The first phase of the new ASSIST public website was released on May 31, 2019. See below for resources and frequently asked questions.
Resources
FAQs
1. What 2020-2021 academic year information is available on ASSIST?
Transferability Lists
Historically, the ASSIST public website (www.assist.org) releases the upcoming academic year in late spring in order to make available updated general education transferability lists based on completion of the most recent CSU GE, CSU AI, and IGETC review cycle. Updated transferability lists include:
- CSU Transferable Courses
- CSU GE Breadth Certification Courses
- CSU US History, Constitution and American Ideals Courses
- IGETC for UC and CSU
Updated UC Transfer Course Agreement (TCA) and UC Transfer Admission Eligibility Lists will become available in the coming fall upon completion of the UCOP summer review cycle.
Articulation Agreements
The availability of new articulation agreements historically begins the summer before the academic year and varies by institution. Each university is responsible for updating and publishing agreements and a number of factors may affect the process including the availability of updated community college curriculum, campus articulation resources, approach to publishing, and any technology-related limitations. These are most certainly atypical times and the annual availability of agreements will improve as universities continue publishing articulation agreements for multiple academic years, including 2020-2021.
2. Some institutions have only published department agreements. What is the difference between a department agreement and a major agreement?
Articulation agreements are formal agreements between two institutions, most commonly a community college and a CSU or UC, that define how courses completed at one institution may satisfy requirements at another institution. Department and prefix agreements are the simplest course-to-course agreements on ASSIST, displaying how courses at one institution may satisfy certain university courses, organized by course prefix or department. These agreements are helpful when users know the specific university course they need to satisfy, or need to select a course from a certain prefix.
Major agreements display CSU and UC courses for a particular major and the community college courses that may be used in lieu of a university course to satisfy specific lower-division major requirements. Major agreements may also include specific advisories or and/or admissions requirements.
When CSU and UC articulation officers began to publish new agreements for the new ASSIST public website, many began with the simplest type - department and prefix agreements - before transitioning to major or general education/breadth agreements, based on agreement complexity, and whether any technology issues were preventing agreement publication. Viewing agreements “by major” is the system default, but when a major agreement is not available, viewing agreements “by department” shows instead. This has temporarily created some confusion for students who are expecting to see major agreements but instead, only find department agreements for some institutions. As institutions publish major agreements, major agreements will become the first option users see when seeking agreements.
3. What information is available on the new ASSIST website in this first phase of the release process?
Transferability Lists
All six transferability lists are now available including the following:
- CSU Transferable Courses
- UC Transferable Courses
- UC Transfer Admission Eligibility Courses
- IGETC for UC and CSU
- CSU GE-Breadth Certification Courses
- CSU US History, Constitution and American Ideals Courses
Transferability lists for academic years up to and including 2015-2016 are displayed in the form of legacy ASSIST PDFs.
Transferability lists for academic years 2016-2017 and beyond are displayed in a PDF of the new ASSIST format as available for each institution. Please note that the 2020-2021 UC Transferable Courses list (the UC TCA) and UC Transfer Admission Eligibility Courses list will not become available until Fall 2020 when the UC TCA review process has completed.
Articulation Agreements
Department, Prefix, Major and General Education articulation agreements are available as follows:
- Articulation agreements for academic years 2015-2016 and prior are displayed in the format of legacy ASSIST PDFs.
- Articulation agreements for academic year 2016-2017 are displayed either in the legacy ASSIST PDF format, or will be displayed in the new ASSIST PDF format when available, as determined by each four-year institution.
- Articulation agreements for academic years 2017-2018 and beyond will be displayed in the new ASSIST PDF format when available and as determined by each institution.
4. Will I find articulation agreements for every academic year?
While more than a million new articulation agreements are now available across multiple academic years, there are still some types of agreements for various institutions that are still under construction for a variety of reasons. As articulation agreements are finalized for publication, they will be made available on the new ASSIST website. In the meantime, you can access major requirement information for the most recent academic years directly from the public site via the UC and CSU specific website links as shown for the two locations below. It is important to remember that this is an atypical ASSIST time period. The annual availability of agreements will improve. We look forward to continuing to support all ASSIST users as we move through the current, transistory process of making agreements available for multiple academic years, to a more normalized year-to-year process in the near future.
Link access from the Notes from ASSIST box
Link access from the View Agreement screen
5. Is there a tutorial available for the new ASSIST public website that I can share with others on my campus?
New ASSIST public website tutorials are available on the Tutorials page of the ASSIST Resource Center.
6. Are transferability lists and articulation agreements viewable by each department, area, or major?
Transferability lists and articulation agreements for academics years up to and including 2015-2016 (Legacy ASSIST PDFs):
- All list options available in the legacy ASSIST system (each department, each area, each major, etc.) are available on the new ASSIST public website.
