Meteor and Financial Aid Delivery Justin Tilton instructional media + magic, inc. As presented at HEWI/AACRAO 2001 Student Aid Modernization Conference September 26, 2001 Arlington, Virginia

Overview Status report on the OSFA and some of the key initiatives that will impact the future of Financial Aid Emerging technologies: portals, uPortal, channels – and how this relates to Meteor The Meteor Project: description, status, and delivery timeline

Financial aid services In the past, regulations drove practices and limited services Now, information technology drives practices and has the potential to increase service ________________ Using information technology, the U.S. Department of Education is improving its services, setting higher expectations

Some key initiatives Department of Education OSFA Web enabled applications Common Origination and Disbursements Student loan industry ELM Resources The Meteor Project College and university collaboratives JA-SIG (Java in Administration Special Interest Group) Internet 2 and Shibboleth MIT’s Open Knowledge Initiative Florida State University, University of Hawaii “30 minute application to funds”

SFA Web-enabled applications FAFSA on the web Schools portal release 2.0 with single sign-on Financial partners portals – FY 2002 Student on-line access to direct loan servicing API to SFA systems There are similarities between health care and student financial assistance. Both industries are undergoing transformation. There are strong economic pressures to reduce cost and improve services. Both have a broad network of partners to deliver their services. There is intense public scrutiny.

Web Application FAFSA on the Web - 2001

FAFSA On The Web FAFSA e-Filers Millions of students 97-98 98-99 99-00 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 97-98 98-99 99-00 00-01 Millions of students

Schools Portal Prototype

Federal Experience Customers using electronic services are more satisfied than those that don’t. Agencies that measure customer satisfaction Have better customer satisfaction that the federal government as a whole In general, are improving customer satisfaction

Expect... SFA Common Origination and Disbursements 2002-2003 Batch Processing Pilot 2004-2005 Schools required to communicate with COD using XML 2003-2004 Schools have the option to send real time messaging As reported by Kay Jacks at the 2001 NASFAA Annual Conference Electronic Signatures Limited use of SFA PIN Replaced by Internet 2/SAML December 2002 (no official commitment) As mentioned by Steve Hawald at the 2001 Summer JASIG Conference

Expect that... Alternative loans will be the largest source of financial aid by 2005 Estimated from a forthcoming report by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance The focal point of financial aid information and transactions will be the college or university “Web services” will be the basis for new information technology infrastructure New college and university administrative systems will be based on Web services; component architecture will become available 2003, and widely implemented between 2004 and 2005

Impact on colleges and universities Changes: From Batch to Real-time Transactions, From Proprietary File Transfers to Internet XML Messaging Standards From SFA-defined to Industry Standard Message Content An integrated Student Experience Use of SFA-provided Java (J2EE) shared-components

NCHELP-sponsored “convergence” Business messages OSFA Common Record, IFX Forum, CommonLine, PESC, industry XML Data transport OSFA, CommonLine, PESC, industry SOAP and ebXML Authentication (in progress) OSFA Internet 2/Shibboleth, JA-SIG, industry SAML, SOAP_DSIG Directory Services (soon) OSFA, Meteor, industry UDDI Delete this slide

______________________ The Meteor Project An initiative of the student loan industry Collaborative effort of 37 guaranty agencies, lenders, secondary markets, and servicers On-line, real-time information services Separate channels for students and financial aid professionals Aligned with industry, SFA standards ______________________ “Building the IT infrastructure for the next decade”

A Glimpse: Florida State University In “30 minutes” on-line: Apply for admission and be accepted Apply for financial aid, including the FAFSA, receive an award, issue credits and initiate funds transfer Apply for housing and receive a housing assignment Enroll in classes __________________ FSU reports general agreement with OSFA for their design Richard Tombaugh Aug 2001

Students expectations shaped by... Their experience applying for federal financial aid Their use of financial services portals Their use of the Internet Their life in a “real-time, information rich” environment

Students now expect... Customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Complete information from a single source Delivery by Web, e-mail, telephone, facsimile, and wireless devices response time of 15 seconds for telephone, 10 seconds for Web, and 2 hours for e-mail and facsimile access to a complete customer history

College students choose a Web site... Ranked by importance College or university’s portal if adequate Suggestions of other students Print advertisements Web search

Is technology important? Technology choices determine the quality of electronic services offered to Web-savvy prospective students, current students, alumni, faculty, staff and the public. Technology choices will determine with whom you do e-business and how it is done.

