For many reasons, music majors do not always understand which courses they will need to take in order to complete a 4-year music degree on time. It is more confusing because there are no majors in a 2-year A.S. degree, yet they will need to have certain courses if they are to transfer into a music program after leaving SCF. In effect, the courses required for their major are considered “electives” their first two years, yet are requirements.
This confusion is one of the largest complications we have in the music department and requires the music faculty to advise students who intend to major in music. This consumes a surprisingly large chunk of faculty time throughout the entire year, but especially the first two weeks of each semester.
I decided to use technology to simplify and focus these questions to make the use of the faculty’s time more efficient. To accomplish this I created a web app that can answer many student questions by leading them through a flowchart of standard questions, finally connecting them to the correct music faculty for their chosen instrument.
The result of this app is that faculty and support staff can simply point students to the SCF music webpage, where many questions can be answered and they will ultimately be provided with an email link to connect with the appropriate faculty.
This app is simple and only uses HTML5, Javascript via jQuery, and jQuery mobile for the user interface. It embeds nicely into the music program page.
