The Roadmap to Guided Pathways Program Maps

Introduction

Eight years after the Community College Research Center’s introduction of Guided Pathways, a comprehensive student success reform, institutions are still navigating how to implement it. The guided pathways recommendations aim to provide structured program choice, student support, and defined learning outcomes.

Historically, students were provided with a dizzying array of programs and courses to choose from, leading to many students feeling overwhelmed and confused. One survey found that two thirds of students are overwhelmed by the process of choosing a program. Similarly, a third of students reported that degree course requirements were unclear to them¹. This isn’t entirely surprising considering one study of community college catalogs found that students are required to “select a dozen courses from a mixed bag of 162 approved courses to meet general education requirement[s].”²

To provide students with more clarity, guided pathways encourage institutions to focus on four objectives:³

1. Clarify paths to student end goals 
2. Help students get on a path 
3. Help students stay on path 
4. Ensure students are learning across programs 

Approximately 400 community colleges and numerous access-focused four-year universities are involved in guided pathways efforts, yet many institutions struggle with where to begin and how to overcome logistical barriers. The first objective of guided pathways – clarifying paths to student end goals – may feel daunting at first. To be successful, institutions must create and implement academic “program maps,” clear sequences of courses that lead to completion, transfer, or employment.

While creating and executing program maps can be arduous, institutions can leverage technology to speed up the process, implement best practices, and prioritize student needs. Coursedog identified six key areas where institutions can leverage technology to successfully develop and execute program maps: 

1. Use data-driven decision-making to develop & maintain program maps 
2. Identify hidden barriers when creating program maps 
3. Optimize course scheduling to ensure students stay on track
4. Create a single source of truth for program pathways to prevent confusion 
5. Provide accessibility features to ensure all students can access program maps 
6. Showcase employer demand alongside program maps to help students understand outcomes 

“Guided pathways enabled us to develop a student-centered, career-guided academic experience that led our institution to record-breaking enrollment and student program completion.” - Dr. Adena Williams Loston, President, St. Philip’s College, Alamo Colleges District (TX)⁴

Use Data-Driven Decision-Making to Develop & Maintain Program Maps

Competing priorities and clashing opinions can often stall efforts to determine the courses and sequences of program maps. Without a single source of truth, courses and sequences can be arranged in seemingly infinite combinations. 

To help decide which courses must be included, first start with the non-negotiable courses. Begin by assembling your program map with the most stringent accreditation and transfer requirements. After this, program data can help narrow down options by providing insight into student demand and historical enrollment trends.

However, obtaining historical enrollment data isn’t always easy. Data may live in different systems and yield varying results depending on the source and method of pulling the data. Additionally, retrieval requires extensive staff time and expertise to query data from the SIS or other systems. Coursedog helps institutions avoid these problems by creating a single source of truth that is easily accessible, ensures data efficacy, and prevents stakeholder disagreement over data.

Important sources of data to evaluate include: 

• Course combinations of students who have successfully completed the program 
• Student success metrics for courses under consideration (e.g., completion rates, DFW rates, repeat rates) 
• How frequently courses have been historically offered 
• Where students frequently transfer or stop-out 

Once program maps are established, institutions need to monitor student and employer demands to ensure programs stay aligned with stakeholder needs. Particularly at community colleges where programs are closely intertwined with the needs of the local workforce, program maps will evolve as needs change. 

Example of Program Map Accessible in Coursedog’s Catalog 

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Identify Hidden Barriers When Creating Program Maps 

To create successful, student-centric program maps, institutions should proactively address and call out hidden barriers before they arise.

Only list courses that are regularly offered

Program maps and course catalogs can easily become cluttered with courses that are rarely offered or even no longer offered at an institution. This information noise can distract students from pertinent course offerings that are relevant to their educational paths.

Identify these courses and determine if they can be removed entirely. In some cases, the choice to remove will be obvious. For instance, if a course has only been taught by a single professor and that professor is no longer at your institution.

Remove or update courses that no longer align with industry standards 

Students’ long-term academic and career success depends on an education that is aligned with their chosen industry. To ensure that your course offerings are current and cohesive, evaluate course offerings through the lens of industry standards.

Look for out-of-date courses and remove those that are no longer relevant for the intended career focus. Additionally, consider and adhere to accreditation requirements during this evaluation. Courses that do not meet accreditation requirements need to be removed or updated.

