Blog from May, 2018

Following is the preliminary schedule for the CCCApply 6.2.0 and CCC Administrator (CAP 1.0) release activities. More dates and links will be added to this table detailing specific implementation and communication activities, 

Release Activities Schedule

CCCApply Administrator 2.0 Upgrade

On June 28, 2018 - the Pilot (sandbox) version of the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 will be released and College Support Services will begin working with a small set of "beta" colleges on pilot implementation and user acceptance testing (UAT) to ensure the process is ready to implement with all remaining colleges. Test results against the initial success criteria will help the support and implementation team to hone the full implementation plan and testing process for all 110+ CCCApply-using colleges. 

Once your college has completed the required implementation and UAT checklist and training, authorized Pilot users will be able to access the new Administrator and manage data.  

The new application code will remain in the pilot environment from June 29 - July 27 (production release). Incremental code updates will be made weekly through the pilot period. Colleges should be aware that from the first incremental pilot release on June 28  and the second incremental update on July 11, any data changes made in the pilot environment during this time may be overwritten by a data refresh scheduled for July 12.  Weekly updates will be communicated to colleges throughout the pilot period.  

Reminders & Important Notes 

1. Once the Pilot version of the CCCApply Administrator 2.0 is deployed on June 28, there will be two different versions of the CCCApply Administrator running concurrently throughout the Pilot implementation period - or until the Production release on July 27, 2018. The new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 will be live in the Pilot environment and will integrate with the Pilot CCCApply applications. 
2. The Production version of the legacy Administrator (1.0) system will continue to manage and integrate with all your student-facing CCCApply application(s) until the Production CCCApply Administrator 2.0 system is fully deployed to the Production environment on July 27, 2018.
   
   

What do Colleges Need to Know?

• The new CCC Administrator is now the gateway to the CCCApply Administrator 2.0 tool for California Community Colleges Admissions and Financial Aid staff users - passing authentication and authorization to admin configuration settings for the CCCApply Standard, International and CC Promise Grant (BOG) applications.
  
  
• This means that all users will have new URLs - and an additional step in the process - to get to their CCCApply Administrator tool through the CCC Administrator (for Pilot & Production environments).

• The Pilot URLs will be provided to colleges when they work one-on-one with the College Support Services team to ensure user authorization is verified and tested.  To schedule your one-one-one session with College Support Services, please complete this Google Form and designate a staff representative to work with us.  
  
  

Migration of CCCApply Administrator v.1.0 Data

As part of the transition from the current CCCApply Administrator (Admin 1.0), the Tech Center will move all college Pilot and Production CCCApply data, settings, and user accounts over to the new Admin 2.0 system. This includes your custom college terms, majors, rules, email message templates, supplemental questions, and college & district contact information.

All data and users will be tested, verified, and validated with the college during your scheduled pilot implementation and user acceptance testing support session.  Schedule this session here: Schedule a one-on-one online call

Black Out & Release Days

To ensure that the most current and accurate data and settings are moved over to the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 system, “black out” days have been scheduled to coincide with the technical release dates. In other words, colleges will NOT be allowed to login to, or make any further data changes, in the old Pilot Administrator system on June 28. ; therefore the last day to make changes to your CCCApply admin data is the day before the release dates scheduled for Pilot and Production releases.

All your college’s existing CCCApply Admin 1.0 users and data will be migrated to the new version by the Tech Center; however, users will be required to test access and authorizations in the Pilot (test) environment prior to the production release on July 27, 2018.

Migration Support for Colleges & Districts

In order to confirm that colleges and district users have completed the Pilot Implementation & User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process with CCCTC College Support Services, a detailed plan and checklist will be provided to the designated representative at the time of your scheduled call.  Prior to production release, college staff must have completed all tasks on the checklist. 

Colleges need to Schedule a one-on-one online call with College Support Services to work on pre-migration and pilot implementation tasks.

Pre-Production Migration Tasks

The following list of tasks can be completed by colleges at any time before their scheduled Pilot Implementation & User Acceptance Testing (UAT) support session with College Support Services. 

