[ctcLinkfinaidsupport] CS Support Notice – AAR configuration issue identified.

Mon Jan 29 17:05:10 PST 2024

Hello colleagues,

This communication is intended for:

  *   ctcLink College Leaders
  *   Staff who configure and support Academic Advisement Reports (AAR)
  *   Staff who assess student enrollment for Financial Aid eligibility

We would like to alert all colleges of an issue with the Academic Advisement Report (AAR) configuration affecting students with multiple active program/plan stacks (at your college) and provide a recommendation to fix the issue.  Colleges that do not allow students to have more than one active program are not impacted by the current issue.

The issue may produce incorrect AAR course results for:

  *   The Unused Courses requirement, which is used to determine courses not eligible for Financial Aid
  *   The Graduation requirement, which is used to calculate cumulative Grade Point Average, Academic Residency, and Total Units needed for completion.

Financial Aid impact - Unused Courses requirement
The Unused Courses requirement is a mandatory configuration for all credentials eligible for Financial Aid. This requirement displays courses on the student's record that do not apply to the credential. The queries CTC_FA_INELG_COURSEWORK and CTC_FA_INELG_COURSEWORK_2 identify courses that are ineligible for Financial Aid. The information in these queries come directly from the AAR Unused Courses requirement and may return inaccurate results for students with multiple active programs due to this issue.

Description of the issue
Previously, SBCTC recommended configuring the Unused Courses requirement and the Graduation requirement using a List Recall Mode value of "All Courses Used” (in Academic Requirements > Line Item Detail tab).

For students with just one active Program/Plan stack (at your college), the "All Courses Used" option will accurately display the student’s courses. However, the courses may display incorrectly if a student has more than one active Program/Plan stack (at your college) because the student's second degree listed on the AAR considers courses applied to the first degree as "used" even if not applied to the second degree.

  *   Unused Courses requirement – example of current issue.  A student with two active programs is enrolled in BUS 190 for Winter 2024.  The student's first program is applying BUS 190 towards the Business Core requirement.  The student's second program does not apply BUS 190 to any requirements because it is not a course option.  The Unused Courses requirement for the second program should display BUS 190 but does not because the “All Courses Used” setting is assessing both the first and second program together.

New Recommendation for configuring requirements:
SBCTC recommends the following configuration for colleges that allow more than one active Program/Plan stack.

  *   Each Academic Plan code will have a unique Unused Courses requirement number. Previously, all Academic Plans shared a single Unused Courses requirement.
  *   Each Academic Plan code will have a unique Graduation requirement number. Previously, Academic Plans could share a Graduation requirement if the Total Units needed was the same amount.
  *   A List Recall Mode value of "Used by Requirement Group" (in Academic Requirements > Line Item Detail tab) will replace "All Courses Used." When "Used by Requirement Group" is selected, the Requirement Group number associated with the Academic Plan will be entered. This will ensure that each degree is assessed separately.
  *   After updating the Unused Courses requirement configuration, colleges with multiple active programs per student should use the new Financial Aid query for ineligible coursework QCS_FA_INELG_COURSEWORK_MULTI
  *   The following Quick Reference Guides have been updated with the new recommendation for configuration:
     *   Academic Advisement Example<https://ctclinkreferencecenter.ctclink.us/m/79543/l/925002-academic-advisement-example>
     *   Degree Boost Query (Identify Students Near Completion but Not Enrolled)<https://ctclinkreferencecenter.ctclink.us/m/79543/l/1647860-degree-boost-query-identify-students-near-completion-but-not-enrolled>

Action required for AAR configuration updates:
A service desk ticket has been created for each college and assigned to the ctcLink College Leader.  This ticket may be reassigned to another person if requested.

Each college will enter a decision in the ticket by 5:00pm on Friday, February 2:

  1.  Determine if AAR updates to the Unused Courses and Graduation requirements are needed.
  2.  Determine who will perform the updates.  CS Core Support is available to update the requirements for your college, or you can decide to complete the updates yourself.
     *   If your college decides to have CS Core Support update configuration we will provide a specific timeline for the work, with an estimated finish date of no later than April 30th.

CS Core Support will offer two optional AAR cleanup support sessions for the Unused Courses and Graduation requirements.  We will provide an overview of the issue and be available throughout the meeting for hands-on cleanup support for staff as they drop in.

  *   AAR Cleanup Support Session 1
Tuesday, February 13, 2024 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Join Session<https://sbctc.webex.com/sbctc/j.php?MTID=m7951a038a66daf2a0e3b8bc92aabe51f>
  *   AAR Cleanup Support Session 2
Wednesday, February 21, 2024 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Join Session<https://sbctc.webex.com/sbctc/j.php?MTID=m4ecf80d33e3e999085a6e2094d727830>

Thank you,

[Title: SBCTC logo - Description: Compass]Jedidiah Lara
Functional Analyst, Campus Solutions (Financial Aid)
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
1300 Quince Street SE
Olympia, WA 98504-2495
jlara at sbctc.edu<mailto:jlara at sbctc.edu> | o: 360-704-3996

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