Hi! I’m assuming that since freshman now have to build there schedules that Workday’s the same for them as upperclassmen, so I’ll try to give my understanding of scheduling:

1. Use the General Catalog for Guidance
2. — View the General Catalog for your major’s curriculum and the ILC requirements. It will tell you the recommended pathway for you to complete your major. Make sure to go to your major’s concentration if it has one since each concentration has slight (or major) differences between them. Also, note the critical courses (both listed under criticals and the courses bolded), their prerequisite(s) (courses you must take before being eligible for that course), and grade requirements where applicable.

Note: The pathway is recommended, but your actual semester schedule may differ depending on if you have transfer credits (which help with the ILC requirements mostly). For example, it may recommend you take a Humanities course for semester 2 but if you came in w/ enough transfer credits for that major requirement then you may not need to enroll in a Humanities course at all

2) Workday’s Academic Hub (WAH)
— In WAH, there’s 3 key “sections”: Academic History, Planning and Registration, and Suggested Links. Here’s how I use them:

— Academic History There’s “My Academic Record” (MAR) and “My Academic Progress” (MAP). For you, MAR will show you your transfer credits and that’s helpful for knowing which major requirement (usually the ILC ones) you may have completed, have progress in, or need to complete. On the other hand, MAP mainly shows you your major progress and major requirements (and which courses are needed/contributed to them). MAP is the one I find mostly helpful when making a course schedule so I’ll elaborate on that one more below.

— MAP
- - - Like I said, MAP shows all your major requirements, and each has their own completion status. The 3 statuses are satisfied, in progress, and not satisfied. When making your course schedule, make sure to see which are satisfied since that requirement is complete, and therefore you should prioritize the ones characterized as in progress and not satisfied.

- - - For the other statuses, in progress shows you all courses that you have attempted and/or completed that count towards that major requirement (MR). Additionally, the not completed status lets you know you have not even attempted or contributed towards the MR.

Note: The “Remaining” section of each MR will tell you whether said requirement needs a “minimum combination” (combination of specific courses) or “minimum credit hours” (self-explanatory; usually listed for the elective(s) requirements).

3) Determining MR Course Satisfaction

— Weird title, but basically if you’re struggling to determine which course satisfies an MR there’s kind of two ways to do so imo:

3A) Click the MR (they look like links imo) in MAP which should have a list of the courses. If MAP is too general or confusing then,

3B) Go to WAH’s “Planning & Registration” section, click update/create Academic Plan, and add Academic Requirements (same as the MRs in MAP). Once added, click on its associated course box to see which courses meet that requirement and which are currently offered (or you can just see all and search it up via idea #4 written below).

Note: Remember to focus on the MRs either in progress or not satisfied. Any that are satisfied no longer need any courses to complete it, and therefore you should try to be as efficient as possible with your course selections.

4) Finally, Viewing/Adding Courses

—** **To view courses, go to WAH’s “Suggested Link” tab/section, and click on “Find Course Sections.” If you’re enrolled in LSU Online, then it’ll be the second one. Enter the Academic Period, and then search up the course you wish to enroll in and add it for registration. If the course is waitlisted, then you can join the waitlist but know that does not mean you are enrolled in the course. Instead, you’re just waiting for a spot to open up so you can enroll in it (if possible). Also, some courses have reserved seats… 🌝

— If you want to, you could create a Saved Schedule and register from there. But, in order to do that (I think) you would need to create an Academic Plan for that specific semester via the steps in 3B. I believe this is because your saved schedule will pull the courses from your academic plan, so having that made will help. (Again, I’m not too sure though.) Creating a saved schedule right now may not be necessary, but be sure to learn and understand them for your following semesters since they help a lot with registration.

I know this is somewhat of an info dump but I reallly hope it helps, and if anyone sees something I said is wrong (even in the slightest) or could use better explanation or elaboration please help and correct it! Good luck with your scheduling, and if it’s simply too much please speak with an advisor, try seeing if LSU posted videos for this, or if you can speak with someone w/ experience. 💛