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 an OpenCCC Account Creation 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.

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 will ensure every student has a lifelong CCC systemwide account and student identifier.

Use Cases

Purpose	Who benefits from this…
Create an account and/or an submit application(s) for students who enroll outside of the systemwide online application process (CCCApply).	These include: 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
Backfill existing and/or inactive student accounts with CCCIDs	Legacy or existing 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 admin tool has been implemented in the CCC Administrator, the same system that houses the CCCApply Administrator. The tool allows authorized staff to manually create student accounts as. needed using the same type of role-based authorized access in place for the CCCApply Administrator.

Single User Account Creation: Available now, this feature allows authorized staff to create a single user OpenCCC 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): This enhancement will enable colleges to upload a list of students, along with all their required account data information, that will generate a missing CCCID if needed and/or identify if a duplicate account already exists in the system. Staff can then add the missing CCCIDs into their SIS system for MIS and other reporting purposes. This enhancement is expected to be available by the end of January 2024 and will be communicated via the appropriate channels.

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

How It Works

Although OpenCCC student accounts are typically created by the individual student using their unique, personal email address and verified through a two-factor authentication process (2FA) in order to validate and secure their identity information.

However, in the special cases where the student is unable to complete this process on their own, an authorized college staff member may need to create and validate the account on their behalf. This requires the college to gather and enter the student’s personal information, create a one-time username, generate a secure password, and, most importantly, provide a unique email address that can be associated with the account and then accessed and verified at the time the account is created and at the time the student reclaims ownership of the account from the college that originally created it on their behalf.

This entire process, although seemingly simple, does requires the college to consider new practices and security processes for storing and handling student data.

For best practices and some suggestions for creating multiple accounts from one verified account, see Using the Master “plus 1” Option in the Best Practices & Considerations section below.

Reclaiming Ownership of An Account

Once an account is created on behalf of a student, the student will be able to take ownership of that account at any time. Using the temporary credentials used by the Institution to create the account, the student will sign in, update their email address in their OpenCCC Account Profile, and then complete the password reset/verification process again using their now accurate information. For details on reclaiming ownership of their account, see the User Flows section below.

Security Considerations

Access to the OpenCCC Account Creation service requires Director-level approval at the college or district.
OpenCCC Administrators must agree to never share their account with other staff.
Colleges/districts must implement a process - or have one in place - to obtain permission from the student to create an account and/or submit an application on their behalf.
Accounts created with the OpenCCC Account Creation tool for the purpose of submitting a CCCApply Standard application on behalf of a student will bypass the new student ID Verification (ID.me) process, as well as the CCCApply Spam Filter. The database will store a value of “staff_verified” for the <idme_workflow_status> field, and will assign a <fraud_status> = 7 - which is a new value added to the field for this purpose.

Reminder: The CCCApply Spam Filter is only integrated with the CCCApply Standard & Noncredit applications. The CCCApply International and the CC Promise Grant Online applications do not pass through the CCCApply Spam Filter.

Important: To ensure the privacy and security of student data, all colleges/districts must implement a process, or have one in place, whereby permission is granted by the student to the college to create an OpenCCC account and/or submit a CCCApply application on their 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

An authorized CCC Administrator staff account is required before access can be given to the new OpenCCC Administrator tool.
Access to the new tool must be requested in writing by a director-level administrator, supervisor, or Dean at the institution.
A separate, institution (or master) OpenCCC account and email address is needed to effectively use the tool to create accounts and submit applications on behalf of students.

Request Authorized Access

The OpenCCC Administrator first requires the user to have a CCCApply Administrator account. Once that’s established, written approval must be submitted to enable access to the OpenCCC Administrator.

Step 1: Establish your CCCApply Administrator staff account

If you do not already have a CCCApply Administrator staff account, send an email to CCCTC Staff Support to get that started.
Work with your IT department to obtain your EPPN credentials and provide them to the Enabling Services engineer for account setup.
Once your staff account is established, use your college-specific CCCApply Administrator URL to sign in through your institution IdP.

