Statewide Transfer Initiative: The Indiana Version

1. Statewide Transfer Initiative: The Indiana Version Michael McCauley, Director, Academic Systems Ball State University Troy Holaday, Ass’t Director, Accademic Systems Ball State University Institute for the Study of Transfer Students Ft. Worth, Texas January 2007

2. Overview • 2-year public institutions: • Ivy Tech State College (22 sites) • Vincennes University (1 branch campus) • 4-year public institutions: • Ball State University • Indiana State University • Indiana University (6 regional campuses) • Purdue University (3 regional campuses) • University of Southern Indiana • Independent Colleges of Indiana • 1 two-year • 31 four-year

3. Overview Indiana Commission for Higher Education • Coordinating Board for higher education institutions in Indiana • Establishes/monitors policies governing higher education in Indiana • Approves new degree programs • Constituencies include: public higher education institution, industry, Indiana General Assembly, Governor of Indiana

4. Overview • Independent Colleges of Indiana (ICI) • Coordinate information among members • Assist with grant opportunities • Represent member interests with public • Solicit grants from corporate interests • Collect, analyze, and disseminate information about member institutions • Provide variety of collective services to members

5. Background/Chronology Feb. 1992 – Indiana General Assembly passed P.L. 19-1992, which mandated 30 semester hours of gen. ed. courses transfer among state institutions. April 1998 – Ball State’s Automated Course Transfer System (ACTS) becomes the first fully interactive web-based course equivalency system. January 1999 – Governor O’Bannon announces creation of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana (ITCCI)

6. Background/Chronology April 2000 – ICHE announced the Transfer Indiana (transferIN.net) Initiative and created the Statewide Transfer and Articulation Committee (STAC) and the System Development Committee (SDC) September 2000 –ICHE (SDC) selectd the Miami University CAS software and named Ball State University to host the Transfer Indiana Central Office (TICO) November 2000 – ICHE approved budget request for the project, sent it to the General Assembly April 2001 – No new initiatives funded

7. Background/Chronology Sept. 2001 – Articulation agreements concluded with all public 4-year campuses for eight VU A.A./A.S. degrees. March 2002 – STAC completed the Transfer IN (TIN) course grid, identifying equivalencies for 40 most frequently taken courses; (over 11,000 course equivalency decisions made on 14 campuses) May 2002 – ICHE approved Principles Guiding Statewide Transfer and Articulation in Indiana developed through STAC

8. Background/Chronology April 2003 –HB 1209 reinforced role of STAC (made it official) and demanded accountability. 2004-2005 –Refined and expanded the TIN Grid 2006 –Additional legislation enacted requiring 12 additional program articulations; required that the course articulations reach 70 and be known as “Core Transfer Library” courses August 2006 – Funding provided for the Transfer Indiana Central Office and the transfer system pilot project

9. Committees STAC Statewide Transfer and Articulation Committee Comprised of faculty representatives from each 2-year and 4-year public institution and three officials from the Independent Colleges of Indiana (ICI), who represent the private colleges/universities

10. Committees (STAC) Chaired by the faculty representative to the ICHE Meet monthly Determine the course/program equivalencies for selected degree programs Assist in the preparation of the annual report on transfer activities to the Indiana General Assembly Assist in the development of statewide transfer policies Develop and maintain list of transfer resource people from each institution

11. Committees (STAC) Determine course equivalencies for the Core Transfer Library Completed articulation agreements for VU AA & AS degrees (2+2 agreements) in English, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Pre-law, and liberal arts; completing same for ITSCCI liberal arts programs

12. Committees (STAC) • Established “discipline” sub-committees to articulate programs most frequently transferred from 2-year to 4-year institutions: • Business Administration • Early Childhood Education • Electronic Technology • Computer Information Systems

13. Articulation for majors Inclusion of Independents Constructive evaluation Wide communication Faculty primacy Equal partners Collective responsibility Comparable treatment of students Course-to-course transfer Committees (STAC) Principles Guiding Statewide Transfer and Articulation in Indiana

14. Currency Multi-directional transfer Responsiveness to student problems Appropriate timing of transfer Committees (STAC) Principles Guiding Statewide Transfer and Articulation in Indiana

15. Committees SDC System Development Committee Composed of representatives from each 2-year and 4-year institution and one individual from representing the independent colleges/ universities. Members have expertise in admissions and/or student services technologies.

