Schedule

OpenCCC 2.3.0 deployment schedule:

• To pilot environment: Release in pilot as of November 6, 2023

• To production environment: In production as of February 2 at 3:30 pm

Colleges must implement the new SuperGlue College Adaptor version 4.9.0 in order to receive the new ID verification data fields.
See the Implementation section for details.

NEW! ID.me Digital Toolkit & Guides

Click here to view and download the ID.me digital toolkit for students.

NEW! CCC and ID.me FAQs

Open

NEW! Recorded Demo of the CCC and ID.me Student ID Verification Process

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SohbpujRlLh4tmPqlHivSM-TlgTBKuzM/view?usp=sharing

On This Page

• 1 Schedule
• 2 Release Scope
• 3 Integration of Student ID Verification
• 4 Use Cases
• 5 Primary Workflows
• 6 ID.me Help Center & Support Process
• 7 New Data Fields & Data Delivery
• 8 Pilot Testing: Send Your Feedback
• 9 Implementation: Install SuperGlue College Adaptor Version 4.9.0 Now!
• 10 Student Support
• 11 Documentation and Helpful Links

Release Scope

• Integration of Pre-Application ID Verification Service

• ID Verification User Flows for New & Returning Students

• New ID Verification Status Field & Timestamps

• Data Delivery via SuperGlue and Ad Hoc Reporting

Introduction

By the direction of the Chancellor’s Office, a new third-party identity verification service is being introduced into the current admission application workflow to reliably verify and confirm the identity of students and prospective applicants before they enter the CCC system. 

Integration of Student ID Verification

The initial phase of this project includes integrating an opt-in/opt-out “ID verification” step for all applicants age 18 years or older. The ID verification step is positioned between the OpenCCC student account system and the CCCApply admission applications, allowing colleges to capture provable personal information to confirm the student’s legal identity.

By adding digital, direct, and self-service identity-proofing software into our existing workflows allows our local A&R and financial aid staff to focus their time on the students who need extra support and the individuals who cannot easily prove their identities, such as:

• Undocumented

• Minors

• Special Needs

• Fraudulent/bad actors trying to enter the system.

This release features the first phase of development of the primary user flows, UI screens, and data tracking of students’ opt-in/opt-out ID verification status.

Benefits to Students

• Protects student identities

• Streamlines student enrollment and financial aid disbursements

• Helps prevent bad actors from stealing spots in online

• Large government agencies use ID verification

Benefits to System

• Reduces fraud across the system

• Supports Admissions & Financial Aid Processing time

• Focus more A&R staff time on student support vs fraud evaluations

• Large government agencies using http://ID.me

How It Works for Students

All new and existing adult students will be encouraged to verify their identity during the admissions process, and when submitting a California College Promise Grant (CCPG) online application. To facilitate this, several new workflows have been incorporated into the OpenCCC account creation and sign-in processes designed to guide the student to the application according to their ID verification status (verified or unverified) as they encounter a new Verify your Identity page  - the first step in the verification process.  Below are summaries of the new workflows and primary use cases, and how these changes will impact the colleges. 

Open

Use Cases

Unverified Students

The majority of unverified students are new and existing domestic and international students age 18 years or older who still need to complete the ID verification process. These students will first encounter the Verify Your Identity page when they create their new OpenCCC account or Sign In to their existing account to submit or resume a CCCApply application. Unverified students may choose to opt-in to verify their identity as part of the application process or opt-out of verification and be routed directly to their intended application.

Verified Students

Verified students will have completed the verification process during the application submission process and will maintain this status for 12 months. If a verified student submits another application within 12 months, they will bypass the verification process entirely and will be directed to their intended application or service upon sign in. 

Change of Status from Verified to Expired

A student’s “verified” status may expire if it has been over 12 months since their last verification or if they update or change certain information in their account profile, namely their first, middle, or last name, or their date of birth. The student must repeat the verification process to restore their status to verified.

Primary Workflows

To facilitate the ID verification process a series of new screens will guide the student appropriately - following OpenCCC account creation, the sign-in process, and/or a change to their Profile information - depending on the different use cases. 