These tasks should be performed in the current CCCApply Administrator 1.0 PRODUCTION system - which will continue to integrate with the live CCCApply applications in use by your students.

Pilot Migration Tasks in Admin 2.0

The implementation tasks summarized below will be verified during your college's Pilot Implementation & User Acceptance Testing (UAT) support session with College Support Services.  All implementation tasks and verification must be completed prior to production release.

Important Information

On June 28, 2018 the Pilot (sandbox) version of the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 will be released for all colleges and support services users of OpenCCCApply on the pilot environment, thus replacing the current Pilot Admin 1.0 (legacy) system. The Pilot release activities will begin in the morning of Thursday, June 28 and the site will be offline and inaccessible to all users throughout the day until the release is complete. The new version will be live for 30 days prior to the full system Production release on July 27, 2018 - giving colleges time to familiarize themselves with the new user-interface (look and feel) and confirm that your existing Pilot Admin data and configuration settings have been migrated over completely and intact. 

IMPORTANT: Two Different Versions of the CCCApply Administrator Will Be Active During the Pilot Period: 

1. Once the Pilot version of the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 is deployed on June 28, there will be two different versions of the CCCApply Administrator running concurrently during the 30-day Pilot preview period, through the Production release on July 27, 2018.
   
   
   1. The Pilot version will be available for testing and training through the production release.  This version will be fully integrated with your Pilot Application(s) during the pilot preview period. Therefore any changes made in this environment will only affect your Pilot application(s) until the production release. 
      
      
   2. The Production version of the current CCCApply Administrator (v.1.0) will continue to integrate with your live, student-facing CCCApply application(s) until the new Production-version CCCApply Administrator 2.0 system is deployed on July 27, 2018.

Schedule of Release Events

The following schedule pertains to the combined, multi-project release of the CCCApply Administrator 2.0 upgrade, the new CCC Administrator system, and the OpenCCCApply release 6.2.0.

The most important dates for college users of the current CCCApply Administrator (also known as Admin 1.0) are the dates that pertain to "black out" days, release days, and the "last day they can access their Admin 1.0 data before the system is shut down and their data is moved to the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 systems. 

These dates are highlighted in yellow and should be noted by college and district Admissions Office & IT Department staff throughout the migration and release process.

This page will outline how to use the new CCCApply Spam Filter User Interface screen in the CCCApply Administrator 2.0.

What is the CCCApply Administrator?

The CCCApply Administrator is the integrated, back-end admin configuration tool for the CCCApply Standard Application, CCCApply International Application, and the CC Promise Grant (BOG) Application. The current version of this system has been in production since 2012 and used by 110 CCCApply colleges.

This tool is required for maintaining custom, college-specific Terms, Majors, Rules & Messages, Supplemental Questions and other required and optional configuration settings integrated with the CCCApply applications.

What is the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0?

The new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 is primarily an application upgrade to the existing CCCApply Administrator (Admin 1.0), with a new look & feel and enhanced user navigation across all three integrated CCCApply applications (Standard, Promise Grant (BOG), and International). The technology has been upgraded from a PHP-based application to a java-based, spring boot platform, with a React user interface, which has allowed us to fix many of the bugs and issues that exist in our current administrator tool and implement one or two new features. Additional enhancements and new features and services are planned for future releases. 

What are the changes between Admin 1.0 and the new 2.0?

The biggest change from Admin1 to the new 2.0 version is that it is no longer a stand-alone admin application.

CCCApply Administrator 2.0 is now an integrated application to the new CCC Administrator (known internally as CAP), the new, central “core administrator platform” system, providing SSO-based authentication, User management, and application access via a single point-of-entry for all college users to all CCCTC secure admin applications.

In addition, User management is now configured in the new core administrator platform, including roles, permissions, and user account creation.

