Office of the Registrar

Academic regulation 25h has been inconsistently enforced at OSU. This project adjusts enforcements so that AR 25h points 2, 3 and 5 are aligned with how point 4 is enforced (via the degree audit).

Background to the Project

Academic regulation 25h outlines limits to credits applying to an OSU undergraduate degree including limits in three subject areas (MUP, PAC, and ALS). Historically, this regulation has been enforced on the academic record/transcript – via the quarterly “home grown” repeat job -- rather than via the degree audit (MyDegrees) like other limits to degree applicability. For example, students who attempt more than 36 credits of courses using the S/U grade mode may continue to earn credits with grades of “S” but are limited only via the degree audit in terms of degree applicability. This inconsistency created issues for students who moved in and out of music majors since the regulation varied depending on the declared major. Also, because the transcript repeat flag of “E” was used for both repeating courses (AR 20) and exceeding credits in a subject area (AR 25h), it was not always clear to students, advisors, or OtR staff why any given course had been excluded. This intertwining of AR 20 and AR 25h in the quarterly repeat job resulted in students’ academic records and transcript history flip-flopping the include and exclude flags depending on a student’s course taking pattern and major change history. Their academic history was, therefore, dynamic and not static.

Objectives

Update coding on Appworx job to include grade points and credits.

Project Scope

This process change does not impact the way the university handles repeating a given course number (i.e., AR 20) either from a technical nor policy standpoint. The change simply reflects the untangling of AR 20 and AR 25h (via Appworx job SHR 1720) and the university consistently applying the AR 25h rules affecting the OSU transcript.

Scope Exclusions and Limits

We had originally planned to make the change effective Summer 2019 but ended up pushing out the deliverable term to Fall 2019. We had to meet this timeline as we communicated to a population of students close to the defined subject code limits in AR 25h regarding the change.

Potential Risks and Risk Mitigation

Risk:  Students' GPAs would go down.   Risk Mitigation: Analysis showed that this change positively affects most students. For students experiencing a negative impact to their GPAs, OtR will work directly with students on a solution.

Timeline