Preparing for Electronic Transcripts: A Registrar s Checklist

Transcription

1 Preparing for Electronic Transcripts: A Registrar s Checklist AACRAO ANNUAL MEETING 2010 NEW ORLEANS SESSION T3-291 ANDREW HANNAH SR. ASSOC. UNIVERSITY REGISTRAR UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ASHANNAH@UCHICAGO.EDU

2 Founded in ,000 students 5,000 full-time Undergraduate students Central registration, student records, transcripts Quarter System First t Heisman Trophy Winner Over 70 Nobel Prize winning faculty and alumni First self-sustaining nuclear reaction Identifying double-helix structure of DNA The Hubble of the Hubble Space Telescope The Chicago School of Economics 2

3 Presenter Registrar-Micro-Manager side of things for 29 years. Employer, UOC, at the forefront of innovation regarding transcript development: 3 First to use security paper Under Registrar Thomas C. Black, developed the concept for digitally- signed pdf s, identified the technology-providers and brought them together, 2 nd school in production First to use the XML College Transcript, to send e-transcripts to AMCAS; and the XML transcript ordering and response schema with the NSC Current member of AACRAO Board-appointed workgroup, to document e-transcripts for the broad membership... So what do I do when I m not working 10 hour shifts...

4 Agenda 4 Who is this session for? Registrar s who work 9+ hour shifts, would love to be innovative but haven t the budgets, time, or staff to allow them to fully explore new technology on their own. And who may be confused about all this e-transcript business Quick essays on past, present, and future of e-transcripts 2. Checklist of items Registrars should know about their own practices before exploring e-transcripts 3. Checklist of resources to learn about e-transcripts 4. Checklist of questions to ask e-transcript solution providers

5 Quick Essays on Electronic Transcripts Electronic transcripts are here to stay. Paper transcripts won t be going away anytime soon. For the foreseeable future some students will benefit most from paper, while an ever-growing number will need electronic. We must structure our in-office processes so that hardcopy and electronic transcripts complement, rather than impede each other (and ourselves and especially our staffs). Our obligation as Registrars to maintain the security and accuracy of transcripts is absolute and permanent... The media and technologies we use to do so... are not. 5

6 Intro to E-Transcripts Checklist 6 This is a hot-topic In the past five years we ve gone from Not Here, Never... to Help! Organic evolution, different directions, AACRAO members and vendors... business solutions and higher ed solutions. We re ONLY NOW seeing some common best directions that are soon to become best practices.

7 Electronic Transcripts Current State 7 SPEEDE: Texas Server exchange EDI- and XML-formatted transcript data and PDF docs between established trading partners, vis mailboxes. Several vendors for High School Transcripts (for Undergraduate Admissions), i often State-directed t t d or via consortia... PDF s and XML exchanged between schools and agencies via vendor-supported mailboxes... (PDF s with or without digital security add-on). PDF s, delivered by Registrar or vendor to specific recipients via -addresses, HTTPS, unique URL s, and passwords, (with or without digital security add-on)

8 It s Complicated... (or it was...) 8

9 Thinking About Electronic Transcripts? First Know Yourself... Do your homework before getting involved... 9 List of Questions about current transcript practices that every Registrar should consider about his/her office, as the migration to electronic transcripts will affect every answer... Note, checklist will be compiled into an excel document, available by ing me: ashannah@uchicago.edu

10 Checklist, Internal Processes Your Current Transcript Business... How many each year and what is %... Are addressed to the students/alumni who order them? How many of them pick them up in person? Are addressed to generic admissions offices at other colleges or universities (for transferring UG students)? Are addressed to AMCAS and LSDAS? Are addressed to generic admissions offices at graduate or professional schools? What is amount and % of the balance? Is 5% or more of the balance going to any one agency (e.g. NSF)? 10

11 More Internal items... What kind of electronic transcripts is your undergraduate admissions office now receiving? From which vendors/sources and in what volume? How does the answer to the above compare to three years ago? 11 Can your admissions staff adjust their application materials to include instructions about how applicants can submit e-transcripts? If NOT, why? In other words it kind of defeats purpose if as a Registrar you DELIVER e-transcripts but your own admissions office can t expedite receiving them.

12 Internal: Technical Can your vendor-provided SIS generate an XML transcript as part of its most recent upgrade functions? Do you currently send transcripts in EDI to the SPEEDE Texas Server? If so, what % of your annual transcripts are sent in this manner? How comfortable are you personally with doing internet commerce (e.g. amazon.com) and how comfortable might your institution be with similar services you contract for your students to use? Have you talked to your IT shop about all this? Are they receptive? What are their reservations? Note, vendors can support where IT may not.

13 More Technical Questions 13 Can your SIS generate an official transcript in PDF format, or can you easily convert the transcript to a PDF? Who keys in the address to which a transcript is to be mailed? (That s assuming somebody types it into a computer screen or web bf form...) Do you log in your system where and when transcripts were sent, when and how ordered? How far back do your online transcripts go? How many transcripts do you produce a year for alumni who attended before then?

