This chapter provides an overview of transfer credit and addresses all of the necessary setup to complete before processing transfer credit, explaining how to:
Define external organizations.
Set up external subjects.
Set up external school subjects.
Enter external subjects.
Set up external terms.
Set up test and component information.
Set transcript and statistics defaults.
Make overall statistics adjustments.
Define study agreements.
Create course transfer equivalency rules.
Convert existing transfer components into component subject areas.
Copy transfer components between component subject areas.
Define course equivalencies for academic programs and plans.
Create test transfer equivalency rules.
Define test equivalencies for academic programs and plans.
Important! Much of this setup of organizations is shared with PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus Community and PeopleSoft Enterprise Recruiting and Admissions. It is important that you coordinate your efforts.
This section lists prerequisites and discusses the transfer credit business process.
Before you set up transfer credit rules and process transfer credit, complete all other setup in Student Records. You must define academic careers, academic programs, academic plans, the course catalog, grading bases, terms, and sessions. It is helpful to first write out the rules for accepting transfer credit before entering them into the system.
While setup for the Transfer Credit feature is complicated, it can save you hours of time in the long run. To set up for transfer credit processing:
Define external organizations.
Set up external subjects.
Set up external school subjects
Enter external subjects.
Set up external terms.
Set up test and component information.
Set transcript and statistics defaults.
Make overall statistics adjustments.
Define study agreements.
Setting up for processing transfer credit involves defining the external organizations from which you accept transfer credit and defining all of the subject areas and courses that the external organization can transfer. A key aid to completing the setup for the Transfer Credit feature is to point any external organization or internal institution to any other external organization's or internal institution's catalog of courses. It is thus possible to create one group of external courses that a number of external organizations share. Sharing course information saves time because you do not have to duplicate your data entry effort if one or more organizations have the same or similar courses. It is especially helpful when dealing with a large transfer population from schools where courses are virtually the same or catalogs are shared. For instance, if your academic institution receives many transfer students from a state college system, you can create one catalog of external courses for the state college system where all state colleges in that system can point to for these courses.
Transfer equivalency rules that you create are the foundation of the Transfer Credit process. Once you define external organizations, you create equivalency rules for courses and tests, then attach these equivalency rules to specific academic programs and academic plans. You also attach an equivalency rule to an external organization or internal institution.
Once you complete the setup, you are ready to process transfer credit. Transfer credit processing is based on a concept of modeling various scenarios of transfer credit articulation. You set up model scenarios for an individual, dependent on the individual’s chosen academic program and plan to demonstrate different options of transferring credit. Based on your setup, you have the ability to model as many transfer credit scenarios as you want for prospects, applicants, and current students. You furthermore have the flexibility to articulate models based on your predefined rules or rules that you create manually.
Before you can use transfer credit processing, use the Organization Table component to define external organizations. As you define external organizations, specify their location, contacts, departments, and characteristics. Also specify whether the organization is a vendor.
As part of the external organization setup within this component, transfer credit processing requires that you do the following:
Select the Offers Courses field on the Organization Table page to identify the external organization as one that offers courses.
This enables you to create external courses to be used in transfer credit articulation rules.
Enter, on the School Data page, the data that applies to the external organizations that offer courses.
When forming transfer credit rules, the system uses the values that you define for the external organization in the Term Type and Unit Type fields and the Catalog Information group box as system default values. Furthermore, if you indicate that an external organization has a shared catalog with another external organization, the system uses the catalog organization that you specify as the default value on the course Transfer Rule page.
Defining external organizations is shared with Campus Community and Recruiting and Admissions.
See Also
Adding Organizations to Your Database
Use the External Subject Table page to define subject categories found at external organizations. You then link these subjects to external organizations and the courses they offer. The subject area that you enter on the External Subject Table can be tied to specific external organizations on the School Subject Maintenance page. For every external organization from which you anticipate receiving academic work for transfer articulation, define all subject areas through this page.
See Also
Entering Codes for External Organizations
To set up external school subjects, use the School Subject Maintenance component (SCHOOL_SUBJECTS).
This section discusses how to set up external school subjects.
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
SCHOOL_SUBJECTS |
Set Up SACR, Common Definitions, External Education |
Link external subjects to specific external organizations, specifying the subject areas that your institution accepts as transfer credit from the external organization. You will use these subject areas to build external courses. |
Access the School Subject Maintenance page.
Important! One external organization's catalog of courses can be used by multiple institutions. Plan carefully before you use this page to enter every subject area for every institution from which you might receive transfer credit.
School Subject |
Select a school subject for the external organization from the prompt box, or manually enter a school subject into the field. This field contains no edits and thus enables you to enter any value. Only the values in the prompt box will show a description. |
External Subject Area |
Select the external subject area that corresponds to the school subject. This field is useful when an external organization has a number of school subjects that are the same but have different names, such as ENGL and English. You can associate both school subjects with each other, for example, by tying each school subject to the external subject area of ENGL. |
To set up external courses, use the School Course Classification component (SCHOOL_COURSES).
This section discusses how to record external courses.
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
SCHOOL_COURSES |
Set Up SACR, Common Definitions, External Education |
Record the specific course offerings for each subject area of an external organization. You will use these course classifications when you create course transfer rules. |
Access the School Course Classification page.
Note. If you want to inactivate an external course, you must not only select a status of inactive but also remove the external course from your course equivalency rules.
School Course Number |
Enter the course number at the specified external organization for the course you are classifying. This is usually the catalog number of the external course. |
External Subject Area |
Select the external subject area for this course at the specified external organization. This is where school subjects that are the same but have different names can both be represented by the single external subject area you select. |
Career |
Select the career for this course at the specified external organization. Values for this field are delivered with your system as translate values. You can modify these values. |
External Course Type |
Select the external course type for this course at the specified external organization. Values for this field are delivered with your system as translate values. You can modify these values. |
Course Level |
Select the level for this course at the specified external organization. Values for this field are delivered with your system as translate values. You can modify these values. |
External Units |
Enter the number of external units that this course is worth at the specified external organization. |
Note. External courses are converted to your academic institution's unit type, based on the rules on the External Term Table page.
