to a student to indicate that a plan has been created.
Q: Can advisors enter exceptions directly in the SEP audit view?
A: No. You must leave the SEP and go to the exceptions tab to enter course exceptions.
Q: I noticed some slight variations in appears between the traditional audit and "audit view" audit. Should I be concerned about this?
A: No. These are purely cosmetic difference and do not affect the audit functionality. These slight variations include thicker header bars, catalog term text and catalog term data slightly crunched together, lines between requirements, and exception descriptions that do not line up as neatly as they do on the traditional audit.
Q: Is there a way to print the audit from the SEP that includes planned courses?
A: Yes. You print it the same way you do a regular academic audit.
Q: Can advisors/departments/colleges run reports to get data out of the SEP?
A: Reports are not yet developed, but reporting is on the roadmap as a future enhancement. We plan to develop reports where users can look for students who are off-track with their SEP. Additionally, we plan to develop reports that allows for course demand reporting based on SEP course planning. The target date for when these reports will be available is unknown at this time.
Degree Works contact information
Office of the Registrar
417-836-5520
Registrar@MissouriState.edu
Graduate College
417-836-4220
GraduateCollege@MissouriState.edu
Additional contacts
Nathan Hoff
Associate Registrar-Degree Programs and Advisement Support
(initial contact for general and undergraduate degree audit inquiries)
Christy Graham
Graduate College
(initial contact for graduate degree audit inquiries)