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.
• 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.