Glossary of Andrews University Terms

The evaluation of transferred credits results in articulation, or determination of the Andrews University value of the externally earned college credit. This is done after admission and most often before the first registration. Articulation is the term that refers to the results of the evaluation process. 

The college’s big book of information.  It has all the policies and procedures along with majors, degree requirements, department websites, etc.  Each year a new bulletin is published and updated.  Your degree requirements, however, do not change.  From when you enroll, as long as you remain an active student, you will be required to fulfill the requirements from the bulletin from the year you began studying with us.  If a later bulletin is published and their requirements are more advantageous to you, you may petition to have your bulletin year changed to a more recent year.

Andrews University coordinates a network of online courses available for credit through partnering Seventh-day Adventist higher education institutions, mostly in North America.  This network is called the Consortium of Adventist Colleges and Universities, referred to simply as 'the Consortium' in communication you may see.  Most Consortium courses are approved by all partners, allowing for a single, jointly serviced course space in the Andrews University learninghub.  There are a few courses that are unique to one partner, but other partners would accept it as transfer credit that could fulfill general education or elective requirements.  

Consult the index in the current Consortium Catalog for a concise listing of all courses available through any partner.  Use the  Consortium Registration Packet to enroll in Oakwood or Washington Adventist University courses.  Use Registration Central to enroll in Andrews University courses.  You'll find current sample syllabi and course descriptions for all Consortium courses, organized by university within disciplines.

All Andrews University online undergraduate courses listed in the Consortium catalog can be taken by Andrews degree students. Always check courses meet your degree requirements, and for Andrews students there may be campus restrictions where your department has reasons for you to be completing this requirement on main campus.  Campus restrictions can be appealed with advisor approval, through the Dean of the School or College offering your program.

All of this information is included in the course schedule. You will enter the CRN when registering. Consider an example: ENGL 215 901 (1630)

• ENGL is a 4-letter acronym that identifies a course department.  All English courses begin with ENGL.
• 215 is the specifc course number. All sections of the same class have the same number and title.
• 901 is the 3-digit section number. The number 901 indicates the course is in self-paced online format, and can be started at any time. Section numbers 999, 998, 997, etc. denote online courses in interactive format, with fixed start and end dates, usually aligned with on-campus semester dates 
• 1630 is the 4-digit number in brackets. It uniquely identifies this particular course section in the specific term; the same course will have a new course registration number (CRN) each term.

Field-based: courses that are not taught on main campus, including self-paced and interactive online courses, intensives on extension sites, educational tours and in/externships.

Arranged: course that meet synchronously (in person or online) at a time arranged by the teacher and students such as independent studies and tours; or studies that are asynchronous with no meeting time required such as self-paced courses.

If you already know the content for a required class (say, intermediate Spanish), you may take an exam and if you pass you can get credit as if you had taken the course.

Your college education is measured in “credits.”  On campus, each credit represents about an hour per week of classroom time and two hours of homework for 15 weeks.  Online course credits are designed to require about the same amount of work.  The majority of classes are worth 3 credits, while many technical ones are more and others such as PE or a music lesson may be as little as 1 credit.  A typical full-time student will take between 12-16 credits per semester, or about 4-6 classes.

The rank of your education.  For undergraduate levels, there are three possibilities. An Associate’s in Arts degree (AA) is a 2-year degree, a Bachelor’s of Science (BS) is a 4-year degree with a focus on math, science, engineering, etc., and a Bachelor’s of Arts (BA) is usually more along the lines of English, Photography, etc.  and generally requires you to take a foreign language.  After an undergraduate degree you can then pursue higher degrees such as a Master’s (MA) or Doctorate (PhD).

All the credits required for your major and the general education requirements do not add up to the total credits you’re required to take to graduate.  So with the remaining credits, you may take any courses that interest you – pottery, political science, Philosophy 101, etc.

Every undergraduate degree requires a number of general education classes, also referred to as "gen eds" or Andrews CORE Experience (ACE). The requirements help student build basic understanding of all areas of academia from the Sciences and Math to English and History. Between a third and half of all undergraduate credits will be general education courses.

The international standard book number is the unique commercial book identifier assigned to any books.  When purchasing textbooks online, you can search by entering the ISBN and then checking the title, publisher, year of publication, and edition all match details you have been given in the course syllabus.  Since 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, in a format compatible with the European Article Number EANs.  Always choose the 13-digit number if both 10-digit and 13-digit are shown, for greater accuracy.

The main or “major” focus of your studies.  Anywhere from a quarter to half of your college courses will be related to the same field – Communications, Psychology, Art History, Biology, etc.  Try to select a major that will help prepare you for your future line of work.

An optional smaller cluster of courses in an area other than your major.

Several courses are two-part courses or simply require that you have studied other aspects of a subject before plunging into the more complicated areas.  The courses required before you can take the next course are called prerequisites.

Especially for adult students, if your life experience has already prepared you amply to understand a given course, you may submit an application for your prior learning to be assessed and credited towards your degree requirements.

Any course number that is 300 or higher is considered upper division.  Typically, 100- or 200-level courses are taken towards the beginning of your studies and the last couple of years of your study should begin to have more upper division courses of the 300 or 400 level.  Master’s degrees require are 500- and 600-level courses.