Transferology: The New Online Credit Transfer Tool
On July 1, our campus launched a new online credit transfer tool called “Transferology” as part of a UW System project to improve transfer friendliness statewide. This new tool helps students make informed decisions on transfers and understand how credits will transfer from UW System schools, Wisconsin Technical Colleges, Wisconsin Tribal Colleges, and several two-year institutions from Minnesota and Illinois, as either direct equivalent credits or elective credits.
Direct course equivalent credits are transfer courses with descriptions that closely match the descriptions of courses taught at UW–Madison. While transfer courses that don’t have direct course equivalents at UW–Madison will transfer as elective credits within the appropriate academic department.
This is a major achievement, not only for UW but all UW System schools, to have accurate equivalencies that can be accessed by any current or prospective student. 56% of Spring 2020 graduates who completed bachelor’s degrees, completed their degree requirements with some transfer credits. Additionally, with Early College Credit programs, we know that many of our new freshmen are coming with college credits directly out of high school, making it even more apparent the benefit that Transferology will be to our students.
The implementation of Transferology also added an administrative-facing tool for our staff to more easily maintain transfer information, called TransferologyLab. TransferologyLab is an extension of Transferology, designed to support the needs of staff at colleges and universities that are part of the network. In the Lab, users review and manage student interest, access advising resources like equivalency lookups, and optimize their institution’s transfer-friendliness by fine-tuning equivalency and profile data.
CollegeSource has several opportunities to learn more about Transferology. Their webinar series provides sessions on introduction to Transferology, helping students, academic planning, and more. We are excited about Transferology and the applications to improve how we provide course transfer information to students.