As an advisor (and the same holds for students) I often need to understand 
how a change to a student’s schedule will affect the downstream viability 
for there overall program.  (For example, if they fail CS141 and retake 
second semester).  Generally, the BASELINE program for a major is written 
in a way that accounts for both

-          what course is a prerequisite for others
-          what courses are only offered in certain semesters

However, once we begin to play, we have to look up all those things to see 
if we can still make something work.  It gets even more difficult when we 
are trying to piece together minors or dual majors.

I would like to have some GUI interface that acts something like a PERT 
chart that allows me to see the schedule affect across multiple semesters.  
It would need to be able to “read” peoplesoft for pre/co requisites as 
well as have some “intelligence” regarding when courses are offered.  

It should take “Major” as input, also read the students transcript, 
balance transcript against requirements and propose a possible future 
program.

Joe Skufca
Mathematics Department
Clarkson University
315-268-2399
Science Center 387
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Professor Skufca would like a tool for students
to use to examine their course transcipt graphically,
and see how it would be possible to complete a degree
semester by semester.  This program should have access
to all the data about requirements for degrees and
prerequisites of courses.  Students should be able
to move courses around from semester to semester,
and have the program only allow valid schedules.