Course equivalency management system

The Challenge of Managing Course Equivalencies Offline and Standalone

Course equivalency management practices vary significantly throughout the United States. There are reactive and proactive course assessment practices that feed course equivalency system databases. The assessment practices are influenced by roles, perceptions, volume and orientation. Institutions generally have been impeded by the lack of systematic practices because standalone tools such as Degree Audit and Transfer Articulation are complex and labor intensive to sustain over time. Reviewing past transfer circumstances reveals how a student's prior coursework is assessed and judged based on the characteristics of the source institution. Some measure the student's learning outcomes through assessments tests. Prior learning is not just classroom based, yet seat time is a major factor in comparing courses. Rigor and course quality is viewed through different perspectives and lenses.
There are common assessment patterns worth mentioning. Some institutions create and update a course equivalency database as students matriculate and request transfer credit. Transfer decisions are impacted by how the student defends their prior learning and assessment. These decisions transversely impact how courses are marked comparable or likely comparable or unique. The course equivalency or transfer articulation tables are sometimes posted on transfer websites, which offers some level of self-assessment by students prior to enrollment and matriculation. Upon application, transcripts are forwarded to the receiver and are queued for review by transfer specialists who break down the coursework by department, level and perceptions of the source course and institution. Some institutions create course equivalencies following newly published transfer articulation agreements. Some institutions create course equivalencies following the guidelines of state-wide transfer agreements. The joint efforts to align programs of study between senders and receivers are proactive and designed to streamline transfer enrollment steps and lessen the burden on transfer evaluation. Other institutions choose to perform one-off assessments, and they do not track the implications and repeating nature of course assessment.


http://www.academyone.com/products/knowitall-portals/knowitall-portals-features/course-equivalency-management-center

Features of CEMC

• Create and maintain equivalencies
• Make proposals to other institutions and track them
• Increase your direct equivalencies using systematic opportunities
• Manage evaluations that are proposed to your institution and review equivalencies when source institutions update their catalogs
• Create reports and extract your data
• Review course profiles side-by-side
• Send out requests to department heads and other recipients to review the course information
• Specify notes and conditions that will be useful to students
• Save started evaluations to complete at a later date
• Evaluate proposals sent to your institution from another
• Review your direct equivalencies where the source course has been updated due to a new course catalog
• Create a number of reports based on equivalency data and past evaluations. Reports can be exported in Word, Excel, and PDF formats.

A key challenge is the isolated and standalone nature of evaluating prior learning without access to the source course information
As a result, many institutions re-key course information from senders into their systems to retain the record links needed in several places. This duplication of effort adds time to the assessment process, potentially introduces errors and often frustrates students and advisors with delays that impact course planning and enrollment.

The Power of Sharing ONE Solution

AcademyOne's Course Equivalency Management Center (CEMC) is designed to streamline an institution's course assessment process and provide access to course equivalency information for current and prospective students, advisors, faculty and administrators. CEMC is a course equivalency management system that can be used by a community of institutions or a single institution across its departments. Join a community of institutions working together - sharing tools and a course database that accelerates and simplifies course assessment processes.

The Challenge of Managing Course Equivalencies Offline and Standalone

Course equivalency management practices vary significantly throughout the United States. There are reactive and proactive course assessment practices that feed course equivalency system databases. The assessment practices are influenced by roles, perceptions, volume and orientation. Institutions generally have been impeded by the lack of systematic practices because standalone tools such as Degree Audit and Transfer Articulation are complex and labor intensive to sustain over time. Reviewing past transfer circumstances reveals how a student's prior coursework is assessed and judged based on the characteristics of the source institution. Some measure the student's learning outcomes through assessments tests. Prior learning is not just classroom based, yet seat time is a major factor in comparing courses. Rigor and course quality is viewed through different perspectives and lenses.
There are common assessment patterns worth mentioning. Some institutions create and update a course equivalency database as students matriculate and request transfer credit. Transfer decisions are impacted by how the student defends their prior learning and assessment. These decisions transversely impact how courses are marked comparable or likely comparable or unique. The course equivalency or transfer articulation tables are sometimes posted on transfer websites, which offers some level of self-assessment by students prior to enrollment and matriculation. Upon application, transcripts are forwarded to the receiver and are queued for review by transfer specialists who break down the coursework by department, level and perceptions of the source course and institution. Some institutions create course equivalencies following newly published transfer articulation agreements. Some institutions create course equivalencies following the guidelines of state-wide transfer agreements. The joint efforts to align programs of study between senders and receivers are proactive and designed to streamline transfer enrollment steps and lessen the burden on transfer evaluation. Other institutions choose to perform one-off assessments, and they do not track the implications and repeating nature of course assessment.

