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.