Use the External Term page to define external terms. When tracking information regarding external institutions for a prospect, applicant, or student, you may want to know the specific term to which that information is related. For example, if you are entering external transfer credit information, you want to record the term to which the transfer credit information pertains. Because external institutions use various term structures, use this table to define all external terms. You can also set up how you want external terms converted to your term structure.
Note. The system uses the conversion multipliers on the Unit Conversion Table page when calculating internal transfer credit (for instance, transferring between academic careers).
See Also
Entering Codes for External Organizations
To create test credit transfer rules, define your test components and test codes.
Use the Test Component page to set up test components used in your rules for test credit equivalencies.
Example test components include English Composition and Essay, German Language and Listening, and so forth.
Use the Test Tables page to set up test codes and link test components to them.
Note. Minimum scores are also defined for test transfer equivalency rules.
See Also
Processing External Test Scores
Use the Organization Affiliation page to enter details regarding your institution’s affiliation with specific external organizations. The only relevant fields for transfer credit processing, containing the default values for printed transcripts, are in the Transfer Credit Transcript Print group box on this page. You can override the default values for specific transcript types on the Transfer/Test/Other Credits page of the Transcript Type component.
Level of Detail |
Select from the following choices the transfer credit level of detail to print on transcripts for a student transferring credit from this external organization. Summary: Select this option to print a student’s total transferred units and grade point average (GPA) from this external organization on the student's transcript. Select this option if you use the Historical Course Enrollment page for your conversion process. Detail: Select this option to print what you choose in the Details to Print field. |
Details to Print |
If you select Detail in the Level of Detail field, use this field to select the details to print on the transcript: None, External Courses, External and Internal (courses), Internal Equivalent Courses. |
Include Transfer Credit in GPA |
Select if you want the transfer credit from this organization to be included in the student's GPA. If you clear this check box, the system does not include transfer credit grade points in the student's GPA. |
See Also
Entering Affiliations with Organizations
Use the Terms in Residence page to modify a student's terms in residence or to adjust transfer credit values.
See Also
Maintaining a Student’s Terms in Residence
To set up study agreements, use the Student Agreement Table component (STUDY_AGREEMNT_TBL).
You can attach study agreements to individual student records on the External Study page of the Term Activation component. Study agreement codes are normally used to represent study abroad, exchange, and visiting programs.
This section discusses how to create study agreements.
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
STUDY_AGREEMNT_TBL |
Set Up SACR, Common Definitions |
Create study agreements for use with external organizations. |
To set up course transfer equivalency rules, use the Transfer Subject Area component (TRNSFR_SUBJ_AREA) and the Course Transfer Rules component (TRNSFR_RULE).
This section provides an overview of course transfer equivalency rules and discusses how to:
Define component subject areas.
Define subject area elements.
Review and adjust incoming course information.
Define course transfer rules.
After you have set up all of the tables discussed previously in this chapter, you can begin to create your course transfer equivalency rules. The Transfer Credit process enables you to articulate course credit manually or with predefined course transfer equivalency rules. Most likely, you will create predefined rules for external organizations or internal academic institutions from which you receive the majority of your transfer students. You can create manual rules for those organizations from which you infrequently receive transfer students.
In this section, we review how to create the predefined course equivalency transfer rules for modeling transfer articulations for a prospect, applicant, or student. An equivalency rule is attached to an external organization or internal academic institution and can contain numerous transfer components. You might even decide to define more than one course transfer equivalency rule for an external organization or internal academic institution to account for academic program and academic plan differences in articulation rules.
The term component is used throughout this chapter and should be distinguished from the same term used in PeopleTools, which refers to a page or group of pages under a menu item. In the Transfer Credit feature, a component ties each incoming course and its internal equivalents together. Thus, for each incoming course and its matched equivalent there is a corresponding component. These data elements together represent a line or sequence within the overall course transfer rule. Thus, a course transfer rule is generally made up of hundreds, possibly thousands, of components, each of which contains a number of data elements, including the transfer priority number, the incoming courses, and the internal equivalents. For simplicity, we refer to components related to transfer credit as transfer components.
To manage this large volume of transfer components, group them into distinct component subject areas for each external organization or internal academic institution by using the Transfer Subject Area component. Because component subject areas are user-defined and not enforced by your academic institution’s Subject table, you can define a component subject area with a value that can later be associated with a given course transfer equivalency rule. For example, you can create for an external organization a component subject area called Mathematics and define all of the incoming math and statistics courses and their internal equivalent courses within this component subject area. Or you can define one component subject area for math courses and one component subject area for statistics courses.
After you define component subject areas you will use the Course Transfer Rules component to assign component subject areas to the course transfer rules that you create for each external organization or internal academic institution.
The system stores the data for each component subject area in intermediary tables (TRNSFR_RULE and TRNSFR_RSUB) that are independent of the course-transfer equivalency rule tables (TRNSFR_SUBJ, TRNSFR_COMP, TRNSFR_FROM, TRNSFR_TO). All of these tables are associated with each other through parent-and-child relationships in the table structure.
Articulating Variable Unit Courses
To ease the articulation of variable unit courses, PeopleSoft can determine transfer unit values in one of three ways:
By the units of the internal equivalent course as they appear in the course catalog.
By a fixed value, determined by the institution.
By the units of the incoming course, whether a set or variable value, with the option of setting a maximum limit.
Rather than having the transfer model determine the transfer units for an incoming course based on the units of the internal equivalent course in the course catalog as they appeared at the time the transfer rule was set up, which can cause the system to get out of synchronization, you can determine the units by the internal equivalent course or by a fixed value. See the examples at the end of this section for more information.
Excess Credit Courses
You can award excess credit to a specified course. For example, if a student took MATH 1A for 4 units, but the internal equivalent was only worth 3 units, you could set up an excess credit course and award the excess units to that course. See the examples at the end of this section for more information.
