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A Newsletter from the Ohio Board of Regents, May 2007

Transcript Clearinghouse to Launch in 2007

The Articulation and Transfer Clearinghouse (ATC), currently being developed, will support Ohio ’s enhanced Articulation and Transfer Policy. The Clearinghouse will facilitate and expedite the electronic processing of transcripts and allow for the consistent application of course credits. Each transcript will also include additional information regarding coursework guaranteed to transfer and apply through the Ohio Transfer Module and Transfer Assurance Guides.

The Ohio Board of Regents ATC team is currently working with representatives from Ohio 's public colleges and universities to create interfaces to the central Clearinghouse for electronic transcript exchange and for transfer course articulation.

To facilitate a rapid introduction of the ATC to the institutions, nationally-accepted interface standards have been adopted. There will be two ways for transcripts to be sent to the Clearinghouse once an institution has the capabilities to generate an electronic transcript in the agreed-upon format:

1. the institution can upload the transcript using a secure login; or
2. the institution can deliver the transcript via an internet web service.

Similarly, institutions can download their transcripts via the secure login or can retrieve their transcripts via the internet web service. It was felt that this two-pronged approach would allow users the most flexibility in these early stages of implementation.

The 2007 launch of the Clearinghouse will occur in three releases. In May, the ATC  team declared that the central software system was ready for production, providing electronic transcript exchange and basic course matching. In one simulated  test, the ATC team flooded the central clearinghouse system with 10,000 transcripts in one hour. The team continues to develop data access and login policies in preparation of adding live users to the system. Five institutions are currently under test with two additional institutions nearing that designation.

In July, a second phase of the central software system will be released that will enhance the methods used by institutions for retrieving transcripts from the central clearinghouse. Also, the team will migrate the production system from the Board of Regents offices to the State of Ohio Computer Center (SOCC) - a high availability, secure environment.

In September, additional enhancements to the transcript exchange capabilities will be released, as well as the full-featured TAG course matching capabilities.

Institutions will continue to be added to the production system throughout the remainder of 2007 and into early 2008. Questions regarding the Clearinghouse can be directed to Jim Ginzer, Program Manager, at (614) 752-9486 or jginzer@regents.state.oh.us .