SFA technology choices XML - B2B Standard Business Messages XML Schema (data validation) Java - Transportable Programs Shared Java Components Web Implementations – FAFSA UML - Unified Modeling Language

eBusiness Web services architecture XML “tagged” data content eXtensible Markup Language SOAP data transport Simple Object Access Protocol XSL transformations for presentation eXtensible stylesheet language XML Digital Signature for Server Authentication UDDI/WSDL directory services Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration,and Web Services Description Language

Technology standards ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü Industry Web Services Microsoft Sun One Meteor JA-SIG uPortal OSFA IBM .Net Java Programming Language ü ü ü ü ü XML Markup Language ü ü ü ü ü ü SOAP Data Transport ü ü M ü ü ü UDDI Directory ü ü M ü ü ü WSDL Service Description ü ü M ü ü ü M - from Meteor installation O - optional

Announced support of Web services Feb 2000 OSFA U.S. DOE Sep 2000 NCHELP CommonLine ESC Oct 2000 NCHELP’s Meteor Project Dec 2000 IBM Corporation Feb 2001 Sun Microsystems Mar 2001 Microsoft Corporation Delete this slide

Portals, uPortal (JA-SIG), and Channels

Portal defined generally synonymous with a gateway, for a World Wide Web site that is or proposes to be a major starting site for users when they get connected to the Web www.whatis.com, May 19, 2001 “A portal’s main reason for existence is to integrate disparate systems and data into a unified, centrally accessible interface.” Jim Paroza, “Enterprise value of portals is clear,” eWeek, Sep 13, 2002

Yahoo, the portal “standard” Delete this slide

MyYahoo, a personal portal Delete this slide

The Academic Web World Research Library Administrative Instruction

Why a campus portal? Improves productivity and satisfaction Integrates divergent systems Creates a set of templates and standards for developing and delivering Web materials Becomes a platform to quickly and efficiently introduce new technologies (channels)

Why are portals important? Helps knowledge workers to be more productive Preferred by users Market share Brand identity A viable architecture for information services Time to market Improved services Lower costs Delete this slide

Features of uPortal Framework for presenting aggregated content (channels) Personalization Role-based access control Single signon to multiple systems

A student’s view of the Web

A student’s view of the Web Delete this slide

A Customized Portal Delete this slide

uPortal for the Pilot Implementation Open Source Software Features used by Meteor Readily available

Delete this slide JA-SIG Java in Administration Special interest Group A development collaborative and a clearinghouse for JAVA based software developed specifically by and for colleges and universities. Current focus: uPortal – an full feature enterprise web application portal Delete this slide

uPortal Interfaces Authentication Proving your identity Authorization Deciding what you can access User preferences Profiles, structure, themes, skins Channel information Availability and configuration

Content Transformation XML XSLT Processor XHTML: Web Browser HTML: PDA Stylesheet WML: Cell Phone

Tab / Column Layout Delete this slide

Tree / Column Layout Delete this slide

Theme: uosm Delete this slide

Theme: java Delete this slide

Theme: imm Delete this slide

Theme: matrix

Multiple Target Devices

What is a Channel? Displays content XML feeds (events, news items, etc.) Legacy systems (registration, library) Interactive applications Meteor Bookmarks Email, chat, threaded discussions

XML “feed” Channel Delete this slide

Where does The Meteor Project fit into all of this?

Relationship of Meteor and JA-SIG uPortal The Meteor Project Meteor Channel

The Meteor Project Meteor is the software and service to obtain a student’s own financial aid information from a number of different sources. The software can be installed on any Website--a school, lender, guaranty agency, secondary market, servicer, or collection agency. The software is Open Source--a “gift” from the Meteor sponsors to the financial aid community.

