Transfer achievements electronically via EMREX between two higher education institutions (experimental)

Deutsche Version: Nachweis über erbrachte Leistungen via EMREX elektronisch zwischen zwei Hochschulen übertragen (experimentell)

There are currently various projects and initiatives across Europe that aim to facilitate international student mobility by, among other things, digitizing administrative processes, including.

• Erasmus Without Paper (EWP)
• EMREX
• Platform for Inter*national Student Mobility (PIM)

In principle, all mechanisms developed in these projects and initiatives are not only suitable for international mobility, but also for student mobility within Germany. In particular, in the course of the PIM project, some functionalities for the campus management system HISinOne were defined and implemented, which are now technically also available in the HISinOne system at ALU. Before operational use at ALU, a whole range of strategic, operational, legal and technical questions still need to be clarified. The functionality is currently only used experimentally at ALU. The actual recognition processes are governed by the processes described in the faculties and institutions.

• The transfer takes place via the students' browsers between the IT systems of the participating universities. Either from university to university or via an intermediate platform such as PIM
• The transfer is always intiated and confirmed by the students themselves. There is no automatic transfer of data that has not been initiated by students themselves.
• In order for students to initiate and approve a transfer, they must have valid accounts for both IT systems involved in the transfer at the time of transfer.

The data is transferred in the EMREX ELMO format. „The ELMO XML format is the basis for the exchange of result information. Elmo is based on the CEN standard EN 15981-2011 EuroLMAI. EuroLMAI is a data model describing assessments, primarily Diplomas, Diploma Supplements and Transcripts of Records for higher educations. The schema describing the profile of the ELMO format used in EMREX is available the EMREX GitHub repository.“ Source: https://emrex.eu/technical/ [retrieved 2022-01-05T12:37+01:00]

The EMREX ELMO format provides for a few mandatory data and a very large amount of optional data. Basically, students (for systems known to ALU campus management) are shown which data to transfer before a transfer is made. Students can decide at any time not to transfer the displayed data by not triggering the transfer.

In the ALU campus management system HISinOne, only a part of the basically possible data is provided during export. This part is described below. The import should be able to handle all content defined in the EMREX-ELMO format. If necessary, certain elements are not displayed on the interface, but are only contained in the Technical Message (XML file), which can be displayed at any time for control purposes.

In HISinOne, the following are provided for transmission:

• Creation date of the technical document creation.
• Information identifying the student:
  • First Name
  • last name
  • matriculation number
  • System internal GUID
  • (First) nationality
  • Date of birth
  • Place of birth
  • Gender
• Identification information University issuing the certificate of achievement: Country, German statistical key of the university, name of the university, website of the university.
• For all modules marked for transfer by the student: Module information: including name, URL of module description, semester (with start and end), status, ECTS points, grade, grading scheme information.
• As embedded PDF: „EXA 251 EMREX(e) (01a-2022) Leistungsuebersicht Studierende“ (with all content of EXA 251, i.e. also modules not marked for transfer by the student).

The embedded transcript of records is provided in the EMREX-ELMO scheme as a lowest common denominator or fallback level in case there are problems with the automatic processing of the transferred „learningOpportunityInstances“*. In this case, at least the PDF transcript of records is available to the examination office.

*learningOpportunityInstances: four possibilities for „learningOpportunityInstances“ are defined in the EMREX-ELMO schema: „Degree Programme“, „Module“, „Course“, „Class“. On the transmitting side, HISinOne currently supports only „Module“, but all other elements, as defined there, are shown in PDF EXA 251. On the receiving side, initial tests show that HISinOne can also handle the „learningOpportunityInstance“ „Course“.

Via My studies | Import results with EMREX you can start the import of achievements.

• You choose the country of the university from which data should be fetched.
• You choose the heigher education institute or National Contact Point from which data should be transferred. Some countries (e.g. Norway) have nationwide National Contact Points through which data is transferred.

• You confirm the selection and are redirected to the selected source system from which you want to fetch data.
• You have to log in to the selected source system with a valid account there and then follow the steps the system provides.

• After successful transfer you have to log in again to the campus management system HISinOne of ALU and then you will see your imported data under My Studies | Import results with EMREX.
• Deletion of imported data is not yet possible in the current expansion stage of the system.