Step 2: Provide written approval from a director-level authority to use the OpenCCC Administrator tool

Send an email to CCCTC Staff Support (staffsupportccctc@openccc.zendesk.com) that includes a statement from a director-level administrator or supervisor authorizing you [your name, title] access to the new OpenCCC Administrator “for the purposes of creating and maintaining one or more OpenCCC student accounts (CCCIDs) on behalf of students outside the online systemwide application (CCCApply)”.
Once approved, a support team member will update your Administrator account to include access to the account creation tool.

Create an institution or master OpenCCC account and email address for creating CCCIDs

Work with your college or district IT Administrator to set up a master (parent) email address using your institution IdP that will be used for this purpose. This will allow multiple accounts to be created from one verified email address using the “plus 1” workaround. (See How It Works above for more details.)

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)

Add note about different options ways to enter these accounts with unique vs generic emails

Best Practices & Recommendations

The Master “plus 1” Email Method

In order for the OpenCCC Account Creation tool to create an account on behalf of a student, the college or institution will use a process where multiple additional user accounts can be generated from one OpenCCC account with a verified (parent) institution email address. The institution or master account is created using the existing OpenCCC account creation and verification processes. With the email address from the master account verified, the staff user can use the tool to create additional (proxy) accounts with email addresses that employ the “plus 1” workaround which will bypass the sign in email verification requirement (2FA) when the staff member creates an application or signs in on behalf of the student. All accounts created using the master or parent email address, including each instance using “plus 1”, will resolve back to the parent email account - which has already be verified.

Benefits of the “plus 1” method:

Allows authorized 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.

Consider a Standard Format for Creating Usernames

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

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

The Username can be used for reporting and tracking new users created by your college. In addition, the Username will need to be provided to the student - along with the email and password created - when the student eventually takes ownership of their account the first time they sign in to OpenCCC or CCCApply themselves. They can update these credentials (email and password) in their Account Profile at any time.

Recommendations for Creating Student the Email Address

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.
Can be used to 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 required for account creation using the OpenCCC account creation tool.

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

After completing all required fields in the Add OpenCCC User page, click “Save” to finish creating the new account. A Success notification box will appear displaying a confirmation of the new user’s key credential elements: username, email address, and the CCCID.

We recommend capturing this information on your secure tracking sheet. Please ensure that the sheet is password-protected and stored in a secure location.

A Success notification displaying the new user's account credentials, including their unique username, email address, and CCCID.

Multi-Account Creation

The process to create multiple accounts is also available. This process mostly supports colleges who have a number of current or former students from the recent past who may have enrolled prior to the college implementing the new OpenCCCApply system.

Process

Step 1: From the Add OpenCCC User screen, click the Multi-Account Creation link to open the Multi-Account Creation page.

Step 2: Download the Multi-Account Creation Template File

Select Download Template button to download the multi-account upload template.

(typically found in your local downloads folder) and complete the multi-account file with the required fields. Save the completed file in CSV format.

Step 3: Populate Your Multi-Account Creation File

Open the downloaded template (CSV file) in your preferred spreadsheet application, such as MicroSoft Excel, and populate each column row with the required data.
IMPORTANT: Column order is important and specified in the header row.
Leave the last three columns blank

Step 4: Upload Multi-Account Creation File

Find your completed CSV file by clicking on the Choose File button…

…then upload it into the Multi-Account Creation tool by selecting the Upload File button.

Step 5: Download Results File

Select the Download Results button to download and review the results of the CSV file upload.

What happens during the upload process?

Each row in the CSV file will be processed. Column order is important as noted by the header row.

As each row of user data input is processed, the columns named ‘status’, ‘message’, and ‘cccid’ will be set.

If there is an error, then the ‘status’ column will display ‘Failure’; otherwise the ‘status’ column will display ‘Success’.

Username is email
Temporary password default to true? No.
Skip input row if cccid has a value, which indicates an account has already been created for the user. Note: This allows the administrator to “fix” a CSV file for failed rows and then re-submit the same document.
if a CCCID is present for a row, then account creation is bypassed. This allows admins to edit a results file and re-submit (upload) that file.

