Before student's can make a grad plan, a Recommended Plan must be built. The Recommended Plan provides the framework that Grad Planner uses to create a student's grad plan.

Find Recommended Grad Plans from the pull-out menu on the left of the Grad Planner module.

This is the screen you will get:

From here you can search to see what plans exist and what their status is or create a new Recommended Plan.

To search, select an answer for each pull-down menu.

From there, you can see the information on any Recommended Plans that are already built and their status.

We want to keep all Recommended Plans in Approved status.

The ID and Plan Name can give you some important information. ID tells you the emphasis and whether the class is Day or Online. The Plan Name follows this patter: Major Code - Emphasis Code - Day or Online - Catalog Year - Initials of who created the plan - Date the plan was first created.

To build a new Recommended Plan, click on the + button that says Create a New Recommended Plan.

Follow the standard name pattern: Major Code - Emphasis Code - Day or Online - Catalog Year - Initials of who created the plan - Date the plan was first created.
You can see the screenshots above for a visual example.

Mark whether the plan is for Day or Online students.

If the major has any Advanced Settings or Recommended Sequence Settings, you must adjust those here before saving.

After you save the Recommended Plan, you will receive this screen:

This is where you will build the framework that Grad Planner gives to students.

Grad Planner reads the graduation tables to know what classes are required or options for the major. Those will already show up. On the left, the requirements are broken into three categories: Foundation, Major, and Emphasis. Open each one to see the requirements within each category.

From each requirement, you can go further into each sub-requirement by again opening the pull-down menu.

Then underneath each sub-requirement, you will find how to fulfill that requirement, whether it is a single required class or a list of options.

You have two options in how to add the requirement to the Recommended Plan:

If you want to recommend the specific class, including a specific class from a list of options, you can click and drag the specific class into the Recommended Plan.

If you want to provide a placeholder in the Grad Plan for the student to fill on their own, you can click and drag the sub-requirement into the Recommended Plan and adjust the credit amount.

Remember that after you add in a placeholder, you must tell the Recommended Plan how many credits that placeholder should be worth.

After you have started adding a sub-requirement, it will turn gray.
After you have added enough to fulfill the sub-requirement, it will turn gray with a gray check mark.
After you have added enough to fulfill all the sub-requirements, the requirement will gain a blue check mark.

After you had added in classes and placeholders for every requirement and any additional electives to reach 120 credits, you can validate the Recommended Plan.

Every plan will have pre-requisite errors due to FDENG 101 and FDMAT 108, since those pre-reqs are often solved through ACT or SAT scores for students. The Recommended Plan can still approve with those errors.
If there are other pre-req errors or any missing requirements, the Recommended Plan will not approve and remain open.
If the Recommended Plan approves, it will take you back to the selection screen to view, edit, or create a new Recommended Plan.

Find the Recommended Plan you want from the search bars in the selection page. Then click on the gear and select Edit.

From here, you will be taken to the In-Progress Recommended Plan. You can make adjustments here. Click Validate & Save when you are finished to save your edits. If the plan does not validate, it will remain in the edit page. If the plan does validate, it will become approved and will take you back to the selection page.

After a Recommended Plan is approved, it can become unapproved again due to any changes that happen to the degree audit, graduation tables, or updates to I-Plan. When these happen (because they will), you may need to go back and edit the plan to make the plan approved again.

If there is no approved Recommended Plan, student grad plans may not function correctly. They may be completely blank and with the status of Not Started, which is something we want them to never see.