Study plan

You can create and edit personal study plans on the Structure of studies tab. Study plans are generally created to the education to which you have a corresponding study right. In Sisu you may also create study plans for other educations if you wish.

Video instructions for planning and scheduling studies.

The study planning tool in Sisu guides you to select studies suitable for you. As long as you plan studies in accordance with the structure of the degree programme, the plan is in the approved state. Thus, you do not need a separate approval for the study plan unless some part of the plan differs from the structure of the degree programme. It is important that you keep updating your study plan throughout your studies and use it as your support tool. In the future, the study plan tool will also be used for example for combining study modules and applying for a degree. Therefore, it is important to always keep the plan updated as your studies progress. Sisu saves the study plan automatically after each change. This means that the system does not save any history versions of your study plan, unless you want to create a completely new study plan as a new version.

Personal study plan counsellors can view the study plans of the students in their assigned counselling groups. Your counsellor may, upon his/her preference, agree to approve your study plan in separate personal study plan meetings or using Sisu’s internal comment tool. Whether the StudentLife student wellbeing advisers (Goodies) of the department can automatically see the students’ study plans or if these rights are granted personally as needed depends on the department.

Creating a study plan

To start planning your studies, log in to the Sisu system by using your university credentials. When logging in for the first time Sisu prompts you to create a new study plan by going to the Structure of studies tab. A new study plan is created for the first time in the Create a new study plan popup that opens up when clicking onto the Structure of studies tab. If you already have a study plan and you wish to create another, this is done by clicking the the New study plan button at the top left corner of the Structure of studies tab. The My educations tab will offer study plan structures corresponding to the study right(s).

By default students chosen into the same programme share the same learning opportunity, so this option does not need to be changed from the default option offered by Sisu.

The system automatically suggests you create your study plan for the ongoing curriculum period. The curriculum period is selected according to the start year of studies. Therefore, if you are creating a study plan retrospectively, select the curriculum period of your first year of studies to see the studies you have already completed. The start date of an academic year is the 1st of August and the end date on the 31st of July.

Sisu names the study plan automatically according to its creation date. You can change the plan’s name if you wish. The name of the study plan is visible to your study counsellors and supervisors.

Finally, select Create a plan.

If you wish to update your study plan to a newer version at a later date, you can change the curriculum period of the education. If you are creating a new plan, for example, on 15 February 2018, you can select from three different curriculum periods: from 1 August 2016 to 31 July 2017, from 1 August 2017 to 31 July 2018, or from 1 August 2018 to 31 July 2019 (the latest period is visible if it has already been published). The structure and contents of the study plan are updated to match the curriculum of the selected period.

Primary study plan

The first study plan you create is automatically the primary plan. If you make more study plans for the same education, you may define the primary plan yourself and change the selection if necessary. To do this, click the button with three dots at the top right hand side and click Select as the primary plan. The primary study plan cannot be deleted. In the same menu, you can also rename, delete or print the plan.

By default the Structure of studies tab shows the study plan that has last been edited. If you have several study plans, you can view/edit another study plan by clicking the name of the study plan and choosing another one in the drop-down menu. This viewed study plan remains active when you move to the Timeline or the Study calendar -tabs.

Any courses you wish to complete need to be added to the primary study plan corresponding to your study right in order to ensure receiving a grade on time! If you have multiple study plans, make sure that the right plan is set as primary!

Viewing course information through the study plan

Contents, goals and required preliminary knowledge for courses, study modules and degree programmes is written in the course information brochure. You can open the brochure by clicking the blue link in a course, module or degree programme.

Equivalent courses

In the course information brochure, the Equivalences field of the Substitutions tab describes if the course can be substituted with another course. If you want to complete or have already completed a corresponding course and want to substitute the course in the study plan with it, select the substituting course. Now the selected course is visible in the structure instead of the original one. Substituting courses are indicated with an arrow symbol in the course icon. To edit your selection, click the arrow symbol and then Edit.

Structure of the study plan

Sisu guides study planning by showing what degree programmes, study modules and courses your education includes. You can make selections to your study plan in the selection assistant. To open the assistant, click a title in your plan structure. You can request guidance from your study counselor any time by clicking the Guidance button at the top right corner of the study plan. You may request advice, for example, with a targeted comment related to a specific part of the structure, or a general comment related to the entire study plan.

Compulsory studies

The compulsory study modules and courses are displayed automatically in the plan. Thus, you do not need to search or select these studies for your plan separately. You can only remove or edit the selections of compulsory courses in the free edit mode (see Planning a structure that differs from the degree programme).

