History of SPEEDE in Minnesota

 

 

1.      U of M, MnSCU and secondary level met in 1992-93 under the auspices of the Intersystem Collaboration Office: A joint project of Minnesota colleges and universities.  At that time the initiative involved the University of Minnesota, Minnesota State University System, Minnesota Community College System, Minnesota Technical College System, and secondary level represented by Metro II and TIES.  Private Colleges were to be added to the project.

 

There was a review of AACRAO guidelines, projects around the country,  a presentation by University of Wisconsin, Madison and a demonstration by Supply Tech.

 

The University of Minnesota did some groundwork during this time that became useful as the project was renewed in 1998.

 

2.      Because of merger and lack of legislative interest the project was abandoned in 1993.

 

3.      Current Project:

 

First official meeting was October 9, 1998 with representatives from University of Minnesota; Minnesota State Colleges and Universities; and Dept. of Children, Families and Learning.

 

Decision to move forward with project in a low key, ground up approach.  U of M and MnSCU did not ask for extra money for the project.  CFL did make a legislative request for a position to help coordinate districts and vendors to implement ExPRESS for secondary level.  This position was funded but reallocated to other projects by the new commissioner of CFL.

 

4.      The work team for the SPEEDE/ExPRESS or EDI Project decided to meet monthly in

order to continue to learn about SPEEDE and ExPRESS, to develop project plan with target implementation date and timelines, milestones, etc., and to keep the pressure on each other to bring this plan to reality. 

 

Two Teams were developed - a Technical Team and a Functional Team.

 

Pilot Schools were selected:

      Century College

Hennepin Technical College

Metropolitan State University

St. Cloud State University

University of Minnesota

University of St. Thomas

 

       Pilot demo date was set for June 6, 2000.

 

 

Documents developed include:

Case Statement for SPEEDE/ExPRESS

EDI Guide for Minnesota

Project Plan

Resources on the Web

 

      Server decision:  to use the Texas server for processing.

 

5.      Investigations were made of other state/systems using EDI, including Iowa and

      Texas.

 

6.      Research of software and hardware considerations were conducted.

 

7.      Decisions were made by the U of M, MnSCU and University of St. Thomas on EDI

software.  All chose EDI Smart by SCT.

 

8.      CFL withdrew from the current effort due to lack of support at their agency.  SPEEDE Work Team will work directly with high schools and their data providers to explore developing and implementing ExPRESS standards.

 

9.      Eight members of the Planning Team attended the SPEEDE Workshop in Indianapolis in November, 1999.

 

10.  During Fall, 1999 a SPEEDE Mapping Team was formed to work on mapping issues.

 

 

Work continues to implement SPEEDE for the Pilot institutions so that each institution can send and receive a transcript on June 6, 2000.  After that point, work will continue to import SPEEDE data directly into each institutions database.  When that is implemented, then system will go live for all institutions in U of M and MnSCU.  Private Colleges will be encourage to follow the University of St. Thomas and public higher education and implement SPEEDE as well.