A new pilot program at Fresno City College is aiming to enhance the way students plan their college education.

The Education Planning Initiative [EPI] is a project from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s office being piloted at eight other colleges across the state.

The new technology will help students identify academic goals, develop plans for success and make informed educational choices on a digital platform that is accessible from anywhere.

As a part of the system-wide Student Success Initiative, the EPI’s mission is to increase student completion rates by providing centralized technological tools for student services and education planning that customize information and activities for individual student needs.

The Education Planning tool was initially targeted at colleges participating in the Completion by Design Initiative.

Based on the colleges’ experiences and feedback, the planning tool will be revised and augmented to capture and disseminate information about improving student completion rates.

According to Nancy Moua, a Fresno City College student, “Students will be better prepared for succeeding and will be granted with easier access due to the student educational plan going digital.”

Hobson, developer of the technology platform selected for the project, and team members from
the EPI are working together with college IT personnel and student service representatives to discuss technology planning and implementation for the software to launch.

“The education planning and degree audit platform now being deployed will help increase student completion rates by providing centralized technology tools for customized student services and education planning. This represents another big step forward for our drive to improve student success,” California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice W. Harris said at a press release conference in 2015.

The platform will guide students in the right direction for mapping out multi-year course plans as well as help us balance out our educational goals, work and childcare schedules, financial concerns and other challenges.

“Our goal is to make it more efficient for both the counselor and the student while also providing easier interaction with our registration system,” said Renee Craig Marius, a FCC counselor.

In addition, this new technology will help community colleges support student success and raise completion rates by allowing instructors, academic counselors, tutors and others to quickly connect with the student and with each other to keep students on track toward graduation.

Craig-Marius says the new program is expected to be fully launched in the spring after undergoing testing with small groups at the college.