• You log on to the target system with a valid account.
• At the target system you follow the steps necessary to retrieve data from the system of the Albert-Ludwigs-University

• As soon as you have been redirected to the campus management system HISinOne of the ALU, you log in to the system with a valid UniAccount of the ALU (without a valid UniAccount no retrieval is possible).
• You will be shown the personal data to be transferred.
• You will get a link to the current version of the PDF-file EXA 251, which should be transferred.
• You will see the modules that are stored in the system for your person and you can check which modules should be transferred (if modules are stored).

• After selection of at least one module you get a button activated, with which you can display the selection (no data are sent yet).
• You get all data again directly or as a link (PDF EXA 251 and technical message XML file) displayed and can check the data.
• You get displayed to which system (URL) the data should be transmitted
• After setting a check mark for approval you will get a button „Transfer data“ activated.
• After the transfer you will be redirected back to the target system.

In the role: Sachbearbeitung Prüfungsamt, you can search for EMREX data that students have imported into ALU's HISinOne system via Achievements | Display EMREX transfer data.

• The display of the data is exactly the same in scope and presentation as the student's view.
• If the personal data of the imported credentials differs from the student data, a corresponding note is displayed.
• In the current (experimental) phase, there are still no rights restrictions for the examination offices. Means: all examination offices see all imported data for all students. Students only see their own imported data.
• It is not yet possible to transfer the displayed data to the examination administration. The system manufacturer is currently in a definition phase for corresponding functionalities with the universities that initiated the EMREX developments in HISinOne.

In the role: Sachbearbeitung Prüfungsamt you can use Achievements | Edit achievements per student on the tab Reports.

• View the EXA 251 EMREX(e) document as a PDF, as it would be generated with the data currently stored in the system when students retrieve their transcripts via EMREX from another university for transfer there.

What you cannot retrieve is:

• The version of the PDF document as it looked at time X when the transfer to another college occurred.
• Which modules were selected by the student in the transfer dialog when the transfer to another university occurred.

The EMREX PDF document of ALU always contains the following note „This transcript of records should only be used for the experimental phase of the student-triggered EMREX-data-transfer between higher education institutes, as it is not a legally binding document. Legally binding transcript of records (with signature and seal) are issued exclusively by <as otherwise indicated on EXA 251>“

• Implementation of EMREX data transfer and processing is currently very much in its infancy with campus management systems. Basically, it currently works with HISinOne, and to some extent with other systems of German universities.
• An improvement of the functionality can only be expected if the universities use the functionality and contribute their experience.
• Currently, the system manufacturer is specifying the transfer of EMREX data from the intermediate area to the examination administration. Presumably, corresponding transfer functions will be implemented in later HISinOne versions.
• The import of EMREX data into the intermediate area also works technically for the role „Bewerben (Studienplatz)“. However, the functionality is currently not activated at ALU. Theoretically conceivable would be e.g. the transfer of Bachelor ToRs for Master applications - but these would only end up in the EMREX intermediate area without extending the functionality, but not in the application.

• Calling other universities, from which achievements should be retrieved, currently in some cases still not possible, although these universities participate in the EMREX network (we are waiting here for a hotfix from the system vendor). Example: when trying to retrieve services from the (test) system of EPICUR University Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu the error message „Przepraszamy. Wystąpił błąd serwera. Administratorzy zostali powiadomieni i postaramy się go szybko naprawić. Jeśli problem będzie się powtarzał przez dłuższy czas, prosimy o kontakt.“
• Imported data cannot be deleted again by the student or the examination office. If data is to be deleted, please email cm@rz.uni-freiburg.de.
• URL to module description (<url>) is included in Technical Message (XML file) generated by HISinOne, but is not displayed on the interface when received from another HISinOne system.
• Generation date <generatedDate> of the generated Technical Message (XML file) is always date with time T00:00:00, but XSD says: „The datetime when the file was generated.“. […] Example values: „2015-08-01T12:00:00+02:00“, „2015-08-01T10:00:00Z“)
• Status for modules not yet completed in the technical message (XML file) probably coded incorrectly: HISinOne generates <status>in_progress</status>. Correct would probably be <status>in-progress</status> according to XSD.