Panel DiscussionElectronic Exchange of Student

Transcripts

(Session T 4.8)

SACRAO 66th Annual Meeting

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Richard D. Skeel, Kuali Student, Honorary SACRAO Member. rskeel@ou.edu

David H. Stones, Retired University Registrar, Honorary SACRAO Member, stonesd@southwestern.edu

Slides prepared by J. Tom Stewart, Retired Miami-Dade Registrar, Honorary SACRAO Member, stewartj@aol.com

Agenda

A brief history and considerations of various methods of electronic transcript exchange to include:

EDI Transcripts

XML Transcripts

PDF Transcripts

Q & Q

EDI History The AACRAO Standardization of Postsecondary Education Electronic Data

Exchange (SPEEDE) Committee began developing the national standard for a College Transcript in 1989

US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) began developing a national standard for a High School Transcript during same timeframe

Both groups worked with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 to develop standard formats

ANSI ASC X12 Transaction Set 130 for the Student Educational Record (Transcript) approved in early ’90’s

Goal to transmit data with the least amount of characters necessary

Sample SES (Session), SUM (Sem Summary), 2 CRS (Course) segments

SES|201008|||2|Fall 2010|D8|20100830|D8|20101217|21|73|249999|Concurrent/Not Designated|B27~

SUM|S|U|N|6.0000|6.0000|6.0000|0.00|4.00|3.50|N|||||||21.000000~

CRS|R|S|3.0000|3.0000|025|A||U||||012.000||ENG|131|Rhetoric & Composition~

RAP|9TX|TXCORECURR|010Communication I|A|Y~CRS|R|S|3.0000|3.0000|025|B||U||||009.000||HIS|134|U.S.

History, 1877-Present~RAP|9TX|TXCORECURR|060History|A|Y~

EDI Process BenefitsStandards are consistent

Resources are available

Processes can be batched and automated

Large volume of current institutions using standard

State and district initiativesSender and receiver are

identified

Automated acknowledgments of both delivery and receipt possible

Transmission through SPEEDE Server benefits trading partners

Costs decrease

SPEEDE delivery

EDI Institutional ConsiderationsCapabilities of the organization

IT resources available Interest level of senior managementCompatibility with SIS

Cost/benefit analysis In house vs. vendor sponsored solutionEfficiency gains

Strategic goalsPreferred trading partner methodologies

EDI Process ConsiderationsTechnical complexity limits some institutions

Need for translation software or SIS compatibility to recognize full benefits

Data mapping can be cumbersome

Perception of complexity or lack of IT resources

ANSI ASC X12A Education sub-committee inactive since 2005

Devil is in the details, but it’s only done once

EDI Numbers

UT Server, December 2012. 459164 transactions (minus 2416 XML). 104,145 transcripts

UT Server, January, 2013. 541,293 transactions 137,108 transcripts, 148,171 acknowledgments, 9121 test score reports, 33835 transcr. Requests, 175622 adm apps, SACRAO States Send Jan ‘13: AL(5),AR(lots),FL(lots), NC (acks), SC(800+), TN, TX(lots), VA (2300, 3 sch)Since 1984: 9,800,000 transcripts, 35,000,000 transactions – delivered at no cost to senders, recips

More ResearchEDI Primer – Published by AACRAO SPEEDE

RIPS Document – Recommended Impl.Practices for SPEEDE. On AACRAO SPEEDE page.

Implementation Guides – PESC and AACRAO/SPEEDE

AACRAO Technology Conf, July 2013TX SPEEDE UG June 17, 2013.

What is XML ?XML stands for Extensible Markup Language

XML is a markup language much like HTML

XML was designed to carry data, not to display data

XML is designed to be self-descriptive

XML High School Transcript Schema

XML Example</TransmissionData>- <Student>- <Person>  <SchoolAssignedPersonID>309032191</SchoolAssignedPersonID>   <AgencyAssignedID>582425187</AgencyAssignedID>   <RecipientAssignedID>123456789</RecipientAssignedID>

<Birth>  <BirthDate>1989-06-12</BirthDate>   </Birth>- <Name>  <FirstName>Kristen</FirstName>   <MiddleName />   <LastName>Young</LastName>   </Name>- <Gender>  <GenderCode>Female</GenderCode>   </Gender>  </Person>

Key Benefits of XMLContent identification

Enforced structure

International standard

Industry standardization

Additional XML BenefitsIt supports Unicode, allowing almost any information in any

written human language to be communicatedFormat uses English and less abbreviations making it less

technical to read than EDI format It can be updated incrementallyIt is platform-independent, thus relatively immune to changes

in technologyForward and backward compatibility are relatively easy to

maintain despite changes in SchemaCompatible with SEVIS, IPEDS and NCATE (for teachers)XML preferred by IT because it is a format they are familiar

with

XML ConsiderationsXML syntax is large relative to EDI (binary)

representations of similar dataThis results in higher storage, transmission and

processing costsExample 2K EDI = 30K XML (compression available

in MS Office)XML syntax is verbose, especially for human

readers, relative to other alternative 'text-based' data Number of tags = more to sift through to determine

what you need for your SIS as a receiver

XML NumbersUT Server, December 2012. 1387 transcripts. AZ: Pima CC UA 464 NM: Central NM CC > UNM 622 TN: 12 senders 301UT Server, January 2013, 2416 transcripts. AZ: Pima UA 1406 IA: UIowa National Transcript Center 47 MO: Missouri Western State Metrop CC 22 NM: CNM > UNM 792 TN: 10 senders, 149 TX: National Transcript Center UIowa 25

PDF HistoryPortable Document Format (PDF) Created by Adobe Systems 15+

years ago

Electronic image vs. electronic data

Secure PDF signed and certified as authentic

Extract a dataset from sending institution and spool to PDF document

Encryption/Decryption sender and receiver keys

Sign/Verify relies on digital certificates of authenticity

PDF TranscriptsBenefits

Can be sent to any computer

anywhere; not just to another school

Far more secure than mail

Less opportunity for fraud

Faster delivery and easy for human to print or view

Low cost

Fast implementation Easier batching abilities

Considerations Upload of data to SIS more difficult Out of Network delivery possible – no

prior commucation required.

Really just a picture – not data. Longevity

Different philosophies on appropriateness of expiration

Multiple transmission methodologies Vendor differences Varying cost models for

senders/receivers Closed networks

AACRAO White PaperCommittee Report on Electronic Transcripts, Past Present

and Future.College & University, Vol. 87, No. 2, Fall 2011Available at www.aacrao.org

EDI/XML and pdf have different nichesSome combination may be best.EDI/XML for high volume with one or more schoolsPdf for delivery of small n to broad range of recipients,

or to student.

PDF Vendors at SACRAOCredentials

Scrip-Safe

National Student Clearinghouse

Parchment (formerly Avow + Docufide + ?)

Others? CollegeNet?

QuestionsAdditional Resources

http://www.aacrao.org/About-AACRAO/committees/speede.aspx#

http://registrar.utexas.edu/speede

listserv@listserv.vt.edu

pesc.org