Degree Audit Frequently Asked Questions  

We are actively transitioning from the myWCU Degree Progress Report (DPR) to the RamPortal Degree Audit. The below table explains which students should use which tool.

Population  Tools  Notes 
New students for Fall 2024  Only use the Degree Audit in RamPortal  All exceptions, substitutions will only be in RamPortal  
Students graduating prior to December 2024  Only use the myWCU DPR  All exceptions, substitutions will only be in myWCU 
All other students   Will be transitioning from the DPR to Degree Audit in advance of Fall 2024.   All exceptions, substitutions already issued are being migrated from myWCU DPR to RamPortal Degree Audit.  
Status: All active students whose approved gen ed course substitutions/exceptions were entered as far back as March 2023 have been transitioned to Degree Audit. WCU is working on migrating department exceptions and all earlier gen ed substitutions for active students.  

 

What is the Degree Audit?

  • The RamPortal degree audit is the replacement for the myWCU Degree Progress Report (DPR).
  • It is the individualized course plan the indicates a students' major, minor and general education requirements.

Who has access to the degree audit? 

  • WCU is doing a phased rollout of RamPortal this will scale the population of staff and students who have access to the tool 
  • Immediate rollout is to advisors and fall 2024 incoming students. Planned for early June. 
  • The second rollout, planned for mid-June, will be to staff who need access to student records. 
  • The final rollout, planned for August, will be to returning WCU students 

Who should use the Degree Audit in RamPortal and who should use the myWCU DPR 

Please see table above to understand what students should use each tool  

How do I access the Degree Audit? 

  • Advisors will access the degree audit off of the student’s profile page in RamPortal. View the Detailed instructions.
  • Staff access is anticipated in early July, and additional details about access will be available then.  

How do I look up students in the Degree Audit 

  • The degree Audit is available for active students only. You cannot use this tool to look up inactive students or students who have completed their program.  
  • The Degree Audit requires users to look up students via their Banner ID number (i.e. the W-number) 
    • We recognize that students are only asked to know their RamPortal ID number, not their Banner ID. So IS&T has helped to develop a student lookup tool where staff can look up a students’ RamPortal or Banner ID. You can access this tool when on the campus network connection or at home using the VPN. 
  • Faculty and staff can look up any students, not just those assigned to them.  

How do students access their degree audit 

WCU Students have a card in their RamPortal that links them to the degree audit.  

How do I see substitutions already issued? 

WCU has migrated any gen ed course substitutions issued since March 2023. We are actively migrating department exceptions for active students with substitutions issued since March 2023. The work of migrating substitutions issued prior to March 2023 is ongoing.  

How do I issue a new exception for the requirements in my major/minor? 

Please note: the system to use will be based on the student’s graduation term.  

Student graduating May 2024 and August 2024 please continue to utilize DPR notes in myWCU. 

Students graduating December 2024 onward, please complete this form to issue major/minor course substitutions/waivers.  The Registrar’s Office will then enter that exception right in the Degree audit.  

Some degree requirements are a bit open-ended in that they allow a student to work with their advisor to identify the courses that will fulfill the requirement. In these instances, the degree audit includes a placeholder requirement. When the advisor/chair identifies the course the student will complete this form to have those courses added to this placeholder requirement.

How do I report a problem or offer a recommendation? 

Please note that curricular changes recommended by CAPC and approved by the Provost in April/May 2024 for Fall 2024 implementation are not yet reflected in the Degree Audit. These will take the summer to implement and will be visible in the tool in August 2024.  

With any new tool there are opportunities to improve. If you have a recommendation or see a problem, please let us know!

What do the various attributes next to some general education requirements mean? 

