Help

Pick the part that matches what you are doing. Everything here is written for people who are not programmers.

For students and advisors

No account needed. The map is open to everyone.

Choose a concentration in the top-left — Geography, Urban Studies, Environmental Geosciences or Geology.
Choose a pathway (called an “interest”, for example GIS + water). The map then fills in a semester-by-semester plan.
Click any course to see its title, credits, what it needs first, and which term it runs in.
Print or save the advising sheet with the Report button — the PDF is the version to take to an advisor.

Two numbers matter. The major is 39 credit hours. The whole degree is 120 hours: 42 core, 18 field of study, 39 major, 21 electives. The plan shows the major courses; your core and field-of-study courses come from the rest of your schedule.

A plan is a recommendation, not an official audit. Confirm the final schedule with your advisor and with the catalog for your year.

Building a pathway Pathway author Editor Admin

A pathway is a named plan for one concentration: “GIS + public health”, “Water and climate”. Students pick it from a dropdown.

Pathways → Add an interest. Give it a name, pick its concentration, and add a one-line blurb and a few typical job titles. Keywords are optional — they are only used when you have not picked courses by hand.
Click “Courses”. Tick the courses that belong in this pathway, group by group.
Set the term for each course if you want a specific order (1 = first semester). The planner still respects prerequisites and the 14-credit ceiling, so a course can slide later but never earlier.
Watch the credit meter. The major must reach 39 hours. If it is short, a red note names the gap; you can still save and finish later.

Why 39 and not fewer? A pathway that stops at 36 leaves 3 hours unaccounted for, so the planner adds the smallest course that closes the gap and the major reads 40. That overshoot is shown, never hidden.

Editing courses Catalog editor Admin

One course = one row. Code, title, credits, category, description and its prerequisites.

Find a course with the search box — it matches the code or any part of the title. You can also filter by category or by “needs attention”.
Change credits or a title right in the list; press Save on that row.
Open a course to edit its description, notes and prerequisites, or to delete it.
Add a course at the bottom of the page: code and title are enough to start.

Credits drive everything: the map, the 39-hour total, the semester load. A wrong credit count is the most common cause of a strange-looking plan.

Prerequisites in plain English

Each row is a gate. Courses inside a row separated by the word “or” (or a comma) are alternatives; separate rows are all required. You can paste the catalog sentence as it is written — only the course codes are read.

You type	It means
MATH 1112 or MATH 1113	Either one — completion of one satisfies the row.
GEOG 1112, GEOG 1113	Same thing: a comma also means “either one”.
row 1: GEOG 1112 row 2: GEOG 3530	Both — a student needs each row satisfied.
(empty)	No prerequisite; anyone can take it.

A code the catalog no longer publishes still saves. It shows in amber with a warning and on the overview's health check, so a retired course can stay as an alternative instead of blocking the save. Add the course, or remove the code when the catalog drops it for good.

Only list what the catalog says. Two traps: a course listed in a concentration is not proof it has no prerequisite, and a prerequisite that lives outside the concentration (say a MATH course) is not drawn on the map at all — it is assumed finished earlier in the degree.

Requirement groups Catalog editor Admin

A concentration is a list of groups. Each group says what a student must take from it.

Pick list — choose N of the listed courses. Set Pick to 0 when every course in the list is required.
Remaining band — an open list. It stays empty until a student or pathway fills the last few hours up to 39. This is what closes the gap in every concentration.
Rule only — a condition with no course list, for example “at least half of the 39 hours must be GEOG courses”.

Watch the credit total on the right of the editor: it shows what the default picks add up to and how many hours the band still has to cover.

Which term a course runs Catalog editor Admin

Tick Fall, Spring or Summer for each course. Leave all three ticked when the course runs every term.

The planner only places a course in a term it is offered in, cycling Fall → Spring → Summer.
Double-click a course code to tick or untick all three at once.
A plan may end up with an empty term when restrictions bite (for example, no summer offerings). Empty terms are dropped from the report rather than printed blank.

People and roles Admin

Three roles, each with the smallest access that does the job.

Role	Can do	Cannot do
Pathway author	Create and edit pathways, pick their courses, set term order.	Change courses, credits, prerequisites or requirement groups.
Catalog editor	Everything an author can, plus courses, prerequisites, requirement groups and term offerings.	Manage accounts or roles.
Administrator	Everything, plus accounts, roles and password resets.	—

Adding someone: People → Add a person. Give a temporary password and leave “must change it” ticked.
Pausing someone: untick Active and save. Their sign-in stops; the history keeps their name.
Locked out: eight wrong passwords from one network pauses sign-in for 15 minutes. That is deliberate. Reset the password instead of waiting.

Where the data lives

Database: one SQLite file on the server. It is backed up every night and the last 14 copies are kept.
Catalog source: catalogs.gsu.edu, 2026–2027. Course pages are linked from each course so you can check the wording.
Changes are attributed. Every sign-in and every edit is recorded with the account name and time.
Nothing is deleted by a student. The public pages only read; they never write.