The purpose of this page is to provide CCC stakeholders with general information about the new OpenCCC Account Creation admin tool available to authorized staff via the CCCApply Administrator.

Introduction

Systemwide use of the California Community Colleges Student Identifier (CCCID) is fundamental to maximizing the state and local investments that benefit students. Implemented in 2012, the CCCID was designed in part to track CCC student journeys across colleges and districts. Currently, when students use the online systemwide application, a unique identifier is automatically generated and provides students with a secure, single sign-on to various cloud-based applications and allows for more accurate tracking of the highly mobile CCC student population across the system.

Without the universal implementation of CCCID, key information about students can be obscured, which in turn undermines the system’s ability to serve their need.

To support this need a new OpenCCC User Account admin tool has been implemented that will allow colleges to generate user accounts and CCCIDs for those students who are either unable to access computer devices and email or existing students who have bypassed the current online systemwide application process for various reasons.

Other Options: In addition to the new student account creation tool, the CCC SSO Proxy - implemented in 2018 - is also available to help colleges generate student accounts when an existing student without a CCCID logs in to Canvas SIS or other integrated technology solutions.

Note: The CCCTC is also pursuing development of an API to support a more automatic method for creating CCCIDs for students. This is scheduled for a future release as it encompasses the need to develop an API management layer to manage secure access.

Contents

Business Need

Although approximately 80% of CCC students currently have a CCCID, students who enroll outside of the online systemwide application (i.e., CCCApply) are more likely to not have a CCCID in their local college’s Student Information System (SIS). The objective for the new account creation tool is to provide our colleges and institutions with a simple and efficient process that ensures every student has a lifelong CCC systemwide student identifier.

Use Cases

Students who enroll outside of the systemwide online application process (CCCApply), including:
- Incarcerated, nursing home, and other similar student populations who do not have access to computer devices or the internet
- Noncredit students who may enroll outside of the online CCCApply Noncredit Application (i.e., noncredit paper application)
- Instructional Service Agreement (ISA) students who enroll directly into an SIS
Legacy CCC students who enrolled prior to the college’s implementation of the systemwide online application (missing CCCIDs)

New OpenCCC Account Creation Tool

The new OpenCCC account creation tool has been implemented in the CCC Administrator alongside the CCCApply Administrator. The feature allows authorized staff to manually create student accounts , and functionally provides the same type of limited, role-based authorized access as the CCCApply Administrator.

Single User Account Creation: Available now! A new account creation feature allows authorized college and district staff to create a single account and generate a CCCID on behalf of a student who may be unable to complete the CCCApply application process.

Multi-Account Creation (Coming January 2024): An enhancement is being developed that will allow colleges to upload a list of students, along with essential data elements, from which a new CCCID will be created and immediately returned to the college. Staff will then be able to add the CCCID into the SIS for MIS and other reporting purposes. This enhancement is expected to be available by end of January 2024 and be communicated via the appropriate channels.

To gain access to the new OpenCCC User Account tool, please reach out to your College Relationship Manager, or crms@ccctechcenter.org. Individual requests for access must be approved by a college administrator.

How Does it Work?

Mimics the “plus 1” email workaround

Allows registered staff users to create student accounts under a single, parent, email account
No need to create a unique email account per student
No need to verify each account when created
Student able to claim their account when they leave their institution

Security Considerations

Access requires college/district Director-level approval
OpenCCC Administrators must agree never to share their account with other staff
Accounts created with the OpenCCC User Accounts tool will bypass the IDme student verification process; and a value of “staff_verified” will be returned for the <idme_workflow_status> field.
Accounts created with the tool will also bypass the Spam Filter.

This process assumes that colleges have a process in place that permits the college to create an account and/or application on the student’s behalf. For example, incarcerated students typically complete a paper application which gives college staff permission to enroll them in classes, including creating a student account and online application.