Make hidden pre-reqs visible

Pre-reqs and co-reqs are key foundational pieces to each student’s education. When required classes are not clearly marked and mapped out, students may fail to register for them. This creates delays in future terms when students discover that they cannot register for a class or several classes because of their ineligibility.

To prevent these setbacks, ensure that pre-reqs and co-reqs are made visible to students in your course catalog, program requirements, website, program map materials, and in any other degree or curriculum planning tools they have access to. The goal of this process is to make it essentially impossible for students to miss classes they need to register for.   

Highlight double-duty courses in program maps 

Institutions should clearly indicate courses that count for multiple requirements. This helps ensure students don’t take unnecessary courses and they complete their programs in a timely manner. Any classes that could double as a GE and program requirement should be highlighted in all course catalogs, curriculum materials, and program maps.

Note elective courses that don’t meet transfer requirements 

Though all programs should be evaluated for transfer requirements, some will need extra attention in this area. Gather information about students’ intent to transfer to prioritize programs that require such focus.

Because transfer requirements can vary between state educational systems and institutions, it is important to make note of specific electives based on their unique transferability. Students should be able to easily access information about which elective courses will not count towards their transfer requirements. An institution's failure to note these courses could result in further delays for students.

Optimize Course Scheduling to Ensure Students Stay On Track 

Once institutions determine program maps, they need to ensure the appropriate courses are offered to meet student demand. However, course schedules haven’t always been created with students top of mind. According to a 2022 by AACRAO, only 27% of institutions agree or strongly agree that they engage in student-centric scheduling.⁵ This may be partly attributed to the fact that institutions are significantly more likely to consider faculty availability and faculty preferences (89% and 78% respectively) than student need as measured by planning or degree audit data (43%). 

Course availability impacts both student satisfaction and persistence. According to a survey on national student satisfaction and priorities, 87% of community college students noted the ability to register for classes with few conflicts was important to them.⁶ Yet, College Pulse found that 6 in 10 students experience difficulty enrolling in the classes they need to meet requirements, a strong indicator that a significant number of students were unable to register for appropriate classes and stay on track.⁷

“It was the lack of availability of classes that really hurt the overall student experience’ - Student, California Public University⁸

To create a student-centric schedule, institutions need to not only schedule the appropriate number of courses and sections, but also consider factors that impact student registration, such as time of day, modality, and campus location.

Institutional leaders should use both historical enrollment data and real-time data from degree audits to inform course scheduling. Historical enrollment data may include:

• Course and section fill rates 
• Course distribution throughout day, week 
• Enrollment data by academic program and courses 
• Enrollment trends by course modality 

Analytics drawing on degree audit data can help more accurately predict how many sections are needed to meet student demand. Analyzing degree audit data, combined with looking at degree map course sequences can help institutions understand: 

• Which requirements and courses students have already completed 
• Which requirements students still need to complete 
• Which courses students will likely take in future terms to meet requirements 
• Which term students will likely take certain courses to meet requirements 

More accurately predicting course demand also helps institutions build a more accurate schedule in advance. Nearly all institutions report that they make changes to the class schedule after it is published, with 60% of institutions making changes to more than 10% of their schedule after it is published.⁹ However, making changes to the course schedule after it is published can be detrimental to students who have already used this information to plan out which courses they plan to take. More accurate schedules both minimize students scrambling to find new courses and help institutions plan for an efficient use of their resources.  

Create a Single Source of Truth For Program Pathways to Prevent Confusion 

Institutions that rely on manual data entry to update the curriculum and program requirements in the SIS and catalog risk conflicting information. Without a single source of truth, students may rely on outdated or incorrect program requirements to inform course selection. In fact, 1 in 4 students say it is somewhat or very difficult to understand degree requirements.¹⁰ If students are unaware or confused about current program requirements, they may fall behind on program requisites and delay time to completion. 

“In most cases, the degree programs were managed separate from the entire class catalog. This meant students had to go back and forth between pages to figure out which classes they needed to take to graduate and then also figure out which classes were offered in a given term. This ultimately made it difficult when planning each semester."¹¹  - Student, California Public University 

To ensure that program requirements are displayed accurately everywhere, it is critical that the catalog and curriculum proposal system are connected to ensure accuracy. For example, the Coursedog platform feeds information from the curriculum approval process directly into the catalog and your SIS, eliminating manual entry and potential errors. With a single source of truth for the entire institution, institutions guarantee that students can obtain the information they need to set themselves up for success.

