2019-34: Colleges want access to students In-Progress application data to support student success

Problem / Issue

With the onset of the Vision for Success and the CCC Student Journey Project, the CCCApply Redesign project commenced to streamline and enhance the CCCApply Standard Application for all CCC colleges, including the following objectives:

Streamline & simplify (shorten) the CCCApply Standard Application, reduce time to completion and minimize application abandonment

Implement online application for noncredit students - without residency determination questions or logic - with custom functionality for noncredit students

Modernize the user interface with mobile (responsive) design, Spanish (ESL) translation, and a coherent uniform styles and centralized brand

Automate real-time application data delivery with the major student information systems (SIS) and CRMS - using Superglue - getting data to colleges earlier and more efficiently 

Implement industry standard, student-centric software development design to remove barriers, and promote student success using behavioral science and data-based UI UX

Implement enhancements that support Agile continuous development and improvement - including industry standard modernization (Live Chat), data integration partnerships (auto-population with 3rd party HE partners) and innovation  getting data to colleges earlier and more including getting data to colleges faster with more automation, is the ability for colleges to access student's in-progress application data in order to provide support and help the student through the application / on-boarding process.  

An ongoing concern raised by colleges using CCCApply is the inability to view/access in-progress applications in order to support students during the admissions process.

In order to provide pre-submission data to the college, we need student's Consent to release in-progress information and a mechanism to capture that consent (checkbox data field or flag)

implement a user-friendly, automated way to deliver the data to colleges through both data delivery methods (Download Client and Glue). Also colleges may need a user interface to view in-progress apps.

History of CCCApply & Shared Application Data

Sharing student application information - before, during, and after application submission - has been a high-priority request to the CCCApply system by a variety of CCC college, district, and system-wide stakeholders since 2012 - the year that master contract for the Xap Corporation to develop and resell the "CCCApply" admission application suite exclusively for the CCC Chancellor's Office.  Since 2001, the CCC Chancellor's Office, in partnership with the CCC Tech Centers (North & South) and the CCCApply Steering Committee - wrote and implemented the CCCApply residency algorithm code and published the CCCApply Data Dictionary - and the Xap Corporation developed the online application code for the domestic application, Spanish version application, the International application, and the CCCApply BOG Fee Waiver application.

Xap CCCApply

Included with the XapCCCApply application suite was the Xap Control Center which included the functionality to run a download job that included both in-progress- and submitted CCCApply applications. This functionality allowed colleges to see every application that was started (for their colleges) and thus follow up on any applications that were started but not submitted. 

At this time, it is unclear as to what the user interface looked like, but based on comments from college users and documentation, Admissions Office staff were able to run a report (line item) of each application started - that would include an Application ID and the user's name and contact information. 

This information was extremely valuable to the college Admissions Office for identifying and providing support for incomplete applications, but also to the financial aid office, student outreach, student equity, and other campus departments. Other use cases are still being identified as part of this research.

2011-2012: OpenCCCApply

In 2011-2012, the new OpenCCC student account system and the new CCCApply applications - fully owned and operated by the CCC Chancellor's Office and the CCC Technology Center, were launched across the California Community Colleges.  In 2013, Vice Chancellor Linda Michalowski, under the direction of the Board of Governors of the State of California, announced a grant to provide the OpenCCC And CCCApply systems to all California Community Colleges at no initial or recurring charge - thus saving the colleges hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of the following five years. 

Target:  Students who start applications and do not finish them in one sitting.  They hit a point in the application where they stop, save and leave the application.

Need:  College A&R and student services staff need an immediate, user-friendly, way to view the in-progress applications, so they can reach out - right away - to help the student get through the application process.

NEED: Colleges need student's consent before they can view/see/collect the student's information.  

HOW:  Add a checkbox (data field) to the Enrollment page - right before or as they hit Continue or Save  (how this should look is being determined, meaning should this checkbox question appear on the page all the time or pop-up when the student clicks Continue or Save?)

The language in the Consent checkbox would include one of the statements below (drafts):

I authorize the California Community Colleges to release my contact information to one or more CCC colleges and/or affiliates that may wish to contact me before and/or after I have submitted my application to the College.