Features of CEMC

• Create and maintain equivalencies
• Make proposals to other institutions and track them
• Increase your direct equivalencies using systematic opportunities
• Manage evaluations that are proposed to your institution and review equivalencies when source institutions update their catalogs
• Create reports and extract your data
• Review course profiles side-by-side
• Send out requests to department heads and other recipients to review the course information
• Specify notes and conditions that will be useful to students
• Save started evaluations to complete at a later date
• Evaluate proposals sent to your institution from another
• Review your direct equivalencies where the source course has been updated due to a new course catalog
• Create a number of reports based on equivalency data and past evaluations. Reports can be exported in Word, Excel, and PDF formats.

A key challenge is the isolated and standalone nature of evaluating prior learning without access to the source course information
As a result, many institutions re-key course information from senders into their systems to retain the record links needed in several places. This duplication of effort adds time to the assessment process, potentially introduces errors and often frustrates students and advisors with delays that impact course planning and enrollment.

The Power of Sharing ONE Solution

AcademyOne's Course Equivalency Management Center (CEMC) is designed to streamline an institution's course assessment process and provide access to course equivalency information for current and prospective students, advisors, faculty and administrators. CEMC is a course equivalency management system that can be used by a community of institutions or a single institution across its departments. Join a community of institutions working together - sharing tools and a course database that accelerates and simplifies course assessment processes.

CEMC is a web-hosted application on CollegeTransfer.Net and Built-In with KnowITAll Portals.

By using a shared web application, your institution avoids the time consuming tasks of database maintenance and version upgrades, while still maintaining autonomy in the decision making embedded in course assessment practices. CEMC can be customized to fit your institutional workflow and decision tree. The system enables institutions to set up multiple users to participate in the review of a proposed equivalency. Decision makers can request additional information such as course syllabus or learning outcomes and record their decision to accept or decline approval. Details on when and why a course equivalency was accepted or declined become a part of the permanent record of the course equivalency. In addition, all of the documents that were used to make the decision remain attached to the course equivalency for future reference.

A Shared Course Equivalency Database Supports Proactive Transfer and Articulation Initiatives

To reduce the institutional burden maintaining a course equivalency database standalone, the AcademyOne's Course Atlas database is refreshed with the latest course offerings published by institutions or syndicated when published by institutiins. The Course Equivalency Management Center alerts users of course changes and their impact on course equivalencies and transfer articulation. The potential for creating new course equivalencies is made possible by an inference engine that scans all course equivalencies across the Course Atlas database. These are invaluable tools for expanding the range of course equivalencies and preventing them from becoming out of date.

Make Your Information Transparent

By sharing a a multi-institutional course database and repository storing programs of study, faculty, course, subject and more, you help evaluators assess and compare programs, course and level of instruction between educational providers. This allows everyone to see the common view of information, characteristics and attributes.

Streamline Your Academic Guidance

Create systematic workflows between administrative and academic departments. Queue assessment tasks and track the results. Provide an auditable process that shows the assessment decision tree and feedback. Send alerts through email. Track course proposals and course evaluations to optimize collaborative efforts across departments, institutions and groups of institutions. Discover indirect and potential reciprocal equivalencies easily and block accept them. Customize the workflow decision tree by department, college and academic oversight respective of governance. Outline and upload course learning outcomes, syllabi and have proof of systematic review. Publish course equivalency information and attachments if desired. Create Transfer Credit Frameworks and align coursework from one to many institutions. Align course work with AP, IB, CLEP and other assessments.