THE FSU VISION FOR STUDENT SERVICES

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THE FSU VISION FOR STUDENT SERVICES

• One Stop Shopping for Prospective Students and
  24/7 Access to Student Services for Enrolled
  Students

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The Prior Situation at FSU

• Unhappy student support organizations
• A major backlog of expressed and unexpressed
  demand for information
• Old systems and older technology
• Stressed and over-extended staff
• Long lines at semester startup
• Students and parents had to go to several places
  on campus for service
• 25 of surface mail communications to students
  were returned

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The Challenge

• Improve service for and communication with
  students
• E-mail as the official communications vehicle
• Reduce frustration from dealing with the campus
  bureaucracy
• Leverage data to empower staff, faculty and
  management
• Speed up response to management questions

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The Challenge (cont.)

• Serve a diverse community of people, tools, and
  computers
• Do more with fewer student support resources
• Extend the life of the institutions legacy
  systems investment, while beginning to revamp or
  replace key components
• Get the IT folks off the treadmill and working on
  tomorrows needs

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Why Focus on the Web?

• Provides consistency with what is going on
  elsewhere in higher education government
• Provides worldwide access
• and because our constituents expect/demand it

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Our Overall Vision

• Online on the Internet, a student can
• Apply for admission and receive a contingent
  decision
• Research a program of study
• Access orientation information and register for a
  summer orientation session of choice
• Apply for University housing, and if approved,
  receive a housing assignment

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Our Overall Vision (cont.)

• Apply for cable and telephone service (University
  housing)
• Apply for a parking permit
• Apply for an FSUCard
• Search the Directory of Classes
• View class schedules
• Register for classes
• Order textbooks

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Our Overall Vision (cont.)

• Pay fees
• Create own customized My FSU Page
• Take courses
• Research assignments
• Communicate with faculty
• Submit homework
• Receive grades
• Track progress toward graduation

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Our Overall Vision (cont.)

• Do what-if assessment of a change in major or
  transfer to another FL institution
• Build a comprehensive career portfolio of class
  projects, papers, presentations, volunteer work,
  skill development, and other accomplishments to
  assist in job placement after graduation
• all without leaving home, whether in
  Tallahassee, Miami, or Pensacola!

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Whats Missing?

• The ability to apply for financial aid and
  receive a provisional award package

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The Technical Vision
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Main Menu
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Financial Aid
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The Long-Term Vision

• FSU has been aggressive about delivering on-line
  self-service
• Financial Aid is a crucial missing piece
• We envision
• Capturing FAFSA data on a FSU website
• Forwarding it to the CPS
• Getting a real-time response

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A Short-Term Approach

• Proposed initial approach
• Link student to FAFSA on the Web from FSU website
  
• Borrow FAFSA data while it is being processed
  by the CPS under its current time frames
• Simulate CPS computations and use that outcome to
  create conditional award packages
• All in a secure manner
• We expect to be able to be very accurate in this
  simulation
• This might look like the following screens

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A Short-Term Approach (cont.)

• We will also be very clear up front that these
  conditional awards are contingent upon
• the official EFC and the eligibility checks
  routinely done by the CPS contractor
• the actual availability of funds included in the
  package
• any other aid they receive subsequently, and
• any changes or corrections in their financial
  circumstances

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Packaging

• (Conditional) packaging will be done in real-time
  
• Conditional packages are converted to
  Official ones as soon as conditions are met
• Fund availability is monitored/controlled
  dynamically for each package
• All packaging iterations are retained for
  historical purposes
• All packaging business rules are stored in
  user-defined and maintained tables

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Award Notification

• After each package is created, system will
  automatically generate e-mail notice which
  provides link to secure web page where award
  letter can be viewed.
• Awardee may selectively accept, revise (downward
  only), or decline awards on-line
• Submission of accept/decline decisions triggers
  real-time posting to award records and fund
  records

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Disbursement

• Automated determination of readiness for
  disbursement, based upon business rules, on a
  program-by-program basis
• Real-time posting of disbursed amounts to student
  Award and Fund Management records
• Automatic reversal of funds being returned as a
  result of no-shows and withdrawals, with
  posting to Award and Funds Management records

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The Bottom Line
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Express Services for FSU

• Benefits to FSU Students
• Convenient and easy to use
• Accessible worldwide, 24 hours a day, 7 days a
  week
• Immediate feedback and response
• Convenient on-line payment
• Simplifies and reduces data entry
• Less frustration in dealing with the university
• Removes the issue of place in the delivery of
  service

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Express Services for FSU

• Benefits to Florida State University
• Lowers cost of providing services to potential
  students.
• Relieves burdens in some processing offices.
• Projects FSU's image as an innovative technology
  provider.
• Should improve "show rate".

