FlightPath Academics - All Features List

FlightPath is an extremely robust and feature-rich student success and academic advising platform.  In fact, there are so many features, it's difficult to list them all on a short page.

This page lists every feature FlightPath is capable of (as of the current version), including those that are available as optional add-ons to the institution.

 

System Features

  • Fully brandable with replaceable logo and login image, restyle colors, can completely change the name of the product, etc.
  • Designed to display well on mobile devices as well as desktop computers
  • Works with any web browser; no special software to download
  • Robust permission system, easy to define new roles and permissions
  • Student access is more limited than faculty/staff access
  • Accepts data via API or automated CSV uploads from virtually any existing SIS or LMS system
  • Basic logins or single-sign-on via your campus' SSO infrastructure (LDAP, SAML, etc)
  • Hosted on world-class Amazon AWS servers; nothing to install on campus
  • Numerous settings to handle unique curriculum requirements and campus policies

 

Advising (Degree Plan) Features

  • View degree plan requirements, including final and in-progress grades
  • Courses may have prerequisites
  • Courses may be "locked off" if not offered in the term being advised
  • Course descriptions / hour information when clicked
  • Minimum grade requirements on courses and elective groups
  • Elective groups can have "branches" for different pathways
  • Substitutions, including partial / fractional substitutions
  • Transfer credit equivalences automatically applied
  • Simple to add or remove a course from "filling in" to the degree plan or elective group
  • Display by "Semester" blocks
    • Ex: Freshman, Sophomore, etc.  But can be named anything on a per degree basis.  Ex: Professional Requirements, Rotations, etc.
  • Display by "Type" blocks
    • Ex: Core Requirements, Major Requirements, Electives, etc.
    • These "requirement types" are configurable and can be anythink you like.
  • "Wide View" available, which takes up the entire screen, instead of two column (default) view
  • Apply concentrations, tracks, minors, double majors, etc.
  • Pie charts which show progress for any requirement type, and overall progress towards graduation
  • "Co-Curricular" requirement advising
    • Ex: Attend XYZ Seminar, Fill out a job application, etc.
  • Track microcredentials / certificates / stackable certifications
  • Track any number of student attributes (like if they are an athelete, part of XYZ club, etc)
  • Track digital badges per student
  • Advise for multiple terms into the future
  • Leave an advising comment (visible to only fellow faculty/staff, or the student as well)
  • Complete history, retrieveable at any time, of past advisings and comments
  • Advising session can be automatically emailed to the student
  • Easy to add new requirements to degree on a per-student basis
  • Clone advising selections from one student to another or to a group of students
  • Manually add or remove degree requirements on a per-student basis

 

Registration

  • Through API or other means, can register selected courses for students, depending on campus SIS/LMS
  • Keeps track of sections of courses, max number of seats, online or in-person, faculty member teaching, schedule
  • Shows course schedule conflicts while planning which courses to register

 

What If? (Trying Out Another Degree)

  • Advisors and students can both try out other degrees instantly
  • Can try out multiple degrees / concentrations at once
  • Can be advised in What If mode, for when a student will be changing majors

 

Degree Audit

  • Special, configurable screen which shows information relevant to degree audit and degree checkout information
  • Completely configurable requirements to check off
    • Ex: "Must have a 2.5 GPA in Core Courses", "Must have completed 2 internships", etc.
  • Separate commenting section only for fellow auditors

 

Appointment Scheduling

  • Students or Faculty/Staff may schedule appointments for student with advisors or other staff members
    • Ex: Advisor, Financial Aid Staff, Faculty (during office hours), etc.
  • Availability based on work calendar, so appointments do not overlap with other events
  • Zoom integration for virtual appointments
  • Shows on built-in calendar
  • Emails an invite to both student and advisor's campus mail

 

Course Catalog & Offerings

  • Can store complete course catalog, with min/max hours/credits and descriptions
  • Manage when courses are available for registration
  • Manage maximum number of "seats" in a course
  • Record instructor, online or in-person
  • Upload sample syllabus
  • Tracks changes across any number of catalog years

 

Communications

  • Send and receive text messages from within FlightPath
  • Send and receive emails from within FlightPath
  • Communications saved within FlightPath, visible to future advisors / staff
  • Send mass text messages from within FlightPath
  • Receive automated alerts based on defined criteria (ex: student has dropped below 12 hours, student has more than 2 absences, etc)

 

Reporting & Analytics

  • Comes with built in reports on usage, course availability, advising trends, student progress and more
  • Basic "report builder" for creating your own simple reports
  • Advanced "report builder" for power users / developers to create detailed reports

 

Miscellaneous Features & Modules

  • Conditional Requirements
    • Allows requiremes of a degree or elective group to change based on criteria.  Ex:  "If the term is in the Summer, add KINS 101"
  • Survey
    • Allows collecting survey answers and polls from students, faculty/staff, or both.  Reports can then show power users the results.
  • Seminar/Event
    • Allows a student to "sign in" for a particular event (or seminar), which can then be summarized in a report.  Sign-in is secure and performed by the student logging into FlightPath on their mobile device.
    • Optionally collect a student's "evaluation" of the event.  Evaluation questions may be customized.
  • Advanced Course Schedule
    • Keeps track course scheduling to a finer degree, including schedules of individual sections of a course, professor, etc.
    • This is an optional upgrade over the built-in course scheduling system in FlightPath.
  • Subtheme
    • For comfort and additional accessibility, the "theme" of FlightPath can be futher customized on a per-user basis.
    • Ex: Dark Mode, High Contrast, etc.
  • Locale
    • Translate FlightPath into other languages than English.
    • Uses industry-standard ".po" files for translation with any number of software products, including free ones like Poedit**
  • Easy integration with Banner** by Ellucian
  • Easy integration with Populi**

 

Custom Programming

  • We love custom programming!  Have an idea for something unique to your school?  How about a tweak or change to something that already exists?
  • FlightPath Academics has provided custom programming for many of our clients, for everything from specific curriculum or campus policies, to entire new screens and features
  • Turn-around time is generally less than a few weeks, depending on the complexity of the request
  • As an open-source product at its core, FlightPath is designed to handle custom programming easily and gracefully

 

Security

  • Database hosted on encrypted volume (data "encrypted at rest")
  • Always uses TLS/SSL for web traffic (data "encrypted in transit")
  • Automatic log-out due to inactivity
  • Uses SOC-2/3 certified Amazon AWS servers and datacenters
  • Multi-factor authentication available upon request
  • Uploaded files are stored encrypted on disk
  • Daily backups are encrypted, rotated every 30 days or longer

 

 

** Note: FlightPath Academics is not officially affiliated with, or endorsed by Poedit, Ellucian, or Populi.  All trademarks and copyrights are owned by their respective companies.