Storing Degree Audit Data

Abstract

One function of student records information technology (Data Coordination) at the University of Texas at Austin is to provide students and advisers with information about degree audits. A degree audit is a formal evaluation of a student's coursework to date, in terms of the requirements for a particular degree. This paper deals with three different strategies for presenting such information: (1) dynamic generation of reports or displays, as audit results are being determined (the no-storage option), (2) storage of degree audit text, for later retrieval and display (the text storage option), (3) storage of encoded degree audit data, for later retrieval, formatting, and display (the data storage option). The paper examines their present strategy, the data storage option, and details the file structures involved. The authors demonstrate the ways in which these structures are exploited for print, mainframe, and web presentation of degree audits using IDA (Interactive Degree Audit), a delivery vehicle for degree audit data.