Optional studies

You can add optional studies to your plan in the selection assistant. To open the assistant, click the title of the module or subheading that contains optional studies. The selection assistant shows what studies you can include in this part of your plan and how many modules, courses or ECTS credits you must select. When you have selected a sufficient amount of studies, you can see the Selections Complete text in the assistant and on the module or title row of your plan. To make selections, click the selection icon. The icon turns blue when the course is selected.

Elective studies

If your degree programme includes elective studies, you can search for them under the title Elective Studies. Open the selection assistant and search courses or study modules according to their names or codes. The assistant may also give additional information on the completion of elective studies. If you select a study module to your plan, please ensure from the department’s website or the portal of elective studies (in Finnish) if the studies can be completed freely or if you need special study rights for them. Selecting studies to a study plan does not always guarantee the study right.

If the selected study module includes elective studies, you may select courses in the same way as in the modules that are included in the degree. To remove elective studies, use the recycle bin icon in the selection assistant. The selection assistant opens by clicking the Elective Studies –module’s headline, under which the elective courses or modules have been chosen.

Study draft

Students can add their own study drafts with a custom subject and number of credits into their study plan structure. Study drafts can be used to plan, indicate and suggest studies or other experience completed outside JYU to be included in the degree structure (e.g. exchange studies, internships..).

A study draft is added by choosing the subtitle or module under which the study draft will be included. Note that in the study plan a study draft behaves like a normal course unit. Its credits are counted towards the total credits of the module or subtitle and it is counted as one selected course. Therefore the section of your study plan that the study draft is under can have selections against rules if the study draft does not fit where it has been placed. Study drafts can be created under elective studies (elective courses and modules) without causing selections against the rules.

Clicking the headline of the subtitle or module opens up the selection assistant of that particular section on the right side of the page. The Add study draft button is located at the bottom of the selection assistant. Clicking the button opens up a window in which the study draft is given its required information. The study draft's name is shown to the student and their counselor(s) in the study plan structure.

Planned credits indicates the number of credits the student suggests or estimates as the scope/extent of the studies. It is shown on the study draft in the study plan, and calculated to the total credits of the degree programme in the study plan. The Institution field is where the student indicates where they plan to complete said studies, or where the included studies planned for the structure have been completed at (e.g. open universities, exchange university..).

The Description field describes what the planned study draft will include, how this knowledge will or has been gained and where. The description can for example be of prior studies, an internship that isn't already a part of the study plan structure or a description of a course or module completed during an exchange. All fields need to have text in them before the Add button activates. Adding a study draft can be cancelled by clicking the Cancel button.

Once all required information is given the study draft can be added to the study plan.

The study draft is shown in the study plan structure under the study module or subtitle that was chosen, as well as in the selection assistant of that module or subtitle. The study draft can be deleted in the selection assistant by clicking the trash can icon. NOTE! Deleting a study draft is final, and a deleted draft cannot be recovered.

The information saved into a study draft can be viewed by clicking the Study draft's code.

State of studies and selections in the study plan

When you have completed a course or study module included in your study plan and the completion has been registered, you can see a laurel and grade next to the course.

The title bar of the study module shows the status of studies under it: what is the required extent of the module, how much of the studies have been completed, what is the status of selections and how many selections have been made. In the example below, selections are underway. The highest number 180 shows the total ECTS of the programme. The number of ECTS credits selected for the module are visible on the left side of the line (28) and the completed ECTS credits on the right side (in this case 0).

If you have any completed and registered courses that are not included in your degree structure, you can add these to your personal study plan either through the blue Add to the plan -tab or through the free edit mode. Read more on adding completed studies here.

Deleting a study plan

You can delete a study plan by clicking the button with three dots and then Delete plan. If this is the only plan for the education for which you have the study right, you cannot delete it. In this case, create a new study plan for the education and make it the primary plan. After this, you can delete the original plan. Note that deleting a study plan also deletes any comments and message history with guidance councellors.

Printing a study plan

The personal study plan can be printed out (as a pdf-file or on paper) through the Structure of studies tab. Click the three-dot menu at the top of the screen and choose Print plan. Depending on the browser a preview window of the printout opens up. By changing the printer settings you can either save the printout as a pdf-file (PDF-XChange on the university computers), or print it on paper. The printout shows the study plan's name and date of printing as well as the student's name and their student number (jyu-username). In addition to the structure of the study plan the printout shows the number of selections, grades and ECTS of any completed studies as well as theircompletion dates and the state of selections. If the courses included in the study plan have been timed on the Timeline tab, this planned timing is also visible on the printout. Note that a printout of the personal study plan from Sisu is not an official transcript of records.