Degree Progress Report and Planner Advisor's Guide

This is only a tutorial. No login is required.

INTRODUCTION

The Degree Progress Report (DPR) provides a full-picture audit of a student’s progress toward degree completion. Undergraduate, master's degree and doctoral students have access to the DPR audit. However, only undergraduates have access to the DPR Planner at this time.

This guide covers both components of the interactive DPR and Planner tool:

The Audit tracks a student's graduation progress, displaying completed courses and remaining requirements.
The Planner allows a student to drag and drop courses from an audit into a personalized term-by-term plan for completing their remaining requirements. Planning future courses will help departments better analyze and meet student course demand in the future.

The DPR Audit:

Lists coursework completed at CSUN and at other schools from which a student submitted official transcripts.
Places coursework into degree requirement sections.
Identifies CSUN requirements a student still needs to satisfy in order to graduate.
Changes to reflect a student’s progress toward degree and major objectives.
Helps students prepare for meetings with their academic advisor.

Undergraduate students pursuing a first bachelor's degree can create a personalized term-by-term plan for completing remaining requirements.

Note: Students are advised to always use an Audit in consultation with their advisor before finalizing any decisions related to their academic major.

Additional Resources: Degree Planning Tools

DPR Step 1

Go to the CSUN home page at www.csun.edu and:

Open the MyCSUN menu in the top navigation.
Select the CSUN Portal link.
Log in with your CSUN user ID and password.

MyCSUN menu with CSUN Portal login link on every CSUN webpage.

DPR Step 2

Depending on your CSUN security profile, you may access DPR/Planner in the CSUN Portal through at least two paths:

Select the top Student Admin menu and then choose the Degree Progress Report/Planner link.

CSUN Portal home page with top Student Admin menu opening to DPR/Planner.

— and/or —

In the top customizable My Menu tab, select Add items to my menu.

CSUN Portal home page and top My Menu tab opened to set a DPR/Planner bookmark.

— And then —

On the My Menu page, scroll down to the Student Admin menu heading to select the plus sign (+) next to the Degree Progress/Planner link. This will add the DPR/Planner link to your customized menu.

My Menu choices by category, focused on DPR/Planner in the Student Admin group.

DPR Step 3

Once you've added the DPR/Planner link to your custom menu, it will display in two places on your portal home page:

In the top My Menu drop-down list
In the left column as an icon link under My Menu

To get started, select either Degree Progress Report/Planner link.

DPR/Planner bookmark appears in CSUN Portal My Menu and on the far left.

DPR Step 4

As soon as you navigate to Degree Progress Report/Planner, the Select a School page displays. There are three options to choose from: Undergraduate, Graduate, and Credentials.

On the top left, you have a choice of color schemes. The gear icon drop-down menu includes a "Help" link to this tutorial and an option to "Log Out."

Select Continue.

Initial DPR/Planner "Select a School" page to choose student class level.

DPR Step 5

Select the Students icon to search for a student.

DPR/Planner home page with students icon link to search for a student.

DPR Step 6

Enter the nine-digit Student ID number or search by the student's first and last name.

Select the information icon for search tips.

Search fields using 9-digit student ID number or student first and last name.

DPR Step 7

The Audits tab and landing page open. If no previous audits exist, an informational page displays to explain the four tabs in the top navigation bar:

Audits
Plans
Courses
Exceptions

Select the Request Audit button to run a Degree Progress Report.

The Audit Landing page with initial instructions if no audit was previously run.

DPR Step 8

On the Select A Program page, you can:

Run Current Programs (undergraduate and graduate students) to run an audit for a student's declared program/major.
— or —
Run Selected Program (undergraduate students only) to run a hypothetical "what if I want to change my program/major" audit for a different major. This will not officially change a student's declared major.
From the drop-down menu:
1. Select a Degree (program/major).
2. Select a Catalog Year.
3. The report format defaults to HTML, which has the option to open and close requirement sections. Select PDF format to print, save or email the entire DPR.

When done, choose the Run Audit button.

Select a Program page to run audit for student's current or hypothetical major.

The Running Audits page displays a spinning circle while processing your request. This may take a moment.

Running Audits page time "spinner" while processing your request.

DPR Step 9

The Completed Audit Requests page displays. Audits that you have requested are stored and listed here in a table.

To open an audit, select the View Audit link in the table row.

Completed Audit Requests page with table of audits already run.

DPR Step 10

The DPR Audit report header displays the report date/time, the student's ID number, major, catalog year and graduatin date if they have applied.

