Smart Plan
Smart Plan - VCU’s newest degree planning tool that creates and automatically updates your own personalized path to graduation.
Smart Plan is a degree planning tool that works in conjunction with Degree Works to help students and advisors collaborate on an ideal degree completion plan. The tool automatically generates an optimized draft degree completion plan based upon a student’s placement scores, earned credits and program(s) of study. Smart Plan does not replace the need for academic advising or Degree Works, which is still the university’s official documentation of degree completion.
Key Features:
- Visualize your path to graduation term by term and understand how any changes to your plan may affect your graduation timeline in real time.
- See which courses in your program are prerequisites for subsequent classes to ensure you are taking classes in the most efficient sequence, saving you time and lowering costs.
- Develop a course schedule according to program requirements and individual preferences and circumstances.
- Plan, schedule, and register/drop courses all in one place.
- View completed courses, including transfer credit.
Smart Plan is launching in phases, which you can see here (link to table). All students should continue to use Degree Works as your planning tool while Smart Plan is fully implemented across campus.
Advisors and students can see what majors are available to plan in Smart Plan here.
We will be offering in-person and virtual trainings throughout the year. This training helps users navigate Smart Plan by looking at degree requirements, explore course options, and create personalized academic plans, ensuring students stay on track for timely graduation.
If you have any questions about Smart Plan, please email degreeaudit@vcu.edu.
Spring 2026 Dates/Times
- TBD (In-person)
- TBD (Virtual)
RSVP
- You can RSVP for these trainings at this link: https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/S
FAQ
Q: Why should students and advisors use Smart Plan?
A: Smart Plan clearly shows students how to map out their remaining course requirements to earn a degree as efficiently as possible. To do this, the system takes into account pre-requisite courses and advising recommendations to generate a degree path starting point for each student. Further, when students plan and select courses for future terms using Smart Plan, it helps the university know how many sections of a course should be offered in a particular term to provide students access to the courses they need, when they need them.
Q: Is Smart Plan replacing Degree Works?
A: No. Academic Advisors and students will use Degree Works and Smart Plan together for a full degree auditing and planning experience. Degree Works will continue to serve as the official degree audit platform, while Smart Plan provides dynamic course planning and registration and will be used instead of the Student Educational Planner (SEP) and College Scheduler. Because we are launching Smart Plan in phases, SEP will remain available for advisor and student usage until all Smart Plans have been launched.
Q: Where are the requirements in Smart Plan coming from?
A: The requirements are read directly from Degree Works which translates the Bulletin into the technical requirements for confirming graduation eligibility.
Q: Can existing Degree Work plans from the Student Education Plan (SEP) be imported into Smart Plan?
A: No. However, Smart Plan will automatically generate a draft plan that can be easily adjusted and saved to replicate the SEP plan.
Q: How does the What-if Plan in Smart Plan compare to a What-if Report in Degree Works?
A: Similar to Degree Works, the Smart Plan What-if Plan provides information based on their intended major. The Smart Plan What-if Plan provides a suggested path to complete the intended major in a semester by semester view, while the Degree Works What-if Report is a more comprehensive look at all degree requirements.
Q: Does Smart Plan allow a student or advisor to keep notes on an individual course level?
A: No, it does not. An advisor or student would need to save the plan first then place notes in the “Add a description (optional)” field.
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Q: Does Smart Plan consider Degree Works substitutions or waivers?
A: Yes, Degree Works exceptions are displayed on the Progress bar within Smart Plan. Click anywhere on the Progress bar in the upper right side of the page to open the information on the left side of the page. Scroll down to see Holds, Exceptions, Permits (overrides), Waivers and Placements (scores)
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Q: Does Smart Plan support a student that has double majors, minors or multiple programs?
A: Yes.
Q: Does Smart Plan capture a failed course?
A: Yes. If a student fails a course required for their degree, the course will repopulate in a future appropriate term within Smart Plan.
Q: How do incomplete grades show up?
A: Courses with Incomplete grades will be replanned by Smart Plan. It does not currently assume that the student will complete the course successfully.
Q: VCU typically only releases the schedule of classes one semester into the future. How does Smart Plan account for this in future semesters?
A: If a program has a requirement, we assume the course(s) to satisfy that requirement will be available in future terms. In future terms, we only recommend courses not sections. We account for course rotations using the Two Year Course Planner maintained by the Office of the University Registrar.