14 Some Math Of all the hardcopy transcripts you now produce in a year, what is the average number per FTE registrar staff member? Example: 36,000 hardcopy transcripts/year 2 Full-time Transcript Clerks, 1 receptionist who does transcripts half-time, and for six months a temp is hired to help out = 3 FTE 36,000/3 = 12,000 transcripts per FTE

15 Money Questions: COSTS... What are your annual costs for transcripts? Salary & Benefits for the staff in last question. Transcript paper stock Printers (replaced every few years), toner, supplies Envelopes Postage (incl. maintenance/lease for postage meter, etc) Express Mail Charges that you pay for Rush Orders Other costs associated with transcripts? Total... Divided by the number of annual transcripts in the last question = the Per Transcript cost Now, figure same for ORDERS as opposed to DOCUMENTS... 15

16 INCOME... What income do you realize from transcript fees (including premiums for rush orders) in a year? How does your transcript fee compare to your peers? If you raised it, what would be the political fall-out? Are you up to the fight? (Did you know some schools are charging g$ $15?) Are you making money or losing money related to transcripts? 16 Would you consider allowing your students to order e-transcripts as a new option, with an added-on convenience fee they have to pay... How willing are you to retool your transcript business, as long as you don t have to hire more staff and can still make as much money (or not lose any more) as you are today?

17 Help is out there... Know what you re getting yourself into... AACRAO Transcript Guide AACRAO Electronic Transcript Exchange Guide AACRAO annual meeting sessions... See next slide AACRAO-TECH (this July in Kansas City) 17 (plug) AACRAO Electronic Transcript Workgroup Report (coming soon) Your own admissions offices, the registrars at your peer schools, your state and regional associations, REGIST-L... When you re confident you know yourself... The Vendors...

18 Help is out there List of other E-Transcript Sessions over these two and a half days T1.316 Successful SPEEDE Electronic Document Exchanges T2.488 Creating and Delivering Certified PDF Transcripts in Your Sleep T4.412 The UT SPEEDE Server: The Past, Present, and Future for Sending Electronic Transcripts T4.476 Electronic Transcript Processing Made Easy T4.479 The Transcript You Always Wanted T6.483 Open Forum for Technology Issues on Campuses 18

19 Help is out there F1.320 Panel Discussion: Electronic Exchange of Student Transcripts F3.245 A Year Later: Electronic Transcript Panel Discussion F5.318 Security and Privacy Policy Issues in Electronic Exchanges F6.317 Laissez les PDF Transcripts Rouler S2.315 Costs and Cost Benefits for Exchanging Electronic Transcripts S3.322 Overcoming the Roadblocks to Transcript Electronic Exchanges and Dealing with FERPA 19

20 Something to Talk About 20 The important stuff about which all parties Registrars, Vendors, Partners, IT should agree... Average response time and longest acceptable response time for an e-transcript between ordering and delivery.. Orders or documents, how is volume counted? High-volume periods (e.g. January) affecting recipient behavior... New-Client Configuration and Orientation... aka handholding...

21 More Talking Points 21 Help-Desk features... Customization of text on web pages (plural) and communications ---Different from branding Ability to accommodate your transcript payment options... Version-releases, regular or surprise, documentation...

22 And More Talking Points Do you have statistics/reports on your systems up-down time for the last year? What kind of redundancies do your systems have? TruePartnering...Ifmyideasimproveyour.. ideas improve your product, how is my school credited if you integrate them with your product line? Do you publish a complete list of current clients and contacts or a registry? 22

23 And Some Last Talking Points 23 User-lists, do you host or encourage a community for your clients to communicate with each other and with you? How long does your system hold on to my school s transcript documents/data? Can I see logs of their usage? Do you do data-mining with my school s transcript data... If so, to what extent am I (the Registrar) kept informed of its uses? What kind of audit has your systems undergone that establishes that they are worthy to hold and process my students academic records (the crown jewels)?

24 My Pseudo-Technical Questions Is the use of mailboxes, particularly the number of different ones and the different ways they are accessed, confusing to employees of offices that get lots of transcripts? 24 Can Registrars distribute unsecured PDF transcripts and still maintain their obligation to FERPA and the authenticity of the documents?

25 A More Complete E-Transcript Service 1. Student logs into campus portal, authenticates Selects Order Transcript link ID securely passed (Shibboleth) to Transcript Order Servicing Vendor. 3. Student enters order information on web form there, including address ( ) of Recipient. Pays via Credit Card (if needed). 4. Vendor sends order in XML format back to the campus SIS. 5. The SIS matches the order to a student record, then Matches the recipient against networked registry for Transcript Preferences, depending on the entries in the registry (or absence thereof) it generates EDI, XML, and/or PDF transcript and routes it accordingly. 7. Recipient gets Please retrieve a Transcript. 8. Student receives Your transcript has been sent.

26 Two Recommendations (Lobbying Efforts) Encourage admissions offices and agencies to include either boilerplate or specifics about how applicants should submit e-transcripts... Avoiding vendor-specific solutions, since not all registrars can use all vendors Build the registry mentioned here, what sort of e- transcript schema does each school use both for sending and receiving transcripts... Is this something AACRAO could do?

27 In my opinion... Wrap Up Essays 27 Five years ago, it was Electronic Transcripts... Never... Ten years from now the majority of transcripts will be electronic, and every technology, whether XML, PDF, EDI... will have improved...substantially!.. Ten Years from Now... the marketplace will drive down the costs...best practices and standards will have developed... Because Registrars were involved.

28 Your Questions... Andrew S. Hannah Sr. Assoc. University Registrar University of Chicago 5801 S. Ellis Avenue Chicago, IL