Data from multiple sources, locations The Pilot Implementation

Reference implementation The reference implementation includes: Authentication of the user A list of loans Details on any specific loan Error, warning, and information messages for the user

Meteor authentication

Meteor list of loans

Sample Meteor loan detail

User message, no Meteor service

User message, please call

How does Meteor work?

Meteor in a nutshell… UDDI Lender XML

The first step… The student chooses a portal to their Financial Aid information

Next, a secure connection

Requests sent... Guaranty Agencies NSC SFA XML <LoanHistoryRq> <CustPermId>448377707</CustPermId> <DateOfBirth>1980-09-03</DateOfBirth> </LoanHistoryRq>

Responses returned NSC GA SFA XML XML XML <LoanInformation> <LenderIdType>OPEID</LenderIdType> <LenderId>809063</LenderId> <LenderName>Bank of Oklahoma</LenderName> <SchoolIdType>OPEID</SchoolIdType> <SchoolId>003152</SchoolId> <SchoolBranch>00</SchoolBranch> <SchoolName>University of Central Oklahoma</SchoolName> <InformationSourceIdType>OPEID</InformationSourceIdType> <InformationSourceId>809063</InformationSourceId> <InformationSourceName>Bank of Oklahoma</InformationSourceName> <InformationSourceDate>2000-11-12</InformationSourceDate> </LoanInformation>

Aggregated data in portal

Student wants details

Request for detail sent to Lender XML

Detail screen displayed Lender XML

Diagram of Meteor Concept Web Services HTML Meteor XML Student Access Provider Data Provider

As implemented ... Web Services Meteor Secure HTML Secure XML Standard Browser uPortal Meteor SOAP Meteor SOAP Database

The development configuration Linux Apache Tomcat Linux Apache Tomcat Standard Browser uPortal uPortal Meteor SOAP JAVA Components Meteor SOAP JAVA Components Database JDBC Connection

Some history White paper Sponsors believe in the concept A convergence effort Development of Pilot Community awareness Enterprise software development

Convergence: Data Transport September 2000 April March SOAP [NCHELP ESC] SOAP [SFA] ebXML [PESC] “Simple SOAP” [Meteor]

Convergence: Business Messages CommonLine R5 [ESC] LoanML [IFX] CommonLine XML [ESC] Common Record [SFA] June 2000 December May

Convergence: Authentication SFA [NCS Proprietary] XTASS [VeriSign] AuthML [Securant] S2ML [Netegrity] SAML [Oasis] Internet 2 [Shibboleth] December 2000 March June

The pilot demonstration To show the operation of Meteor, the demonstration presentation included the uPortal with a Meteor Channel on the top half of the screen and a secure telnet session showing the flow of traffic--specifically the SOAP messages that included in the XML content--to and from the Meteor server, on the bottom half. (A sample screen follows) The demonstration was a dial-in connection, to the Internet, accessing servers in the Washington, DC office. The dial-in connection was operating at 28.8 Kilobits per second (roughly 2,900 characters per second) . The message turnaround was less than one second. January 13 and 17, 2001, Bal Harbour, Florida

Split screen demonstration

Meteor student authentication

Meteor XML Request message >>(Tue Jan 09 11:50:58 EST 2001) Processing SOAP request... <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance"> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <ns1:getLoanHistory SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap/literalxml" xmlns:ns1="urn:ifx-loan-server"> <IFXRequestEl> <IFX> <SaisSvcRq> <RqUID/> <SPName>gov.studentclearinghouse</SPName> <LoanHistoryRq> <CustId> <SPName>gov.ssa</SPName> <CustPermId>448377707</CustPermId> </CustId> <DateOfBirth>1980-09-03</DateOfBirth> </LoanHistoryRq> </SaisSvcRq> </IFX> </IFXRequestEl> </ns1:getLoanHistory> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Meteor XML Response message [1] Launching query ... >>(Tue Jan 09 11:50:59 EST 2001) Sending SOAP response... <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance"> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <ns1:getLoanHistoryResponse SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap/literalxml" xmlns:ns1="urn:ifx-loan-server"> <return> <IFX> <SaisSvcRs> <Status> <StatusCode>0</StatusCode> <Severity>Info</Severity> <StatusDesc>Successfull Retrieval</StatusDesc> </Status> <RqUID/> <SPName>gov.studentclearinghouse</SPName> <LoanHistoryRs> <CustId> <SPName>gov.ssa</SPName> <CustPermId>448377707</CustPermId> </CustId> <CustName> <FirstName>Sue</FirstName> <MiddleName>B</MiddleName> <LastName>Smith</LastName> </CustName> continued