Note. The PeopleSoft Academic Advisement application will treat the excess credit course as simply another transfer course, bringing in the course ID, grade, and requirement designation as it does for the internal equivalent course. And just like the internal equivalent, the excess credit course will also be coded as “TR” on the degree audit. If your business practice is to use one particular course ID to collect excess credit for a variety of incoming courses, be aware that each instance of the course will appear on the advising report.
Note. The Creating Course Transfer Equivalency Rules section contains functionality that was part of Product Update Issue #110386, which was posted to Customer Connection in January 2003. This functionality is only available in your database if you downloaded this update.
See Also
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
TRNSFR_SUBJECT |
Records and Enrollment, Transfer Credit Rules |
Describe component subject areas for a transfer credit source, otherwise known as an external organization or internal academic institution. Also use this page to set up incoming course default information for the transfer components that you will define within this component subject area. The system applies these defaults to each incoming course that you specify on the Subject Area Elements page of this component. |
|
TRNSFR_DETAIL |
Records and Enrollment, Transfer Credit Rules, Transfer Subject Area |
Define the transfer components of the component subject area. |
|
TRNSFR_FR_SEC |
Click the Incoming Course Information link on the Subject Area Elements page. |
Adjust the default information for a particular incoming course within the component subject area. Default information for incoming courses of a particular component subject area is defined on the Transfer Subject Area page. |
|
TRNSFR_RULE |
Records and Enrollment, Transfer Credit Rules |
Define course transfer equivalency rules for external organizations or internal academic institutions. |
Access the Transfer Subject Area page.
General Fields
Catalog Org Type (catalog organization type) |
Designates the table from which you will be selecting a catalog organization for the component subject area of the specified source. External: The system prompts you with external organizations in your system. Define external organizations on the Organization Table page. Internal: The system prompts you with academic institutions in your system. Define academic institutions on the Academic Institution Table page. |
Catalog Organization |
Select the catalog organization for this component subject area of the specified source. By default, the system selects the specified source as the catalog organization, but you can override this value. The system prompts you with values based on your selection in the Catalog Org Type field. When defining course equivalencies for the component subject area of the specified source on the Subject Area Elements page, the system will prompt you with incoming courses based on the catalog organization that you select here. You can use any external organization or internal academic institution as the catalog organization to define course equivalencies for this component subject area of the specified source. However, once you define a course equivalency on the Subject Area Elements page, the Catalog Org Type and Catalog Organization fields become unavailable. |
Component Defaults
Use the fields in the Component Defaults group box to define default information for incoming courses that you select for this component subject area of specified source on the Subject Area Elements page. You can later override these default values for an individual incoming course by selecting the Incoming Course Information link for the incoming course to change on the Subject Area Elements page.
Min/Max Units (minimum and maximum units) |
Enter the default minimum and maximum units for all incoming courses that you define for this component subject area of the specified source. |
Term Type |
Select the default term type for all incoming courses that you define for this component subject area of the specified source. By default the system displays the term type defined on the School Data page of the External Organization component. Values for this field are delivered with your system as translate values. You can modify these values. |
Min/Max Grade Pts Per Unit (minimum and maximum grade points per unit) |
Enter the default minimum and maximum grade points per unit for all incoming courses that you define for this component subject area of the specified source. |
Transfer Grade |
Select if you generally want to transfer the grade from the incoming course to the student’s record at your academic institution. If you select this check box, the Transfer Credit process copies the grade from the incoming course to the equivalent course as long as the grade is a valid value for the grading scheme and grading basis of the student’s academic program. If you clear this check box, the Transfer Credit process always uses the transfer grade value defined on the Academic Program Table component for the academic program specified on the transfer credit model. |
Internal Equiv Course Value (internal equivalent course value) |
Select a default for this component subject area. Choose from the following options: Use Catalog Units: The system determines the number of units the student will get for the incoming course based on the unit setting for the internal equivalent course in the course catalog. Specify Maximum Units: The system uses the units of the incoming course but will not exceed the maximum units that you enter in the Max Units to Transfer field. Specify Fixed Units: The system awards the student the number of units that you enter in the Units field. |
Excess Credit Defaults
Course ID |
If you want to create excess credit courses, select a default for this component subject area. The system places excess units into this course when a student has taken more units for the incoming course than is allowed in the internal equivalent course. See the Course ID field description under the Subject Area Elements page. |
Requirement Designation |
If you want to assign a requirement designation to your excess credit courses, select a default for this component subject area. Requirement designations further define the type of transfer credit being received. Requirement designation values are defined on the Requirement Designation Table page. |
See Also
Understanding Requirement Designations
Access the Subject Area Elements page.
Within each transfer component you define the incoming courses and internal equivalent courses. For each transfer component, you define the term type of the incoming course, the transfer priority in relation to other transfer components within the component subject area, and some general information.
