In 1983, Miami University developed an internal degree audit system to provide students with a tool for helping them track their coursework to degree completion. After requests from other institutions interested in using the degree audit software, DARS became a separate unit within the university in 1985 and began licensing the degree audit software to colleges and institutions nationwide.

In the late 1990s, Miami University DARS - with the support of the Ohio Board of Regents and the Arizona Board of Regents - developed a Web based, student transfer support system known as the Course Applicability System (CAS). Using the World Wide Web, CAS enables students, advisors, faculty and administrators from colleges and universities to obtain consistent and accurate information about how courses will transfer from one school to another and how those courses will apply to meet user-selected academic program requirements at other schools.

DARS released the beta version of the Degree Completion Planner (DCP) in January 2008. DCP provides students with roadmaps for planning their entire academic career term by term. Institutions benefit from additional data analysis that can help plan classroom management and scheduling demand.

In the summer of 2008, DARS unveiled a new organization name, redLantern. The name change helps give a more comprehensive name to the Miami University auxiliary that now provides multiple educational software solutions in addition to the degree audit reporting system. The current suite of products was also renamed campus suite, and each product name was changed to reflect the new brand. u.direct (formerly DCP), u.select (formerly CAS), and u.achieve (formerly DARwin) were selected as new names for the current products. Today, as always,  redLantern continues to enhance and develop supporting software solutions that promote student success.