Pilot Migration & Implementation

However, the critical distinction between this upgrade and other application upgrades is that the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 tool, and it's new core administrator gateway known as the CCC Administrator, will completely replace the current Admin 1.0 application. The two administrators (Admin 1.0 versus 2.0) cannot run in parallel; only one database can be talking to the CCCApply applications at one time. Once the new system is deployed in the Pilot environment, the existing Pilot Admin 1.0 system will be shut down. The CCCTC College Support Services team will work with a set of "beta" colleges to measure the migration, implementation, and user acceptance testing (UAT) plan to ensure success is achieved through measurable outcomes. Once the process is honed with the beta sites, the support team will work with each college individually to verify access and validate data and user migration. After colleges have completed testing and transitioned to the new service in the Pilot environment, we will move forward with the production migration and release, shutting down Admin 1.0 completely.

Feature Parity

To ensure the successful migration and implementation of all college data and user accounts for all 110 colleges currently using CCCApply, our focus for this initial release is to roll out the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 tool with minimal changes to the existing features and functionality and transition users to the tool through the new CCC Administrator gateway using their existing college or district user accounts, thereby enabling single sign-on (SSO) authentication to current and future CCCTC admin applications via one single point-of-entry.

This means that your current Pilot and Production user accounts won't change, but the URLs you'll use to get to them will. See "What features are new or have changed in the new Administrator 2.0 system" below for more details.

Ninety percent (90%) of the development requirements for this upgrade is feature parity, which means the majority of the features are exactly the same and function the same way as they do today in the current Admin 1.0 tool. However, there are a few new features - which are discussed below - and several important changes to note.  

Let's break the features down like this: 1) Which features have not changed and function exactly the same in the new Administrator 2.0?, and 2) What features are new or have changed in the new Administrator 2.0 system?

Which features and functionality are exactly the same in the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0? 

As outlined above, the majority of the feature modules, services, utilities, and user experience will be exactly the same in the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 upgrade. This includes the back-end database structure and all the admin data fields, the APIs, and for the most part, the user interface behaves very similar to what you are used to today in Admin 1.0. The Administrator will still integrate with the CCCApply applications (CCCApply Standard, International and the CC Promise Grant (BOG) applications) and authorized college staff will continue to configure your custom, college-specific data settings within this tool. This integration between the CCCApply Administrator and the student-facing CCCApply applications will continue to be managed, and kept up-to-date, in order for students to submit their CCCApply admissions- and financial aid applications to your college. 

Authorized User Functionality

Authorized users must still have a user account to authenticate into the Administrator, and will continue to provision which applications the user has permission to manage.

Applications

The applications that can be managed in the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 are:

• CCCApply Standard Application
• CCCApply International Application
• CC Promise Grant (BOG) Application

Administrator Modules

CCCApply Standard Application:

• Terms
• Majors
• Rules & Messages
• Supplemental Questions
• Reset Downloads 
• College & District Information

CCCApply International Application:

• Terms
• Majors
• Rules & Messages
• Supplemental Questions
• English Proficiency Requirements
• Reset Downloads 
• College & District Information

CC Promise Grant (BOG) Application:

• Rules & Messages
• Reset Downloads 
• College & District Information

New Features

What features are new or have changed in the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0?

Below is the full list of new features included in the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 upgrade, as well as a summary of the existing functionality that has moved from the CCCApply Administrator to the new integrated CCC Administrator system, the core administrator platform that now manages all User management and single sign-on authentication.

• Major Category Filter
• Ed Goal Alignment Filter (Note: This filter will not be included in the Production version release on July 27.  Read more below.)
• Spam Filter User Interface

The Major Category Filter

Many colleges have requested the ability to branch the display of their Majors in CCCApply as “Meta-majors” - which are collections of academic majors that have related courses, programs, degrees, and certificates. The intent of using Meta-majors is to help the student choose a degree or program of study based on their interests, knowledge, skills, and abilities.  

The Major Category filter will allow colleges to define one or more custom category values and align each major to the categories. Categories are created in the Add/Edit Major modal in the Majors module in the CCCApply or International administrator applications. Categories can also be added in bulk using the Import Majors function in the Majors module.

