umd’s catalog recovery project how one campus worked to improve its transfer credit services sarah...
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UMD’s Catalog Recovery ProjectHow One Campus Worked to Improve Its Transfer Credit Services
Sarah HatfieldCurriculum & Transfer [email protected](218) 726-7986
Over the last year, UMD has worked to retroactively create five years of course catalogs. The aim of this project is to create a
snapshot in time of UMD curriculum, so as to be able to preserve academic information and assist students transferring to and from the university. UMD will discuss how we worked
to accurately and efficiently create these past catalogs within a limited timeframe, and how we worked to create up-to-date
transfer evaluation decisions based on this information.
Aim of this Presentation
To share:
• How UMD developed a method for searching for and evaluating five years worth of course changes and discerning
their impact on transfer credit services• How we were able to retroactively create course descriptions
and build our past catalogs• How UMD was able to update our DARS TA Tables in instances
where transfer courses needed re-evaluation• How we worked together as a team to improve our transfer
credit services, and what we learned along the way
Let’s Start at the Beginning…
What Did This Mean for Students?
Students Transferring From UMD• Courses created after 2009 catalog snapshot are not in TES • The only source of available course descriptions is the current
UMD website• Course descriptions may have changed over time
What did this mean for students transferring to UMD?
Transfer Evaluation Process Flow (Ideal)
Transfer Course Evaluation Process Flow (Actual)
Because UMD Catalog is Not in TES…
UMD Course Not in TES
Complications• Faculty must write in equivalency manually• Chance that faculty may think they can’t match the transfer
course to a current UMD class since it’s not in TES• Evaluation task cannot be “closed” in TES since course cannot
be selected• Leads to paper process that involves tracking• Courses may not be get re-reviewed when curriculum changes
at UMD or sending institution
February 2014
UMD began work on the Catalog Recovery Project - a project which would retroactively create the
below UMD catalogs:• 2010-2011*• 2011-2012• 2013-2014
Final Goal:2014-2015
Where Do We Begin?
• How do we know what courses were added each of these years?
• How do we know which courses were removed and which changed?
• Do we put everything in the description – i.e. pre-requisites, semesters offered? How much time will that take?• Do we re-create an entire catalog from scratch?
• Where is the coffee!?!?
Targeted Approach
• Recreate these past catalogs, using the 2009-2011 and 2013-2014 as a starting-
point/”shell”.
• Include information vital to the history of the course and transfer credit:
• Subject• Number• Title
• Description• Credit Hours• Grading Method
• Liberal Education Program Requirements• Repeatability• Pre-requisites• Terms offered
• “Duplicate credit” statement
Start Date: February 2014
Projected Completion Date: September 2014
2010-2011 CatalogStep 1: Query
A query was run to look for any courses in the electronic catalog that had an effective date that fell between 9/7/2010 and
9/5/2011. This would “signal” that a course change occurred sometime in Fall 2010, Spring 2011, or Summer 2011.
Spreadsheet Components:• Course ID• Effective Date• Status • Subject• Units• Long Title• Description
Step 2: Analysis
Each entry on the spreadsheet was
analyzed – we compared the
Electronic Course Catalog entry on the
sheet with the previous Electronic entry to
determine what change occurred between 2009
and 2010.
Step 3: Input the Change on the Spreadsheet
What if there’s no change?
Verify that the physical catalog description in the old 2009-2011 catalog (now saved as the 2010-2011 Draft) is the same as what
is displayed in the Electronic catalog for 2010-2011.
Note that there was no change and mark “PDF” status as complete.
Step 4: Update 2010-2011 Catalog Description
Ex. HIST1100 changed to AAAS 1100.
1) Remove HIST1100 from catalog • Put on deleted courses document
2) Add AAAS 1100• /ADD/ above description
3) Mark “PDF Status” as Complete
Unexpected Discoveries:
• Courses Missing from 2009-2011 catalog (included mid-year additions)
• Errors in 2009-2011 Catalog• Tricky Cases
• Documented errors found in 2009-2011 catalog.
• Since this course was inactivated Fall 2009, we knew to end-date any equivalencies to it.
