Two years ago when a Student Senate survey revealed that students want a better degree audit, Senate’s Academic Affairs Commission began working with registration to develop one.

“Rather than just giving students information, we wanted a degree audit that helps students plan better,” said Craig Smith, director of the Academic Affairs Commission.

The web-enhanced degree audit was recently approved for funding and students can expect to see changes in the spring.

The enriched technology will allow students to request a “what-if” degree audit online so they can view what classes they would need if they changed their major. The option is available for students now, but they have to go to the Registrar’s Office to get one.

Sue Moore, registrar, said the audit will also collect and maintain major-specific advising hints. The hints will remind students what classes should be taken before others. They will be a compilation of advice that advisers should give to all of the students they see, Moore said.

The online link to tips will prevent students from being ignorant if their advisers forget to mention something, Moore said.

The first changes students can expect to see in their audits are links that will save time.

For instance, if the audit tells a student they need to choose from a couple of courses, the student will be able to click on the name of the courses from their audit to view a description of the courses.

That should eliminate the hassle of paging through a catalog or viewing an online catalog while trying to concentrate on registering.

“The degree audit is the central tool in the advising process and we need to keep enriching it,” Moore said. “Our long-term vision is to have the audit and the registration process tightly integrated.”

She added that $40,000 was allocated for the project this year. The funding was approved two weeks ago.