This and other documents that describe the way the course is designed to be taught and evaluated are sent to the receiving institution. The articulation officer at the receiving institution works with the faculty to determine if the course will be accepted for transfer. It is not uncommon for a community college course to be accepted as equivalent for only a portion of the requirements of the four-year campus. Once agreement is reached, the articulation is recorded in an appropriate format and the information is transmitted back to the sending college. It is important to note that for major requirements these agreements have to be separately negotiated for each receiving college and university, and with each appropriate department within the receiving university.
Articulation is labor intensive.
No one believes that the amount of existing articulation is nearly adequate to the need. One could easily double the effort and not have complete articulation within public higher education. The cost to students in extended time to degree is far higher. The articulation of the course work is based upon evaluation of the official outline of record. While millions of dollars are spent to integrate the design of courses, there is no effective discipline at any level to assure that faculty actually teach the courses as they are defined in the official outlines of record.