College Preparation & Prerequisites

Prerequisites

Approved college and district users must have a CCC Administrator Staff User account (setup by Enabling Services in CAP)
Access to the New OpenCCC User functionality must be authorized by a director-level Administrator, Supervisor, or Dean (IT, A&R, etc.)
College or district must create a master “Institution” account and email (to enable the college to create applications for students)

Establish a Staff Administrator Account (CAP) & Request Access to the OpenCCC Administrator

[drop in details here on the process for requesting and establishing a CAP user account.]

Step 1: Submit request for Staff Admin account for CCC Administrator

Contact CCCTC Staff Support with a request to obtain a staff admin account for the CCCApply applications and related tools.
Work with your IT department to obtain your EPPN credentials and provide them to the Enabling Services engineer for account setup.
Using your college or district-specific Administrator URL, test accessing the CCC Administrator via your institution IdP.

Step 2: Submit approval from director-level authority to access to the OpenCCC User Account Tool

Email CCCTC staff support with a request to access this new feature: staffsupportccctc@openccc.zendesk.com

Set up an “Institution” OpenCCC account with generic institutional Email address for creating OpenCCC Users

Work with your college or district IT Administrator to establish a generic institution email address using your institution IdP that will be used for creating user accounts for students that do not have access to a personal email account.

Step 1: IT sets up an institution email account associated with the college or district

Email address for this account must be associated with your institution, not a personal account.
Recommend the email format identifies the department or project@yourInstitution for this purpose (e.g., restorativejustice@imperial.edu)

Step 2: Create & verify a generic OpenCCC account using the institution email address

Navigate to the OpenCCC Sign In page using your CCCApply application link for your college.
Click the “Create An Account” link and complete all required account fields for master user
Set email as your primary contact method and verify the email address using the 2FA verification process

(Add note about the verification process requirement only once - IF you are using the Email +1 process - which resolve back to the parent account which has been verified)

Best Practices & Recommendations

Implement a Standard Format for Creating Usernames

Establish a standardized format for generating the new user account Username - a required field in the Add User Account process. The Username is an existing data field in the OpenCCC account system is a required field when creating users in the new OpenCCC User Account system.

Recommendation for colleges to implement a standardized format for the Username data input field on the Add OpenCCC User page.

The Username should be used for reporting and tracking new users created by the college, as well as for the eventual account owner transition process when ideally the student is able to establish and maintain their personal email address and reset their account credentials

Implement a Password Generator Tool for Creating Passwords

It is always important to generate, store, handle, and transmit passwords and other user credentials in a secure manner, especially when creating CCCID accounts and/or applications on behalf of a student. The Password field in the tool requires at least 8 characters, one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number, one special character (!, @, #, $, %, ^, & or *), and may not contain your name.

However, for security purposes, the CCCTC recommends implementing a password generating tool such as LastPass Password Generator to ensure strong, random passwords that meet general information security policies.

CCCTC Security Policy for Generating & Handling User Passwords

The CCC Technology Center adheres to the guidelines for Selecting Passwords/Phrases as specified in the /wiki/spaces/~5deab38c08d48c0d13ad6fa1/pages/475332672.
Per the security guidelines, passwords/phrases must NOT be:

Revealed to anyone, including other college staff
Stored, written down, or transmitted using unencrypted text
Inserted into unencrypted e-mail messages or other forms of electronic communications.

Maintain a Secure Tracking Sheet for User Accounts

In order to track and manage the accounts you create on behalf of students, we recommend maintaining a secure, password-protected spreadsheet for capturing the new user account data, including the username and password. This process can help in the following ways:

Easily sign in as the user to create an application on their behalf
Maintains a roster/record of all accounts created for a specific Term, institution and/or agency
Provide students their account information when they leave the institution, should they request it.

Below is an example of a simple tracking sheet created in Google Sheets that includes all the data fields in the

Example of a tracking sheet for newly created accounts with test data.

Adding A New OpenCCC User

The steps below pertain to the process for creating a single OpenCCC user account (one individual user). Instructions for creating multiple accounts will be provided along with the enhancement release (coming January 2024).

