apas news
Portage College Goes Live!
The latest addition to the active institutions on ApplyAlberta, Portage College went live with transcript services on July 6, 2011, and application services on March 6, 2012.
The remaining institutions still in development are scheduled to go live later this year.
TOPMilestones
The number of applications submitted through ApplyAlberta has grown to 320,000; more than 424,000 transcripts have been transferred.
Focus On: ASN Management
Over the past year, a number of initiatives related to Alberta Student Number (ASN) have been undertaken to help improve the overall accuracy of ASNs. Tom Roach of AB Enterprise & Advanced Education outlines some of these initiatives:
ASN Awareness Training
Understanding what ASN values are used for and the benefits of having accurate ASN reporting are essential to buying in to the process. In an effort to increase awareness of what ASN values are used for, how to help manage them, and some common current concerns, two online ASN Awareness Training sessions were offered this past December and January. Reference materials for these programs are available upon request. Please contact Rob Acker (rob.acker@gov.ab.ca) if these materials are of interest.
ASN Processing Reports
The ASN management process is quite resource intensive. To assist, two reports have been developed to summarize the issues encountered during the ASN Matching process. This summary report is sent out to stakeholders at the completion of the ASN review process. These reports highlight the ASN records that needed additional follow up; grouping the instances based on similar issues. These reports are provided for information purposes so that stakeholders can review possible systemic reporting issues for future submissions. While these reports are at the summary level, detailed record level reports can be made available upon request.
Reporting Standards
A lot of work has gone into reviewing and developing standards in the ASN process to improve consistency and efficiency. One example we continue to review is how to deal with single name values in the system.
Deleted / Retired ASN Report
To address the issues related to individuals with multiple ASN values, a file was distributed to all APAS member institutions containing all Deleted or Retired ASN’s. This file also indicated what the new/current ASN values are, and when the changes became effective. This report allows stakeholders to review their current systems, and to identify what values should be updated so that future submissions will encounter fewer issues. By reviewing this file and updating ASN’s that have been retired or deleted, the number of duplicate or retired ASN values used across the system will be significantly reduced resulting in quicker turnaround through the ASN Matching process and quicker response to your requests for transcripts.
Stay tuned, the review of ASN Management is an ongoing process that will see more changes and updates as we strive to streamline and improve the overall process.
AB Enterprise & Advanced Education
Recent changes within AB Enterprise & Advanced Education include the retirement of Harald Zinner, former Director of the Accountability/Outcomes Reporting Branch. Many thanks to Harald for his assistance and support.
Harald Zinner
Susan Stein,
Operations Director
Welcome to APAS News!
Welcome to the first edition of APAS News, the e-newsletter of the APAS Society.
As ApplyAlberta moves forward into an operational mode, our hope is that this newsletter will allow us to communicate regularly with all levels within APAS member institutions.
In this first edition, we provide updates on current activities, milestones on the numbers of applicants using the ApplyAlberta system, and introduce a regular feature designed to focus on what’s happening within the APAS community. In the coming months we’ll include information on member institutions, other organizations, and topics of interest to all.
Board of Directors
Welcome to new Directors: Riley Coulter (Ambrose University College), and Dru Marshall (University of Calgary).
A special thank you to our former Chair, Sharon Carry, for her dedication and commitment to making the ApplyAlberta initiative a success.
Applicant Experience Survey Results
The first iteration of the Applicant Experience Survey was conducted in February and March of 2011.
86% of respondents indicated that their overall experience with ApplyAlberta was excellent or good, while 63% of those who had used other application systems found ApplyAlberta to be better than those systems (27% indicated that it was about the same).
An ongoing version of the survey is being developed to collect feedback on a continuous basis and broaden the pool of responses.