CollegeSource is pleased to announce that the release of Transferology™ has been set for March 31st, 2014. We have a tremendous amount of work and testing to complete before that date, and we plan to provide a closed, clients-only beta period prior to the release so that those of you currently investing your data in the tool set can review features, participate in some training, and check the appearance of your equivalencies. The site will go live at the end of March, and CollegeSource will begin promoting the site to students after the CollegeSource 2014 User Conference and Training Workshop in June. This gives us all some time to get comfortable with the site, make any necessary adjustments, and prepare for increased student traffic.
This CollegeSource news feed will be used to announce all further developments for Transferology. Please check the website often and/or sign up to receive the news feed by email. Currently we transmit the news in digest form on the 10th of each month.
More information in response to frequently asked questions.
Will my degree audits still work? Are degree audits still important in Transferology?
Of course! We still believe in “the power of the audit!” If your audits worked in u.select®, they will work in Transferology. Additionally, we have made them easier to find and more directly related to a student’s input coursework. Over a decade of data shows that students don’t access degree audits as much as we might desire or expect. We believe that making them easier to find may lead to increased usage. However, we also know that audits can be very complex and confusing to students. Transferology makes it possible for students to request more information from institutions and form a connection that can be used to supply personal direction and information about their degree audit from an advisor or admissions officer.
Will student accounts in u.select be converted to Transferology accounts?
Students can request that their u.select accounts be converted to Transferology accounts through the main page.
Will our current URL’s still work?
The short answer is “Yes.” At the very least we will have a redirect for all URL’s that hit transfer.org, pointing them to Transferology.com. In the future, though, we will be supplying you with links and graphics with embed codes to use on your website. This will ensure that the information from your institution(s) will appear at the top of the match results for students coming to Transferology.com from your site.
I don’t store equivalencies in u.achieve, DARwin, or TES, can I still participate in Transferology?
Absolutely, but you must be willing to extract your equivalency data and send it to CollegeSource in a file format that we will specify prior to launch. (The format will be very close to the one described in this document, though the general process will be a little simpler.)
How can I get my school to perform better in the search for matches?
Build more equivalencies and more specific equivalencies. We don’t offer any “premium” rates or opportunities to buy your way to the top of the list. Another way to ensure your school is featured is to drive students to the site from a URL that you control. This will mark your school as the referring institution and place your results higher in the lists. Finally, the Transferology Labs will provide you with tools for marking any generic equivalencies you use in u.achieve/DARwin in a way that indicates their relative usefulness and allows them to perform better in the match scoring.
How often will my equivalencies be updated?
Our plan is to re-collect and re-index the database every few weeks. Schools storing equivalencies in u.achieve/DARwin or TES will also have push-button options for triggering more frequent or timely data updates. Clients sending information by file will be updated as files are collected. (Two uploads/year are included in the base price.)
Wouldn’t it be better to have a real-time connection to my school’s equivalency data?
That might seem better, but there are two reasons it is not. The first is that no matter how diligent the caretakers are, connections sometimes break or get blocked. This leads to a student experiencing time lag or error messages and reflects poorly on the product. The other reason is that we can’t search the equivalencies for all schools at once through individual connections. Transferology is designed to give students blindingly fast answers without asking them a ton of questions. By giving students quick results, they see the power of the tool and are more willing to invest their time in it.
Can I be involved as a beta tester?
Yes, we are allowing limited access to the Transferology Lab beta site, as it is developed, for the purpose of testing and obtaining valid feedback from target users. If you want to get involved, we ask that you do two things. 1) Understand the commitment. We want testers, not lurkers! If you are going to be involved, it means responding to announcements of updates and testing periods by spending some time with the affected screens and providing feedback in a reasonable time frame (a week or two). We welcome all feedback that is timely, detailed, and constructive. There is no such thing as negative criticism, only helpful and unhelpful criticism. If you tell us a feature is broken or works in an undesirable fashion, we will be excited to get that information so long as it is described well (so we can find or replicate the error). Of course we love to hear encouraging words as well, so don’t hold back when you see something you like. 2) Contact Melissa Brooks, Me*****@co***********.com, to be added to the list of testers. If your signature block does not contain your job title and phone number, please add those as well.
More questions?
Contact our Outreach Consultants, Kelly Corcoran, Ke***@co***********.com, or Dana Hill, Da**@co***********.com.
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