Introduction to Reference Articulation

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Who can use it?
Regular Audit vs Reference Articulation Audit
1. Regular Audit
2. Reference Articulation Audit
Uses of Reference Articulation
Settings and Basic COMs for Reference Articulation
Additional COM Fields and Reference Articulation
Alternate Identities and Reference Articulation
Pseudo Courses and Reference Articulation
Institutional Flags and Reference Articulation

The Reference Articulation audit shows information about the home school as well as the equivalencies for courses that can be taken at another school, as indicated in the SELECT FROM line.

Transferring courses from one institution to another is common as students hop between schools in the pursuit of a degree. Oftentimes, this occurs when the student is on an extended break and decides to take extra courses at an institution near home/work. Reference articulation is a method that allows students to see everything in a single audit: both the incoming coursework (from a transfer school) and the applied courses (from the home school) for which they would receive credit. Using the audit function in uAchieve, the reference articulation audit reports both types of courses: home plus transfer equivalencies.

Who can use it?

Reference articulation is a functionality that currently exists for those institutions that use either DARwin (3.5 or later) or uAchieve (4.2 or later) for their degree audits. Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to modify audits for other degree audit systems.

Reference articulation is a feature of both Transferology and the uAchieve client.

Regular Audit vs Reference Articulation Audit

Regular Audit

A regular uAchieve audit only displays courses that may be taken at the home institution. If a student has taken a course at another institution, then the completed coursework will display on the audit just like that from the home school. :

Ref Articulation-Normal Audit.JPG

NOTE:
Transfer equivalencies do not display in the SELECT FROM list of courses on the audit if there are uncompleted requirements.

Reference Articulation Audit

Reference articulation audits, on the other hand, do display information about the home school, as well as the equivalencies of courses that can be taken at another school. A reference to a transfer institution's coursework is placed within curly brackets ({}) in the SELECT FROM: (or Not) line. Equivalencies are displayed in curly brackets next to the relevant courses at the home school:

Uses of Reference Articulation

Reference articulation is used in several areas across CollegeSource products:

Transferology

Reference articulation is used in Transferology to show equivalencies for coursework that could be taken over the summer or transferred to the home school. (Reference articulation in Transferology is set up on the Transferology Lab's Audit Setup page.)

uAchieve and transfer articulation

Reference articulation uses both the transfer articulation and auditing processes of uAchieve by reporting the transfer course on the audit. Reference articulation utilizes the audit function of uAchieve as a method of reporting these courses and displays both the course that could be taken at the home school and any equivalencies that might apply from a designated transfer school.

Settings and Basic COMs for Reference Articulation

Before running a reference articulation audit, the COM values must be set by one of two methods: RunBar or COM Table. Some COM fields (including COM.REVART) need not be necessarily set in the COM Table, but can activate uAchieve to produce a desired result through the RunBar in the uAchieve Client. The difference between setting a value in the COM Table as opposed to the RunBar lies in whether you intend for it to be a global setting in uAchieve:

For the setting to affect a single audit run, change in the RunBar.
For the setting to affect every time an audit is run by performing the same function every time, change in the COM Table.

COM.EVALRUN

The one COM field that must be set to view articulations on any audit (whether a regular audit or reference articulation audit) is COM.EVALRUN: to A or E:

EVALRUN Setting

Function

Instructs uAchieve to produce an evaluation on the audit

For the purpose of reference articulation, COM.EVALHOME must be set to A

Generates a course evaluation within a student record in uAchieve rather than on the audit

COM.REVART

COM.REVART is the COM field specific to reference articulation audits. Specify how the references will appear on the audit by setting the Reference Articulation Control Field COM.REVART: to R or S:

Setting REVART in COM Table

<or>

Setting REVART in client RunBar

Function

Use this approach when intending a global setting for uAchieve, performing the same function every time an audit is run

When setting REVART in the COM Table, you MUST put an INST.ID in the COM.BINSTID field so that uAchieve knows which school you wish to run the reference articulation audit for.

Use this approach when performing a function only for the particular audit you are going to view

On the Articulation tab:

Ref Articulation-REVART r.JPG

This setting will ensure that Reference Articulation will be performed with audits displaying all home courses in the Course List for the requirement as well as the equivalent courses derived from the Transfer Articulation (TA) tables, surrounded in brackets, next to the appropriate course in the SELECT FROM line. If a course doesn't have an equivalency, nothing will be show–just the target courses that can be taken to fulfill a requirement.

Only shows when there ARE equivalencies for courses

On the Articulation tab:

Ref Articulation-REVART s.JPG

This setting will ensure that Reference Articulation will be performed with audits not displaying any home courses with equivalent transfer courses in the SELECT FROM line. It will display the text "NO COURSE EQUIVALENTS AVAILABLE" next to the target course (in brackets { })

Also shows when there are NO equivalencies for courses

Remember:
If any values are set using COM Table fields, they will be used during the run regardless of the value set on the RunBar. COM Table settings override RunBar settings. Remove the value from the COM Table if you wish to change the value on an audit-by-audit basis.

COM.INSTID

The transfer institution TA table is identified by entering the source ID into the Inst ID field on the Report table of the RunBar or by setting it in COM.INSTID.

No courses (home or transfer) are required on the student record for the reference articulation report to be prepared.

NOTE:
The Inst. ID: field is grayed out until an entry is selected in the Reference field.

LISTALL Display

(Optional)

When displaying courses on the reference audit–especially those containing shorts lists of courses in the SELECT FROM lines–you may condense the layout into a neater, easier to read format using the RunBar List All: H

On the Report tab:

Applicable only to reference audits, List All: H allows each home course with its equivalency to display on a separate line of the audit.

NOTE:
If your reference articulation audit contains a large amount of courses, LIST ALL: H will generate a significantly longer audit.

Additional COM Fields and Reference Articulation

Several additional COM Table settings affect the display of the reference articulation audit, as discussed here.

Alternate Identities and Reference Articulation

Alternate identity equivalencies of real courses will also display in a reference articulation audit.

Pseudo course identities require one minor adjustment in audit encoding.

See more information about referencing alternate identities here.

Pseudo Courses and Reference Articulation

Pseudo courses play a critical role in degree audit encoding. Learn more about their utility in reference articulation here.

Institutional Flags and Reference Articulation

Equivalencies involving institutional flags will also display in a reference articulation audit with no additional encoding necessary. See Institutional Flags and Reference Articulation.