General Fields
Sequence Number |
The sequence number is the numeric counter that distinguishes each transfer component of the component subject area apart from other transfer components. By default, the system populates the first sequence number of the component subject area as 0001 and increases the number by one as you add transfer components. |
Description |
This field describes the transfer component of the component subject area. By default, the system displays the description from the Transfer Subject Area page. You can override this default value. |
Term Type |
Select the term type for this transfer component of the component subject area. By default the system displays the term type from the Transfer Subject Area page. Values for this field are delivered with your system as translate values. You can modify these values. |
Transfer Course |
Select to have the incoming courses on this transfer component of the component subject area transfer to your academic institution, provided that the student’s incoming course meets all conditions of the course transfer rule. Clear to have the Transfer Credit process reject the incoming courses that you enter on this row of the component subject area. A course evaluated in this way will have a status of rejected on the Transfer Course Details page of the Course Credits component. |
Transfer Priority |
Enter the transfer priority number for this transfer component. The Transfer Credit process evaluates the courses within the component subject area according to the transfer priority of each transfer component. The transfer component that has the highest priority takes precedence. If an individual’s incoming course meets all conditions of the course transfer rule to which this component subject area is assigned, then the Transfer Credit process uses the equivalent course as defined on the transfer component that has the highest transfer priority. However, if the individual’s incoming course does not meet the conditions of the course transfer rule to which this component subject area is assigned, the Transfer Credit process evaluates the incoming course against the transfer component with the next highest transfer priority. For example, if you have a rule where a student can receive credit based on the grade or the number of units the student completes, you set up two separate components using a different transfer priority for each. If a student takes math 101 for 2 units or gets an A, the internal equivalent is Math 102; and if a student takes math 101 for 3 units or gets a C, the internal equivalent is Math 99. |
Contingent Credit |
Select to have the incoming courses transfer to your academic institution as contingent credit, provided that the individual’s incoming course meets all conditions of the course transfer rule to which this component subject area is assigned. A course evaluated in this way will have a status of contingent on the Transfer Course Details page of the Course Credits component. You can manually change the status of the incoming course from contingent to accepted once the individual meets the contingency. For example, Education 310 at UC Santa Cruz is equivalent to Education 312 at PSUNV, provided that the student also has submitted verification of an internship. Select the Contingent Credit check box for this incoming course. During the Transfer Credit process the course credit will transfer, but the incoming course will have a status of contingent on the Transfer Course Details page. |
Internal Equiv Course Value (internal equivalent course value) |
Select how you want the system to determine the number of units the student will receive from the incoming course. Choose from the following: Use Catalog Unit: The system determines the number of units the student will get for the incoming course based on the unit setting for the internal equivalent course in the course catalog. To determine the units in the course catalog, the system compares the start date of the articulation term to the effective date in the course catalog. Specify Maximum Units. The system uses the units of the incoming course but will not exceed the maximum units that you enter in the Max Units to Transfer field, which appears in the Internal Equivalent group box when you select this option. For instance, if the incoming course is a variable unit course, and you want to limit the number of units that will transfer, select this option and enter the maximum units that you want to transfer in the Max Units to Transfer field. If you don’t want to impose a maximum, but still want the system to use the units of the incoming course, you would simply accept the default of 99 in the Max Units to Transfer field. Specify Fixed Units. The system uses the number of units that you enter in the Units field, which appears in the Internal Equivalent group box when you select this option. By default, the system populates the Units field with the course catalog unit value of the internal equivalent when the transfer rule is set up. You can change this value. Note. If the unit value or effective date in the course catalog changes, the Units field on this page does not change. |
Save Excess Units to a Course |
Select if you want to save excess units from the incoming course to a specified internal course. For example, if the incoming course was taken for 4 units, and the internal equivalent course is worth only 3 units, the extra unit can be credited to a second internal course, most likely an elective course. Note. Only one excess unit course can be assigned per transfer equivalency rule. Also, you cannot save excess units to a course when there is more than one internal equivalent. |
Incoming Course
Use the Incoming Course group box to define the external course information for a specific transfer component. The incoming courses and internal equivalent courses that you define are the transfer components of the component subject area.
Seq# (sequence number) |
The system automatically assigns a sequential number to each incoming course to identify unique transfer component records within the data table. These sequence numbers have no programming significance. |
W (wildcard) |
Select to use the # wildcard character at the end of the Course Number field value for the incoming course. Clear this check box and the system requires you to use a complete course number. |
Subject |
Select the subject area of the incoming course. For incoming courses from external organizations, define subject values on the School Subject Maintenance page. For incoming courses from internal academic institutions, subject areas are tied to courses in that academic institution’s course catalog. |
Course Number |
Select the course number for the incoming course. If you are using an external organization for the catalog organization (as defined on the Transfer Subject Area page), the system prompts you with courses that you associated with the external organization on the School Course Classification page. If you are using an internal academic institution for the catalog organization, the system prompts you with courses defined for that academic institution in the Course Catalog component. If you have selected the W check box, you can substitute the # wildcard character for the last character of the course number so that you can map a series of incoming courses to one internal equivalent course. For example, you can enter 1# to map course numbers 10 through 19 to a specific internal equivalent course, you can enter 10# to map course numbers 100 through 109 to specific internal equivalent course. Otherwise, the system prompts you with values from the School Course Classification Table page. |
Incoming Course Information |
Click to access the Incoming Course Information page, where you can enter detail information about this incoming course. |
Internal Equivalent
Use the Internal Equivalent group box to define the internal course that is equivalent to the incoming course for this transfer component.
Course ID |
Select the course that is equivalent to the incoming course for this transfer component. The system prompts you to select a course from your academic institution's course catalog. |
Offer Nbr (offering number) |
By default, the system displays the offering number of the course that you selected according to the definition of that course in your academic institution’s course catalog. You can override this default value. |
Max Units to Transfer |
This field appears when you select Specify Maximum Units in the Internal Equiv Course Value field. Enter the maximum number of units a student can transfer for this incoming course. For example, if the incoming course is a variable unit course that can be taken for 1 to 5 units, and you want the system to use the incoming units to populate the internal equivalent units but you only want to accept up to 3 units for this course, you could enter 3 in this field. However, if you want the system to use the units of the incoming course but don’t want to impose a maximum, simply accept the default of 99. |
Units |
This field appears when you select Specify Fixed Units in the Internal Equiv Course Value field. Enter the number of units that you want the internal equivalent to be worth, regardless of the number of units the incoming course is worth. For example, if you enter 3 in this field, a student could take the course for 1 unit, 2 units, or 7 units, but he would still receive 3 units for the internal equivalent. Although the system displays by default the units of the internal equivalent course as specified in the course catalog, you can change this value. This value does not change when the units are changed in the course catalog. |
Excess Credit Group Box
This group box appears when you select the Save Excess Units to a Course check box.
Course ID field |
Select an excess credit course for this transfer equivalency rule. If a student earns more units for an incoming course than the internal equivalency rule allows, the system awards the student units in the course you select here. The course should be an elective course for which repeat checking is not activated. Note. Each time a student is awarded excess units in a course it is shown as a separate instance of the class. Therefore, you should select the Repeat for Credit check box on the Catalog Data page in the course catalog for the course you select. Also, you should set the Units Allowed for the course to 999 and the Total Completions Allowed to 99 on the Catalog Data page. |
Offer Nbr (offer number) |
By default, the system displays the offering number of the course that you selected according to the definition of that course in your academic institution's course catalog. You can override this value. |
Max Units to Transfer (maximum units to transfer) |
Enter the maximum number of excess units that you want to award students. If you don’t want to set a maximum, simply accept the default value of 99. |
Requirement Designation |
Enter a requirement designation if you want to define the type of transfer credit being received. This value appears as a default from the course catalog. |
See Also
Understanding Requirement Designations
Access the Incoming Course Information page.
