Frequently Asked Questions
Academic Explorer (AeX) Live Website
Joint AeX-Institution Scholarships
AeX Staging Website
AeX Administration Module
AeX XML Validation and File Upload
Academic Explorer (AeX) Live Website
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Joint AeX-Institution
Scholarships
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AeX Staging Website
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AeX Administration Module
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AeX XML Validation
and File Upload
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Answers
Academic Explorer (AeX) Live Website
(Back to top) What is AeX?
AeX is a unique platform in the military education community, containing course
catalog data all the way down to the course and course description level.It is:
- A neutral, un-biased, standardized, and comprehensive one-stop source for institutions
to display their program and course offerings to potential customers.
- A platform that 'levels' the playing field and puts all participating
institutions at the same level of access to all students and counselors.
- A Web-portal that is available 24/7 and anyone can access it over the Internet.
It allows each eligible academic institution to place its offerings for consideration
in front of EVERY eligible military student.
- A powerful search facility that allows searches using various parameters, and quickly
brings into focus the programs and academic institutions that best meet each customer's
unique needs.
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Why was Academic Explorer (AeX) created?
AeX was created to improve the student/counselor task of locating and selecting
an institution of higher learning, and in the process, connect the ideal academic
institution or institutions, that are military-friendly, for each customer's unique
a
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What is the value of Academic Explorer (AeX)?
The value of AeX is derived from the compilation of degree/program data in a searchable
database and the un-biased structure and presentation of the information. This allows
users to find the information quickly, as well as review and comprehend it rapidly
to identify applicable academic institutions and programs.
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What are the benefits of AeX?
AeX's query capabilities and database make it easy to quickly identify, review,
and narrow down the right choices for each potential student. Furthermore,
the availability of AeX to military education counselors not only makes the
counselors more efficient in providing advice and counsel, it consequently increases
the number of students served. This makes the counselors more effective by allowing
them to move beyond just personal knowledge, experience, and limited and disparate
data, to a comprehensive data set that is available and current in AeX.
Additionally, AeX requires that there is no collection of personal information by
any institution on any AeX page or any landing page that you visit when first leaving
the AeX site by clicking on a link from one of the pages that the institution has
loaded on AeX.
Finally, AeX provides the capability for each institution to provide a point of
contact, phone number and email address on each of their pages so students and counselors
know exactly who to contact to get more information about the school or a specific
program or to get enrolled and begin their education.
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Joint AeX-Institution Scholarships
(Back to top) What
are the Joint AeX-Institution Scholarships?
The AeX-Institution Scholarship was established in November 2009 to offer scholarship
support to the Military Community and family members. This scholarship is a way
for Academic Explorer (AeX) to
give back to our men and women in uniform who have served, or currently serve our
country, and their families.
The Joint AeX-Institution Scholarships are awarded by the Career and Education Compass
Foundation (www.compassfound.org) in recognition
of institutions that are participating on the Academic Explorer (AeX) platform and
publishing their degree programs. The current list of scholarships can be
found on the Scholarship & Financial Aid Explorer (www.mcsfex.net)
or on the Projects page of the Career and Education Compass Foundation website (www.compassfound.org/projects.aspx).
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How much are they worth?
There are two different scholarship amounts. For institutions that participate
on AeX and publish their full course catalog (Certificates through Doctoral degrees),
the scholarships are worth $1,000. For institutions that are participating
on AeX and publishing Certificate programs through Associate Degrees, the scholarships
are worth $500.
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Who is eligible to receive one?
Applicants must be Active duty military, retired military, immediate family members
or reservists. For the 2010 academic year, this scholarship will be limited to members
of the United States Marine Corps or their family members.
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Where can I see more details on these scholarships?
You can find more details on the Scholarship & Financial Aid Explorer Search
page at www.mcsfex.net/search.aspx
and using the keyword "AeX" in the "Scholarship Offeror" field.
This will list all of the eligible scholarships for each offering institution.
You can search through the list of scholarships by institution to find the appropriate
one.
You can also visit the Career and Education Compass Foundation website on the Scholarships
page at www.compassfound.org/scholarships.aspx
to see all of the details on the scholarship and obtain information on how to apply.
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How do I apply for one?
You can apply for one of the Joint AeX-Institution scholarships on the Career and
Education Compass Foundation website on the Scholarships page at
www.compassfound.org/scholarships.aspx. This page provides you with
all of the eligibility criteria, as well as a links to print the scholarship application
or fill it out online.
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What can I use the scholarship money for?
The scholarship money can be used for tuition and/or books.
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How will I know if I was awarded the scholarship?
You will be contacted by a representative from the Academic Explorer selection committee
to inform you of your award. It is critical to supply your current phone number,
address and email address when submitting your application so you can be contacted
with any questions on your application and to inform you if you are selected.
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When will I get the scholarship money?
The scholarship money will be sent directly to the school and credited to your account.
