University of Maine System unveils unified course catalog and degree‑planning tool to let students map cross‑campus schedules

The University of Maine System demonstrated a new unified course catalog and degree‑planning tool that lets students search courses across campuses, build multi‑term degree plans and forecast future enrollment at the class level.

Chief Information Officer Robert Placido showed trustees a live demonstration of the search and planning tools. The catalog search filters by campus, subject, term and modality and returns real‑time information (including seats available) by querying each campus’s live student system. When students are admitted to a campus that hosts a course, the interface will enable enrollment or add the section to a saved degree plan.

Placido also demonstrated a degree planner designed for advisors and students. The planner displays completed, in‑progress and planned credits; allows students and advisors to create multiple 'what‑if' plans; and supports features such as retakes, transfer credits and scenario modeling. The system will enable campuses and the system office to forecast class‑level demand months in advance, a change trustees said could improve scheduling and staffing decisions.

Trustees and staff discussed the study‑away form that students must submit before enrolling at another campus; administrators said the form is live but a small number of campuses need to adopt the final step. Trustees asked for a visible, student‑facing prompt or button that helps students request the study‑away form from the catalog interface; Placido said the team will add a 'request' button and make the workflow clearer.

Trustees also asked about AI and automation. Placido said that the first priority was collecting clean, reliable data in the unified system; once data is available, AI‑driven scheduling and advising agents could be built on top of it. He said near‑term AI features to suggest schedules or flag registration conflicts could be possible within a year.

The board praised the cross‑campus collaboration that allowed a live demonstration and asked administration to track software issues and student error messages. Trustee Worth suggested including a contact or 'help' button on error pages so students can quickly reach support.

The unified catalog and planner are intended to roll out more broadly to prospective students as a public search tool; until the students are admitted at a receiving campus, the system will show course details and 'what‑if' planning. Trustees were shown that campuses can still enforce local rules such as instructor permissions, prerequisites and reserved seats. The system will work alongside existing study‑away and transfer workflows to maintain compliance with accreditor and registrar requirements.

Ending: trustees asked administration to continue rapid user testing, add clearer student prompts for the study‑away process and return with usage KPIs and early adoption metrics later this year.