ASSISTance: Spring/Summer 2021

General Updates

Upcoming ASSIST Closures - The following are the ASSIST office closures for the remainder of 2021:

• Thursday, November 11, 2021 - Veteran’s Day
• Thursday, November 25 and Friday, November 26, 2021 - Thanksgiving
• Thursday, December 23 and Friday, December 24, 2021 - Winter Holiday
• Monday, December 27 through Wednesday, December 29, 2021 - Winter Curtailment
• Thursday, December 30 and Friday, December 31, 2021 - New Year Holiday

ASSIST Staffing - We are very pleased to welcome Erica Lassen to the ASSIST team as our newest ASSIST Senior Articulation Analyst. Many of you likely know Erica either through her role as the Fresno State Articulation Officer or in her capacity as the Northern California Intersegmental Articulation Council (NCIAC) Chair. Erica’s skills and experience complement the current work of ASSIST and will undoubtedly be assets as we evolve and grow in the future. We are thrilled to be able to work with her more closely as she completes our small but mighty team.

ASSIST Public Website Updates

• Enhancements: Based on input from multiple ASSIST stakeholder focus groups, website survey responses, and help@assist.org email feedback, we modified the assist.org website design in June to enhance the user experience and streamline the site navigation process.
• Public Website Resources: An ASSIST public website tutorial, Quick Start Resource, and updated FAQ page are now available on the ASSIST Resource Center. You can sign up to receive ASSIST news updates as well.
• 2021-2022 Academic Year Transferability Lists and Articulation Agreements
  • Transferability Lists: We are now displaying the following 2021-2022 course transferability lists on assist.org:
    • CSU Transferable Courses  
    • CSU GE-Breadth Certification Courses
      • CSU GE Area F approvals begin in Fall 2021
      • CSU GE Area F will only appear on a CSU GE-Breadth list if the applicable CCC has approved courses
      • Please make note of unit change language related to CSU GE Area D and additional notations/labeling where CSU GE Area F is displayed on the CUS GE-Breadth Certification Courses list
    • CSU US History, Constitution, and American Ideals Courses
    • IGETC for UC and CSU
    • UC Transferability Lists (Coming Soon): The 2021-2022 UC Transfer Course Agreements (UC TCA) and UC Transfer Admission Eligibility Courses list will soon be available following completion of the review cycle.
  • Articulation Agreements: CSUs and UCs are working diligently to publish agreements for the 2021-2022 academic year. A number of factors may affect the process, including the availability of updated community college curriculum, campus articulation resources, and publishing strategies. Given the varying CSU and UC approaches, there are important considerations when evaluating the availability of articulation agreements.
    • Many campuses begin by publishing the less complex department and prefix agreements.
    • The default system behavior is to display major agreements first. If no major agreements are available, the system will gray ou that option as not available and display any available department agreements.
    • A new help menu option identified with a question mark [?] is available to explain the differences among major, department, prefix, and general education/breadth agreements:
      
      
    • If you have questions related to articulation agreement availability or specific information contained in an articulation agreement, please contact the university directly.

Data Integrity Review and Remediation: We are elated to report that the ASSIST data integrity review and remediation process is complete! All courses are now displaying on assist.org.  The achievement of this substantial milestone is due to a confluence of innovative technology solutions implemented by our software vendor, Accenture, and the expert human resources of the ASSIST team. ASSIST remains committed to ensuring the integrity of course and articulation information presented on the ASSIST website (assist.org) and we offer our thanks for the collaboration of those who manage data in ASSIST.

ASSIST Visitors and Activity

• Each day...
  • The ASSIST website has almost 9,000 visits
  • 87% of ASSIST users are looking for articulation agreements (14.000+ articulation agreements accessed per day)
  • 13% of ASSIST users are seeking transferability lists (2,000+ transferability lists accessed per day).

ASSIST Public Website Transferability Lists - There are two types of transferability lists in ASSIST: yearly lists and historical lists.

• Yearly Lists: Display course transferability information for a single year at a time. Courses on these lists are transferable during the specific academic year of the list displayed.
  • CSU Transferable Courses
  • UC Transferable Courses (UC TCA)
  • UC Transfer Admission Eligibility Courses
• Historical Lists: Display course transferability over time. Courses on these lists continue to display on an ongoing basis regardless of their current transferability status. Begin and end terms for each transferability period are identified.
• CSU GE-Breadth Certification Courses
• CSU US History, Constitution, and American Ideals Courses
• IGETC for UC and CSU

If you have any assist.org related questions, you can contact us at help@assist.org. To provide feedback on the ASSIST public website, click on the “Support” link at the bottom left of the assist.org home page and use our feedback form.

ASSIST Stakeholder Group Updates

• Articulation Officer Workgroup: the ASSIST Articulation Officer Workgroup met in May and August. The group discussed and provided feedback on several topics including: curriculum management policies in ASSIST, the use cases for reports found in ASSIST, and how information should be displayed in ASSIST under certain scenarios.
• Articulation Modernization Workgroup: We resumed monthly calls with our workgroup members on August 18th and the development team demonstrated existing system progress. We also discussed improved ways to manage articulation and agreements from year to year.
• The ASSIST team is currently reviewing information related to an articulation modernization development timeline that complements student needs, articulation management cycles, and training plans in order to determine the optimal time to implement the modernized articulation functions and features.

ASSIST Extracts

• We anticipate having ASSIST course transferability data extracts available this fall to CCC, CSU, and UC campuses. This first phase of the extract release process will include the following course data extracts:
  • UC Transferable Courses
  • CSU Transferable Courses
  • IGETC Approved Courses
  • CSU GE Breadth Certification Courses
  • CSU US History, Constitution and American Ideals Approved Courses
• An extract specification document will be released in advance of the extracts themselves so campuses can review the information included in the extracts and the related technical specifications. Of note, extract data is formatted so that it can be uploaded into another application or system rather than read by a person.
• Articulation extracts will not be available until completion of the articulation modernization project.

ASSIST Office Hours - Welcome Back!

• During the last academic year we instituted ASSIST Office Hours. We continued those sessions in this academic year beginning with “Welcome Back” and “UC TCA Appeal” sessions. The format remains open with the agenda set by whatever topics the participants bring with them to the calls. 
• The ASSIST team will be discussing the possibility of holding office hours for additional ASSIST stakeholders. If you are a counselor, evaluator, or other ASSIST user, let us know if you would like the opportunity to participate in an ASSIST office hour session by emailing help@assist.org.