Development Updates for the New ASSIST System

We would like to update you on the development of the new ASSIST, which will provide a modernized and updated transfer and articulation system for California’s public colleges and universities. During our previous update in May, we shared the objective to provide a temporary website (i.e., Course Transferability Tool) to make course transferability lists, beginning with academic year 2017-18, available to the public. The next step would be the release of a new ASSIST public website with an updated interface for course articulation and transfer planning. However, we also noted that the release of both websites was dependent on further data validation and remediation due to legacy ASSIST data import issues discovered by the new ASSIST vendor.

Over the summer, significant progress was made on the complex data validation process, but it has taken longer than originally anticipated. The last phase of this process will begin mid-September with an anticipated release of the temporary Course Transferability Tool website by the end of the calendar year. We recognize this delay is not ideal given the upcoming start of the fall semester with the legacy ASSIST system continuing to display transferability and articulation information updated only through the 2016-17 academic year. To communicate to community college students who represent the majority of the user base, the following statement will be added by the end of this week to the legacy ASSIST page where an academic year can be selected:

The intent is to ensure students are aware of current ASSIST limitations when it comes to the availability of new college courses, and possible changes to existing course transferability and articulation. It will be critical that students work closely with counseling professionals to confirm course enrollment selections. In addition to temporary transferability website accommodations, we are evaluating remaining critical development tasks with the expectation of a Summer 2019 public launch of the new ASSIST application. We understand that delays in the release of the new ASSIST system have a significant impact on all users. We also want to acknowledge that the public launch can only happen when the system is truly ready, as we are committed to delivering a quality application that will support the missions of our colleges and universities.

Please direct any questions you may have to help@assist.org.