InCommon Federation Discussions About Online Student Services

[Ann West <>]

Hello All,

We've started an important project with PESC which has the potential of having huge affect on campus admissions processes. I propose that we refocus our efforts in InCommon Student to exploring the opportunities and ramifications of this work for higher education.

Our first call to discuss this next project will be November 11. Read on for my plea. ;)

Called the Streamlining Admissions Project (or AdmitMe), please read the vision at:

https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/InCAdmissions/Streamlining+the+Admissions+Process+for+Prospects%2C+Service+Providers%2C+and+Higher-Education+Institutions. In a nutshell, prospects sign up for online credentials at a third-party identity provider and use these federated credentials to access College Board, ACT, Common Application, and other service providers (Pearson? FASFA?), and apply to college. 

For higher education, this means:

- Outsourced authentication for your prospects. No managing accounts for hundreds or thousands of folks when only a small fraction will be admitted/attend. You would only manage accounts for those attending. 

- Prospect credential will be identity proofed (thanks to CollegeBoard/ACT/testing agencies) so the strength will be stronger/your risk will be lower during the prospect phase. Identity proofing may not be needed for distance education students.

- Common unique identifier would tag the reports you receive from participating organizations. No matching headaches for ACT/SAT reports, for instance.

The current project, run by PESC rep Arnie Miles from Georgetown with InCommon partnership, is working with the first vendors: College Board, ACT, National Student Clearinghouse, and Common App. (Department of Ed/FASFA folks have offered to join the calls as well.) So far, we're helping the organizations develop their technical pieces for a prototype and plan use that to help drive vendor-related requirements and interest. 

Where does InCommon Student come in? Someone needs to look at this from the campus point of view, both as a user of the federated service and from a policy perspective. I think this group is well poised to begin this discussion, identify the major issues, hold community discussions, and drive consensus on business value, privacy issues, service offerings, campus risk, and so on. In this light, Jim Bouse, VP of IT for AACRAO and Associate Registrar for Technology at University of Oregon has joined InCommon Student to help determine what AACRAO's role might be in this project. 

If this succeeds folks, it will be game changer.

I hope you can join us.

Best regards,

Ann 

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Ann West
Assistant Director,
Assurance and Community
Internet2/InCommon/Michigan Tech

office: +1.906.487.1726