Imagine a MapQuest digital directory that would get students from where they are in their educational journey to where they want to go.

The Office of Institutional Research in Academic Affairs is in its first phases of creating DegreeQuest, which will give Sacramento State students an online degree road map that would be at their fingertips as soon as the end of spring.

DegreeQuest is an interactive online tool that will help students reduce graduation hurdles and navigate through their own degree plan said Mike Lee, associate vice president and dean of Academic Programs and Affairs.

“It’s just like MapQuest that gives you routing for your destination,” said Sutee Sujitparapitaya, director of the office of Institutional Research.

By specifying catalog year, degree level, major and how many units you plan to enroll in each semester, DegreeQuest will provide a semester-by-semester projection of which courses a student will need to take to graduate.

The free service will allow students and parents to run scenario situations of different majors to see clearly what classes they will be taking and how long the graduation process will be.

DegreeQuest will also help students see how changing majors or adding a minor will impact the time it will take them to graduate Sac State, Lee said.

“All information will be provided in one place; it’s a one stop shop for students,” Lee said.

As a former Department of Management chair, Lee said he understands the amount in which students must juggle their personal work, social and academic lives while attending Sac State, and believes DegreeQuest will help students plan their academic futures while personalizing it to their own pace.

Lee said his biggest frustration during his academic counseling years was when students followed incorrect major advice given by other students.

Sujitparapitaya said that is why a main goal of DegreeQuest is to present degree information in a clear and consistent way so that students, faculty and administrators will be on the same page.

The online database will also serve as a reminder for faculty and administrators which requirements they make students take in order to graduate, Sujitparapitaya said

On the larger scale, DegreeQuest will be one resource out of many that aim to increase recruitment, graduation and retention rates at Sac State, said Ric Brown, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs.

“The goal is to get out of here in a reasonable amount of time with a quality degree,” Brown said.

Brown said that DegreeQuest will be an effective tool for students, but that there are many processes that contribute to a successful and timely graduation.

DegreeQuest is a concerted effort that will involve contributions from Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, faculty and the different colleges, Lee said.

Since its introduction at the town hall meeting on Oct. 10, DegreeQuest has received positive feedback from department chairs and faculty. However, Lee said he is wide-open to student opinions and encourages student input.

“At this point, we are trying to get as much feedback as possible,” Lee said.

The opportunity for students here is tremendous because the longer you take to graduate, the more likely it is you will get distracted, Lee said.

Lee said there are still more than 500 students who need to take the Writing Proficiency Exam. DegreeQuest would help alleviate this problem by flagging those students who have taken over 70 units and pointing them in the right direction.

DegreeQuest would also equip students with the knowledge they need to cut down on taking unnecessary units. Many students stay undeclared for too long; the result is that they end up taking upwards of 140 and 150 units when only 120 are necessary, Lee said.

Students will be able to graduate faster with DegreeQuest by “double dipping and triple dipping,” Sujitparapitaya said. However, because students will be able to easily detect courses that knock out two or three graduation requirements in one single swoop, some classes may become overloaded.

To remedy this, department chairs can decide how to allocate resources using the information provided by DegreeQuest, Sujitparapitaya said.

Right now, DegreeQuest is still in its development stages. There are a handful of programs entered into the system ready to be inspected for accuracy by department chairs, Sujitparapitaya said.

Sujitparapitaya and Chao Yang, a Sac State graphic design alumnus and IT consultant for Academic Affairs, are the two men in charge of creating DegreeQuest. Sujitparapitaya and Yang’s dedication in designing DegreeQuest has been over and above their other normal work duties.

“There are so many factors that contribute to graduation; this is an example of how we can help,” Sujitparapitaya said.

DegreeQuest needs to be completed in phases because unlike MapQuest, which is a multi-million dollar project, there is a limited budget, Lee said.

The first students that will gain access to the system are those with the most recent catalog years. In the meantime, Lee recommends that students use the degree audit link in Casper Web to access current grades and classes they have already taken.

When finished, DegreeQuest will be the first online interactive academic tool like it in the region. Lee said that there are academic road maps at Chico State, but that they aren’t interactive.

“We’d like for Sacramento State students to have this first and then showcase it to the Chancellor’s Office,” Lee said. If this system works well, it’s one of things that the Sacramento State can share with other universities.

“The principle is that if we can save at least one student one semester, it’s already been extremely beneficial,” Lee said.

Jessica Weidling can be reached at [email protected]