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SSC Campus (Users) Major Explorer - Student Profile
The Major Explorer uses the advising application’s predictive analytics model to guide student and user decisions about major decisions. Because many users and students will be curious about how Major Explorer does this, we have included a brief explanation of how predictive modeling works in this case.
The Major Explorer uses a predictive algorithm to generate information about whether a course of study is a good fit for the student, attempting to find the majors where the student has the highest chance of graduating.
To do this, the algorithm analyzes basic data from the student information system. Items like GPA and credit accumulation start to determine the degree to which a student is at risk.
Additionally, student coursework is analyzed to determine the level of skill a student has demonstrated in a content domain such as the humanities, STEM courses such as biology and mathematics, business and economics, et cetera. The student’s skills are matched to their current major. Risk is mitigated when their skill strengths create a high match with the skills needed to excel in the major.
Finally, Major Explorer generates a high/moderate/low risk level that estimates how likely the student is to complete the major:
- Red suggests that without intervention, the student will have the most challenge in completing the major.
- Yellow suggests the student is statistically more likely to complete these majors, but there is more challenge for the student than a major with a green indicator.
- Green indicates majors the student will have the least challenge completing overall.
Recommended majors are shown in order beginning with the best match according to risk.
Students who are at moderate or high risk in one major may not have a low-risk match because the factors determining their risk (GPA, credit accumulation, etc.) are applicable to all majors. Major Explorer provides other options to guide a student toward a major, including filtering by majors available in a college or searching directly for a major or career.
Clicking on a major name will take the user to a page that describes the major and shows careers related to the major. Additionally, users may search for majors not shown on the page for the student to investigate. The student’s current major will be listed first for comparative reasons. Major Explorer displays the risk color associated with the student’s likelihood to graduate in the major for each major on the page.
The career information is provided by Burning Glass, a leading career information provider and Student Success Collaborative partner. Users can also use the search box to search for related careers as well as majors to compare. Clicking on a related career will share more information about the career and national hiring statistics.