XML Postsecondary Electronic College Transcript Standard

1
XML Postsecondary (Electronic College) Transcript
Standard
AACRAO SPEEDE Committee May 5, 2004 1015 AM
2
Original Presenters

• AACRAO SPEEDE Committee
• Jennifer James,
• University of California-Santa Barbara
• Jacqueline Nottingham,
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
  University

3
Todays Presenters

• AACRAO SPEEDE Committee
• Jennifer James,
• University of California-Santa Barbara
• Clare Smith-Larson,
• Iowa State University of Science and Technology

4
Clares Favorite Quote for the week

• When asked by the Southwestern University Search
  Committee Based on your past experience at
  University of Texas, Austin, do you feel that it
  will be different at Southwestern to not have to
  deal with as much bureaucracy and as many rules
  as you had to do at a much bigger school?
• Dave Stones, Father of SPEEDE EDI, responded
  I believe that Southwestern actually has MORE
  rules, but fewer of them are written down.
• Reported by Bruce Marton, SPEEDE Committee and
  PESC Architecture Group member, regarding Dave
  Stones on the occasion of his interview for
  Registrar after retiring from the University of
  Texas, Austin

5
PESC XML Standard

• Self-documenting schema
• Backed by accompanying XML documentation
• Well-supported in higher education community

6
PESC Approved Standard

• Reviewed and approved by Postsecondary Electronic
  Standards Council (PESC)
• Community-wide collaboration
• Culmination of four years effort
• To be added to the PESC/FSA Registry and
  Repository Summer 2004

7
Hot Topics

• Significance of XML Standards
• How did we get here?
• XML standards framework
• Overview of College Transcript XML standard
• Next steps

8
XML Technology Milestones

• Extensible markup language (XML) 1.0 February
  1998
• Structured information
• XHTML 1.0 - January 2000
• XML Schema 1.0 - May 2001
• Language to enforce standards

9
EDI Format
SPEEDE Transcript (EDI)
NOTE This link not operable
10
Some XML Terms

• DTD Master listing of elements placed in
  documents (where and how)
• Schema XML application describing the allowed
  content of documents
• XSL, XSLT converts an XML file into another
  specified format
• Parser Tool to read document and divide it into
  parts
• Validation Process to check structural validity
  of document

11
ltSTUDENTID type SSNgt 123456789
lt/STUDENTIDgt ltDEMOGRAPHICgt ltBIRTH DATE
typeDATEgt 19740823 lt/BIRTH DATEgt
ltGENDERgt M lt/GENDERgt lt/DEMOGRAPHICgt ltGRADE_R
EPORTgt ltSESSION Code!199901gt ltLABELgt
SPRING SESSION lt/LABELgt ltYEAR
typeCCYYgt 1999 lt/YEARgt ltCOURSE
index1gt ltCREDIT typehoursgt 4
lt/CREDITgt ltGRADEgt A lt/GRADEgt
ltCODEgt SPN 406 lt/CODEgt
ltCOURSE_TITLEgt SPANISH I
lt/COURSE_TITLEgt lt/COURSEgt ltCOURSE index2gt
ltCREDIT typehoursgt 3 lt/CREDITgt
ltGRADEgt B lt/GRADEgt ltCODEgt HIS
302 lt/CODEgt ltCOURSE_TITLEgt TX
HISTORY lt/COURSE_TITLEgt lt/COURSEgt
Sender
Receiver
XML Parser checks document
Application Generates XML
Receiver Application processes file
12
PESC Standards ForumCommunity Participation

• AACRAO SPEEDE Committee
• NCHELP Electronic Standards Committee
• U.,S. Department of Education
• SIS Vendors
• Colleges and universities

13
XML Schema Features

• Minimum/Maximum Length
• Required/Optional
• Repeatable
• Format Number, Date etc.
• Code lists
• Mandatory choice
• User-defined extensions

14
XML Format
SPEEDE Transcript (XML)
NOTE This link not operable
15
Example XML Course Block

• ltCoursegt
• ltCourseCreditBasisgtRegularlt/CourseCreditBasisgt
• ltCourseCreditUnitsgtSemester lt/CourseCreditUnitsgt
  
