This document provides an overview of the goals and progress of developing a transfer credit articulation database at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The goals are to promote consistency in transfer credit decisions, maintain records of decision-makers, and streamline the articulation review process. The database currently houses course, articulation, student and institution data. Phase I involves designing the database structure and report prototypes. Next steps include gathering feedback, identifying remaining Phase I items, and planning future phases.

1. Preliminary
Project
Overview
Transfer Credit
Articulation
Database
Kristian D. Lopez,
Program and Policy
Analyst
Office of Transfer
Articulation and
Degree Audit
February 12, 2015

2. Goals and
Highlights

3. Goals
• Support UIC students and colleges by promoting
consistency and equity in the determination of official UIC
transfer credit articulation decisions.
• Maintain a record of the UIC articulation decision-makers
and a history of their official UIC transfer credit articulation
decisions.
• Streamline the mining, analysis and distribution of the data
needed to facilitate the articulation review process.
• Provide a resource from which reports on university-wide
transfer credit articulation activities can be developed.

4. Highlights
• A relational database for internal use by TADA staff is
currently being developed using Access.
• The database supports importing and exporting of data
(both manual and semi-automated) to and from various
sources (i.e. Toad, Excel, etc.).
• The database streamlines the process of generating
articulation review reports for the various colleges at UIC.
• The current articulation process at UIC emphasizes
coordinating the articulation review of courses earned at
regionally accredited institutions within the United States.

5. Phase I:
Progress to
Date

6. Phase I: Tables
• Phase I currently
emphasizes preliminary
design of the database
structure, objects and
articulation review report
prototypes.
• Tables house course,
articulation, student and
institution data from DARS
(via Toad), Banner (via
Web Intelligence) and the
Transfer Evaluation
System (TES).

7. Phase I: Queries
• Queries retrieve and
dissect the data that is
housed in the tables. This
includes:
• Appending new
records to the tables
and updating existing
records.
• Identifying specific
records for inclusion or
exclusion in a report or
analysis.

8. Phase I: Forms
• Forms facilitate user interaction with the
database, such as manual entry of articulation
decision and course description data.

9. Phase I: Articulation Review
Report Prototype
• Courses that require articulation review can be
exported from the database and saved as an
Excel spreadsheet for distribution to a UIC
college.

10. Phase I: Articulation Review
Report Prototype
• Colleges can recommend articulation to a
specific UIC course equivalency.
• Drop-down menus enable selection of an official
UIC articulation from a list of available
pseudonyms, including the General Education
categories.

11. Next Steps

12. Next Steps
• Seek feedback from internal and external partners on the
project goals, scope and deliverables.
• Identify remaining action items for Phase I.
• Set scope and action items for upcoming project phases.
• Continue testing and development.
• Wish-list items?