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Express Services for FSU

• Challenges to Implementation
• PoliciesPIN processing, DOE approvals
• TechnologyJava training to get staff up to speed
• Administrativeresistance to change
• Staffingadequate to support

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New Generation of Applications

• Bernard Gleason
• May 21, 2002

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Why?

• Improve customer service
• Increase productivity
• Reduce costs or increase ROI
• Leverage technology advances
• Deliver information the way customers want it
• All of the above

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Vision

• All constituents - customer-focused
• Access using a single set of credentials
• Self-service and full-service
• Dynamic content and real-time data
• Aggregation and presentation in a common
  framework
• Standards-based
• Secure, Secure, Secure
• Technology Evolving Take what you can get!

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Simple Overview
Campus Application
Web Services
Single Sign-On
Students Faculty Staff Parents Alumni
Directory
A
C
B
Transitive Trust
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Definitions

• Directories Central repository of people,
  things, groups, identities, etc. used to manage
  the institutional web environment
• Portals The presentation of transactions and
  structured and unstructured information from both
  internal and external sources in a secure,
  customized and personalized manner
• Web Services The collection of standards which
  govern the interchange of information and
  transactions between partners over the Internet

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Transitive Trust
Constituent
University Portal
Application Resource
B
C
A
Cert
SSL
SOAP/SAML
Cert
High Ed Federal Bridges
A
C
Transitive Trust
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Dynamic Provisioning
Core Systems
LDAP Light Directory Access Protocol
Entity IDs Numbers User IDs PINs Passwords Access
Privileges Roles Groups Jobs Privacy
Preferences Portal Preferences
Student Records Human Resources Alumni
Records Admission .. ..
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Portal Demo

• Demo Double-click to access portal demo
• Caution Read below
• Demo is still under development and is located on
  a test server. The demo may fail if the server is
  down or the demo has been moved to a production
  server.
• Demo should be viewed with Internet Explorer 5 or
  higher may not render properly with other
  browsers

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Portal
Portal
Campus News
Calendar
Alerts
E-Mail
Assignments
Weather
Library Search
Search Results
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Channels

• Channels are small programs that execute in a
  window
• Users can subscribe or unsubscribe to channels
• Users can personalize the order of channels
• Channels can be minimized or expanded

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uPortal

• JA-SIG -- multi-university consortium engaged in
  the development of a sharable web portal
  architecture for higher education institutions.
• uPortal -- technical framework developed by
  JA-SIG (Java in Administration Special Interest
  Group).
• By Higher Education for Higher Education
• uPortal is open source software that is the free
  to all colleges and universities.

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Web Services
Internet Application

• Essentially electronic business
• Trading agreements
• Messaging Formats
• Credentials passing security
• Guaranteed service

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Web Services Take What You Can Get

• Take whatever we can get as long as meets the
  model
• Web-based
• Authentication at BC virtual to vendor
• No batch load from BC of individuals
• Identity information passed by transaction
• Secure transmission
• No sign on at vendor site
• Near-real-time, no batch
• Easy to replace the vendor, no proprietary lock
  ins
• Work with perspective vendors to build
  proof-of-concepts
• Set open e-business standards and protocols as
  target
• Be prepared to modify Web Services as vendors
  mature

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New Applications -- Design Example
Portal
Finance
Financial Aid
Aid History
Student Account
Documents
Dining Account
Loan Disbursements
Billing
Payment Plans
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Campus Perspective

• Need Consortium Efforts -- institutions can not
  do it alone
• Need leverage of partners like SFA
• Need demonstration models campus executives buy
  into solutions, not abstract ideas
• Need publicity to get attention of campus
  executives, national organizations, data
  providers, etc.
• Need to be a willing volunteer, but disciplined

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