Overview
Existing California education code law requires residency determination for every student at the time of admission to a California community college. However, the recently passed Assembly Bill 3101 (AB3101) mandates that students seeking to enroll exclusively in career development, college preparation, and other non-credit courses would be exempt from residency classification requirements.
The passage of AB 3101 gave us the latitude we needed to deliver a modified version of CCCApply for our non-credit student population. Lifting the requirement for uniform residency determination for all students allows us to look at other questions and steps that might be omitted at the time of application. Our goal is to find balance in what is asked of the student that is applying for college while still collecting all of the information required for state and federal reporting purposes.
Product Description
The CCCApply Non-Credit Application is a streamlined, residency-determination-free version of the Standard Application, with a unique, college MIS-code branded URL intended explicitly for students enrolling exclusively in non-credit courses. More like a "workflow" than a completely separate application, the non-credit application uses the same infrastructure as the Standard Application - but without the residency questions or the residency algorithm. The residency status field will automatically default to "N" and a new "non_credit" flag will default to "True" for all applicants who enter the Standard Application via the new Non-Credit URL.
Read more: Non-Credit App Path Requirements
Non-Credit Application: Key Characteristics
- Shorter, more streamline version of the Standard Application workflow
- New URL created for the Non-Credit Application workflow (every college will have a custom URL)
- In-Progress and submitted application Confirmation numbers are modified with a prefix: "NC-" (Example: "NC-794033")
- Students that apply using the new Non-Credit URL, certain data fields and actions will default to the following:
- New "non_credit" status field = True
- New "Integrity-flag-81" field is triggered
- Residency Status field = "N" (new value)
- Residency Area status fields = "9" (new value)
- Students that need to re-apply for credit courses after submitting the Non-Credit application, will be allowed to submit a Standard Application for the same term, same college
- Students that need to re-apply for credit courses using the Standard Application after submitting the Non-Credit application will only have to answer the questions that were hidden in the Non-Credit application (this is also true when applying to any term, any college within 2 years of submitting a Non-Credit Application). Auto-population functionality is still in place and will function as it does today.
Non-Credit Application: User Interface
The Non-Credit path WILL NOT include the following pages and questions:
- Citizenship & Military Status page
- Residency page
- Needs & Interests questions:
- Comfort with English
- Financial Assistance
- Athletic Interest
The Non-Credit path WILL include the following pages and questions:
- Enrollment page
- Account Information/Mailing - including the Dependency Status for minors
- Education page
- Needs & Interests questions:
- Programs & Services
- Demographic Information
- Review, Consent, & Submission
Non-Credit Application: Admin & Downloads
The Non-Credit path is embedded in the Standard Application, which means that much of the admin configuration, implementation, and downloads functionality is already setup in your Standard Application configuration, such as:
- The Non-Credit path uses the same reporting and admin configuration as the Standard Application:
- Uses the same Terms that are setup for the Standard Application
- Uses the same Majors and Major Categories that are setup for the Standard Application
- Uses the same Supplemental Questions currently setup for the Standard Application
- Uses the same Rules & Messages modules for the Standard Application
- Uses the same databases as the Standard Application ("In-Progress" and "Submitted Applications")
- Uses the same Report Center, reports, views, charts, and dashboards
- The Non-Credit path uses the same DOWNLOADS process and XML files
- Uses the same Format Definitions XML file for specifying which data fields should be downloaded from the Standard Application Download Server
- Uses the same Job XML file
- Uses the same Download Client that you currently have installed now
- Uses the same Glue for CCCApply process that you currently have installed now (if applicable)
Differences Between the Standard Application & the Non-Credit Application
Although there are very few differences between these two applications because, for the most part, the Non-Credit application (path) IS THE STANDARD APPLICATION without residency questions and without the residency algorithm running (Submission Calculation Service) to calculate the "preliminary residency determination", there are some differences that should be noted and have been documented in the Standard Application Data Dictionary.
Post-Submission Algorithms Not Run in Non-Credit App
- Residency Status Determination (Submission Calculation Service)
- Does not run at time of submission
- <res_status> = field defaults to new value = "N"
- AB540 Eligibility algorithm
- Does not run at time of submission
- <elig_ab540> = defaults flag to Null
- Ineligible for Admission Status algorithm
- Does not run at time of submission
- <adm_ineligible> = defaults flag to Null
- Financial Aid Eligibility algorithm
- Does not run at time of submission
- <fin_aid_ref> = defaults to Null
The other differences between the two paths are primarily to help colleges identify and distinguish the Non-Credit path from the Standard Application, such as:
- A different URL is used to get to the Non-Credit Application path
- A new "Non-Credit Status" field was added to help identify Non-Credit apps submitted. If the new Non-Credit URL is used, the new <non_credit> field is set to "True", otherwise it is "False"
- The Confirmation number for Non-Credit apps that are started and submitted (or saved as In-Progress applications) using the Non-Credit URL will have a "NC" prefix added to them
- A new Integrity Flag 81 was added. When the new <non_credit> field is set to "True", Integrity Flag 81 is triggered which sends an email to the college admissions office with the message, "Applicant applied using the Non-Credit URL"
- There will be blank and/or null values appearing for a lot of existing fields, including the Citizenship, Military, and Residency fields, in your download files and in the Report Center
Project Phases
Development and implementation of the Non-Credit Application will roll out in phases. The first phase, development, has already begun and a soft-launch release to the Pilot environment is scheduled for February 19, 2019 as part of the CCCApply 6.4.0 release. Below is a breakdown of the project plan.
Phase 1: Development & Soft Launch
Development of the Non-Credit Application path within the Standard Application (MVP requirements) began in September 2018 and the initial version will soft-launch in February 2019.
Development requirements for the minimum viable product for release (MVP) are here.
Phase 2: Pilot Project
Beginning with the soft-launch on February 19, a college pilot of six districts* will test the new non-credit application to work out the bugs, identify issues, and ensure all post-submission data and workflow processes are ready for production release. Pilot colleges will be required to participate in extended user acceptance testing and IT staff must support the effort with full implementation and integration with their SIS systems. Bi-weekly feedback meetings will be recorded and shared with colleges.
Phase 3: Production Release
The production release for the Non-Credit Application is tentatively planned for June 15, 2019, which is the production release for the 6.5.0 release.
Non-Credit Application Project Roadmap
Project & Development Information
CCCApply Non-Credit Application Change Request: 2018-24R: Revise CCCApply to Support Non-Credit Students
Non-Credit Application Requirements Review