Meteor XML Response message [2] <CustInformation> <DateOfBirth>1980-09-03</DateOfBirth> <PreviousPermId> </PreviousPermId> <FormerLastName/> </CustInformation> <StudentStatus> <CurrentlyEnrolled>Y</CurrentlyEnrolled> </StudentStatus> <LoanInformation> <LenderIdType>OPEID</LenderIdType> <LenderId>824607</LenderId> <LenderName>Oklahoma Student Loan Authority</LenderName> <SchoolIdType>OPEID</SchoolIdType> <SchoolId>003152</SchoolId> <SchoolBranch>00</SchoolBranch> <SchoolName>University of Central Oklahoma</SchoolName> <InformationSourceIdType>OPEID</InformationSourceIdType> <InformationSourceId>824607</InformationSourceId> <InformationSourceName>Oklahoma Student Loan Authority</InformationSourceName> <InformationSourceDate>2000-09-30</InformationSourceDate> </LoanInformation> continued

Meteor XML Response message [3] <LoanInformation> <LenderIdType>OPEID</LenderIdType> <LenderId>809063</LenderId> <LenderName>Bank of Oklahoma</LenderName> <SchoolIdType>OPEID</SchoolIdType> <SchoolId>003152</SchoolId> <SchoolBranch>00</SchoolBranch> <SchoolName>University of Central Oklahoma</SchoolName> <InformationSourceIdType>OPEID</InformationSourceIdType> <InformationSourceId>809063</InformationSourceId> <InformationSourceName>Bank of Oklahoma</InformationSourceName> <InformationSourceDate>2000-11-12</InformationSourceDate> </LoanInformation> <LenderId>831163</LenderId> <LenderName>First Oklahoma bank & Trust</LenderName> <InformationSourceId>831163</InformationSourceId> <InformationSourceName>First Oklahoma Bank & Trust</InformationSourceName> <InformationSourceDate>2000-10-16</InformationSourceDate> </LoanHistoryRs> </SaisSvcRs> </IFX> </return> </ns1:getLoanHistoryResponse> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

uPortal Meteor Channel - loan list

Pilot detail inquiry implementation Home Page Access Provider Website Student Authentication National Student Clearinghouse Loan Locator List Loan 1 National Student Loan 2 Clearinghouse Loan 3 Sallie Mae Great Lakes PHEAA

What we learned... The XML/SOAP business message turnaround is less than 1 second; the industry’s best sites are 3 to 5 seconds Because of the scope of authorization for access and different uses, Meteor needed two separate channels Student and parental access to the student’s information Financial aid professionals access to information about students

Professional - Authorization

Selection

Display

Why is Meteor important?

The Meteor software Provides an information service for students and alumni Provides an information resource for financial aid professionals Becomes a first step toward implementation of the Department of Education’s real-time “Common Origination and Disbursement” -due in 2003

Meteor software will be available as: A channel in JA-SIG’s uPortal 2.0 or later A Java servlet that can in incorporated into any Website that supports servlets Possibly a channel in Apache Foundation’s JetSpeed portal (also IBM’s general portal)

The school experience Authentication, a barrier to implementation

Authentication and authorization “Level of identification” Incomplete standard protocols for authentication or authorization Web Single Signon Internet2/Shibboleth (now Dec 2001) SAML Security Assertion Markup Language Indeterminate policies and procedures Legal - new law and lack of precedents Lack of business experience

Boston College expectation Only ”regular” students and employees in the financial aid office will access Meteor through the College’s secure portal. The National Student Clearinghouse, and subsequently others, will “trust” the Boston College authentication.