To implement this new filter to display in the student-facing applications, a new data field was added to the Majors database table: <major_category>.  The new data field will function similarly to the way supplemental questions work, whereby the implementation of the category fields triggers the display of a new "Major Category" dropdown menu on the Enrollment page of the student-facing CCCApply Standard or International applications. If the college does not implement the new category filter - meaning, they do not add one or more categories (values) to the major category field - the Major Category dropdown will not appear in the application and the college's list of majors will display in alphabetical order in the existing "Intended Major or Program of Study" menu on the Enrollment page of the applications.

Note: Categories must be setup separately for the Standard and International applications. 

The Ed Goal Alignment Filter

The Ed Goal alignment filter is another optional feature added to the Majors module, designed to give colleges the option to branch/display their majors and programs based on the education goal selected by the student. In other words, if a college chooses to align their majors and programs to education goals using the Ed Goal Alignment filter, when a student selects the education goal “Obtain a two-year degree without transfer” only the majors or programs that have been aligned to this education goal will be displayed to the student in the “Intended Major or Program of Study” dropdown menu on the Enrollment page in the Application.

SPAM Filter User Interface

The Spam Filter User Interface is arguably the most important new feature being added to the CCCApply Administrator 2.0 because it is not an optional feature and colleges will need to monitor their spam filter service to process all applications that have been identified as fraud and suspended from reaching the college's download client. This is not only a new back-end web service added to the CCCApply Standard post-submission pipeline, it is e

The purpose of the Spam Filter web service is to identify fraudulent applications coming into our system through CCCApply and prevent them from being passed to and processed by our colleges as legitimate applications.

A full series of articles detailing the new Spam Filter Web Service, including:

• Issue: Rise in Fraudulent Applications Coming in Through CCCApply
• Ways We Are Addressing Fraud in CCCApply
• Machine Learning Research Study
• Development: Spam Filter Web Service
• Development: Spam Filter User Interface

In addition to the post-submission web service, the user interface suspension folder, the end-to-end system includes performance monitoring as well as monitoring to alert the colleges when spam is added to the suspension folder for their college. Two different email notifications will be sent to the college: 

• Daily Spam Alert Email:  Sends an email to the Admissions Office Contact Email" to alert the college that one or more applications have been suspended from the post-submission download process and need to be managed in the Spam Filter User Interface in the new CCCApply Admin 2.0.
• Reminder Spam Alert Email: Sends an email to the Admissions Office Contact Email" to alert the college that one or more applications has been sitting in the suspension folder (Spam Filter User Interface) for 3 days or more. This email alert is a reminder to the college that all applications suspended in the Spam Filter need to be "confirmed" by the college in order for the model to continue to grow and learn.  
  
  

More resources will be available to support the successful implementation and regular monitoring of the Spam Filter Web Service, including the new updated CCCApply Administrator 2.0 User Guide documentation, video tutorials, and live training sessions during the Pilot implementation period.

Features Moved to the CCC Administrator

A significant change to the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 upgrade is the removal of user and access management from inside the tool to the new CCC Administrator system in order to share that system administration, including user roles, permissions and other identity management - as well as single sign-on authentication to and with all current and future CCCTC admin applications.

The following functionality has moved from the CCCApply Administrator to the core “CCC Administrator” platform. College users will be required to work with CCCTC College Support Services on implementation of these relocated features to ensure a successful roll-out and user acceptance testing.

Getting to the New Administrators

• New College-Specific URLs:  With the release of the new CCC Administrator system, the CCCApply Administrator 2.0 is no longer a stand-alone application with a direct URL. Each college (or district) will be given a new, custom URL that will replace their current Admin 1.0 link that will login staff users to the CCC Administrator system first. The new central system will authenticate the user via SSO and will drop them onto the new CCC Administrator landing page. There is no longer a direct link to the CCCApply Administrator 2.0 tool.
  

  PILOT IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT: Colleges will be contacted by CCCTC College Support Services between June 28 - July 9 to schedule an implementation and support session. A comprehensive Pilot Implementation Plan, including a one-on-one Pilot migration support session to be scheduled at the college's convenience, follow-up calls and online training sessions, live and recorded webinars, and written documentation will be provided to each college during the Pilot preview period. For more information, or to schedule your one-on-one implementation and support session, please contact College Support Services at staffsupportccctc@openccc.zendesk.com.  