16. Committees (SDC) • Chaired by member of ICHE staff (Dr. Ken Sauer) • Meet monthly, except for July • Assist in the preparation of the annual report on transfer activities to the Indiana General Assembly • Assist with the development of statewide transfer policies • Responsible for: • organization of statewide transfer initiative • selection of appropriate software • developing the budget

17. Committees (WDC) • Recommended a campus-based Transfer Indiana Office to be housed at Ball State University • had experience with systems development • possessed individuals with expertise in course equivalency evaluation • had appropriate technical expertise • Selected the Miami University Course Applicability System (CAS) as the software

18. Committees (WDC) • Selected the Miami University Course Applicability System as the software • student-accessible, interactive • determines course acceptability, identifies course equivalents, illustrates course applicability, and references source/target institution course equivalents – curricular planning • can accommodate many degree audit software products, such as DARS, Datatel, and Jenzabar, PeopleSoft, SCT Banner

19. Committees (WDC) • Budget for the pilot project (four public and three independent colleges) was divided into several categories: • License fees • hardware, equipment • personnel (director, technician, TA specialist) • travel and training • S & E • Total = approximately $400,000

20. “Institution Blueprints” • Captured the following data from each institution: Technical Environment: • Student information system • SIS version • SIS database used • Automated degree audit system used, version, database • Transfer Articulation System, version, database • Servlet container used, version, SSL? • Java version (if used) • JDBC Drivers available for databases

21. “Institution Blueprints” • XML editor used • Transcript scanning software used • Electronic transcript system used • Functional Questions: • Are your articulation rules and equivalencies in place in your degree audit system? • From which institutions do you receive most of your transfer students? • Number of transfer student applications processed annually • Number of out-of state transfer students annually

22. “Institution Blueprints” • Approximate number of transfer courses processed each year • Approximate number of students transfer FROM your institution annually • Name the institutions to which your students are most likely to transfer

23. Timeline August & September, 2006 – Execute proper paperwork for project; secure appropriate hardware; select TICO staff (director, TA specialist, CAS technician, office support); secure server October-December, 2006 – Install software (CAS and interface); conduct testing; refine timeline; create guidelines for TICO support; select implementation team members;

24. Timeline • January-March, 2007– Expand Implementation Team; refine timeline; secure appropriate data from pilot institutions; begin to load data onto server; coordinate interfaces with IMS; begin to externalize transfer information via website (for first two schools); monitor progress being made at pilot institutions; provide TA and technical support as requested; make enhancements as directed; provide on-site TA and CAS technical support as requested.

25. Timeline • April-June, 2007– Add IUPUI, ITCCI, Valparaiso, and University of Indianapolis to system (when interfaces are in place); expand Implementation Team to include reps from next 7 participating schools; add flat file data from institutions that are ready; conduct appropriate testing; monitor progress made among participating institutions,

26. Next Steps • Secure funding from legislature or private funding source • Expand TICO staff to support next phase • Add additional public and private institutions as they become ready (SIS changes, degree audit software installations, etc.) until all schools wishing to participate are on-line

27. Contact Information Michael E. McCauley, Dir. Academic Systems Ball State University, 400 N. McKinley Ave.. Muncie, IN 47306 mmccaule@bsu.edu (765) 748-0576 Troy Holaday, Ass’t Director, Academic Systems Ball State University, 400 N. McKinley Ave. Muncie, IN 47306 tholaday@bsu.edu (765) 748-1198