Provide Accessibility Features to Ensure All Students Can Access Program Maps 

Institutions implementing guided pathways need to ensure course catalogs are accessible to all students, regardless of ability. According to the American Association of Community Colleges, approximately 20% of community college students identify as having a disability. Of these students, 4.4% report blindness or visual impairment and 4.6% report a specific learning disability or dyslexia.¹²

We know that many institutions have room to improve on how students navigate their catalog. One in four students report that they experience difficulty navigating their institution’s catalog.¹³ To meet the needs of all students, institutions should offer accessibility features such as a screen reader, navigation by keyboard, and color contrast options.

• Screen reader 
• Navigation by keyboard 
• Color contrast options 
• Screen magnification 
• Grayscale color scheme option 
• Moving elements elimination 

Coursedog uses capabilities that allow users to access screen readers, ensuring accessibility. 

A lot of vendors use technology that’s just not compatible. When we were doing our testing of the Coursedog platform, we found that it leverages HTML capabilities to allow access to screen readers.” - Steve Young, Chief Information Office at Blue Ridge Community College

Showcase Employer Demand Alongside Program Maps to Help Students Understand Outcomes 

The first guided pathways objective, clarify paths to student end goals, aims to not only help students understand the sequences of courses needed for completion, but also the next step of employment or transfer. Career information is critical to persuade prospective students of the value of post-secondary education, particularly among adult learners. Many people struggle to see the connection between a degree and job; fewer than 1 in 3 adults without degrees reported they understood potential career pathways, valuable skills, and details about potential education programs “very well.”¹⁴

“As we think about creating a more skilled, technical workforce and targeting those with some college and no degree to retool for the future of our information economy, it likely will not be enough to simply invite these consumers back into an educational pathway. The pathway will need to be the right one — one with enough clarity, purpose and relevance to the prospective students’ working lives”¹⁵ - Strada Gallup

The Community College Research Center noted that institutions successfully implementing guided pathways demonstrate how programs are connected to employment or further education and feature this information on their websites.¹⁶ Consider featuring career information from data sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics or labor market data providers, such as Lightcast. When exploring the course catalog and programs, students can then immediately see potential career paths, salaries, and employer demand for occupations associated with the given program of study. 

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Example of Labor Market Data Presented in Coursedog Catalog

• ¹ “Course correction: Helping students find and follow a path to success,” Ellucian, 2019.
• ² “10 Things Community Colleges Must Know About General Ed,” Inside Higher Ed, February 2022.
• ³ “Investing in Student Success at Community Colleges,” Community College Research Center, April 2021.
• ^{4 “}Building Momentum: Using Guided Pathways to Redesign the Student Experience,” Center for Community College Student Engagement, 2020.
• ⁵ “A Comprehensive View of Undergraduate-Class-Scheduling Practice, Policy, Data Use and Technology," AACRAO, October 2022.
• ⁶ “2019 National Student Satisfaction and Priorities Report,” Ruffalo Noel Levitz, 2019.
• ⁷ "Navigating Academic Life," College Pulse & Coursedog, April 2023.
• ⁸ “Student Impact Survey,” Coursedog, 2021.
• ⁹ "A Comprehensive View of Undergraduate-Class-Scheduling Practice, Policy, Data Use and Technology," AACRAO, October 2022.
• ¹⁰ “Navigating Academic Life," College Pulse & Coursedog, April 2023.
• ¹¹ “Student Impact Survey,” Coursedog, 2021.
• ¹² “Students with Disabilities,” American Association of Community Colleges, September 2018.
• ¹³ “Navigating Academic Life," College Pulse & Coursedog, April 2023.
• ¹⁴ “Public Viewpoint: Interested But Not Enrolled: Understanding and Serving Aspiring Adult Learners,” Strada, September 2020.
• ¹⁵ “Why Higher Ed,” Gallup, January 2018.
• ¹⁶ “Implementing Guided Pathways: Early Insights From the AACC Pathways Colleges,” Community College Research Center, April 2017.
• ¹⁷ “Public Viewpoint: COVID-19 and the Value of College,” Strada, October 2020.