OR

I authorize CCCAPPLY to release my contact information to XXX COLLEGE and/or affiliates that may wish to contact me before, during, and/or after I have submitted my Application for Admission to this college.

Workflow: 

An application doesn't become an official application until AFTER the student completes the fields on the Enrollment page, and either Saves or Continues.  Is this the point where the In-Progress DB stores the data?

Following completion of the Enrollment page, Glue could send page-level chunks of information to the Student Profile, DW, and College SIS.  
(NOTE: If the DW is also considered the "CCCApply Report Center" - then a college could run a report at anytime to see applications that have been started, but not submitted, and contact the student.

What do we know about the student after they complete the Enrollment page?

• College Applying To (Apply)
• CCCID (OpenCCC)
• Legal, Preferred, and Previous Names (OpenCCC)
• Permanent Address (OpenCCC)
• Date of Birth (OpenCCC)
• SSN (maybe not after new OpenCCC design - check this out)
• Phone number (possibly depending on OpenCCC design)
• Whether they've authorized text messaging or not  (possibly depending on OpenCCC design)
• Email Address (OpenCCC)
• Term Applying for (Apply)
• Major / Intended Program of Study (Apply)
• Meta Major (Apply; Optional)
• Education Goal (Apply)

This data could be enough for the college to contact the student and help them complete their application. 

Next steps:

Query colleges on what they need out of this project?
What are the goals for doing this?
What do you need in terms of data to accomplish these goals? 

A full account of all fields 
Subset of data fields

Research Questions

What happens now during our auto-population process?  Will all auto-filled data be sent to the college?

What is delivered from CCGI - how does this affect this process, if at all?

What is delivered from CDE - how does this affect this process, if at all?

(Jane Linder - 9.6.19 meeting - is working on a high-level flow chart of the data flowing from Account > Apply > chunks of data > to college)

Proposed Solution

In order to pass in-progress application data to the colleges using the current CCCApply applications, several changes would have to be implemented, including language disclosure, placement of language and mechanism to obtain consent, and new development to integrate real-time data with colleges via Super Glue or other automation method.

• Revise onscreen Consent page for current and mobile versions of Apply
• Update the Consent language in the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy*
• Add mechanism to obtain Consent (with language) on the Enrollment page or the My Applications page
• Explore different levels of consent at different points in the process (OpenCCC account creation, enrollment page, submission)
• Implement ability for data delivery using SuperGlue to allow colleges automated access to student data earlier in the application process
• Implement user interface or other mechanism for college Admissions staff to see in-progress application data 

• Adjust the current CCCApply Privacy Policy to include language that will disclose what we want to give college(s) and students, as well as "how".

• Implement an additional, legal, consent mechanism (pop-up box or question) where students are informed and provide consent to share data with college (directory information, in-progress application data, and full submitted application data) with the college they intend to apply to.

See "Revise Consent to Release Information Language in CCCApply" for second part of this project.

Background Information Supporting This Project

Ever since OpenCCCApply was developed under the CCCTC, colleges have requested the ability to see when a student starts an application to their college but doesn't complete / submit that application. The ability to see in-progress applications was previously delivered in the Xap CCCApply system in their administrator tool.  At the time OpenCCCApply was designed, this capability was removed based on the understanding that providing that data to the college prior to their consent to release information permission was obtained and submitted via electronic signature, that this process was an infringement on the student's privacy (per FERPA and ? what other legal organization or mandate?).

However, many other state and national admission application products are allowing colleges to see in-progress data (example CSU, and the Common Application) and therefore a call to implement similar functionality in CCCApply is being requested.

• Deliver CCCApply web app as a  stepping stone to on-boarding process
• Get colleges the data they need for Admissions (college operations)
• Get colleges the data they need for on-boarding
• Get colleges the data they need for residency
• Flexibility - move questions around - add defaults - tweak question and response option language - conditional questions/logic  (Survey Gizmo)
• Access to student information prior to submission -

Screenshots

Dependencies, Risks and/or Reporting Requirements?

Supporting Documentation