Smart Panner Faq

Smart Planner is an interactive online planning tool to assist students and advisors in mapping courses towards degree completion by providing a curriculum plan that lays out the best-recommended sequence of course requirements for success. Students and advisors should continue to refer to the Academic Requirements Report to ensure all degree requirements are met.

Smart Planner does not guarantee enrollment in courses, but can be used with the Academic Requirements Report to ensure all degree requirements are met

Smart Planner is available for all undergraduate majors.

Students can access Smart Planner by clicking on the Smart Planner link in the Academics section of their Student Center on the my.CSUDH.edu portal.

Advisors must complete a Smart Planner training to obtain access. Once advisors receive access, they can view their students' Smart Planner plans through the Advisee Student Center. Advisors should be aware that changes they make in Smart Planner may update the student's curriculum plan. Update also occur automatically after application of course substitutions or transfer credits, cancellation of a course. etc.

Advisors who would like to request Smart Planner training should email registrar@csudh.edu with the email subject line "Smart Planner Training Request for Advisor."

Smart Planner is an interactive tool for planning courses towards graduation. The Academic Requirements Report is the authoritative source for all graduation requirements.

Smart Planner is unable to account for some requirements, such as Grade Point Average and units in residence. Since students can complete these requirements while completing other requirements, Smart Planner cannot place these requirements into a sequence on a plan.

Is it recommended that students and advisors run and Academic Requirements Report with Planned Courses (ARR Planned) from within Smart Planner to ensure all degree requirements are being met.

Watch this helpful tutorial video.

Students who need assistance with Smart Planner should contact their major department advisor.

Staff and faculty who need assistance with Smart Planner should contact Carolyn Veek, Degree Audit Analyst, at cveek@csudh.edu; or Ayumi Nakamoto, Student Support Analyst, at anakamoto@csudh.edu in the Records & Registration Office.

No. The student must print and complete the Change Undergraduate Major/Minor form, available on the Records & Registration Forms web page. Once the major advisor has signed their approval, the student must submit the form to the Admissions & Records Office in Room WH-290 for processing.

Yes. The student will see their new curriculum plan in Smart Planner as soon as the Registrar's Office processes the change of major request, as long as the major and catalog year have been built in Smart Planner. Students should note that change of major requests can take several days to process.

The student's catalog year and major(s)/minor(s) are listed just below the graphs on Smart Planner's Overview page, as well as in the My Area of Study section on the main curriculum page.

Yes and No. Smart Planner utilizes transfer and test credit as well as related course information from the student's Academic Requirements Report (ARR) to determine what courses should be included on the curriculum plan. Transfer and test credits that satisfy requirements will appear in Smart Planner once the student submits official transcripts and the Admissions & Records Office processes the credits.

Yes, if all of the student's majors/minors are available in Smart Planner. The Overview page will indicate which of the student's majors/minors Smart Planner is accounting for in the curriculum plan.

Smart Planner receives regular updates and maintenance to reflect curriculum changes in degree requirements as approved by the University Curriculum Committee. Smart Planner reflects academic policies in the curriculum plan when possible, but students and advisors are encouraged to review the Academic Requirements Report (ARR) regularly for authoritative status of all graduation requirements.

Yes. Smart Planner accounts for course substitutions and removes fulfilled requirements from the curriculum plan.

Tip: If you are waiting for a submitted substitution request to be processed, you may use the Remove feature to move the requirement to the Manually Removed Courses section at the bottom of the curriculum plan. Once the substitution is processed, the requirement will be satisfied and no longer appear in the Manually Removed Courses section of Smart Planner.

Yes. Smart Planner accounts for general electives and automatically fills general elective requirements when it finds eligible courses that are in progress or completed. Students will see an Elective to Meet 120 or Additional Units requirement if they need to complete general electives.

Tip: Students may use the Select link next to their Elective to Meet 120 or Additional Units requirement in Smart Planner to identify a preferred elective course.

Normally this occurs when there are not enough units in the remaining semesters to fit the unassigned courses. Courses may also appear here is a student has not completed the necessary pre-requirements.

Tip: In Smart Planner, click Edit Preferences and add semesters, intersession terms, and/or additional units to existing terms to resolve this issue. Once you have updated your preferences and returned to the main curriculum plan, click the Refresh Suggestions button to restore the best-recommended sequence of courses left for completion.

Student who need assistance resolving unassigned requirements should meet with their department advisor.

Yes. If a student fails a course required for their degree, the course will repopulate in a later term in the Smart Planner.

An "error" indicates that there is an issue with the requested change, and the student or advisor will not be able to proceed until the error is resolved. A "warning" serves as a cautionary notice; the student or advisor will be able to proceed with making a change to the curriculum plan.

Checking the Lock box keeps the specified requirement/course in that term. If the student clicks the Refresh Suggestions button, Smart Planner will restore the curriculum plan back to the original best-recommended sequence of courses, but will keep locked courses in the term they have been locked into. Students can lock a course by placing it into a specific term through the Arrange My Plan page, clicking the Lock option, or selecting the course through the Add Course link.

Students can uncheck the Lock box to allow courses to rearrange back to the original sequence.

Clicking the Refresh Suggestions button restores the recommended plan back to its original sequence of courses, except for courses that have been locked. Locked courses will remain in the term for which they have been locked.

Reset Defaults restores the term and unit preferences back to the default for that specific plan. Refresh Suggestions sets the recommended order of courses back to the default for the major, with the exception of courses that students have locked into a term.

Smart Planner saves automatically every time you make a change with the tool.