Tricky Cases
What do we do if a course was de-activated mid year?
Solution:Be mindful of the date the course became inactivate. If it
became inactive mid-year or over the summer, do not remove it from the catalog. It must be taken out of the *2011-2012*
catalog.
Tricky Cases
• What do we do if a course (CHEM1111) was de-activated mid-year and a new course (CHEM1112) was created in its place?
Solution:Add both courses to the catalog since they could have both been
offered that year.
Tricky Cases
• What if we encounter a situation in which a course description or credit value changed mid-year or late summer?
Solution:After consulting with CollegeSource, we determined that mid-
year or summer changes needed to be reflected in the next catalog. The only exceptions were mid-year or summer additions
of courses, or course number changes.
Once the 2010-2011 catalog was complete, we sent it off to CollegeSource and began work on the 2011-2012 catalog.
Difference in Process
2010-2011 Catalog• Created by myself
2011-2012 & Catalog• Created with the assistance of two non-OTR staff• Saved 2010-2011 catalog as “2011-2012 Draft”. Split PDF of
catalog into three Word documents. • Created instruction sheet & crashed Google Spreadsheet
converted Spreadsheet to Google Doc.
As Project Manager, I acted to:• Help create the catalog • Problem-solve
• Proof the catalog for accuracy & consistency
Difference in Process
2012-2013 Catalog• Created with the assistance of two non-OTR staff• Saved 2013-2014 catalog as “2012-2013 Draft”. Split PDF of
catalog into three Word documents. • Created instruction sheet & converted Spreadsheet to Google
Doc.
Why Go Backwards?
In Fall 2012, UMD established new Liberal Education Program requirements. These requirement headings were present in the
2013-2014 catalog that was already created.
Once the 2010-2011 UMD catalog appeared in TES, we put a “closed” sign on TES and prepped our catalog for use.
• Updated User-Added Courses (New Departments)
• Double-Checked Display of Courses
Updating Equivalencies
Updating Equivalencies
Course matches were sent to faculty for re-review in TES in instances where:
UMD Course Sending Institution Course
InactivatedChanged Description Changed DescriptionChanged Credit Value Changed Credit ValueChanged Course Title*
Changed Subject Changed Subject*
Updating Equivalencies
Equivalencies were updated by the OTR (no review necessary) in instances of:
Course number changeTitle change at sending institution
End-Result (Spreadsheet)
Goals of Catalog Recovery
• Create a snapshot of the history of courses offered at UMD.• Enable students and Transfer Specialists to have information
students need to transfer to/from UMD.• No longer have courses equivalent to classes that do not exist
at UMD. • Get the catalog data in TES that is needed for faculty to make
up-to-date transfer evaluation decisions.
Completion DatesCatalog Projected
Completion Date
ActualDate
Completed
Projected Date for
Catalog in TES
ActualDate Catalog In
TES
Projected Date of Equivalency
Update Completion
Actual Date of Equivalency
Update Completion
2010-2011 March 2014 March 18th, 2014
April 2014 April 14th, 2014
May 2014 July 3rd, 2014
2011-2012 April 18th , 2014
April 23rd, 2014
May 19th, 2014
May 29th, 2014 June 2014 August 10th, 2014*
2012-2013 April 21st, 2014
July 14th, 2014
May 26th, 2014
August 6th, 2014
July 2014 September 5th, 2014*
2013-2014 N/A N/A July 2014 August 2014
2014-2015 August 2014 September 2014
Ongoing
What Did We Learn?
While our course catalogs have been “recovered”, it took great time and effort to create them and some compromises had to
be made.
Not having this data available in real-time hindered the transfer credit evaluation process and has created a historical record that
will have some inaccuracies.
What Did We Learn?
The ability to access course catalogs in TES greatly aids in transfer credit evaluation. Not having these available slowed
down the transfer credit process for all parties involved.
What Did We Learn?
We couldn’t have done this project without the combined effort of many people and departments at UMD.
Looking Forward
The 2013-2014 UMD catalog is set to appear in TES any day now…
probably today, just because I’m not in the office