Q: What does the green line on a planner indicate?
A: This identifies the critical path for a student based on the student's major/plan in question. The critical path is essentially the longest chain of pre-requisites for a specific program. This line could be different for two different students depending on the coursework that they completed.
Q: How can I see the green line (prerequisite paths)?
A.To view prerequisite paths for future courses, click on the gear icon in the upper right, select All or Critical Only, then click on the Advice button at the top. The courses with the longest prerequisite path (appearing as lines) will show in green. Other prereq paths will show as dashed lines, if you select All. If using Firefox, you may need to log out and back in again to view the change. Once prereq lines are enabled, you can click on the green line or on any of the dashed lines to view the prereq paths for a series of classes.
Q: What functionality does the Star control on a student's plan?
A: The Star(s) allows a student or an advisor to pin a preference. If an advisor/student is making changes to other things; when the planner validates, it will keep the Star(s) and try to work around it(them).
Q: Can Smart Plan adjust course recommendations or credit loads for students on probation or academic warning?
A: Yes, Smart Plan will adjust the credit limit allowed in the semester to align with Banner (14 credits for warning and 13 credits for probation). When the student or advisor clicks on “Check Plan” after this adjustment, Smart Plan will adjust the schedule to meet the maximum credits allowed.
Q: Why does Smart Plan sometimes recommend taking several challenging courses within a single term?
A: Smart Plan attempts to generate the most timely path to degree based on an advising roadmap provided by the unit. It also takes into account key pre- and co-requisites, and when courses are typically offered. Smart Plan does not attempt to evaluate the mix of courses planned in a term as many factors can contribute to the appropriateness of the schedule for an individual student. The planned degree path should be reviewed and adjusted by the student and advisor in order to maximize the student's ability to succeed.
Q: Why is SmartPlan showing so many upper-level elective credits needed?
A: Currently, until major electives are tentatively selected by either an advisor or student, SmartPlan may show upper-level electives beyond degree requirements. As upper level courses are identified and added to the plans, click on “Check Plan” to see if the upper level electives are removed.
Q: As a student, what should I do if Smart Plan doesn’t seem to align with my DegreeWorks statement?
A: Talk to your advisor! They can assess your Smart Plan and determine the best way to move forward. As we implement Smart Plan, we anticipate that we may find some bugs, so it is important that you let us know so that we can fix them!
Q: If I make edits in Smart Plan how do I know if the plan is valid?
A: Whenever you make changes in Smart Plan, the Status bar will change to an orange Pending evaluation. You should click on the blue “Check Plan” box to verify that the plan is accurate and or review suggested changes.
Q: If I make edits in Smart Plan and I accidentally changed multiple items that I should not have, is there a way to reset my changes back to the original declared plan?
A: Yes, you would scroll to the right to the goals column and select the “Reset to declared plan” link at the bottom of the column. This will allow you to reset the plan back to the original declared plan and it gives you an option to save the work that you did. A user can also select the undo button near the student’s name to undo changes made.
Q: What is the difference between “Keep my current plan” and “Fix my Plan” once I click the orange “Check Plan” box after I make changes?
- A: “Keep my current plan” will keep the plan exactly the same, and may be invalid. This will be shown in the Status bar as Not valid. By clicking “Check Plan” Smart Plan will attempt to fix the errors.
- A: “Fix my plan” will correct the plan to ensure that all degree requirements are met.
Q: What is the difference between “Minimize changes” and “Minimize time to degree” once I click the blue Check Plan box after I make changes?
- A: Minimizing changes means to accept the parameters set and the plan will adjust based on the parameters set. For example: A student has to block certain times on his schedule, but these times actually interfere with the only time that a prerequisite is offered that the student needs. Click on FIX MY PLAN
- Minimizing time to degree means to ignore the parameters set and just show what is the least amount of time it takes for the student to graduate. Click on OPTIMIZE MY PLAN
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Q: If a student changes a plan, is advisor approval required before registration? Are there any notifications?
A: No advisor approval is required and there are no automatic notifications, but the dashboard will display when a plan has been changed and by whom.
Q: What is the difference between a Declared Plan, a Primary Plan and an Official Plan?
- A: Once a main plan has been generated by a student or advisor, it can be saved for a student to review later. If that plan is the only plan, and is not saved as a Primary plan, a student will still be able to click on the Primary Plan button to review it - because it is the only plan. It is recommended that advisors use Saved plans for exploratory purposes.
