Response for AB3101

Owned by Patricia Donohue
Mar 20, 2018
Hi Michelle,
Apologies in advance for all of the info.  If you read AB3101, its probably not going to have any affect as all fields are required, see link below.  The idea posed in the bill that some non-residency questions could be removed from the application and asked by the college later is most likely a problem.  How are colleges going to chase down students and get them to answer required questions later in the process?
Here is how we ended up with AB3101 I think.
The CCCApply Team conducted an abandonment rate study in 2016 which showed a 5.13% statewide average abandonment rate.  This study was reviewed with the CCCApply steering committee.  
LACCD has membership on the committee and passed on the report to LACCD leadership.
While the statewide abandonment rate is 5.1%, note that 7 of the 10 colleges with the highest abandonment rates are in LACCD (6.5% to 11%)
Based on this report, the committee recommended change orders to move the Personal Information page to the end of the application, as there was higher abandonment on that page and students would be less likely to abandon there if they had invested more in filling out the application.  In the addition the "Personal Information" page was recommended to be renamed the "Demographic Information" page to downplay a sensitivity some students might have.
These are the Q&A from Laura Metune I sent to CCCCO leadership to pass to the legislator,

I understand CCCApply is available in English and Spanish. Is that correct? How many additional languages are we planning and when will those be available?

Spanish language help is available for each field as students enter data into the application.


We are exploring the opportunity to use browser based translation services for other languages in the latter part of 2018.  If successful, this effort could allow more than 30 languages, however we may have to facilitate some translations for accuracy.


I understand we are undergoing a process to determine which questions should be asked at which point of the application and enrollment process. Where are we in that process?  What are our next steps?

Working with CCCCO Staff, WestED Staff, and the CCCApply team, it has been determined that all questions currently in CCCApply are required given current MIS, Title 5, State, and Federal Statutes.


This determination was discussed in November 2017 with the resolution that possible changes via legislation may be required to reduce the number of questions.


Another approach under consideration would be to only ask residency questions during the application process, and then have the college follow up with the student for the additional required information at a later point in time.


Both of the above potential solutions are under consideration by CCCCO staff.


Have we done an analysis of which questions are required by state or federal law and which we have flexibility to change or delete?

CCCApply collects the data required for compliance with state residency determination, state & federal regulations, and local MIS (Management Information Systems) reporting requirements.

    • 61% of questions are used to determine California residency or eligibility for California resident tuition rates.
    • 21% comply with other state and federal laws and collect data for state and federal reporting (IPEDS - The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System)
    • 17% facilitate the operation of the application (e.g., establishing a password, providing consent for an electronic signature, etc.)
    • <1% Other 

(Source: Analysis of Required Questions in CCCApply)

Have we conducted student usability research or evaluation on CCCApply?

Student Survey Results


Every applicant to a Community College is surveyed at the end of CCCApply for a rating of general satisfaction with their experience and are given the opportunity to provide comments.


In January 2018 - 10,663 surveys were extracted for analysis.  The results were comparable to the previous study from May 2017.


Student

January 2018


May 2017


Satisfaction

Percent

Count

Percent

Count

Very Satisfied

49.10%

5236

48.50%

1699

Satisfied

34.03%

3629

38.85%

1361

Neutral

15.25%

1626

11.70%

410

Dissatisfied

0.68%

72

0.34%

12

Very Dissatisfied

0.94%

100

0.60%

21



10663


3503


From the 10,663 surveys extracted in January 2018, 871 applicants provided comments.  To provide a general view of sentiment, those comments were run through a word frequency analysis providing a representation of the top 100 words used in the form of a word cloud.

Results of the January 2018 word frequency analysis were comparable to previous studies going back to the release of the application in 2012 where the most frequently used word in applicant survey comments was “easy”.


Student Usability


When the application was launched student testing was part of the development process.


In 2017, contracted data science teams looked into the time it takes to submit an application and attrition.

Most students submit with 15-20 minutes with over 80% submitting in 30 minutes.  Overall the remainder start and return to the application to submit within 24 hrs.
It was found that just over 5% of users leave the application before completing it.  The page users leave at more than others is the Personal Information page which asks for Gender, Sexual Orientation, Race & Ethnicity, etc. To address this, we have a change request in to rename the "Personal Information" page to "Demographic Information"  and move it to the end of the application process. In this way students will have been fully invested in having filled out the application before they might be inclined to abandon.

Planned Usability Testing

A review of CCCApply usability is planned for 2018 as part of a study from the Foundation for California Community Colleges funded by College Futures Foundation.
The really sad part of all of this is that while we may lose 5% of students during CCCApply, we lose ~72% after the hit the Submit button.  
CSSO's are not focusing on the real problem, confusing matriculation processes with little support for students.  (This is the primary problem MyPath is addressing)
All this being said, I think if you could get the CACCRAO Board involved with a letter, it might help.
 
Best
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