The “trusted” college Secure College environment Secure Internet connection College logon and password User logon and password Web presentation Loan list message Employee Boston College Clearinghouse User Access Provider Data Provider

As a proxy service Secure college environment Secure Internet connection User logon and password User logon and password Web presentation Loan list message Student college Clearinghouse User Access Provider Data Provider

Meteor supports localization Why localize Meteor? The Meteor channel becomes consistent with the access providers “look and feel” The user has a consistent experience Users can use local authentication to achieve “single signon” _______________________ Personalization combined with localization and useful local content (channels), increases user satisfaction and their loyalty to a particular Website or portal. Delete this slide

Meteor Project standards Implements SFA’s information technology standards Business messaging using XML Software components using Java Systems design using UML Data transport using Internet, SSL/TLS, and SOAP Directory of Participants using UDDI SFA Software Developers Conference March 2001 Feb 2000 Delete this slide Mar 2001

Why is that important to schools? Schools need to implement XML business messaging to participate in Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) [Real-time in 2003] Schools need to use Java to implement SFA’s Java based software components Need analysis EFC, entrance and exit interviews, and Pell Grant computation Delete this slide

Can Meteor access school systems? We are briefing student information system vendors about the Meteor software and implementations The Meteor sponsors will determine a schedule to release the software and documentation to vendors Software developers may test using the Meteor development site--it is open to anyone for demonstration and testing Delete this slide

Versions of the Meteor channel 0.7 - Current version support loan lists National Student Clearinghouse pilot 0.9 - Access to lenders, guaranty agencies NSC multiple guaranty agency, lender pilot 1.0 - Shared authentication, distributed data sources Delete this slidec

Recommendations to the community Invest in the these technologies XML as used for e-commerce Java technologies Focus on customer behavior and preferences Students and parents (Student Channel) Faculty and Staff (Professional Channel) Keep an eye on the industry leaders NCHELP - standards, industry directories JA-SIG - Portal technology, Java and XML Delete this slidec

Meteor sponsors American Education Services American Student Assistance Bank One College Foundation, Inc. [NC] The College Board/CollegeCredit Education Loan Program Connecticut Student Loan Foundation Education Assistance Corporation Education Funding Association Florida Department of Education, OSFA Georgia Higher Education Assistance Corporation Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation GuaranTec, LLP Higher Education Student Assistance Authority Illinois Student Assistance Commission Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority Key Education Resources LoanStar Systems, Inc.

Meteor sponsors Michigan Higher Education Assistance Authority Montana Guaranteed Student Loan Program National Student Loan Program, Inc. New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation New York State Higher Education Services Corporation North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority Northwest Education Loan Association (NELA) Oklahoma Guaranteed Student Loan Program Oregon Student Assistance Commission Panhandle-Plains Student Loan Center Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority Sallie Mae, Inc. Southwest Student Services Corporation Student Loan Finance Association Student Loan Guarantee Foundation of Arkansas Student Loans of North Dakota Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation United Student Aid Funds Vermont Student Assistance Corporation

And we had help... The National Student Clearinghouse’s Roberta Hyland and Joy Wang provided data access and programming assistance to make their database available to Meteor users. Interactive Business Solutions Software Engineer (and Harvard University graduate student) Peter Karchenko joined the Meteor team working on the project. Priority Technologies, Inc. extended the Meteor software and contributed the UDDI/WDSL implementation. Credit Online’s Dennis Warnke and Glenn Leyba shared LoanML drafts and their experience implementing IFX SOAP messaging. Great Lakes’ Steve Marganeau provided CommonLine XML as it was being produced in December 2000. Sigma Systems Inc.’s Andy Sprague provided test data and design guidance and Randy Timmons gave Meteor briefings and demonstrations.

The end www. meteorproject. org www. meteorproject The end www.meteorproject.org www.meteorproject.net:8080/portal/ and www.immagic.com