U-CAN Data Update Period Now Open

U-CAN is now in the process of updating data! The following note was sent to all participating campuses this morning:

U-CAN Participants,

First, a word of thanks for your patience as we work through the process of the first complete data update of the U-CAN profiles. We've established a system that is designed to maintain consistency of data across all profiles, and ask for your help in making sure that the information provided to consumers is as accurate and up to date as possible.

We've seen the popularity of U-CAN grow dramatically over its first nine months. To date, nearly 300,000 visitors have viewed more than 800,000 pages. Recent focus groups of parents of college-age students have found U-CAN a valuable source of vital information in making college choices. Some individual profiles have received over 20,000 views, and an increasing number of high school college counselors are using U-CAN in advising students. What makes U-CAN valuable to students and their families is that the information is comparable across all profiles. To maintain comparability, the information in U-CAN should reflect the most current data available to institutions.

As mentioned in our previous email, there will be two data update periods this year. The first begins today, June 10, and ends on July 23, 2008. The second will take place in late October to incorporate the new IPEDS information available at that time.

To facilitate data updating, we've set aside approximately six weeks for institutions to put current data into the system. At the end of the period, we will change the public side of U-CAN to reflect the new data. During the 6/10-7/23 update period the public template with the old dates will still be active on the site. To make certain information is presented accurately to the public, we will temporarily suspend the public publishing of new data until the end of the update period. Any changes made during this time will be saved within the system, but not made available on the public site until July 23, when the new template is released. At that point, we will republish only those profiles that have updated their information. Institutions that have not completed the data updating by July 23 will be held off-line pending updating, and will be republished to the live U-CAN site as soon as data updates have been made.

To update you must first check the new "update for 2008?" box at the top of the main data entry page. This toggles your data entry form to reflect the new dates and lets us know that you have checked the accuracy of your information. Instructions for data entry, revised for 2008-09, are available at http://www.naicu.edu/u-caninstructions

IMPORTANT NOTE: On July 23, only those institutions that have indicated that their information has been updated by checking the "update for 2008?" box will be available to the public on the new 2008 template. Institutions that have not updated their profiles by July 23 will be listed in a new category, "awaiting updates." Following July 23, institutions may publish information on the new template at any time simply by checking the "updated for 2008" box.