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Cyber Adviser: High-Tech, High-Touch Advising
Entrance Requirement Checks: Cyber Adviser first checks that
required testing has been completed and then determines whether CLEP
credits were earned. Next it establishes the initial courses for English,
reading, math and foreign language general-education requirements.
Course Recommendations: Cyber Adviser then identifies courses the
student should take at Valencia. Recommendations depend upon a
student’s educational goals. If one chooses to seek a baccalaureate
degree, then the program lists the Florida state universities and their
respective majors. After the student selects a major, Cyber Adviser
automatically loads the courses required by the selected university into
a recommended curriculum. For example, if the student wishes to obtain
an A.S. degree, then one would choose from the list of A.S. programs
offered by Valencia. Cyber Adviser automatically loads the courses
required for the degree into a curriculum.
Curriculum Design: Cyber Adviser recommends a course of study
based upon university and Valencia catalog data. However, one can
manually modify the curriculum according to a student’s situation. The
program’s recommendations can always be changed to reflect a
student’s individual needs. Full course descriptions are instantly
available as courses are selected, added or deleted using a drag-drop
feature. Total credit hours are also instantly updated to indicate the
current course load. Courses are segregated into eight areas:
1.College-prep
2.Communications
3.Humanities
4.Math
5.Natural & physical sciences
6.Social sciences
7.Foreign language
8.Electives
Cyber Adviser automatically drops course numbers into some or all of
these areas depending upon the student’s situation. The courses in
each area appear in lists where the user can add or remove individual
courses. The program constantly updates the total credit hours for each
area, in addition to showing the total credit hours of all courses
(excluding college-prep).
Florida requires students to take courses where one must write a total of
24,000 words. Courses that can contribute to this total usually require
6,000 words each. Cyber Adviser tracks and displays the word count
and warns when the 24,000-word requirement is not being met.
Cyber Adviser validates whether prerequisites
and other conditions have been met.
After the curriculum has been designed, Cyber Adviser validates
whether prerequisites and other conditions have been met. A warning
appears to make the user aware of possible curriculum-design errors.
