These instructions are the “how-to” guide for the new College Portrait application

Teri Lyn Thill

Informations

• Publié par: Fiwyong
• Nombre de lectures: 48
• Langue: English

Extrait

Voluntary System of Accountability™ College Portrait
Web-based Application Administrative Guide
March 6, 2009 (updated 3/30/09)
This Administrative Guide provides an overview of the features of the new College Portrait web
application and serves as a “how-to” guide for populating and publishing your institution’s
College Portrait for 2009.
The College Portrait is part of the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) - a voluntary
initiative by 4-year public universities to communicate basic, comparable information on the
undergraduate student experience to important constituencies through a common web report. For
more information on the VSA project visit www.voluntarysystem.org or the College Portraits
website at www.collegeportraits.org.
The College Portrait Administrative Guide is divided into the following topic areas:
Contents 
Overview and Important Updates for 2009 .................................................................................... 3
Deadline for the 2009 College Portrait: April 3 April 17 .......................................................... 3
Review of Key Features.............................................................................................................. 3
Help & Support............................................................................................................................... 4
Logging into the Administrative Application................................................................................. 4
Manage Your Portrait Account(s) – Administrative Functions...................................................... 5
Adding Other Users for your institution ..................................................................................... 5
Changing Passwords ................................................................................................................... 5
Reporting Problems .................................................................................................................... 6
Uploading Data Files ...................................................................................................................... 6
Upload data from you Fall 2007 Excel template ........................................................................ 7 National Student Clearinghouse .................................................................... 7
Entering Data .................................................................................................................................. 8
Data Entry Help, Saving and Validation..................................................................................... 8
Previewing individual pages as you enter data........................................................................... 9
Institutional Information ............................................................................................................. 9
Student Characteristics.............................................................................................................. 10
Undergraduate Success 10
Retention Rate for New Freshman............................................................................................ 11

  1 Voluntary System of Accountability™ College Portrait
Web-based Application Administrative Guide
March 6, 2009 (updated 3/30/09)
Costs of Attendance and Financial Aid .................................................................................... 12
Undergraduate Admissions....................................................................................................... 13
Degrees and Areas of Study...................................................................................................... 13
Study at Your Institution........................................................................................................... 14
Student Housing........................................................................................................................ 14
Future Plans of Bachelor's Degree Recipients.......................................................................... 15
Student Experiences.................................................................................................................. 15
Student Learning Outcomes 16
Additional Information ............................................................................................................. 17
Previewing Your College Portrait................................................................................................. 17
Previewing individual pages as you enter data......................................................................... 18
Previewing your entire College Portrait prior to publication.................................................... 18
Validate all the data in the College Portrait.......................................................................... 18
Preview your College Portrait............................................................................................... 18
Publishing Your College Portrait.................................................................................................. 18 ortrait.............................................................................. 18
Publish the College Portrait ...................................................................................................... 19
View the finished College Portrait............................................................................................ 19


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Voluntary System of Accountability™ College Portrait
Web-based Application Administrative Guide
March 6, 2009 (updated 3/30/09)
Overview and Important Updates for 2009 
Deadline for the 2009 College Portrait:  April 3 April 17 
Current VSA participants should have the 2009 College Portrait published to the website by
April 17, 2009.
The 2009 version of the College Portrait should be populated with Fall 2008 information
from the Common Data Set.
The Success & Progress information should use the Fall 2002 cohorts.
The Cost of Attendance information should display the most currently available tuition and
fees information (Fall 2008 or Fall 2009).
Due to continuing installation complexities with the current VSA cost calculator application,
we will be working toward integrating the VSA cost calculator into the College Portrait
application. A limited release beta test version will be available later in 2009. In the
meantime, please link to a webpage on your financial aid website that displays detailed cost
of attendance information. Institutions with their own calculators should link to it now.
The information within the new College Portrait application can be modified or
updated at any time. However to provide College Portrait users with more comparable
information across institutions, follow the schedule outlined above.
Review of Key Features  
Both the data entry interface and the College Portrait display meet (and in many cases
exceed) ADA accessibility requirements.
The data entry template is a web-based form; you will no longer need to download an excel
workbook nor make the conversion to a PDF file.
If you completed the Fall 2007 Excel template, much of the data from the Fall 2007 template
can be uploaded directly into the application – text, links, student experiences, and learning
outcomes data. The outdated Fall 2007 CDS data will not be included in the upload.
If this is your first College Portrait, you can log in and go to Enter Data to start the data
entry.
To create the success and progress graph and table, the Cohort Aggregate Report file from
StudentTracker Cohort query can be saved as an Excel 1997-2003 file and uploaded into the
College Portrait application. Please note that you need to submit a Cohort Query to the
National Student Clearinghouse in order to receive a Cohort Report file.
The published College Portrait will be a series of web pages, not a PDF file. A print option
with consistent layout and formatting will be available by the end of April (updated 3/30/09).
Each institution’s College Portrait will have a unique URL. The URL will be used as the link
from the VSA/College Portrait logo on each institution’s website. This URL will need to be
updated on your institution’s website once the College Portrait has been published.


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Voluntary System of Accountability™ College Portrait
Web-based Application Administrative Guide
March 6, 2009 (updated 3/30/09)
Help & Support 
Webinars conducted in early February 2009 to walk participants through the new web-based
application have been archived. The Webinar can be accessed at the following location:

Overview of College Portrait Application
Hold down Ctrl and click on the link above to open it in your web browser; alternatively,
copy and paste the following link you’re your web browser:
http://tinyurl.com/College-Portrait-Webinar

Note: When viewing the webinar, please keep in mind that updates have occurred since the