- The Primary Plan button always shows the most recently generated plan. It is intended to be the first plan that a student or advisor reviews. All other plans can be viewed in the Timeline.
- An Official Plan is the plan that has been discussed and agreed upon by both the student and advisor.
- Advisors may create Official Plans for incoming students to review as part of Orientation advising.
- Please indicate “Official Plan” in the title of the plan AND click on Save as Official Plan.
- Official Plans can and will change, but this will be the plan that VCU queries for course scheduling planning.
Q: Is there a way to search for Official Plans in Smart Plan?
A: There is not a way to search for Official Plans from the dashboard, which is why it is important to include “Official Plan” in the title of the plan so that it can be easily found in the Timeline.
Q: How many Official Plans can a student have?
A: Students can have multiple Official Plans, but SHOULD NOT because only one can be used for course scheduling predictions.
Q: Can only advisors mark a plan as Official?
A: Yes, only advisors can mark a plan as Official.
Q: Can students modify an Official Plan, and does it require advisor approval?
A: If a student edits an Official Plan, it becomes a new, non-official plan. The student can then choose to save it as their own plan if permitted. Students are recommended to email their advisors if they make changes to their Official Plans.
Q: How many Primary Plans can a student have?
A: Students can have multiple Primary Plans, such as one that reflects taking summer classes to speed up a graduation timeline, or another that adds a what-if minor or second major. Naming plans is important!
Q: Who can designate a plan as Primary?
A: Both students and advisors can mark a plan as Primary.
Q: Is only the Primary Plan available for registration?
A: No, all plans are available during registration and update dynamically. It’s up to the student and advisor to decide which plan to use for registration and to mark that plan as the Official Plan to support course scheduling.
Q: If a student has multiple plans, can they register with any of them, or only from the Official or Primary Plan?
A: Students can register using any of their plans.
Q: If I am an advisor and I advised a student on the plan they should choose, will Smart Plan keep my plan as the most recent Primary Plan even though the student logged on after I advised them and made a couple of changes?
A: No, the Primary Plan button in Smart Plan will always show the most recent plan, whether it was created by an advisor or a student. The last person (student or advisor) that made changes to the plan. If you want to retrieve a plan in the future, you must always save the plan.
Q: Can all plans be accessed from the dashboard?
A: Yes, you can also delete plans that you no longer need as well from the dashboard.
Q: When viewing the class schedule, how can I determine how many seats are available for each course?
A: You can click on the course itself in the course schedule (Mon-Sun) screen OR you can click on the CRN inside of the parenthesis where all the courses are stacked together to the left of the course schedule screen.
Q: When viewing the courses for a specific term, how can I determine if a student has attempted a course with the final grade listed?
A: You can click on the course where all the courses are stacked together to the left of the course schedule screen. This will also give you the description of the course and sections available.
Q: In the registration plan as well as the completed courses, I noticed that a course looks to have the same title underneath it. Why is this?
A: This is because the first option lists the name of the course and the line below it lists the name of the requirement. It is possible for a course to be named United States History II, but also have a requirement named United States History II.
Q: Can Advisors share direct links of plans with students?
A: Yes - students and advisors can email each other the static URL of the plans they wish to discuss. Please note that if a plan is deleted in Smart Plan the URL will no longer be valid.
Q: Does SmartPlan keep track of every plan generated by advisors or students?
A: Yes - as long as the plan is not deleted. This is why it is important for advisors to mark plans as Official, so that students can not delete plans. If students or advisors want to make a change to an Official plan, they can edit the plan, and save it as a new plan. Upon advisor review, that plan can be updated to be the new Official plan.
Q: As an advisor, should I save a PDF copy of plans to Navigate?
A: Absolutely! This is an advising best practice to thoroughly document the full advising experience. This also allows us to review accidentally deleted plans if necessary.
Q: As an advisor, what should I do if I see that Smart Plan isn’t acting the way I expect it to?
A: As we implement Smart Plan, we expect to encounter some bugs that we can fix if you report them! Academic advisors should use the Smart Plan Validation Issue Log to report technical issues. Please include the following information in all reports:
- Student eID or VNumber
- Student declared program(s) of study
- Student catalog term for each program(s) of study
- Behavior you are expecting to see
- Behavior you are currently observing
- Full browser screenshot(s) of the issue - please include the url in the screenshot(s)