Error Messages

The column named ‘message’ will contain an error message if the user creation failed. One message will be returned per user row, for example:

Status	Example “Message” (one per row)	Message Notes
Success	Successfully added user	User created
Failure	A user already exists with email (example): winnie@test.com	Change the email or ask the student to recover their account based on that email.
Failure	A user already exists with username: hpotter12345	Change the email since the email is used as the username. If not, probably best to contact support.
Failure	Multiple users match on (firstname, lastname, date-of-birth), please contact support.	Contact support
Failure	A user already exists for the given firstname, lastname, date-of-birth, please contact support.	Contact support
Failure	`errorCode:missing.value,field:address.postal_code`	Fill in the postal code field
Failure	Invalid number of columns found!	The number of columns of filled out data is incorrect. Usually this the result of having a blank row at the end of the file. Or it could be due to using an out-of-date template.

Post-Account Creation Workflows

The following workflow checklists can be used by authorized staff when using the account creation process for various use cases.

General Workflow Best Practices

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

User Flow: College creates an account and submits an application on behalf of a student.

This flow supports the use case where the college needs to support a student who is does not have access to technology and/or the internet, or may have already enrolled outside the systemwide online application process.

Navigate to the OpenCCC Administrator and sign in with your staff admin account.
Enter all student-provided information into the Add OpenCCC User form to create the student account.
Capture and add the new account credentials on your secure tracking sheet (email address, password, username).
Continue to your college’s CCCApply Application and click on “Sign In”.
On the OpenCCC Sign In page, enter the email address you just created for the new student.
On the Password page, enter the password you created for the student.
If prompted: On the Provide Username page, enter the username configured for the student.
On the My Applications page, click “Start A New Application” to submit a CCCApply application on behalf of the student.
On the Confirmation page, capture the submitted applications confirmation number.
Suggestion: Return to your secure tracking sheet and add the application Confirmation number to the sheet.
Repeat process with next new account, as necessary.

Note: The workflow above is intended for creating a single user account.

User Flow: College creates one or more accounts (CCCIDs) on behalf of existing or legacy students.

This flow supports the use case/need for generating a CCCID for an existing student or inactive/legacy records that have applied through systemwide online application process prior to implementation of OpenCCC.

Navigate to the OpenCCC Administrator and sign in with your staff admin account.
Enter all student-provided information into the Add OpenCCC User form to create the student account.
Capture and add the new account credentials on your secure tracking sheet.
Test the newly created credentials to confirm successful OpenCCC account Sign In.
Using a secure process determined and approved by your college, provide the account credentials to the new student:
1. Username
2. Email Address
3. Password
4. CCCID
Ensure the student is provided the steps needed to reclaim their account in the future.
Suggestion: Return to your secure tracking sheet and document the date/time that the credentials were provided to the student in the Notes column.
Repeat process with next new account.

Note: The workflow above is intended for creating a single missing CCCID account on behalf of an existing/legacy student account.

Coming January 2024: New bulk account creation workflows using the OpenCCC Administrator.

User Flow: Student is ready to take ownership of the account created on their behalf.

This process details the steps necessary for a student to reclaim ownership of an account that was created on their behalf by the college.

College confirms the identity of the student attempting to claim their account and reset their personal credentials.
Once confirmed, the college provides the account credentials to the student in a secure manner (determined by the college):
1. Username
2. Email Address
3. Password
4. CCCID
5. Link to OpenCCC.net
Student navigates directly to the OpenCCC Sign In page in order to update their Profile information.
On the OpenCCC Sign In page, enter the email address created for you by the college.
On the Password page, enter the password created for you by the college.
On the Username page, enter the username created for you by the college. Land on the Edit Account page.
On the OpenCCC Edit Account page, update the following fields:
1. Change the email address created by the college with your true and actual email address. Confirm the new email address.
2. Ensure the Preferred Method of Contact field is set to Email.
Review all other personal information to ensure it is current and accurate, then click Save Changes to exit.
Return to the OpenCCC Sign In page to test your updated credentials:
1. Enter your updated email address on the Sign In page.
2. On the Password page, click on “Forgot your password?” to reset your new password.
3. On the Forgot Your Password? page, select the option to receive your security code by Email, then click Next.
Navigate to your personal email account and retrieve the six-digit security code in the email message sent from the California Community Colleges.
Return to the OpenCCC Validation Code page and enter the six-digit code in the Validation Code input field. Click Next to continue.
With the verification process complete, go to the Change Password section and enter a strong, new password. Confirm the new password. Save, then Sign Out.

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.