InCommon Federation Discussions About Online Student Services

[Ann West <>]

All,

Just a reminder that we talking about the Streamlining Admissions Project 
(internally called AdmitMe) as described in my note on Sept 30th (included at 
the bottom of this message) on our 3:00 pm ET call this Friday.  

Agenda
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- Bash Agenda
- Overview of Project
- Open DIscussion of Value Proposition and Issues for Higher Ed
- Next Steps

 Dial-in numbers
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 +1-734-615-7474 PREFERRED
 +1-866-411-0013
 Access code: 0178568#

I hope you can join us.

Best,
Ann


Text of Note from September 30th
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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