• ltCourseCreditLevelgtLowerDivlt/CourseCreditLevelgt
• ltCourseCreditValuegt4lt/CourseCreditValuegt
• ltCourseCreditEarnedgt4lt/CourseCreditEarnedgt
• ltCourseAcademicGradeScaleCodegt25lt/CourseAcademicG
  radeScaleCodegt
• ltCourseAcademicGradegtAlt/CourseAcademicGradegt
• ltCourseQualityPointsEarnedgt16lt/CourseQualityPoint
  sEarnedgt
• ltCourseLevelgtLowerDivlt/CourseLevelgt
• ltCourseSubjectAbbreviationgtMATHlt/CourseSubjectAbb
  reviationgt
• ltCourseNumbergt2415lt/CourseNumbergt
• ltCourseTitlegtCalculus IIIlt/CourseTitlegt
• ltAttributegt
• ltRAPCodegt9TXlt/RAPCodegt
• ltRAPNamegtTXCORECURRlt/RAPNamegt
• ltRAPSubNamegt020Mathematics - C1lt/RAPSubNamegt
• lt/Attributegt
• lt/Coursegt

16
User-defined Extensions

• Allows mutually defined sub-schemas
• State systems
• Regional requirements
• Allows strict standards within system
• Other user can ignore
• National ratification not needed

17
Next Steps

• Schools can begin implementing standard
• Mapping to SIS system
• New developments in XML
• University of Texas server supports SPEEDE XML
  standard NOW

18
Adoption of PESC (SPEEDE) Standard

• SCT Banner is implementing this XML standard in a
  current project
• California Community Colleges lists (XML) SPEEDE
  as requirement

19
Update CCTRAN ProjectCalifornia Community
Colleges

• Project Description
• The California Community Colleges are
  exploring viable alternatives for the
  establishment and operation of a statewide
  internet-based system for requesting, viewing and
  transmitting academic transcripts among
  authorized educational institutions and their
  trading partners.

20
Update CCTRAN ProjectCalifornia Community
Colleges

• 1999
• CCC Chancellor's Office awarded a grant to
  two Community Colleges to study the feasibility
  of developing new system-wide solutions for
  Electronic Records Exchange, including an
  application for admission and transcript, using
  new Internet-based technologies

21
Update CCTRAN ProjectCalifornia Community
Colleges

• 20012002
• Developed transcript data standard and
  commissioned a research report for a transport
  system using open-source and web services, with
  prototype

22
Update CCTRAN ProjectCalifornia Community
Colleges

• 2002-2003
• Recruited 5 community colleges to pilot-test the
  transport prototype and data standard
• Packaged and documented ETTP server
• Added ASP model to pilot test
• Revised CCC data standard to align with new XML
  standard from PESC

23
Update CCTRAN ProjectCalifornia Community
Colleges

• Drafted system specifications document and
  support specifications document for RFI
• Worked closely with SPEEDE Committee and PESC as
  XML Schema was being finalized

24
Update CCTRAN ProjectCalifornia Community
Colleges

• We find that the PESC schema will work for the
  CCCs with very moderate use of the User Defined
  Extensions for a few fields (e.g. California
  Course Articulation Number Codes)
• The CCC college transcript data dictionary to be
  revised in July August 04 to reflect this
  mapping

25
Update CCTRAN ProjectCalifornia Community
Colleges

• RFI due date April 16, 2004
• Will prepare a project plan including resource
  requirements for the acquisition (either by
  purchasing or developing) of an e-transcript
  system
• Early adopters implementation 2004 2005
  academic year

26
Update CCTRAN ProjectCalifornia Community
Colleges

• www.cccnext.net/ccctran

27
Near term development goals

• Related Transcript Schemas
• Request and Response
• Acknowledgement
• College Transcript XML Implementation Guide
• Degree Audit Schema

28
Development goals (cont.)

• Transport and routing standards (SOAP)
• EDI/XML Crosswalk tables
• EDI/XML translation software

29
Development goals (cont.)

• Web Services Standards
• SIS Interoperability Standards

30
SPEEDE Training Support

• AACRAO Technology Conference (October 3-5, 2004,
  Newport Beach, CA)
• College Transcript Mapping sessions
• XML Implementation
• XML Stylesheets
• .html
• .pdf (Acrobat)

31
XML College Transcript Documentation

• Schemas available at
• www.pesc.org
• with future links to the Repository

32
Questions?
AACRAO SPEEDE Committee May 5, 2004 1015 AM
33
Contact information

• Jennifer James, UC-Santa Barbara
• James-j_at_ucsb.edu
• Bruce Marton, U-Texas, Austin
• brucemarton_at_mail.utexas.edu
• Clare Smith-Larson, Iowa State
• cssmith_at_iastate.edu
• AACRAO SPEEDE Committee
• www.aacrao.org/speede