In 2002, institutional data had been expanded in order to create course/certificate/degree transition pages on the fly that replaced the need for institutions to create their own transition pages. Information from the institutional data entry screen is combined with data from the DO and DS files to create course transition pages; while degree and certificate data from the previous section are combined to create degree and certificate transition pages on the fly. Institutions can still create their own course transition pages and insert a link to them on the OLN on-the-fly transition pages by inserting their institutional transition page URL into the data field found on the HEI DO file.

The original form for Institutional Information has been modified, as of December 2004, to comply with the OLN Governing Board’s approval to meet standards established for “Best Practices for Student Services at a Distance.” The criteria for establishing the information required to meet these standards of “OLN's Best Practices were derived from OLN’s Principles of Good Practiceand “OLN Quality Report.” Institutions agreed to the “Principles” when they signed the OLN's Memorandum of Understanding.

Some new information is requested for an institution to achieve the designation of “Best Practices” for their OLN transition pages. Primarily, though, the attempt was made to better categorize existing information requests. The new general categories are:

1. General Information: general institutional and catalog coordinator information.
2. Offices Information: campus offices that provide services to students, i.e. admissions
3. Services Information: key campus services for students, i.e bookstore
4. Policies Information: critical campus policies that affect students at a distance, i.e. Section 508 compliance
5. Contact Information: advising and general distance learning contacts with e-mail addresses
   

Institutions will receive “Best Practice” designation when all requested information on the five forms are completed by catalog coordinators and reviewed by OLN. Once OLN approves their review of the submissions, the name of the institution will be added to the list of Ohio higher educational institutions that provide “Best Practices for Student Services at a Distance.” If misunderstandings or misinterpretations develop in OLN’s review of submitted information, OLN will consult and work with the institution to clarify and assist the institution to complete all information requested based on their institutional context. Deb Segner will be OLN’s primary point of contact.

Generally, the institutional information needs to be submitted once, but will need periodic updating. Access to these data entry forms are found listed under the title Modify Institutional Information for Ohio Learning Network.

Adding URLs for a secure server.

Most of these areas request that you provide a URL to an institutional Web page containing more specific information.

Previously, all you had to add to submit was the part of the URL that came after http://. For example with the URL http://www.oln.org, all that was needed was www.oln.org.

With some institutions moving to secure servers, one could not add the necessary https:// to the URL. Now you can.

If the URL you are adding or modifying is a link from a non-secure server, you can continue to enter the section of the URL that comes after the http://. The entry for http://www.oln.org can still be entered as: www.oln.org.

If the URL you are adding or modifying contains a link to a secure server, you will have to add the complete URL. In this case the entry for https://www.oln.org would have to be entered as https://www.oln.org.


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