Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Data Management
Michigan Embraces Electronic Transcripts
5/7/2008
"We get wheelbarrows of paper documents in the mail every day," according to Michael Cook, senior associate director of admissions at Michigan State University. "Our goal is to become paperless here in the admissions world," he added, "but that's not as easy as it seems."
To reduce paper flow, save money, and serve students better, Michigan State has begun using the services of electronic transcript firm ConnectEdu. Cook said he's confident that MSU's move from paper to digital transcripts, although a slow process that is just in its beginning stages, will pay off handsomely eventually. Although it will take time, with 46,000 students and 25,000 applicants a year, MSU hopes to eventually see a sizable dent in the paper flow.
ConnectEdu, which was formed in 2002, is gradually recruiting high schools throughout Michigan, at no charge, to submit their student transcript information to ConnectEdu's Connect! system. The company said it has signed up large public higher education institutions in Michigan including not only Michigan State University, but also the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Flint, and Dearborn.
The company interfaces securely with individual high schools' student information systems to convert high school transcripts into electronic data, then offers that information to client schools. ConnectEdu also offers additional services to students, parents, and guidance counselors to help them research and select schools, including help for parents in applying for financial aid. After working in the state for a year, the company said it has 200 Michigan high schools in its network and 14 colleges and universities. Most if not all of the largest higher education institutions in Michigan have signed on, meaning potentially hundreds of thousands of student transcripts to be exchanged annually eventually.
ConnectEdu works with high schools, including training, implementation and data loading, at no charge. Institutions such as MSU are in effect sponsoring the implementation of the technology statewide. At least for now, Michigan high schools must be users of Connect! in order for students, counselors, and parents to have access, since the service is not available to the general public.
Rather than delivering transcripts as Adobe-format PDF documents, ConnectEdu converts incoming student transcript information to the XML data standard, using guidelines set by the Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA) and the Postsecondary Education Standards Council (PESC). PESC, formed in 1997, is a non-profit umbrella association of colleges and universities, along with professional organizations, vendors, and state and federal government agencies, that is working to establish data exchange standards in education.
Historically, Michigan State scans paper transcripts as it receives them, then stores the transcript information electronically. But even with that system, Cook said, "we still end up pushing [paper] through the office during the entire process." The Connect! system enables the university to accept an electronic transcript when a student applies from a ConnectEdu-affiliated high school, thus eliminating the paper process for the most part.
Recommended Reading
- Sun, Stanford Working To Archive History
In May in San Francisco, experts from leading universities, libraries, and research institutions around the world met as part of an ongoing effort to address a pressing issue: archiving the world's history, right up to today.
- The Quilt Coalition Rolls Out XO Communications for High-Capacity Network Services
The Quilt, a coalition of 28 regional network organizations, has added XO Communications Services to its authorized vendor list. The Quilt represents 200 universities and thousands of other educational institutions across the United States. With this new relationship, Quilt members can purchase XO's high-speed IP transit and network transport services at competitive rates.
- Wimba Classroom 5.2 Expands Classroom Capture Support, Adds MP3 Downloads
At the NECC 2008 conference in Texas this week, Wimba launched a new version of Wimba Classroom, the virtual classroom component of the company's Collaboration Suite. The new 5.2 release expands options for classroom capture and adds a variety of other functional and ease of use features.
- Automation Chimera: Education Is Not Management
The lure of automating workflow online so human intervention is minimized is continually reinforced in the minds of higher education administrators by examples of automated campus systems such as financials, student information systems, and other enterprise systems. But what's good for management is not always good for learning.
- Cognos Releases BI Software for Linux-based IBM System z Mainframe
Cognos, which IBM acquired in January, has released an update to its business intelligence software that will run on the Linux operating system on IBM System z mainframes. IBM Cognos 8 BI was being developed by the two companies prior to the acquisition, but assimilation of Cognos into IBM accelerated development.
- Facebook and Collegiality: A Serendipitous Social Niche
Facebook is a way to greet a colleague as if she or he is on your own campus: a wave at a distance, a hello at the corner burrito place, a honk as you both leave the campus parking lot. Informal collegiality has been extended over the miles.
