12.5: Assessing Student Success
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In the British Columbia Transfer System, as in many other systems, the effectiveness of the transfer system is subject to intense examination. One approach to this is to assess the performance of students after transfer, to evaluate the extent to which their sending institution has prepared them well for more advanced courses, and by extension whether the articulation process can hold up to scrutiny. Numerous research approaches have demonstrated consistently that the transfer system in British Columbia is very effective indeed. Students graduate at similar rates to those students who enter universities directly from secondary school (direct entrants), and achieve comparable grades. Five years after graduation, transfer students are virtually indistinguishable from direct entrants.
In one case, however, research into student performance pointed to an issue affecting an online course: students were enrolling in suspiciously large numbers for a English course offered online by a college, and achieving higher grades than appeared warranted by their scores in English placement tests. Due to effective communication between the institutions involved, the issue was addressed immediately by the responsible institution and steps were taken to rectify the situation, caused by insufficient oversight of student assignments and exams. However, such instances can shake the faith of many in the system in online course integrity and contribute to the hesitancy with which some evaluators approach the awarding of transfer credit for online learning. It is imperative that, in an articulated system, both sending and receiving institutions are open to scrutinizing the effectiveness of their transfer agreements, and the integrity of their course delivery methodologies.