Open

Unverified Student

New and existing students over age 18 may verify their identity as part of the CCCApply application process. This verification step will come right after the new student creates their OpenCCC student account or an existing student signs in to their OpenCCC account before they begin filling out an application.

Each new student following account creation will be presented with the new “Verify your Identity” screen (shown below). The student will have the opportunity to proceed to verify their identity or opt-out of the verification process at that time and continue to the application. Following this decision point, the appropriate verification status value and timestamp is stored.

Returning students who have an existing OpenCCC account but have not yet encountered the new verification process will have a “null” verification status value associated with their CCCID. These students will land on the “Verify your Identity” screen and will have the same two options: opt-in to verify or opt-out of the process at this time.

Returning students who have previously completed the verification process but have not submitted an application in the past 12 months, or who have updated critical information in their account Profile, will be considered unverified the next time they sign in or attempt to submit a new CCCApply application. At that time the student will be presented with the “Verify your Identity” screen again and will have to decide whether to reverify or not.

Opt-In (Proceed with Verification)

If the new or returning unverified student chooses to proceed, they are redirected to the ID.me website to sign-in (if they already have an ID.me account) or start the verification process.

Opt-Out (Decline to Verify)

If the student chooses not to verify their identity on the landing page, they will be prompted to confirm this decision on the Decline Confirmation page. This screen informs students that if they decline to verify their identity at this point, their access to financial aid may be limited or delayed moving forward. The student must confirm to opt-out at this point, or they can be returned to the previous page to proceed with verification.

If the student confirms that they want to opt-out of the process, they are routed to the resource they were originally attempting to access. For students proceeding to CCCApply, any application submitted after opting out of the identity verification process will interact with the spam filter as normal (they can be marked as fraud).

Verified Student

Once the student has completed the verification process with ID.me and their identity has been confirmed, they will not have to reverify for future applications for the next 12 months unless they make a change to specific personal information in their account profile, including their last name or date of birth. Following the 12 month period, the student will have to reverify their identity the next time they sign in to their account or access any systemwide technology application.

For colleges, once the student’s identity has been verified, the status of the new ID verification workflow status field will update from “null” to “verified” for 12 months (again unless the student makes a changes to their last name or date of birth in their account profile) which will change the status back to “null” in the system). Upon the first sign in following that 12 month period, the student’s status will be reset to “expired.”

ID.me Help Center & Support Process

Support for the new ID verification process will be provided by the ID.me Help Center.

Primary & Secondary Identity Verification Documents

IDme provides information on the primary and secondary Identity verification documents that may be required when a student attempts to verify their identity though the self-service option or on a video call with an IDme Video Chat Agent. These documents follow NIST identity verification standards.

How It Works for Colleges

The overarching goal of the ID verification integration is to support colleges and the system overall by taking on as much of the fraud and ID proofing workload off your plate so that you can focus on the real students who need your attention the most: minors, undocumented, incarcerated, accessibility-challenged, and other at-risk students.

Below are some key development notes to help colleges better understand these changes and the level of effort for implementation as we roll this process out.

New Data Fields & Data Delivery

Three new data fields have been added to track the student’s identity verification status, including timestamps for the ID.me confirmation and status changes. Each of these fields support “null” values and, along with the workflows themselves, have been designed with ‘shut-off’ capabilities to prevent any issues with data delivery during our traditional application season cycles. The new fields are:

• ID Verification Workflow Status: The <idme_workflow_status> field sets a value based on the student’s verification status at various points in the process. The different status values are:

  • null

  • verified

  • expired

  • staff_verified

  • unverified
    
    

• ID Opt-In Timestamp: The <idme_optin_timestamp> tracks the date and time of the student’s decision to either proceed with ID verification (opt-in), or decline to proceed (opt-out). This timestamp captures the decision point on the CCC side of the process for tracking purposes and is only populated when a student opts in; when a student opts out, this field remains null.