- Four-year institutions who opted to display 2016-2017 PDFs of major, department, and general education agreements from the legacy ASSIST system also have all list options available.
Transferability lists and articulation agreements generated from the new ASSIST system for academic years 2016-2017 and beyond:
- With the first phase of the release, selections available for transferability lists and articulation agreements generated from within the new system are in an “All” format. For example, CSU Transferable Courses by all departments, or all majors, instead of individual majors.
- Once certain performance improvements have been completed, additional individualized “view by” selections will become available.
- In the meantime, web browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer have outline views so a specific department or major can quickly be selected and accessed.
- Firefox: The Document Outline feature should open on the left hand side of your screen with the opening of a PDF. If not, click on “Show Document Outline” symbol at the top left of the screen. You can then click on a specific department, major, etc., and jump right to that spot on the list or agreement.
- Chrome: Click on the “Bookmark” symbol at the top right of the screen after a list or agreement PDF has been opened. You can then click on a specific department, major, etc., and jump right to that spot on the list or agreement.
- Internet Explorer: A menu should open automatically on the left hand side of your screen once a PDF list or agreement has been opened. Click on the list selected to see available choices. Click on a specific department, major, etc., and jump right to that spot on the list or agreement.
Note: For academic years 2016-2017 and beyond, institutions who choose not to organize their courses by department will have transferability lists and articulation agreements available by prefix instead of department.
7. Have there been any changes made to the textual information at the top of each transferability list compared to what existed in the Legacy ASSIST lists?
In general, only minor edits were made to the list headers to provide clarity or to remove information that is no longer relevant. Any important differences within the lists themselves, and any relevant association with the list headers, are addressed in the following FAQs.
8. Are footnotes and comments still included on the transferability lists?
Footnotes and comments previously included on the CSU GE, CSU AI, and IGETC transferability lists in the legacy system were phased out. In most cases, the footnotes or comments that previously appeared on these lists ended prior to the 2017-2018 academic year. If additional footnotes or comments are available, a link is provided within the text at the top of the list. Footnotes continue to appear on the UC Transferable Courses list (the UC TCA).
9. Have any changes been made to the display of the UC Transferable Courses list (the UCTCA)?
The “#” symbol denoting something new or changed is not appearing on UC Transferable Course lists in the first phase of release. It will be added back as a feature on this list with future releases.
10. Whom should I contact if I have questions?
Please email help@assist.org with any questions. The ASSIST team will provide assistance or direct your inquiry to the appropriate party for response. You may also provide public website feedback using the feedback form located on the public website Support page.
11. How often is information on the ASSIST public site updated?
Transferability list and articulation agreement PDFs from the new ASSIST system for academic years 2016-2017 and beyond, as available, will be regenerated nightly if changes are made. Any information published during the day will become available the following business day subject to publication rules regarding changes made in the middle of an academic year (winter, spring, and summer terms).
No updates will be made to legacy ASSIST PDFs of transferability lists and articulation agreements for academic years prior to and including 2016-2017. The PDFs of those lists and agreements were produced in the legacy ASSIST system and no further changes are taking place in that system.
12. When will extracts and web services containing course transferability information become available?
The ASSIST project’s timeline is based on a phased approach to key deliverables, including ASSIST data access via extract files, reports, and web services. Please see the Statement on ASSIST Data Requests document for more information.
13. Where is the "Explore Majors" feature?
Although we were not able to include an Explore Majors feature in the first phase of the ASSIST release, we absolutely understand the importance of the feature, clearly reinforced by the feedback we have received from counselors, transfer center directors, and students. Thanks to a creative partnership with Los Medanos College, an alternative exploring majors tool known as the Transfer Major Explorer (https://www.transferbound.com/) is available. The tool was built using information from the legacy ASSIST Explore Majors application and makes available a core exploring majors search feature. Students, counselors and others can select an Area of Study, a related Discipline, see which CSU and UC institutions offer the major selected, and click a link to visit a particular associated CSU or UC website for further information. It is important to note that some information contained on the website may be out of date and updates are being provided over time by CSU and UC articulation officers. A link to the Los Medanos tool is located on the ASSIST public website in the blue “Notes from ASSIST” information panel as shown in the screenshot below.
In terms of the creation of a new ASSIST Explore Majors application, ASSIST is convening an intersegmental group at the end of May comprised of representatives from various areas of the CCC, CSU and UC systems, including counselors and transfer center directors, who have used the legacy ASSIST Explore Majors application and can provide focus group-type feedback. The input received will help ASSIST identify how a variety of users interacted with that application, the most critical components, and where improvements might be made in the future in order prioritize development of a new Explore Majors tool. At this time, we anticipate the next year to be an information-gathering period so we will be ready for any development work when resources and priorities align.
14. Where can I find C-ID course related information?
The C-ID website is the primary source for all C-ID related resources. C-ID course related information can be accessed on the C-ID Courses page.