Step 1: Navigate and Sign In to the OpenCCC Administrator

Navigate to the CCC Administrator homepage using your college-specific URL configured to your college MIS code
Select OpenCCC Administrator from the Applications drop menu in the header. The Add New User page will appear.

OpenCCC Administrator menu highlighted on Welcome to the CCC Administrator Homepage.

Step 2: Complete all fields in the Add OpenCCC User form

The Add OpenCCC User form includes all the same input fields required for the creation of an OpenCCC student account, as well as a required Username field. See the Implement a Standard Format for Creating Usernames section above for more information.

Add OpenCCC User Fields	Notes / Recommendations
^{Required fields are shown in bold.}*
Username*	Recommend using an institution abbreviation & student name. ex: fsp-jlinder See “Implement a Standard Format for Usernames” section above.
*Email Address /** Confirm Email Address*	Must be a verified email account that can be accessed. Ensure email address is formatted with: parent email plus username ex. jlinder+fsp-jlinder@ccctechcenter.org
Primary Phone Number	Recommend using the main phone number for the college or institution. This field is not required.
Phone Type	Phone type should always be landline if main phone number for college or institution is used. This field is not required.
Address: Homeless	Homeless flag should always be “No”.
Country*	Enter the Country of the new user or the college or institution.
State*	Enter the State of the new user or the college or institution.
Street Address 1*	Enter the Street Address of the new user or the college or institution.
Street Address 2	Enter the Street Address 2 of the new user or the college or institution. This field is not required.
City*	Enter the City of the new user or the college or institution.
Postal Code*	Enter the Postal Code of the new user or the college or institution.
Legal First Name	Enter the new user’s Legal First Name. This field is not required but highly recommended.
Legal Middle Name	Enter the new user’s Legal Middle Name. This field is not required.
Legal Last Name*	Enter the new user’s Legal Last Name.
Preferred Name	Enter the new user’s preferred first name, if applicable. This field is not required.
Suffix	Enter a Suffix for the new user. This field is not required.
Date of Birth* / Confirm Date of Birth*	Important! Enter the new user’s actual Date of Birth for account recovery purposes. Confirm the user’s actual Date of Birth.
Password* / Confirm Password*	Important! Enter a unique Password that follows the security guidelines described below. Passwords MUST be unique and non-predictable.
Terms of Use Agreement*	Important! The Terms of Use agreement must be accepted to complete the process and save the new account.

Reminder to Create Secure Passwords

It is important to generate, store, handle, and transmit passwords in a secure manner, especially when managing user credentials on behalf of students. CCCTC recommends using a password generating tool such as LastPass Password Generator to ensure strong, random passwords.

Step 3: Save Form & Capture CCCID

Post-Account Creation Workflows

General Workflow Tasks

Add new credentials to tracking sheet (including CCCID)
Safeguard (email, username & password) if submitting an application on behalf of the new user

Institution Creates Account & Application on behalf of Student

Institution Creates Account on behalf of Existing or Legacy Student

Students who enroll outside of the systemwide online application process, including:
- Incarcerated and nursing home students who do not have access to the computer devices or the internet
- Noncredit students who may enroll outside the online CCCApply Noncredit Application
- Instructional Service Agreement (ISA) students who enroll directly into an SIS
Legacy CCC students who enrolled prior to the college implementation of the systemwide online application (missing CCCIDs)

Student-centered solution

Online account unifies student progress
Ensures the credits/certificates/degrees earned are not lost
Helps students continue their education even when they transition to different locations in the state
Allows for student-centered technological innovations such as simplified student logins to third-party systems and a single-view of classes and content across multiple campuses

Transitioning Ownership of an Account from Institution to Student

Multi-Account Creation Enhancement Coming Soon! The ability to create multiple user accounts (bulk account creation) is currently under-development. This enhancement is scheduled to be released in December 2023. Watch this page for more information and update notifications.