Coding Questions and Answers

By Colleen Straight

Where can a researcher find definitions and explanation of the coding components of the administrative systems (i.e. SMS, PPMS, FMS, others)?

• CIS Code Tables 1-5, X.
• These tables include both system and college-defined codes.
• The values of the codes can be obtained by using data express procedures.
• CIS data dictionary.
• Job Number: DD0002J.
• Provides a definition of each field in SMS, FMS, PPMS, SAFERS, but does not indicate what dataset contains the field.
• Provides values for some fields.
• Caution: the report is about 1,000 pages long.
• Contact college information systems manager.
• Database report, by database.
• Job Number: DD00011J.
• Provides a listing of the data sets and data elements within those data sets.
• ZX0000R series, Data express reports.
• Data hunting tools to help locate and explain the structure of the data.
• Contact Kelly Smith, CIS, for more information at 425-803-9763.
• SBCTC Policies and Procedures Manual, Appendices.
• SBCTC codes and definitions for the SBCTC data warehouse are available on the SBCTC internet site at http://www.sbctc.edu/college/_d_datawarehouse.aspx.
• CIS and SBCTC Web sites have lots of great information: http://www.sbctc.edu and http://www.cis.ctc.edu.

Who can a researcher talk to about these components?

• College registrar for student coding.
• College business officer for financial coding.
• CIS: call customer support and ask for a return call -- 425-803-9721.
• SBCTC: Carmen Stewart 360-704-4369.

How does course and student coding affect a community college?

• Course and student coding impacts a community college's funding. In addition to matters such as FTE targets, there are pools of funds available for targeted populations and programs. The appropriate coding on students and courses directly translates to dollars when these kinds of funds are distributed. Examples are Perkins funding and worker retraining.
• Course and student coding enables the SBCTC to report for the colleges to the legislature, state and federal agencies. It also allows the SBCTC to prepare historical analyses as well as future trends of the Washington community college system.
• Within a community college district, the coding allows for local analysis, historical and current information on staffing, finances and enrollment, and provides data for forecasting future trends and needs. The coding also enables a college to respond to inquiries from the public and government entities.

Which course and student codes are the most important and why?

Although all student and course coding is important, there are some that naturally come to mind. In conversation with Doug Whittaker, SBCTC, he identified the following codes as important for funding:

• Student fee pay status.
• Course fee pay status.
• Student intent.
• Course institutional intent.
• Course funding source.
• Student CIP code.
• Course CIP code.

Other important student codes include:

• Student work-attend.
• Gender.
• Ethnicity.
• Planned length of attendance.

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