Find Potential Equivalent Courses By Title Keywords: EQ Search

Institutions can use the EQ Search to take keywords from a transfer course title and compare them to their institution's titles and descriptions to find possible equivalencies. 

What is EQ Search? 

EQ Search is a tool within the Course Finder whereby users can compare the keywords from a transfer course title to their institution's titles and descriptions. Users must have the ACCESS EQ user right in order to use this feature of TES.

This functionality is beneficial to use when:

• users are still becoming familiar with their institution's curriculum
• courses at their institution have undergone recent changes
• the transfer course is one not seen very often

Once the potential equivalent course has been identified, users can review the course details and choose between creating an equivalency or initiating an evaluation task. Both of these can be done right from the search results.

In the example below, we are tasked with evaluating the Fall 2020 version of University of Minnesota Duluth's PHIL 1007 Philosophy and World Religions. We believe that our institution, CollegeSource University, has a World Religions class, but we're not sure what Department the course is under.

Searching By Title Keywords

Begin by navigating to the Course Finder through the Search menu and selecting the institution, data set, and course needing evaluation. For assistance in this area, see the attached related articles.

• Select the EQ Search button to the right of the course description:

• The Equivalency Search page will appear.
• EQ Search will have already taken the keywords from the transfer course title ("PHILOSOPHY," "WORLD," "RELIGION") and looked to see whether any courses at the home institution have ALL these keywords in their title. If courses are identified, they appear under SEARCH RESULTS: 

Adjusting the Search Criteria

• If no results are found, search criteria may need to be adjusted.
• In the example above, we can see that no courses at CollegeSource University were identified as having "PHILOSOPHY, "WORLD," AND "RELIGIONS" in the title. However, our institution may have a course with some of these keywords.  

1) Removing the checkmark from Course Titles Only enables users to look for matches to keywords in their institution's course titles and the course descriptions. 

• Note that depending on the keyword(s) (i.e., INTRODUCTION), this might return a large number of results!

2) To no longer include a keyword in the search, remove the checkmark next to it. 

• In the example above, we decided we only wanted to search for "WORLD" and "RELIGIONS" this time.
• Users can also choose to add keywords to the search criterion, too:

3) Users can choose between searching for courses containing all the checked keywords or at least one. 

• Note again that depending on keywords, a large number of results may be returned.

Viewing Results

In the below example, we have adjusted our search criterion to look for any CollegeSource University course with "WORLD" and "RELIGION" in the title. The SEARCH RESULTS field tells us that our institution has a course with an exact title match.

• To view the home institution course details, select the box next to the course code and select View.
  • Prefer to search through the course catalog manually? Select BROWSE MODE instead.

• From here, review the course information in more detail.
  • If it is determined that the courses are equivalent, users can create an equivalency by clicking the EQ Add button.
  • To create an evaluation task, click on the EVAL Add button.

Creating an Equivalency

• Selecting the EQ Add button takes users into the Equivalency Manager. 
• Click PREVIEW to continue with creating the equivalency.

• Enter any effective dating or notes needed. Then click Create to finalize the equivalency.
  • Decide that evaluator input is needed? It's not too late to create an evaluation task by clicking Create Eval Task.

Creating an Evaluation Task

• To begin creating the evaluation task, click Preview:

• Select the appropriate evaluator from the list.
  • Add comments, and attach support files if needed. 
    • The Send email alert? checkbox may or may not be checked, depending on the institution's Email Alert Default Status. It's best practice to leave this checked.
  • Click Create Evaluation Task.