Begin / End Date |
By default, the system populates the begin and end date of the incoming course with 01/01/1900 and 12/31/9999. You can override these default values. These dates inform the Transfer Credit process when this incoming course is valid for the course transfer equivalency rule to which you attach this component subject area. |
Min / Max Units (minimum and maximum units) |
The system displays the default minimum and maximum units for incoming courses within this component subject area. You can override these default values. For instance, you might want to specify the same incoming course twice but differentiate each specification by how many units are earned. In that case, you would specify the same incoming course multiple times but with different minimum and maximum unit ranges. |
Min/Max Grade Pts Per Unit (minimum and maximum grade points per unit) |
The system displays the default minimum and maximum grade points per unit for incoming courses within this component subject area. You can override these default values. |
Maximum Age |
This field defines, in years, the maximum age of the incoming course. This prevents an individual from transferring credit for this course into your academic institution when the individual took the course more years ago than the number that you specify here. By default, the system sets the maximum age of an incoming course to 99 years, but you can override this default value. For instance, you might want restrict individuals from receiving transfer credit for a course when an individual has taken the course more than 4 years previous to the date your institution processes that individual’s transfer credit. |
Transfer Grade |
The system displays the default value of this field according to your selection for the corresponding field on the Transfer Subject Area page. Select this check box if you want to transfer the grade from the incoming course to the student’s record at your academic institution. If you select this check box, the Transfer Credit process copies the grade from the incoming course to the equivalent course, provided that the grade is a valid value for the grading scheme and grading basis of the student’s academic program. If the grade is not a valid value, then the Transfer Credit process uses the transfer grade value defined on the Basic Data page for the equivalency rule. If you clear this check box, the Transfer Credit process always uses the transfer grade value defined on the Academic Program Table component for the equivalency rule. |
OK |
Click to save changes and return to the Subject Area Elements page. |
Cancel |
Click to cancel changes and return to the Subject Area Elements page. |
Access the Course Transfer Rules page.
For each transfer equivalency rule, attach component subject areas that you have defined for the source in the Transfer Subject Area component. You can define multiple course transfer equivalency rules for a single source. For example, you might define multiple rules to account for academic program and academic plan differences in equivalency rules. The effective date functionality enables you to add and delete component subject areas that are no longer valid for the equivalency rule.
When adding a new transfer equivalency rule, you must also specify the credit source type of either external organization or internal academic institution. The credit source type instructs the system from which table you will be selecting your source ID. By selecting external organization, the system prompts you with the source IDs of external organizations in your system. By selecting institution, the system prompts you with source IDs of academic institutions in your system.
Transfer Subject Area |
Select the component subject areas to tie to the course transfer equivalency rule. Each component subject area defines the incoming courses, their internal equivalent courses, and detail about how the Transfer Credit process must function. The Transfer Credit process uses the transfer component data for component subject areas to determine an individual’s transfer credit. |
This section discusses examples of the following course equivalencies:
Many-to-one.
Many-to-many.
Course Rejection.
Multiple Equivalencies for the Same Course.
Excess credit.
Historical enrollment statistics.
To create a many-to-one course equivalency, set up your Subject Area Elements page as follows:
In this example, we created a component sequence for the Math Courses component subject area where two external courses are equivalent to one internal course. Notice that this is the eleventh component sequence number within this component subject area.
To create a many-to-many course equivalency, set up the Subject Area Elements page in the following way:
In this example, we created a component sequence for the Math Courses component subject area where two external courses are equivalent to two internal courses. This means that the individual must have both incoming courses and will be receive credit for both internal courses.
To reject a course, set up the Subject Area Elements page in the following way:
In the previous example, we cleared the Transfer Course check box. This makes the Internal Equivalent fields unavailable.
To define multiple equivalencies for the same incoming course, where each component is dependent on the credits earned (or another factor), set up the Subject Area Elements page in a manner similar to the following example.
For Santa Monica City College, the student’s transfer course will articulate to different math courses at PSUNV depending on the number of units that a student takes for Math 20. We define two component rules—one for Math 20 taken between one and two units and another for Math 20 taken between three and four units.
The Subject Area Elements page for the one to two unit equivalency looks as follows:
Notice that the incoming course maps to Pre-calculus.
The Incoming Course Information page for the one to two unit equivalency looks as follows:
Notice that the minimum and maximum units are 1.00 and 2.00, respectively.
The subject Area Elements page for the three to four unit equivalency looks as follows:
Notice that the incoming course maps to a Calculus 1 instead of Pre-calculus.
The Incoming Course Information page for the three to four unit equivalency looks as follows:
Notice that the minimum and maximum units are 3.00 and 4.00, respectively.
If an external course is worth more units than the internal equivalent course, you have excess credit. First create a special course in the course catalog to handle excess credit for the incoming course, then set up the Subject Area Elements page in the following way:
Special courses are also useful for historical conversion purposes when you use the Historical Course Enrollment page.
If you are using the Historical Enrollment page in your conversion to PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, and you want to also convert enrollment statistics for a student, you must use the Transfer Credit process to get statistics onto the student's record.
To transfer statistics using the transfer credit process:
Define a special external organization on the Organization Table page.
Set the level of detail as summary on the Organization Affiliation page's Transfer Credit Transcript Print group box.
Define special courses for summary statistics.
Define incoming courses and their internal equivalents in the Transfer Subject Area component using the special external organization and courses.
Process the transfer credit.
For example, you might decide to define special courses for each subject area, such as Math Courses, and English Courses. You can set up the Subject Area Elements page as follows:
In this example, the incoming course will be one special course defined on the School Course Classification page, while the internal equivalent is a special course in our course catalog.
