A modernized degree audit application for academic advisors and staff at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has launched just in time for spring enrollment.
The new Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) Request Application launched on October 30, offering advisors and staff additional tools to guide students toward achieving their academic goals. The project is a collaboration between the Office of the Registrar (RO) and the Division of Information Technology’s (DoIT) Registrar’s Office Application Development (ROAD) team.
What’s new
The new DARS Request App allows authorized advisors and staff to:
- View student-run degree audits;
- Run audits that include future courses students have added to their degree plans in the Course Search & Enroll (CS&E) application; and
- Produce Degree Audit Reports identical to the version students see in CS&E.
With these improvements, the advisor and student experiences will be more consistent, and the additional information will allow advisors to provide more tailored recommendations based on their advisees’ interests and plans.
The student experience did not change as a result of this project.
Background
The new DARS Request App is built on more modern technology, which improves its overall availability and security while ensuring it can be maintained into the future. It replaces the legacy DARSWeb system, which has served campus users for more than 20 years.
The app is the culmination of several iterations of the project team and many years of work. During development, the team sought feedback from campus DARS users and worked in collaboration with the Center for User Experience (CUE) to improve accessibility and the user interface.
Transition
Provisioned advisors and staff will have access to both the new app and the legacy DARSWeb app for a several month transition period. DARSWeb is tentatively set to retire in February 2025 after fall undergraduate degrees have been posted. Shutting down the old app will eliminate additional technical support needs.
A collection of step-by-step KnowledgeBase (KB) documents is available to guide advisors and staff through using the new request page.