• New Landing Page:  Using your new college-specific URLs for the Pilot and Production Administrators, college staff users will authenticate (login) to the CCC Administrator “landing page” using their existing Admin 1.0 user account.  From there, users will select the administrator tool they want to manage via the "Applications" menu on the new homepage.
   
• New “Applications” Launch Menu:  To access the CCCApply Administrator 2.0 (or other integrated administrator tools), users will select the “CCCApply Administrator” option from the “Applications" menu on the homepage.
  

User Management

The purpose of the Pilot Implementation and support session is to ensure that each college completes implementation tasks and user acceptance testing (UAT) to verify existing college and district user account are current and valid prior to the production release. To schedule your Pilot Implementation session, please contact CCCTC College Support Services today! 

• ALL USERS must have a user account setup (new or migrated from Admin 1.0) in order to authenticate into the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0.
• ALL USER ACCOUNTS for the CCCApply Administrator 2.0 and the CCC Report Center will now be created and managed in the “User Manager” system in the CCC Administrator.  
• ALL EXISTING USER ACCOUNTS for the Admin 1.0 and the CCC Report Center systems will be migrated over to the new 2.0 system prior to Pilot and Production releases.
• ALL USERS will have "Basic User" permissions for the initial Pilot launch of the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0. This basic user authorization will allow users to login (authentication) to the CCC Administrator tool, and from there can launch and access the administrator applications they are currently authorized to access. 
• College Support Services will schedule one-on-one calls (online sessions) with a designated college or district representative during the weeks of July 2 - July 22, 2018.
• All existing college and district user accounts will be validated by an authorized CCCTC College Support Services technician during the Pilot Implementation process. Updates will be made during the support session to ensure only valid users will have accounts moving forward. 
• The purpose of the Pilot Implementation and support session is to ensure that each college completes implementation tasks and user acceptance testing (UAT) to verify each user account is valid prior to production release. To schedule your Pilot Implementation session, please contact CCCTC College Support Services today! 

Launching Administrator Applications

• All integrated CCCTC admin applications will now launch from the “Applications” menu in the core CCC Administrator in order to leverage single sign-on authentication via one single point-of-entry.
• In this first release, the CCCApply Administrator 2.0 and the Canvas Web App administrator tools are the only administrators accessible from the CCC Administrator. As more CCCTC admin applications are developed and integrated with CAP, they will launch from this core system AND leverage the same SSO, authorizations, and System Administrator (to define their own application-specific roles and permissions).

New URLs for the Administrators

Getting to the new CCCApply Administrator 2.0 requires colleges to go through the new CCC Administrator (CAP) system first; meaning colleges will use a new custom URL to get to their CCCApply admin management. 

The new link is based on your college or district identity provider service in order to authenticate authorized faculty and staff users into the system. There will be two new links in all: one to the Pilot Administrator and one to the Production (live) Administrator system.  

The new URLs will replace your existing links to the current (legacy) CCCApply Administrator systems and will drop users onto the new CCC Administrator landing page.

There is no longer a direct link to the CCCApply Administrator 2.0 tool.  

• New Landing Page:  The home page of the CCC Administrator is now the central “landing page” for all users.  From there, users must select the administrator tool they seek to manage via the Applications menu on the CAP homepage.
   
• New “Applications” Menu:  To access the CCCApply Administrator 2.0 (or any other integrated administrator tool from the core administrator platform), users must select the “CCCApply Administrator” option from the “Applications menu on the homepage.
  
  

Launching the CCCApply Administrator 2.0

• All integrated admin applications* launch from the “Applications” menu in the core CCC Administrator.
  
  
• In this first release (CAP 1.0), CCCApply and Canvas College Adaptor admin tools are the only tools accessible from the CCC Administrator. As more CCCTC admin applications are developed and integrated with CAP, they will launch from this core system AND leverage the same SSO, authorizations, and System Administrator (to define their own application-specific roles and permissions).
  
  
• The CCC Report Center will not be launched from CAP in the first release; however it will be added in the next release.