Phase 1 - Equivalencies for DARwin and uAchieve Schools
If you haven't reviewed the Transfer Articulation Considerations section of the DARwin or uAchieve Settings for Transferology Schools page, please review it.
The following areas must be reviewed by a new Transferology subscriber that uses DARwin/uAchieve:
- Source School Aliases
- YearTerm Conversions
- Glossary Messages
- Match Scores
- Review Equivalencies and Match Scores
- Go Live with Equivalencies
1. Source School Aliases
When a school uses non-standard institution codes for source schools, source school aliases must be created in the IREF source_id column so that the source schools are properly identified by Transferology.
Two options for a school to resolve their unknown source schools (i.e., define aliases) include the following:
- Create a spreadsheet that specifies the source_id, iname, state, standard institution code type, and standard institution value. Then send the spreadsheet to TFOSupport@collegesource.com. From the spreadsheet, we will create the aliases in Transferology. When creating the spreadsheet, we recommend specifying the IPEDS as the standard institution value since it is the most complete institution code set in Transferology.
- Authenticate into www.transferologylab.com and use the Manage Source Schools page in the Lab. From this page, click the Search button to search for a school by name, then choose the correct school from the search results to create the alias (i.e., link the school). Depending on the accuracy of your IREF inames, this may be the easiest to initially get between 20-50 source school aliases created in Transferology.
The Transferology Institution Codes spreadsheet identifies 5,400+ standard US institution codes used by Transferology. Again, the IPEDS codes are the most complete.
When a subscribing school has a large number of unknown source schools, they need to determine their correct plan for creating the source school aliases. CollegeSource recommends the following sequence for a subscriber to gradually create aliases for their unknown source codes:
- Source schools providing most of the transfer students
- Source schools within x miles/hours of the subscriber
- Source schools within the subscriber's state
- Remaining source schools
Do I need to define aliases for all my source schools?
All source school codes don't require aliases or marked as hidden for you to be live in Transferology. The unknown schools are not shown by Transferology. This means each school decides when they have enough of their source schools defined to be live in Transferology. Some schools are initially concerned with their top feeder schools, others their closest 25 source schools by distance, etc.
The hide functionality is meant as a convenience action for the source schools that will never be shown in Transferology. After the school is hidden, it is moved to the Linked Schools tab, so it isn’t continually shown on the Unknown schools tab.
Equivalencies for Standardized Exams and Military Credits
In addition to US states and territories, the spreadsheet has three state codes which are special values used by Transferology:
- SE - Standardized Exams
- MC - Military Courses
- MZ - Military Occupations
If you want to show standardized exam and military equivalencies, you will need to review these pages:
2. YearTerm Conversions
When providing your term code, your school's term codes must be defined so Transferology shows the proper start/end month and year as well as scores the rules correctly, based on when the student took the courses. A term code is assigned to a specific month, a month can only be assigned to one term code, and the terms cannot overlap.
For example, your school has a semester calendar where the semesters start in August, January, and May. Your school also uses term codes: 1 for Fall, 2 for Winter, and 3 for Summer. You would send that information to TFOSupport@collegesource.com. Your term codes will be defined like the following:
| Month |
Term Code |
Start Term |
Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04 | 2 | Winter | |
| 05 | 3 | Yes | Summer |
| 06 | 3 | Summer | |
| 07 | 3 | Summer | |
| 08 | 1 | Yes | Fall |
| 09 | 1 | Fall | |
| 10 | 1 | Fall | |
| 11 | 1 | Fall | |
| 12 | 1 | Fall |
3. Glossary Messages
Glossary Messages allow you to provide helpful messages and explanations to assist non-encoders (e.g., students and advisors) in understanding the higher education terminology sometimes used in transfer articulation rules. Glossary messages allow you to define messages for target course, alternate course, iflag, and dpmask values used in your articulation rules. Although Glossary Messages are optional, we recommend schools consider using them.
4. Match Scores
Using Course Bundles, a school can preview how student courses are scored for their equivalencies. Three possible aspects of DARwin/uAchieve equivalencies may lead to lower than expected match sores:
A. Alignment between TA source courses and source school's course catalog
When a TA rule is created or edited in the DARwin/uAchieve Client, the TA source courses are manually entered and therefore no program validation is done to check whether the source course department or course actually exists in the source school's course catalog. This is an area where extra (or missing) alpha and numeric characters can cause Transferology to reduce your school's match score for Transfer bundles. The Lab's Check Transfer Rules page can help find misaligned source course departments in your rules.
B. Alignment between TA target courses and target (or home) school's course catalog
Similarly, the TA target courses are manually entered and therefore no program validation is done to check whether the target course department or course actually exists in the target (or home) school's course catalog. This is an area where extra (or missing) alpha and numeric characters can cause Transferology to reduce your school's match score for Replacement Course bundles.
C. Wildcard usage in TA source or target courses
If your rules specify wild cards, they are likely to score less than 100%. See ACourse and IFlg for instructions on how to increase your match scores. The ACourse and IFlg tab is found in the View Equivalencies page in the Lab.
5. Review Equivalencies and Match Scores
At a minimum, a school should review the equivalencies of their main feeders in the Transferology Lab using the following pages:
- Course Bundles
- Transfer Equivalencies
- Check Transfer Rules
- Manage Source Schools
- Glossary Messages
- ACourse and IFlag Scoring System - Full credit/Partial credit
6. Go Live with Equivalencies
Send an email to TFOSupport@collegesource.com when you are ready to Go Live with your Equivalencies in Transferology.