If you are upgrading your Student Records system and you have existing transfer component data in your application tables, run the delivered upgrade script, UPG_SR. This upgrade script moves your existing transfer component data from the former application-data table structure into the current application-data table structure. It assigns all transfer components within an existing course transfer equivalency rule to a single component subject area that is named after the original rule in which the transfer component resides. After you run the upgrade script, you can, in the Transfer Subject Area component, access each of the component subject areas that the upgrade script creates, just as you would any other component subject area that you manually define. The data for all component subject areas, regardless of how they have been created, are stored in the same table (EXT_TRNSFR_SUBJECT).
Next, you must go to the Course Transfer Rules page and create your course transfer equivalency rules, attaching the component subject area to rules as appropriate. The system writes course transfer equivalency rule data to the EXT_TRNSFR_RULE_SUBJ table. You can continue course transfer credit processing using predefined rules as usual.
This section discusses how to copy transfer components between component subject areas.
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
RUNCNTL_TRNSFR_CPY |
Records and Enrollment, Transfer Credit Rules |
As necessary and as time permits, copy transfer components from larger, more general component subject areas into new, smaller component subject areas. |
Access the Subject Area Copy Function page.
The copying functionality is intended primarily for academic institutions that receive a large number of transfer credit courses from a single source. On this page, you select the component subject area from which you want to retrieve transfer components, define the basics of the new component subject area to create, then retrieve the transfer components from the existing component subject area, based on your parameters. Sort through the list of results to select the transfer components to include in the new transfer subject area, then run the Transfer Rule Subject Area Copy COBOL/SQL process (SRPCCARX) to create the new, smaller component subject area and copy the selected components into it. After you run the process, you can edit the newly created component subject area in the Transfer Subject Area component. Attach this new component subject area to course transfer equivalency rules in the Course Transfer Rules component and resume course transfer credit processing as usual.
Important! If you are copying a large component subject area, we recommend that you either use the Incoming Subject field or Break by Incoming Subject check box to separate the large component subject area into smaller ones based one incoming subject, or use the From Component Seq# and To Component Seq# fields to copy blocks of 500 transfer components at a time into smaller component subject areas based on transfer component sequence numbers. You are not required to copy transfer components by subject area—this is simply a logical breaking point for large component subject areas.
Refresh |
Click to refresh the page. |
From Seq # (from sequence number) |
The sequence number is the numeric counter that distinguishes each row of the process request apart from other rows. By default, the system sets the first sequence number to 1 and increases the number by one as you add rows. |
Description |
Enter a description for this row of the process request. |
Academic Institution |
Select the academic institution that the component subject area to copy belongs to. |
Source ID |
Select the identification code of the source that the component subject area to copy belongs to. |
Component Subject Area |
Select the component subject area to copy. The system displays valid choices based on the academic institution and source that you specified for this process request. |
Effective Date |
Select the effective date of the specified component subject area. The effective date indicates the row to copy within the specified component subject area. |
Incoming Subject |
Select an incoming subject to filter by subject through all transfer components of the specified transfer component subject area. When you click the Fetch button the system retrieves only the transfer components with this incoming subject and automatically selects to copy them into the new, smaller component subject area during processing. This field prompts against the external subject table for the specified external organization. If you use this field, the Break by Incoming Subject check box becomes unavailable for entry. Note that you can assign the To Component Subject Area field and its related Description field the same name as the incoming subject because component subject areas are keyed by source ID. Or, you can assign these fields unique values. (Optional) |
Break by Incoming Subject |
Select to break by incoming subject all transfer components of the specified component subject area. If you select this check box, the Incoming Subject field, To Component Subject Area field, and its related Description field become unavailable for entry. When you click the Fetch button the system retrieves all transfer components, separates them by incoming subject into unique rows on the run control page, assigns each row a sequence number, and automatically selects to copy all transfer components into new, smaller component subject areas during processing. For example, LBCC has eight different incoming subjects in their component subject area, so the system creates eight rows for eight new component subject areas. In addition, the system automatically populates the Incoming Subject field, the To Incoming Subject Area field, and its related Description field for each row. The Incoming Subject field remains unavailable for edit, but you can edit the other two fields. (Optional) |
From Component Seq# (from component sequence number) |
Indicate the first transfer component to retrieve from the specified component subject area. By default, the system sets the value of this field to 0001. You can override this default value. |
To Component Seq# (to component sequence number) |
Indicate the last transfer component to retrieve from the specified component subject area. When you click the Fetch button to retrieve transfer components, the system displays all transfer components within the specified range. By default, the system sets the value of this field to 9999. You can override this default value. |
To Component Subject Area |
Enter the identification code of the new component subject area to create based on the preexisting component subject area that you have specified. |
Description |
Enter a description of the new component subject area. |
Effective Date To |
Enter the effective date of the new component subject area to create based on the preexisting component subject area that you specified to copy. |
Fetch |
Click to retrieve the transfer components from the preexisting component subject area that you specified to copy. |
Sequence # (sequence number) |
The system displays the sequence number of the transfer component from the preexisting component subject area that you specified to copy. |
Description |
The system displays the description of the transfer component from the preexisting component subject area that you specified to copy. |
Incoming Course |
The system displays the subject, course number, and description for the incoming course of the transfer component. |
Equivalent Course |
The system displays the course ID, offering number, and description for the internal equivalent course of the transfer component. |
Select All or Deselect All |
Click to select or deselect all of the transfer components in the list at the bottom of the page. This functionality is useful when you are splitting a component subject area with a large amount of transfer components. For example, let’s say that you have a math component subject area with 300 transfer components and you want to group 250 within a new, higher math component subject area and the remaining 50 within a new, lower math component subject area. To create the higher math component subject area, retrieve all of the transfer components from the math component subject area, click the Select All button, then clear the check boxes for the 50 excluded components. When you create the lower math component subject area, select all of the 50 included transfer components. |
Filter |
Click to filter the list of transfer components that appear at the bottom of this page. The system displays only the transfer components that you have checked. The checked transfer components are the only ones that the Subject Area Copy Function process uses when creating the new component subject area. |
Unfilter |
The system displays this button whenever you have filtered the list of transfer components that appear at the bottom of the page. Click this button to reset the list back to its original number of transfer components. |
To set up course equivalencies for academic programs and plans, use the Program/Source Equivalency component (EXT_EQUIV).
