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Course equivalency

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Course equivalency is the term used in higher education describing how a course offered by one college or university relates to a course offered by another. If a course is viewed as equal or better than the course offered by the receiving college or university, the course can be noted as an equivalent course. A course equivalency can be unilateral, meaning it is deemed equivalent by the receiver. Or, it could be bilateral, meaning both sender and receiver acknowledge their acceptance of each other's course as equivalent. The methods and measures used to determine course equivalency vary by institution, state, region and country.

Background

College transfer often requires the determination and evaluation of prior course learning. Receiving institutions usually maintain course equivalency tables listing how courses equate by sender institution. Unless the receiving institution maintains an online public reference to the course equivalency tables, students have difficulty ascertaining transferbility of their credit experiences. As a result, student transitions from sender to receiver can be very problematic. This has led a number of states to initiate legislate reforms, regulations and mandates to augment the tracking of course equivalencies. A variety of statistics, studies, and initiatives have been documented (see References).

Colleges and universities historically have utilized standalone electronic tools to track course equivalencies and facilitate the course evaluation process. Efforts have been made in the past to develop on-line equivalency databases that cover states and/or systems. One of the first was Artsys, the Articulation System for Maryland Colleges and Universities.

The first effort to build a national network of transfer information was undertaken by the DARS group at Miami University in the late 1990s. CAS, the Course Applicability System, sought to incorporate equivalency information from member institutions and publicize that information to students. The system also attempted to reflect how that credit applied toward specific degrees. The system became u.select, and currently contains information for hundreds of colleges and universities across dozens of states. In 2009, Miami University sold the DARS group (which had then been rebranded as u.select) to CollegeSource, Inc. CollegeSource continues to support and enhance u.select, along with other degree planning and transfer solutions.

Another company, AcademyOne, Inc., entered the market in 2005 with the goal to reduce the complexity of managing course equivalency information which historically was performed standalone. The company published the first release of Course Atlas in 2007 combining the current course offerings from 4,000 institutions. This made it easier for students, faculty and administrators to search, find, compare and link current course offerings between one or more institution. AcademyOne released several tools to help manage course equivalencies:

  • The Course Equivalency Management Center (CEMC) automates workflows creating, sustaining and promoting course equivalency information between sending and receiving institutions. CEMC is used by States coordinating the management of course equivalency information with participating public and private institutions. As a result, hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the United States utilize CEMC and/or synchronize course equivalency data with their back office student systems using AcademyOne's higher education cloud based tools.
  • The Transfer Agreement Management Center (TAMC) promotes Transfer guides and articulation agreements proactively published by sending and receiving educational providers. Transfer agreements and guides usually contain course equivalencies narrowed by program of study. AcademyOne estimates there are over 100,000 transfer agreements nationwide published by senders and receivers, mostly expressed in static PDF or Word documents. TAMC helps institutions promote their agreements to students.
  • The Transfer Center Express is a web widget tool that institutions place on their transfer center web pages syndicating their course equivalency data and transfer agreements.
  • The AcademicGPS app for smartphones gives students greater access to course equivalency information and transfer agreements in the palm of their hand or on tablets.

Over 1,200 colleges and universities publish transfer policies and course equivalency information pro-actively seeking transfer students on the CollegeTransfer.Net Web Portal. Students can freely run the "Will My Credits Transfer" function on CollegeTransfer.Net Web Portal to assess which institutions will potentially accept prior learning and assessment exams. Transfer maps can be generated, shared and saved by users. The National Transfer Services Network hosted by AcademyOne supports academic departments, faculty and administrators sharing best practices, workflows, course credit frameworks and articulation methodologies. The company also manages a number of statewide projects across Texas, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah and Delaware supporting curriculum alignment and collaborative projects facilitating degree completion initiatives.

The most common course attributes evaluated to determine course equivalency are description, academic credits, accreditation, type of instructor, method of instruction, level of instruction, learning outcomes, grade scale and grade earned, pre-requisites, co-requisites and textbook. This is not an exclusive list of course attributes. Generally, faculty perform the determination of course equivalencies. Course equivalency decisions can often be appealed by presenting evidence to an academic department.

See also

References

Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). (2000). A Statement to the Community: Transfer and the Public Interest. Available at http://www.chea.org/pdf/transfer_state_02.pdf.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2005) The Road Less Traveled? Students Who Enroll in Multiple Institutions. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005157.pdf.

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