The Key, also known as the UGA Course Review Book, has gone through many changes in more than a decade since it began as a Student Government Association project. Today, we're proud to continue the tradition of giving students up-to-date grade information in a useful format.
Here are some important dates in the history of The Key. Please contact us with any additions or corrections.
1996 - The Key is published online by the Office of Institutional Research and Planning.
April 2002 - A searchable version of The Key is made available online at UGA Today, a sister website of The Red & Black.
October 25, 2002 - The University Council Curriculum Committee considers a proposal to establish a comprehensive course information database called "The Bank". The Bank would include tests, essays, grading information, textbook information and more. This database would be available via the Internet.
January 25, 2005 - Faculty members discuss abolishing The Key at a forum hosted by the General Education Task Force.
May 29, 2005 - The Black Tie Party, a student organization at UGA, links to the 1999-2005 versions of the Course Review Book compiled by the Office of Institutional Research. Previously, OIR only linked to the two most recent semesters' grades.
March 29, 2006 - Bob Boehmer, University of Georgia Associate Provost for the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE), emails academic advisors to inform them that The Key will no longer include professor names. The new Key would have information aggregated by course number.
To ensure student access to the data is preserved, the Black Tie Party uploads the unaltered versions of The Key, 1999-2006, to the Black Tie Party website.
March 30, 2006 - The "new key" is published by OIE and all instances of the "original key" are removed from the website.
March 31, 2006 - The Red & Black publishes that the original key is still available on the Black Tie Party website. Meanwhile, several student protests crop up to urge the administration to reconsider cutting The Key.
April 4, 2006 - SGA President Jamie Peper meets with Bob Boehmer to discuss the recent decisions regarding the changes to The Key. Later that day, University President Michael Adams announces that SGA will now be responsible for compiling, administering, and hosting The Key, with the assistance of the Office of Institutional Research.
Fall 2006 - Fall 2007 - SGA publishes The Key online, but lacks a regular schedule or format due to technical difficulties and personnel changes. The UGA Office of Institutional Research ceases to put out even its modified version of The Key.
July 2007 - SGA publishes the Fall 2006-Spring 2007 version of the key online. However, this version is incorrect as it omits failing grades for most classes.
August 11, 2007 - UGAKey.com, a website which contains grade distributions for undergraduate courses taught at the University of Georgia from Fall 1999 to Spring 2007, goes online.
August 22, 2008 - UGAKey.com passed half a million total pageviews since it moved to UGAKey.com.
Grade data obtained from UGA Office of Institutional Research; all other content is copyright 2007-2008 UGAKey.com. UGAKey.com is not affiliated with the University of Georgia or University System of Georgia. UGAKey.com accepts no responsibility for errors in grade data.