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AeX Staging Website
(Back to top) What is the
URL for the Staging Website?
The URL for the AeX Staging website is
http://staging.mcaex.net/default.aspx
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Why can’t I see the changes I made in Staging on the Live site?
You can't see the changes on Live because they are only on Staging. We provide
you with two environments: Staging and Live. You have control over changes
to your data on Staging, without counselors or students looking at it. The
Live site is read-only and is viewable by everyone.
You can view your changes on the Search page of the Staging website at
http://staging.mcaex.net/search.aspx. To have your changes moved to
the Live site, you will need to call the Technical Support team at 703-955-4242
or email techsupport@mcaex.net to request
that your data be moved from Staging to Live. We do this in a controlled,
manual process to ensure that none of your data on Live gets overwritten or removed
by mistake. We also take that opportunity to back up your current data set
on both the Staging and Live databases so it can be rolled back in the event of
any difficulties or inadvertent data being moved to Live.
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Why can't I see my programs on the Search page in Staging?
The first thing to check is to make sure that each program you have added to the
database has been added to at least one campus in the Administration Module.
You can do this from the home page selecting "Campus" from the "Components"
panel on the right-hand side of the screen. Once selected, you are presented
with a list of your campuses. Select the campus you wish to add programs to
by clicking on the pencil icon (to "edit" the campus details). When
the Campus Add/Edit page is displayed, click on the "+Program" button
in the "Components" panel on the upper-right portion of the screen.
This displays the complete list of programs that you have loaded for your institution.
Click on the blank checkbox (on the left-hand side of the grid) for each program
that you wish to add, then click on the "+Selected" button at the lower-right
portion of the screen to add the selected programs to the current campus.
You cannot mark items on the current page and navigate to the next page without
clicking on the "+Selected" button or your selections will be lost.
If you wish to select all of your programs in a single step, change the value in
the Page Size text box (lower-left portion of the grid) to the number of programs
you have loaded, then click on the "Change" link next to the text
box. This will redisplay the grid, showing all available programs. Then
you can click on the "Select All" button to mark all of the program select
boxes and then click on the "+Selected" button when the grid display is
refreshed. When the page is closed and the "Campus Add/Edit" page
is displayed, click on the "Update" button to save your changes.
For more detailed information, consult the "Administration Module User's Guide"
which you received with your login credentials.
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Why can't I find my institution listed on the Search page in Staging?
If you cannot see your institution listed on the Search page of the Staging website,
there is one of two problems. First, you may not have marked the "Active"
checkbox on the main Institution page in the Admin module. The other problem
could be that you must have at least one program loaded (and linked to a campus).
For more detailed information, consult the "Administration Module User's Guide"
which you received with your login credentials. You may also call the Technical
Support team at 703-955-4242 or email techsupport@mcaex.net.
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AeX Administration Module
(Back to top) What is the
Administration Module for?
The Administration Module is a tool that is available for the institution administrators
to add, view and edit their information on AeX. The module accesses the database
in the Staging environment and the changes can be viewed using the Staging version
of AeX. The administration module allows the administrator to access, view
and change the following information:
- Institution details
- Accreditation information
- Points of Contact information
- Locations (Addresses)
- Campuses
- Departments
- Programs
- Courses
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What is the URL for the AeX Administration Module?
The URL for the AeX Administration Module is
http://staging.mcaex.net/admin/login.aspx
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I don't know/remember my login credentials. How do I get them again?
If you have lost, forgotten or haven't received your login credentials, please send
an email to techsupport@mcaex.net and
we can send them to you. We need your name and your institution included in
the email.
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I can't find the Administration Module User's Guide. Can I get another copy?
Absolutely. Just send us an email to techsupport@mcaex.net
and we'll get it to you. The file is a PDF and is about 2MB. Please
provide us with your name and institution.
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AeX XML Validation and File Upload
(Back to top) What
is the URL for the XML File Validation?
The URL for the XML File Validation page is
http://staging.mcaex.net/admin/XMLValidationForm.aspx. This is internal
to the Staging website and requires your login credentials to log in and access
it.
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What is the File Upload button for?
The "File Upload" button allows you to upload your XML load file to the
Staging web server after it passes the XML validation. This does not automatically
load your XML file into your institution data on the Staging website. Once
your file has passed the validation, and you have uploaded it, please send us an
email to techsupport@mcaex.net to let
us know that you have a new file on the server to be loaded. You can also
call us at 703-955-4242 to accomplish this. Once we receive your request,
we will load your data and it will be available for you to check in the Staging
environment.
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I validated and uploaded my file. Why don't I see it on the Staging environment?
The "File Upload" just loads it onto the Staging web server. You
still need to contact us (techsupport@mcaex.net
or call 703-955-4242) to request that the file be loaded into the database.
This is a manual process so we have the opportunity to validate with you whether
this load is an update to what already exists in the environment or if you want
a clean environment to load this new data into.
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