The report has these three tabs:

Audit Results tab: Displays requirements for degree completion.
1. A green check indicates a satisfied requirement.
2. A red X indicates an unsatisfied requirement.
CSUN Courses tab: Lists the courses completed at CSUN.
Applied Exceptions tab: Lists the student's approved course exceptions and substitutions.

An open audit with three top tabs to filter results by CSUN courses or exceptions.

To view details for each required GE or major section, toggle open the arrow (>) to expand the desired requirement or select Open All Sections to expand ALL requirements.

Audit with requirement sections open, showing completed and needed courses.

DPR Step 11

Here is an example of a full Audit Report with all requirement sections in closed position.

Full view of an audit report with requirement sections in closed position.

Navigate the Planner

INTRODUCTION

The interactive DPR Planner tool allows you to drag and drop courses from a student's degree audit to a personalized term-by-term plan to complete remaining requirements. Using this tool will help CSUN offer more of the courses students want and need in future terms.

By creating a Plan, students can:

Enhance advisement appointments with prepared plans.
Visualize a timeline for degree completion.
Produce course data for academic departments to predict future course demand.

Planner Step 1

Select the Plans tab to create a unique academic plan toward degree completion. The Plans landing page displays.

If students have previously created a plan, the My Plans tab displays it.

Choose a plan name from the table to open and modify it.

DPR Planner tab and landing page, instructions and previous plans table.

Planner Step 2

To create a new Plan, select the Create a New Plan tab.

The Manage Plans page displays, defaulting to the student's current degree program/major.

Manage Plans page and Create a New Plan tab with student's current major.

To change the degree program/major, select the Program button (Systems Operations Management, shown in the image above) and select a new one from the list of colleges and available degree programs/majors.

List of all colleges and programs/majors to change current, default plan.

Planner Step 3

Fill in the following fields to begin:

Enter a Plan Name.
Select a Term (spring or fall) to begin plan.
Enter a Year to begin plan.
Select the number of Years to Graduation (defaults to 4 years).

When done, choose the Add Plan button to continue.

Enter Plan information: plan name, term, year, and years to graduation.

Planner Step 4

The Plan Builder page displays the student's Degree Program Audit (left column) and their personalized plan (right column).

Select an arrow (>) to toggle open the section and display required courses.

A green check indicates the requirement is complete.
A red X indicates one or more courses are still needed to complete the requirement.

The Plan Builder page displays in two columns: Audit on left and Plan on right.

Planner Step 5

Drag and drop courses from the audit to a desired term in a student's personalized plan. Units will be deducted from the audit and added to the plan.

A required course is dragged from the audit and dropped into a term in the plan.

Planner Step 6

Select the Check Plan (check mark) icon to refresh and validate the student's audit to ensure that requirements are being fulfilled. When courses double count in both GE and major requirements, the validation displays completion in both areas.

Check mark icon to refresh and validate your plan against the DPR audit.

Icons You Can Use:

Select the Audit icon to display planned courses.
View a PDF of a student's term-by-term plan, print or save it.
Select the List icon to view a list of all the student's previously completed courses. Includes both CSUN and transfer courses.
Select the Check icon to refresh and validate the plan.
Select the Plus Sign (+) icon to add a new term. The Plus Sign (+) listed in a term will add a new course.

Features You Can Use:

ADD A COURSE: Choose the plus sign (+) within a term to add a course not listed on the audit. Enter the department subject abbreviation and the course number (BIOL 100), then select the OK button.

Plus sign (+) icon to add a new course to a term in the plan.

ADD A TERM: Click the plus sign (+) icon to add a term to your plan.

Plus sign (+) icon to add a new term to the plan.

DELETE A COURSE OR TERM:

Select the Edit icon to delete a course in a term; choose the Submit button to refresh the plan.
To delete an entire term, choose the Trash icon.

Pencil and trash icons to delete a course from a term or a term from the plan.

VIEW A COURSE DESCRIPTION: Left-click a subject to open and read the course description.

Selecting a course name in the plan opens its course description.

Planner Step 7

Select Plan from the menu bar to return to the Manage Plans page.

Select the Star icon to make a plan a preferred/favorite plan. CSUN will use the course demand data from the Preferred Plans to create future course schedules.

To view a PDF of your Plan, select the PDF button.

Manage Plans page with table of created DPR Plans and PDF button for each.

Additional Resources

For easy reference, you may want to bookmark the Degree Planning Tools.