There is a dearth of data visualization tools for displaying college degree-planning information, especially course prerequisite and complex academic requirement information. The existing methods for exploring degree plans involve a painstaking what-if analysis of static data presented in a convoluted format. In this paper, we present a data visualization tool, named as Dependency Evaluation and Visualization (DEV) chart, to visualize course prerequisite structure and a dynamic flowchart to guide students and advisors through all possible degree requirement completions. DEV chart uses an adjacency matrix of a directed acyclic graph to store a course structure for a degree into a database. Since DEV chart is created dynamically by updating data associated with each node of the directed graph, it provides a mechanism for adding an alert system when prerequisite conditions are not met, and hence the user can visualize the available courses at each step. Similarly, DEV chart can be used with project planning where nodes represent tasks and edges represent their dependencies.
Choosing a major can be a difficult choice for undeclared students, depending on personal interests, job markets, program costs, and the complexity of graduation requirements. The current procedure for exploring possible majors/minors involves a tedious and time-consuming exploration of static data presented in a convoluted format. This work considers the complexity of degree requirements and presents the design and implementation of an efficient decision support system (DSS) for exploring majors and/or minors. The DSS presents a tool that enables college students to map their already completed courses to degree requirements and then view the majors/minors that yield the shortest path for graduation. Secondly, the DSS system provides data visualization tools to assist students in selecting courses that satisfy the remaining requirements of a selected major/minor.
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