  • General education and additional baccalaureate courses have certain attributes assigned to them that identify which type(s) of requirements they will satisfy.   
    • ARC1 or ARC2 = Arabic Culture Cluster
    • ART2 = Art 
    • ASL1 or ASL2 = American SIgn Language Culture Cluster
    • BSS2 = Behavioral and Social Science 
    • CEP = Indicates course is part of the Community Engagement Pathway Certificate
    • CLC1 or CLC2 = Classical Civilizations Culture Cluster (Greek and Latin)
    • DIV1 or DIV2 = Diverse Communities 
    • DLP = Indicates course is part of the Digital Literacy Pathway Certificate
    • ENG1 or ENG2 = English Composition 
    • ETH2 = Ethics 
    • FFC1 or FFC2 = French/Franco Area Culture Cluster
    • FYE2 = First-Year Experience 
    • GAP = Indicates course is part of the Global Awareness Pathway Certificate
    • GEC1 = German Culture Cluster
    • HHP = Indicates course is part of the Health Humanities Pathway Certificate
    • HUM2 = Humanities 
    • INT1 or INT2 = Interdisciplinary 
    • ITC1 or ITC2 = Italian Culture Cluster
    • REC1 or REC2 = Russian/Eastern European Culture Cluster
    • SCI2 = Science 
    • SPC1 or SPC2 = Spanish Culture Cluster
    • SPE2 = Speaking Emphasis 
    • SUP = Indicates course is part of the Sustainability Pathway Certificate
    • WRT2 = Writing Emphasis 

Why do some courses include an “@” symbol? 

  • @ is a wildcard character used to expand the selection of available courses that can satisfy a requirement. For example: 
    • BIO @ - Indicates any BIO course at any level 
    • BIO 2@ - Indicates any BIO course at the 200 level 
    • @ 3@ - Indicates any course at the 300 level 
    • @ @ - Indicates any course at any level 

What do the course numbers separated by a colon mean? 

  • The colon between two course numbers indicates a range of acceptable courses.  For example: 
    • BIO 200:499 - Indicates that BIO 200, BIO 499, and any BIO course in between them can be used to satisfy the requirement 

When will the DPR be decommissioned?

  • There is no set date in which we will be removing access to the DPR. We anticipate the DPR will still be needed for summer 2024 and fall 2024 course selection advising.
  • We anticipate that the DPR will no longer be maintained or accurate sometime during Fall 2024. Notice will be provided before access to the DPR is removed.
  • NOTE: The Degree Audit in RamPortal will not show fully accurate enrollments for spring 24, summer 24 semesters. It is recommended that students and advisors use the DPR to see how spring and summer 2024 classes meet degree requirements.

How will exceptions or substitutions be made in the Degree Audit in RamPortal?

  • We will be migrating exceptions and substitutions that exist in myWCU to RamPortal.
  • Unfortunately there is no way to automate this transition of data, so the Registrar's Office will be manually migrating this data. This migration cannot begin until approximately March 4th.
  • We will be prioritizing migration of substitutions for active & enrolled students; after those we will move to active not enrolled students; then we will move to inactive students who did not graduate.
  • We will not plan to migrate exceptions/substitutions for conferred students.

How were the Degree Audit requirements built?

  • The Degree Audits were built off of the official curriculum published in the catalog. The catalog represents the curriculum as approved by CAPC and the Provost.
  • We utilized the 2022-2023 catalog as our ‘base' catalog for building the degree audit. Then we did forward/backward degree audit building for the followings years
    • Forward: 2023-2024
    • Backward: Through the 2017-2018 academic year.
  • Students admitted prior to Fall 2017 will not automatically receive a degree audit in RamPortal. This is a very small population of students. We are working on determining how to build individual audits for any students admitted prior to fall 2017.

What do I do if I have feedback or have identified issues with the Degree Audit?

  • We are actively seeking feedback on the Degree Audits. Between 1/23- mid-February we are working to meet with every department chairperson and graduate coordinator to review their Degree Audit. We believe it is critical that these curricular owners see their degree audits and offer feedback.
  • In Mid-February we'll be training all faculty and staff on the degree audit and invite their feedback.
  • Users who have feedback on the Degree Audit should please complete this form.