After you have set up your course transfer equivalency rules, you must use the Program/Source Equivalency component to select the academic programs and plans within your academic institution to which you want to assign these rules.
If you have multiple equivalency rules for a given external organization or internal academic institution, you can attach these rules to various academic program and academic plan combinations. For instance, if we create two course transfer equivalency rules for an external organization, then we can link one rule to the Liberal Arts program and the other rule to the Liberal Arts program and English plan. The English equivalency rule includes English course-specific equivalencies that are different from the liberal arts equivalencies.
Note. The Basic page enables you to attach course transfer equivalency rules to a specific academic program or academic plan. The system requires that you attach the rule to an academic program, but it is optional whether you attach the rule to an academic plan.
This section discusses how to:
Set up basic academic program and plan data.
Set equivalency rules.
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
EXT_TRNSFR |
Records and Enrollment, Transfer Credit Rules |
Set up some basic parameters (such as grading basis and transfer grade) for processing transfer credit within a specified academic program or plan. |
|
EXT_TRNSFR_EQUIV |
Records and Enrollment, Transfer Credit Rules, Program/Source Equivalency |
Set the course equivalency rules for academic programs or academic plans, which the system will use to evaluate transfer credit from the specified institution. On this page, like the external course catalog, you have the flexibility to point to any organization's ID to use as the source ID for course equivalency rules. |
Access the Program/Source Equivalency - Basic page.
When accessing this page in Add mode, select the credit source type from which you will be selecting your source ID. By selecting external organization, the system prompts you with the source IDs of external organizations in your system. You define external organizations on the Organization Table page. By selecting institution, the system prompts you with source IDs of academic institutions in your system. You define institutions on the Academic Institution Table page.
Effective Date |
In addition to the common definition of this element, the system uses the effective date in conjunction with the articulation term on the Transfer Course Detail page to determine the validity of equivalency rules. |
Grading Scheme |
By default, the system displays the grading scheme of the specified academic program. Define grading schemes for academic programs on the Academic Program page in the Academic Program Table component. Define grading schemes for academic careers on the Academic Career Table page. You can override this default value now, and you can later override this value for individual transfer courses that you process. This grading scheme defines all of the valid grading bases from which you can select a default transfer grade for this academic program/plan and source combination. |
Grading Basis |
By default, the system displays the grading basis default for transfer credit according to the specified academic program. Define grading-basis defaults for transfer-credit values on the Academic Program page in the Academic Program Table component for academic programs. Define grading-basis defaults for transfer-credit values on the Academic Career Table page for academic careers. You can override this default value now, and you can later override this value for individual transfer courses that you process. This grading basis defines all of the valid grades from which you can select a default transfer grade for this academic program, academic plan, and source combination. |
Transfer Grade |
By default, the system displays the default transfer grade of the specified academic program. Define default transfer grades for academic programs on the Academic Program page in the Academic Program Table component. Define default transfer grades for academic careers on the Academic Career Table page. You can override this default value now, and you can later override this value for individual transfer courses that you process. This transfer grade defines the grade that an individual receives for courses that articulate into the specified academic program or academic plan. |
Transfer HS Courses (transfer high school courses) |
To include any course taken during high school in an individual’s transfer credit for this academic program, academic plan, and source combination, select this check box. Clear this check box to exclude courses taken during high school. |
Access the Rules Specification page.
You must specify the credit source type from which you will be selecting your source ID. By selecting external organization, the system prompts you with the source IDs of external organizations in your system. By selecting institution, the system prompts you with source IDs of academic institutions you have defined in your system.
The following three group boxes all have the Agreement, Override, and Default fields. Each identically named field functions as a row of data to define a course equivalency rule. Each of these fields is documented once, following the group box definitions. As the Transfer Credit process evaluates courses, it will use the rules in the following order: agreement, override, default.
Rule Source Type
Use the fields in this group box to select the table from which you will be choosing each of your course equivalency rules for this academic program/plan and source combination. Select from the following choices.
External Org (external organization): |
The system will prompt you with the external organization source IDs in your system. Because external organizations and internal academic institutions can share the same course catalog, you might want to point to a different source ID for the course catalog. |
Institution |
The system will prompt you with institution source IDs in your system. |
Rule Source ID
Use the fields in this group box to select the source ID for the course transfer equivalency rule for this academic program/plan and source combination. You can point to any sources rules.
Course Equivalency Rule
Use the fields in this group box to select the specific course transfer equivalency rules for this academic program, academic plan, and source combination.
Common Course Equivalency Rule Fields
Agreement |
The Transfer Credit process uses the course equivalency rule that you specify on this row first. If the transfer course meets the criteria of the rule specified on this row, the process applies the rule to the transfer course and evaluates the course no further. If you have not specified a rule for this row, or if the transfer course does not meet the criteria of the rule, the process then evaluates the course equivalency rule that you specify on the Override row. |
Override |
The Transfer Credit process uses the course equivalency rule that you specify on this row second. If the transfer course meets the criteria of the rule specified on this row, the process applies the rule to the transfer course and evaluates the course no further. If you have not specified a rule for this row, or if the transfer course does not meet the criteria of the rule, the process then evaluates the course equivalency rule that you specify on the Default row. |
Default |
The Transfer Credit process uses the course equivalency rule that you specify on this row last. If the transfer course meets the criteria of the rule specified on this row, the process applies the rule to the transfer course and evaluates the course no further. If you have not specified a rule for this row, or if the transfer course does not meet the criteria of the rule, the process will not articulate the course. In this case, the transfer course appears on the Transfer Course Details page with a status of no rule. |
Note. If you only have one rule for this source, you must enter it in Course Equivalency Rule field on the Default row. The Default row is the only row on the page that requires a course equivalency rule.
To set up test transfer equivalency rules, use the Test Transfer Rules component (TEST_RULES).
