On April 18, 消消犯 joined Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Texas-Austin, and Duke University as the only five American universities to sign the Groningen Declaration.

The Groningen Declaration is an international network of education institutions, ministries of education, and employers focused on developing best practices and globally accepted standards for secure, citizen-centered consultation and portability of digital student data. As business and travel are conducted more through digital mediums, higher education must adapt to provide students with credentials that are protected and shareable for third parties.

As higher education becomes more necessary in the workplace, the need for global standards on credentialing that fully captures the student’s four-year experience becomes imperative. As a national leader in the expansion of the academic record, Elon will continue to play a role in shaping the next generation of academic records.

The session was selected for its clarity, quality and innovative approach to addressing the pressing issues within the enrollment management field. AACRAO strives to facilitate the move towards more data-driven decision-making models by providing a venue for content experts to share their findings with the higher education community.

Alexander Taylor, student Information systems technician, and Rodney Parks, university registrar, received the award and presented the session at the conference.

消消犯 was highlighted for their work to provide transgender and gender-nonconforming students the ability to choose a campus name and pronoun. Rodney Parks, university registrar and assistant to the provost, accepted the award on behalf of the team at the annual Blackboard World conference in New Orleans. 

“Blackboard is proud to recognize this year’s Catalyst Award winners for their commitment to leveraging technology to improve the education experience,” said Bill Ballhaus, chairman, CEO and president of Blackboard. “We look forward to continuing to work with these educators and institutions to support learner success, and to share best practices widely for the benefit of the education community.”

For the second year in a row, students in Dr. Parks’s HSS 373 course — Wilderness and Adventure Therapy, embarked on a global education experience in Peru to hike and camp on the Inca trail during the week of Thanksgiving break.

Co-instructors Rodney Parks, who is university registrar, assistant to the provost, and an assistant professor, and Janelle Decato, assistant director of study abroad, decided to increase the challenge for this year’s class, incorporating an additional excursion across the fabled Pachacutec Pass. This 13-mile hike exceeds 15,000 feet in elevation, giving students a close up view of glaciers and the lofty mountains Sahuasiray and Pitusiray – the highest peaks in the Urubamba range.

In addition to these physical challenges, students were encouraged to engage with the local population. Cultural connections embedded in the course included an exhibition of traditional weaving techniques, an intimate demonstration of traditional healing practices by a local shaman, and one-on-one interviews with the local porters that camped and hiked with the group.

The Adventure Therapy course joins other travel embedded courses offered through the Global Education Center.

As a result of taking a course with Sean McMahon, assistant professor of entrepreneurship, where he was challenged to produce and present innovations for the university’s degree audit, Whitesell created a system that maps courses visually across a comprehensive curriculum – a significant departure from the traditional text-only audit.

In addition to winning the scholarship, Whitesell was invited by the Southern Association of Collegiate Registrar’s and Admissions Officers (SACRAO) to present his innovation at their annual conference in Oklahoma City on Feb. 8-9. His work with McMahon and registrar Rodney Parks has led national vendors to seek his council on integrating the innovation into traditional electronic catalogs.

Taylor participated in two presentations. The first focused on quantitative research on student perception of the CeDiploma for graduating seniors. Notably, this research has also been accepted as a major publication in the peer-reviewed journal “College and University.” 

The second presentation focused on his work to extend the academic transcript through Elon’s involvement in the $1.56 million Lumina Foundation grant.

This is the third year in a row that Elon 消消犯 students have received scholarships to present their research at the large southeastern conference.

“AACRAO 2016 Academic Record and Transcript Guide” provides up-to-date guidance and best practices on keeping, protecting, and disseminating student records and transcript information and aids registrars in their task of preserving the integrity of their institution’s academic records.

Authors are chosen based on their knowledge of the field and innovations with digital credentialing. The book is a publication of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officer.