Distance Education: Student Location Data Issue Documentation

This article provides historical information regarding the 2022 Data Governance  project focused on standardizing the collection of updated student location information.

Detailed Information

Issue Summary

As State Authorization requirements have expanded over the years, the UMS has spent increasing amounts of time producing the reports required for state authorization; in some instances, even with extensive time investment, the reporting has relied on data that could not always be determined to be reliable. Given the need to increase the reliability of the data, and streamline the process for reporting on the data, the UMS NC-SARA State Authorization Committee worked with legal counsel to create procedures compliant with NC-SARA and federal regulations. One aspect of improving the data quality is a means of collecting updated location information from students on an annual basis to ensure accuracy when reporting students' physical location during periods of UMS enrollment (in courses, internships, etc.) 

While this data collection was originally proposed for the sole purpose of NC-SARA compliance, it has the added benefits of increasing the number of students for whom we have updated and accurate contact information across the board. This increase in data quality serves our institutions broadly; already we are aware of at least one additional need for this information–in relation to pandemic health and communications needs-there will undoubtedly be additional benefits of this increase in data volume and accuracy.

State Authorization at the Federal Level

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Education released the federal regulation known as 600.9(c) requiring institutions to document proper authorization and approvals to serve students outside of their home state. Part of compliance is being able to identify where students are physically located while enrolled.

Resolution Summary

To collect the information required, an Activity Guide was created in PeopleSoft® MaineStreet. Activity guides are a PeopleTools feature that allow for defining guided procedures for users to complete. Users are presented with a list of actions, or tasks, that need to be completed to finish the procedure. In this case, the tasks, seen in the Student Contact Information Verification - MaineStreet Activity Guide , assist the student through the address verification process. Definitions of each address type are explicitly depicted to ensure the accurate collection of location information.

Resources & Research

Related Links

Strategic Goals Addressed

  • National Level Compliance with Reciprocity
  • Campus Community Health & Safety

Strategic Goals Addressed

Closeout Report

Workgroup Name

 Distance Education
Workgroup Lead & Contact Rachel Groenhout (rachel.groenhout@maine.edu)

Workgroup Members

 Helene Turcotte, Amanda Cupps, Christina Stephens, Carla DeGraw

Issue Name and/or Description

This was originally the NC-SARA proposal, renamed to Student Location during the process. The proposal was to create a page for students to enter/confirm their physical address at the time when they are registering for the next semester. This would allow us to do accurate NC-SARA reporting, as well as other reporting (Student addresses are numerous in PeopleSoft, but we do not have a good handle on where students are located). The issue went through pre-proposal, but then was abandoned in Fall 2019 because leadership was not in favor of a requirement that students respond to an address confirmation question in PeopleSoft during their course registration process. Because the question would not be required, it was decided that the work involved to create this page in PeopleSoft and the processes around it would likely be disproportionate to the value gained (the value added is unknown as we do not know what percentage of students would choose to answer the optional question). For this reason, the proposal was abandoned in Fall 2019 and will not be implemented at this time. If regulations change down the road such that we could require that students update their address every semester, we could revisit moving this from proposal into implementation.

Update February 2020: NC-SARA regulations require students' location at the time of matriculation. The State Authorization committee is gathering information and this proposal may be implemented in 2020.

Who are the stakeholders involved?

 Primarily NC-SARA reporters on all campuses. In addition, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, IR, IT.

Please describe the issue resolution:

After being on hold for more than a year, support for a UMS-wide activity guide deployment was acquired in Fall 2020. An Activity Guide was created in PeopleSoft to guide students through address updates (needed for NC-SARA); the activity guide also asks students to update their contact information and emergency contacts, further increasing our data quality for critical student contact information. A new address type of LOCAL was added to UMS address types to distinguish between Home addresses designating locations students may return to when school is not in session and the physical location where students are residing while school is in session, if different.

The activity guide was first deployed in Spring 2021, with 43% of students across the UMS completing the activity guide.

The activity guide will be sent out annually (each August before school starts), and left available to enrolled students for the entire academic year.

Will this issue need to be reviewed/updated regularly? If so, on what schedule?

Initially, monthly checks of completion rates; later on, less frequent monitoring may be completed.

Reminders of the importance of this information and integrating reminders to students to complete the To-Do item should be regularly discussed with registrars (initially each semester).

Audience

  • System-Wide
Print Article

Related Articles (2)

Accessible Guide for Contact Information Verification
This article will provide the text from the Contact Information Verification Introduction Screen image in the Student Contact MaineStreet Activity Guide.
MaineStreet Activity Guide - Student Contact Information Verification
This article provides detailed steps for students to follow to update their address in MaineStreet.