This section discusses how to define test transfer equivalency rules.
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
TEST_CREDIT_COMP |
Records and Enrollment, Transfer Credit Rules, Test Transfer Rules |
Define sets of test transfer equivalency rules. |
Access the Test Credit Rule/Component page.
Setting up your test transfer equivalency rules is similar to setting up your course credit transfer equivalency rules. For each test equivalency rule that you define, describe the rule, select the test and test component for the rule, and specify course equivalencies for the test component.
Test ID |
Select the identification number of the test for which you are defining this test equivalency rule. |
Test Component |
Select the component of the test for which you are defining this test equivalency rule. |
Equiv. Component (equivalent component) |
The equivalency component number is the numeric counter that distinguishes each row of the test equivalency rule apart from other rows. By default, the system displays the first equivalency component of the test equivalency rule to 0001 and increases the number by one as you add rows. |
Description (lower) |
This field describes the row of the equivalency test rule. By default, the system displays the description of the test component according to the description on the Test Component Table page. You can override this default value. |
Transfer Priority |
Enter the transfer priority number for this row of the test equivalency rule. The Transfer Credit process evaluates the rows within the test equivalency rule according to the transfer priority of each row. The test component within the row that has the highest value takes priority. If an individual’s transfer test meets all conditions of the test equivalency rule, then the Transfer Credit process uses the equivalent course as defined on the row with the highest transfer priority. However, if the individual’s transfer test does not meet the conditions of the test equivalency rule, then the Transfer Credit process evaluates the row with the next highest transfer priority. |
Min/Max Score (minimum and maximum score) |
Enter the minimum and maximum score of applicable transfer tests for this row of the test equivalency rule, or enter the minimum percentile. |
Minimum Percentile |
Enter the minimum percentile of the applicable transfer tests for this row of the test equivalency rule, or enter the minimum and maximum score. |
Begin/End Date |
By default, the system sets the begin and end date of the transfer test to 01/01/1900 and 12/31/9999. You can override these default values. These dates inform the Transfer Credit process when the applicable transfer test must be taken for this row of the test equivalency rule. |
Maximum Age |
This field defines, in years, the maximum age of the transfer tests for this row of the test equivalency rule. This prevents an individual from transferring test credit into your academic institution if the individual took the test more years ago than the number of years that you specify here. By default, the system sets the maximum age of a transfer test to 99, but you can override this default value. For instance, you might want restrict an individual from receiving transfer credit for a test if the individual took the test more than 4 years prior to the date that your institution processes the individual’s transfer credit. |
Course ID |
Select the course to which the given test component is equivalent. The system prompts you with courses from your academic institution’s course catalog. You can add rows to create a one-to-many test equivalency rule. You're prompted from your course catalog. The system automatically populates the Course Offering Number and Units Taken fields with values from the course catalog definition. You can select a different offering number and enter different units. |
Course Offering Number |
By default, the system displays the course offering number of the specified course according to the value in your academic institution’s course catalog. You can override this default value. |
Units Taken |
By default, the system displays the units taken value of the specified course according to the value in your academic institution’s course catalog. You can override this default value. |
See Also
To set up test equivalencies for programs and plans, use the Program/Test Equivalency component (TEST_EQUIV).
This section discusses how to set test equivalencies for academic programs and plans.
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
TEST_CREDIT_EQUIV |
Records and Enrollment, Transfer Credit Rules, Program/Test Equivalency |
Set the test transfer equivalency rules that the Transfer Credit process uses to evaluate transfer test credit for specific academic programs and academic plans. |
Access the Test Credit Equivalency page.
General Fields
Grading Scheme |
By default, the system displays the grading scheme of the specified academic program. Define grading schemes for academic programs on the Academic Program page in the Academic Program Table component. Define grading schemes for academic careers on the Academic Career Table page. You can override this default value now, and you can later override this value for individual transfer tests that you process. This grading scheme defines all of the valid grading bases from which you can select a default transfer grade for this academic program or academic plan. |
Grading Basis |
By default, the system displays the grading basis default for transfer credit according to the specified academic program. Define grading-basis default for transfer-credit values for academic programs on the Academic Program page in the Academic Program Table component. Define grading-basis default for transfer-credit values for academic careers on the Academic Career Table page. You can override this default value now, and you can later override this value for individual transfer tests that you process. This grading basis defines all of the valid grades from which you can select a default transfer grade for this academic program or academic plan. |
Transfer Grade |
By default, the system displays the default transfer grade of the specified academic program. Define default transfer grades for academic programs on the Academic Program page in the Academic Program Table component. Define default transfer grades for academic careers on the Academic Career Table page. You can override this default value now, and you can later override this value for individual transfer tests that you process. This transfer grade defines the grade an individual will receive for tests that articulate into the specified academic program or academic plan. |
Test Equivalency Rule
Use the fields in this group box to select the specific test transfer equivalency rules for this academic program or academic plan. As the Transfer Credit process evaluates test credit, it will use the rules in the following order: Override, Default.
Default |
The Transfer Credit process uses the test equivalency rule that you specify on this row last. If the transfer test meets the criteria of the rule specified on this row, the process applies the rule to the transfer test and evaluates the test no further. If you have not specified a rule for this row, or if the transfer test does not meet the criteria of the rule, the process will not articulate the test. In this case, the transfer test appears on the on the Test Credit Details page with a status of no rule. Note. If you only have one rule for this academic program or academic plan, you must enter it in the Default field. The Default field is the only required field on the page. |
Override |
The Transfer Credit process uses the test equivalency rule that you specify on this row first. If the transfer test meets the criteria of the rule specified on this row, the process applies the rule to the transfer test and evaluates the test no further. If you have not specified a rule for this row, or if the transfer test does not meet the criteria of the rule, the process then evaluates the test equivalency rule that you specify on the Default row. For instance, you might have a general test equivalency rule for the Undergraduate Liberal Arts program but have a different rule for the English plan within this academic program. You would create two test transfer equivalency rules, then enter the Liberal Arts program equivalency rule in the Default field, and the English plan equivalency rule in the Override field. |