Initial Setup of Year Term Conversions (uAchieve)

As part of the onboarding process, institutions supplying transfer articulation rules from uAchieve® must provide CollegeSource with a month-by-month mapping of the Year/Terms used in transfer encoding. This article provides an overview of year terms, how they are used in Transferology® and Transferology® Lab, and instructions for supplying information to CollegeSource in the format required.

What Are Year Terms?

Term codes (also called Year/Terms in uAchieve®) define the period within which a course must be taken to receive the credit/evaluation specified in a transfer articulation rule. They also define the period when programs and requirements are effective or applicable. These codes must be defined in Transferology® to enable the application to retrieve the correct catalog information and transfer rules.

How Year Terms are Used in Transferology

Within Transferology® and Transferology® Lab, students and staff enter courses the student has or will take based on the term that would be identified on the institution's transcript. Once courses are entered, the application uses the institution's year term conversions to retrieve the list of Departments and Courses associated with the Taken date the user selects.

It also uses the year term conversions:

• To retrieve transfer rules applicable to the time the student reports having taken classes.
• When determining what year term to submit for audit requests and, if coursework is part of the audit request, what coursework to apply to the audit.

Initial Setup

During onboarding, CollegeSource will work with uAchieve® institutions to set up year term conversions within the Lab. The institution will map its conversions and email them to CollegeSource at TFOSupport@collegesource.com in a chart format. The institution will need to supply conversions for all terms that would be listed on a transcript.

CollegeSource will enter the supplied information into the Year Term Conversions page within the School Profile menu of the Lab. School Administrators will have access to this page to review the data and make future changes if needed.

Rules

When mapping term codes, keep in mind the following rules:

• Each month must be assigned one term code.
• While the same term code can be assigned to more than one month, it cannot be assigned to multiple terms.
• Multiple terms cannot start in the same month.

Format

Term codes should be formatted in a chart like the one below.

Example

In this example above, the fictional CollegeSource University has three semesters each academic year: Fall, Spring, and Summer.

Fall

The Fall semester starts in September and ends in December. When filling out the year term conversion chart:

• The month 09 (September) is labeled the Start Term ("Yes") for the Fall semester.
• The institution uses the term code "09" to represent the Fall in uAchieve®.
  • "09" is entered under the Term Code column to the right of months 09 (September), 10 (October), 11 (November), and 12 (December).
• "Fall'' is entered in the Name column to the right of months 09, 10, 11, and 12.

Spring

CollegeSource University's Spring semester starts in January and ends in May. When filling out the year term conversion chart:

• The month 01 (January) is labeled the Start Term ("Yes") for the Spring semester.
• The institution uses the term code "01" to represent the Spring in uAchieve®.
  • "01" is entered under the Term Code column to the right of months 01 (January), 02 (February), 03 (March), 04 (April), and 05 (May).
• "Spring'' is entered in the Name column to the right of months 01, 02, 03, 04, and 05.

Summer

CollegeSource University's Summer semester starts in June and ends in August. When filling out the year term conversion chart:

• The month 06 (June) is labeled the Start Term ("Yes") for the Summer semester.
• The institution uses the term code "06" to represent the Summer in uAchieve®.
  • "06" is entered under the Term Code column to the right of months 06 (June), 07 (July), and 08 (August).
• "Summer'' is entered in the Name column under months 06, 07, and 08.

Multiple Sets of Conversions

Institutions that have operated under multiple calendar systems will need to provide multiple date-ranged sets of year term conversions to Transferology® . Data should be formatted like noted above, but two additional columns are needed - First Year Term and Last Year Term.

• First Year Term should be populated with the first year term in which the noted information applies.
• Last Year Term should be populated with the last year term it applies.

In the example below, multiple date-ranged sets of year term conversions were supplied because the institution switched from a quarter to semester system and, starting Fall 1996, no longer has a Winter term.