• ID.me Verification Confirmation Timestamp: The <idme_confirmation_timestamp> will set a value provided by ID.me representing the date and time the student’s verification process was completed successfully.

These fields will be delivered to colleges with application data via the SuperGlue College Adaptor and will be available for reporting in the CCCApply Report Center and the Data Warehouse Report Server.

The Verification Workflow Status

Following this release, all students will have an ID verification status value associated with their CCCID. Students who have created an account but have not yet encountered the new verification process will have a “null” value stored as their verification status. Students who have encountered the verification system but choose not to verify (opt-out) will maintain a “null” status in the system and will be prompted with the Verify your Identity page each time they sign in until they complete the verification process. Students that successfully complete the verification process will have a “verified” status.

Account Profile Changes

The student’s ID verification status is displayed on their account profile page. A verified student may lose their verified status within the 12 months following their confirmed ID.me verification or if they change or update the following information in their account profile:

• First Name

• Middle Name

• Last Name

• Date of Birth

• Address

If a change does occur, their current status will revert back to “null” (unverified), and they will be encouraged to log in to ID.me and upload the latest version of their primary and secondary documents, which would reflect these changes to their identity.

Strengthening Our Fraud Prevention

Another benefit of this ID verification integration is the additional strength it brings to our fraud prevention mission. Applications from students who successfully verify their identity before they complete their college application receive a new fraud score of 7, which ensures their application data is delivered directly to the college and not paused for additional post-submission fraud evaluations.

Pilot Testing: Send Your Feedback

Pilot testing sites are available Now! Pilot and Production deployments are announced on ccctechnology.info.

See the pilot testing instructions below. Communicate your pilot test feedback or log any bugs with our Staff Support team: staffsupportccctc@openccc.zendesk.com

IMPORTANT!!
The ID.me system does not have a designated pilot environment, so the pilot OpenCCC Student Account system is pointing to ID.me’s LIVE production environment. If you wish to test the end-to-end integration, including creating an ID.me account and going through the verification process, you must create a test account with your real personal data and then complete the ID.me verification with your genuine identity documents.

Open Pilot Testing Instructions for CCCApply Standard Application

1. Go to your college’s CCCApply pilot site or the “Unicollege” generic pilot site listed below.

   • Unicollege CCC Student Account & Application System login:
     https://pilot.opencccapply.net/cccapply-welcome?cccMisCode=ZZ1

   • Tip: Forgot to bookmark your college-branded CCCApply pilot site?? Copy the Unicollege link above and replace the ZZ1 at the end of the URL with your college’s MIS code.

2. Sign in with an existing pilot testing account, or create a new account for pilot testing

3. Don’t forget to tell us of any issues you encountered during your testing. Send feedback or log any bugs with our Staff Support team: staffsupportccctc@openccc.zendesk.com

Want to test specific use cases for the OpenCCC/ID.me integration?

Follow the step-by-step instructions in the document below to test three different use cases for the OpenCCC/ID.me integration release.

Implementation: Install SuperGlue College Adaptor Version 4.9.0 Now!

With this version of the college adaptor, you will receive your students’ ID.me verification status in the application data delivered to your college SIS staging tables. Contact the CCCTC College Experience Managers (cems@ccctechcenter.org) to schedule your upgrade to this latest version of the college adaptor during the November pilot phase. Colleges wishing to prepare for the February 2024 production release can obtain a pilot version of the College Adapter in November to test out the new fields.

Student Support

The OpenCCC Helpdesk will continue to provide student support, and as usual, the College Support Services team will respond to staff support requests.

Documentation and Helpful Links

Below are links to digital toolkits and brochures college staff can use to assist students with the identity verification process

Recorded Demo of the CCC and ID.me Student ID Verification Process

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SohbpujRlLh4tmPqlHivSM-TlgTBKuzM/view?usp=sharing

FAQs for CCC and ID.me Student ID Verification Process

Open

Links to Student & Staff Support Sites

• ID.me Help Center: https://help.id.me

• CCC Student Support website with ID.me topic:

• CCC Staff Support website with ID.me topic: