CCCApply In-Progress Application Data

Problem

The existing versions of the OpenCCC Account system and the CCCApply applications were not designed to share (deliver or download) any information about the prospective applicant before or during the application process until the applicant completes and submits the Application. This means that the college has no idea - no insight, no access, no information whatsoever - who, when, or how many applications have been started for their college, nor how many were abandoned by prospective students who could have been supported along the way.

While the majority of students complete the application without needing assistance, at-risk students, including undocumented, Spanish-speaking (ESL) students, minors, etc. are among those most likely to need support and assistance completing the application.  

Not having the information they need to reach out to the student to offer support - creates a barrier by closing a communication channel and fails to help prospective students feel a sense of connection and competency and can contribute to feelings of isolation, confusion, and even incompetence at a time when a feeling of self-efficacy is essential to move forward.  Also, this is the high-risk point in the on-boarding process where students abandon the process because they do not understand the admission application language or requirements for admission. 

Data Security and Student Consent

Stakeholders

Over the past year we’ve heard from a number of different systemwide stakeholders with varying needs, requesting access to in-progress and incomplete application data for different reasons. During a recent open discussion with colleges on this topic, we were able to identify at least six different stakeholder groups that would like to get this information.

However, based on years of incoming requests from colleges wanting access to their own admission applications records as ongoing steering committee discussions, our proposal is catered to our primary stakeholder.

Primary Stakeholders

1. Admissions & Records:

2. Research & Planning:

3. IT supporting other college departments:

College admissions & records want a user-friendly, efficient process to track every CCCApply application that has been started for their college but never completed or submitted so that they can provide outreach & support to help the prospective student to complete the application and enroll in their college.

College and district Administrators, including researchers, also want this information (in-progress application data) for statistical / analysis purposes to better understand enrollment and track attrition.

College IT want in-progress data delivered daily to a staging table or directly to their SIS to use as needed.

Proposed Solutions

Historical Information

In FY 2018-2019, over 2.6 million CCCApply applications were submitted. For the purposes of this breakdown, spam applications were not removed from the total = 2,647,615.

Of the 2,647,615 apps submitted:

• X NUMBER WERE STARTED BUT NOT SUBMITTED and are sitting in the IN-PROGRESS DB

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS & REQUIREMENTS

Solution #1: Admissions & Records

College A&R want to track every single CCCApply application that is started for their college, especially the ones that never completed and submitted. a user-friendly and efficient process to identify every CCCApply track applications that have been started for their college but never completed or submitted so that they can provide support to achieve their goal of getting the prospect applicant across the finish line and enroll in their college. They want the ability to send custom emails on-demand (as needed) as well as customize the Messages that are sent to these applicants via the existing “Abandoned Application Emails” that are currently being sent out now by CCCApply to applications that are started but not submitted within 24 hours, and then again after 7 days.

College Admissions & Records (A&R) need the ability to retrieve /pull in and view/manage every incomplete application that was started for their college - but never submitted - and sitting in the in-progress database - in order to display / view in a UI summary table of Incomplete Applications in the Administrator - so that custom HTML email messages can sent after 24 hours, 7 days, or on-demand. 

Requirements Summary

1. Implement API process to pull in-progress application data into the Administrator

2. Implement new Administrator UI module for In-Progress Applications with minimal functionality

3. Enhance Messages module functionality to send auto- and on-demand Emails to in-progress applicants

4. Update Privacy Policy to protect and secure student information and comply with consent requirements

1. PULL In-Progress Data into CCCApply Administrator

 Develop an API or other process to GET and pull in pending, in-progress application data* into the CCCApply Administrator, store in separate Administrator db tables, and allow the college to update/refresh the incoming data on-demand (as needed). Only the data that is sitting in the in-progress database when the college pushes “Get Apps” will be pulled in and should override the previous data.

• Each refresh updates the Administrator user interface and stores the in-progress data separately

• The data pulled in includes the applicant’s contact information (Directory info) from their Account db) and application data responses available at the time of the pull request.

  • Must have data includes:

    • From Account database

      • Name

      • Home (permanent) Address (Street, City, State, Zip)

      • Homeless flag

      • Email 

      • DOB

      • Phone 

      • Auth Text Message

      • IP Address

      • CCCID

      • College MIS

    • From In-Progress database

      • Application Type (Standard or Noncredit)

      • App Language setting (English or Spanish)

      • App ID

      • Term

      • Major

      • Meta Major/Category

      • Ed Goal

• New In-Progress data should be stored in Admin database tables, separately from submitted data, so it can be managed and used separately configuring custom Messages and Rules

College A&R needs to be able to pull in the Applications that are currently (real-time) in the In-Progress Database when ever they click on "Get Pending Apps" which calls API or glue service. 
Service must bring in the user's OpenCCC account directory information, and specific Application data fields from the In-Progress database.  

2. Add new Administrator UI module for ‘In-Progress Applications’

Implement a UI summary table and minimal feature functionality in order for colleges to manage their incoming applicaitons on their own time

Summary table for colleges to manage their In-progress applications Ability for the college to request (pull) and refresh (update) the incoming data to the summary table

• to get refresh or

User interface and admin configuration to manage

• with applications that were started but never finished/submitted to their college all record for each application that was started but never finished for their college

Solution #2: Research & IT

A daily Glue delivery of in-progress data to the Data Warehouse/Report Center and the college’s staging table will provide our other primary stakeholder groups with the data they need for aggregate analysis and the ability to pull their data into their SIS/CRM systems and use as needed.