[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-593159-105":59,"doc-detail-593159-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","an-interactive-decision-support-system-for-college-degree-planning","An Interactive Decision Support System for College Degree Planning","","Many students enter college without a chosen academic focus, forcing complex decisions among potential majors and intertwined degree requirements. Academic advisors rely on planning tools, but many existing systems depend on static documents or PDF information that cannot effectively analyze prerequisite dependencies and student progress. This work designs and implements an efficient interactive decision support system to help students explore degree completion paths by representing degree requirements and supporting major and additional requirement selection.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/an-interactive-decision-support-system-for-college-degree-planning/593159/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/an-interactive-decision-support-system-for-college-degree-planning/593159.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Aran","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-01","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why are current degree planning tools difficult for students to use?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Degree requirements are complex and prerequisite-dependent, and many existing tools rely on static documents or PDFs that do not support effective analysis of a student’s academic progress.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What does the proposed system help students do?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It helps students explore degree completion paths by supporting decisions about majors and the additional courses needed to satisfy other degree requirements.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How are degree requirements represented in the system?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The work identifies possible types of degree requirements and uses a data structure to represent those requirements so the decision support system can reason about degree completion paths.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},593159,1792448327,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},137455076865,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","An Interactive Decision Support System for College  \nDegree Planning  \nBy Sobitha Samaranayake *, Athula D. A. Gunawardena±  \n°  \n& Robert R. Meyer  \nMany students in the Unites States enter college without having decided on a focus for their studies, and thus are faced with choosing from a large number of potential majors and associated very complex sets of degree requirements which can include many courses in other areas of study. Academic advisors use academic planning tools to help students make decisions about class schedules, selecting an academic major or minor, planning for graduation, and many other academic related activities. There is a dearth of decision support systems for degree planning, mainly due to the complexity of degree requirements, and thus many existing academic planning tools utilize static documents or PDF files for displaying information pertaining to degree requirements and course prerequisites.  \nThis work considers the complexity of degree requirements and presents the design and implementation of an efficient interactive decision support system that helps students explore degree completion paths.  \nKeywords: degree planning, academic advising, academic decision making, decision support system, college degree planning  \nIntroduction  \nMany universities employ direct communications between academic advisorsand students as the primary advising system. Academic advisors are either faculty or professional advisors employed by an academic unit. During an advising session, advisors use academic planning tools to help students make decisions about class schedules, selecting an academic major or minor, planning for graduation, and many other academic related activities. Many existing academic planning tools utilize static documents or PDF files for displaying information pertaining to degree requirements and course prerequisites. Nevertheless, current students are digital natives who expect advising resources to be online and available in a user-friendly format. Due to the complexity of degree requirements and prerequisite dependencies, it is a challenge to develop and maintain systems that can analyze students’ academic progress toward a degree.  \nDegree requirements vary in structure from one academic institution to another, and some of the requirements can be considerably complex. Most of the degree requirements are specified in terms of number of units, credits, or courses that must be taken to satisfy each requirement. Requirements may refer to additional attributes such as course level (lower-division vs. upper-division) or a student’s  \n*  \nAssociate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA.±Professor, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA.  \n°  \nProfessor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA.  \nminimum grade point average (GPA). In addition, some of the courses may not betaken until a minimum number of units has been earned. Courses may only count once in the major or minor, either as a required course or as an elective, but not as both. There may be hidden prerequisites (i.e., prerequisites of a prerequisite course that may not be explicitly listed as a part of any other requirements) and other requirements such as selecting major/minor emphasis areas. Major/minor requirements are often defined in terms of a set of course requirements that covers specific subjects or areas of knowledge. Many courses specify prerequisites that are outlined using a list of courses, all of which or a subset of which must be completed successfully in order to satisfy the prerequisites. In addition, a few of the prerequisites may be tied to course grades to ensure students acquire the necessary knowledge for getting the maximum benefit from the next course. Since it is difficult to define a standard format for representing degree requirements, most of the existing academic planning tools use custom-made systems that are difficult to scale up.  \nThis paper will focus on developing a Decision Su","cbCaip84JWzfEJHr","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaip84JWzfEJHr","pdf",601612,15,"English","# Introduction\n# Literature Review","[{\"question\":\"Why are current degree planning tools difficult for students to use?\",\"answer\":\"Degree requirements are complex and prerequisite-dependent, and many existing tools rely on static documents or PDFs that do not support effective analysis of a student’s academic progress.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the proposed system help students do?\",\"answer\":\"It helps students explore degree completion paths by supporting decisions about majors and the additional courses needed to satisfy other degree requirements.\"},{\"question\":\"How are degree requirements represented in the system?\",\"answer\":\"The work identifies possible types of degree requirements and uses a data structure to represent those requirements so the decision support system can reason about degree completion paths.\"}]","An Interactive Decision Support System for College Degree Planning | PDF",1792076718,38]