InCommon Federation Discussions About Online Student Services

[Dean Woodbeck <>]

InCommon Student Collaboration

7-Jan-2011

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Attending

Brendan Bellina, University of Southern California

Leu Gillem, National Student Clearinghouse

Keith Hazelton, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Karen Hanson, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Mike Jortberg, Acxiom

Mark McConnahay, Indiana University

RL “Bob” Morgan, University of Washington

Rodney Petersen, EDUCAUSE

Mark Scheible, North Carolina State University

Ann West, Internet2

Dean Woodbeck, Internet2 (scribe)

Mike Jortberg from Acxiom joined the call to discuss his company’s method for identity proofing of remote students. 

Mike talked about two primary categories:

1. When I first meet someone, who is it? 
1. Acxiom gathers information from many large databases. 
2. From those databases, the company develops challenge questions to use in this process. A client can also provide their own data/challenge questions
2. Second category - who is this person, again?
1. Is the person I met the first time the same person I’m meeting now?
2. Make sure this person is who he says he is again
3. Again, challenge questions can come from university/client data and/or from Acxiom (might be data that the person doesn’t know you have)

Matching is primarily accomplished by name and address. Other information available are date-of-birth, social security number and driver’s license numbers, but these are typically used only for sensitive applications (as many do not wish to divulge this information.

The process is:

1. The subject (student/faculty/staff) types in his or her name and address.

2. Acxiom makes the match.

3. Acxiom poses challenge questions.

4. Based on the number of correct responses, the user either passes or fails (the client can set the level for a passing score – 4 out of 5, 3 out of 5, etc.)

5. Acxiom provides the pass/fail

Mike looked at data from three higher ed clients. Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 15, the pass rate was over 95 percent.

Level of Assurance

Acxiom has a number of authentication strategies which can be roughly equivalent to LoA, although they don’t have LoA, per se. For example, a student might have to answer three questions within two minutes and can only do this a specified number of times. In such cases, Acxiom equates stricter requirements with higher LoA.

High School Students

Acxiom sees data about people beginning at age 12, but can’t legally use the data until the students turn 16. By the time they are 18, students probably have driver’s licenses, may have voter registration cards, may have hunting registration and the like. Their files are thinner, but data exists.

Pricing

Pricing is per-transaction. Higher volume equates to a lower price per transaction. Pricing tops out at $2 - $2.20 per transaction for very low volume to well under $1 per transaction for high volume. If Acxiom has to do little development work with the client, a lower price per transaction will also result.

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Next InCommon-Student Meeting

Friday, January 21, 2011 – 3 p.m. EST / 2 p.m. CST / Noon PST