Leveraging Technology to Improve Scholarship Awarding

About Florida State College Campus Overview – 30,000 Students – Over 200 Scholarship Funds Prior to AcademicWorks – Used an alternate system that was not integrated – Applicants were converted to spreadsheets for review by the committees – Needed a more scalable, integrated solution to address the needs of the entire campus Selected AcademicWorks in February of 2012 Went Live with AcademicWorks in April 2012

DECENTRALIZATION Scholarship administration is often highly decentralized and can include Financial Aid, Admissions, Advancement, Colleges and even Individual Departments, making the process difficult to administer and monitor. COMPLEX MATCHING Scholarship funds vary dramatically in their criteria, application requirements, deadline dates and selection methodology, resulting in a time consuming and paper intensive process. DATA INTEGRATION Scholarship administrators don’t have easy access to student record data. This results in the creation of redundant databases, spreadsheets and processes. COMMUNICATION Students can receive automated notifications when they receive a scholarship award. This eliminates the need for paper offer letters and reduces the time it takes for students to accept their scholarship offer. STEWARDSHIP AcademicWorks allows campuses to collect “Thank You” letters and Donor Acknowledgements as part of the award acceptance process. Campuses can even recognize donors online via “Donor Profile” pages. Scholarship Process Challenges

Today AcademicWorks History Scholarship Management Module First version of the SMM was released in Summer, 2011 Founded by individuals with deep experience in Higher Education Technology Ellucian/Oracle Partner Programs AcademicWorks joins both the Ellucian and Oracle Partner Programs. Renewal Management Module The RMM was released in Febraury, 2014 CUSTOMERS

Requirements Gathering  Problem(s)-Clearly define and prioritize the problems you are trying to solve. (Ex. Simplify the application process for students, improve compliance, enhance the reviewer experience, collect “Thank You” Letters, etc.)  Process-Outline your current process and define the flow of your desired process so you have a clear roadmap of what you wish to accomplish as a result of the implementation.  People-Who are the individuals that will be interacting with the new process? What communication and training will be required to ensure these users are successful? Where will conflict arise?  Timeline-When will the new process need to be in place to best accommodate your next scholarship application cycle?  Integration Requirements-What other systems will your new process require input from or provide output to? How will the new business process accommodate this?

Student Information System Data Scholarship Management Module Scholarship Search Donor Profile Pages External Scholarships Scholarship Application Application & Import Data Auto-Apply Scholarships Recommended Scholarships Student Applies Review and Evaluate Make Awards Thank You Letter Collection Export Scholarship Awards

Student Information System Students login to AcademicWorks using their campus credentials and complete their application. Clients send a nightly.csv export file of student record data to AcademicWorks using a secure process. Clients can export scholarship award data as a.CSV or via AcademicWorks Award API. AcademicWorks Integration

Building Consensus  Administrators-System implementation will dramatically alter the role of your current administrator(s). It is important that they understand how their duties will change and how the new process will benefit them.  Information Technology-IT may not be as much of a factor in implementation of a Cloud Based solution, however, they can offer valuable insight when evaluating vendors. You may also require integration assistance during implementation.  Executives-You may not be able to engage your executives in a series of product demonstrations but make sure they understand the goals for implementation, process changes and timeline.  End Users-Let your end users know that change is coming and identify benefits that will be relevant to each constituency group (and not just to you).  Donors-Some people will perceive technology as reducing intimacy in the selection process. Make sure you focus on the improvement in the number and quality of applicants when presenting to donors, instead of just process efficiency.

Preparing for Implementation  Create the Project Team-Institutions of Higher Education may want representatives from Financial Aid, Advancement/Foundation, IT and perhaps Admissions. Foundations may want representatives from the Scholarship Program and Development or Donor Relations. The bigger the project team the harder scheduling will become.  Review Your Scholarships and Criteria-Create an accurate list of all of your scholarship funds, criteria and descriptions. You may want to review your donor contracts to make sure the criteria and descriptions are truly representative of the donors intent.  Gather Application Forms-Your campus or foundation may have multiple application forms for your various scholarship programs. You may wish to review these forms in advance of implementation kick-off to see what information is common or uncommon across the various forms.  Double Check the Calendar-Look for any vacations or significant time commitments that may impact any of your implementation team members. Where possible try to schedule your implementation around off-peak times.

Implementation  Stay on Schedule-Book a weekly meeting time that stays consistent throughout the implementation process. Plan on having a regular weekly meeting both with the vendor and separately with your implementation team. Continue on with the regular meeting even if a team member is unable to participate that week.  Training-Develop a training plan for each role of user within the system. If select types of users will not be using the system immediately you may wish to schedule their training closer to the time they will actually be in the system.  Testing-Navigate the system as each type of system user prior to go-live as it will help you identify areas where you may wish to modify instructional text or nomenclature. Ask for student volunteers to create test accounts as well.  Marketing-Send update s to system users during the implementation process to remind them that there will be change in the coming cycle. If possible, conduct a soft launch with a smaller group before your marketing efforts kick-in.

1 Meeting 2 Meetings 1 Meeting KICK-OFFBASICSBUILDIMPORTS QUALS TRAININGTESTINGGO-LIVE Implementation Process AcademicWorks Implementation and Go-Live Process Consists of Seven Key Milestones including: Days in Duration

Post Implementation  Training Resources-Develop resources for training new administrators and reviewers. Annual turnover can be very high and you will likely have a new group of administrators every year to train  Marketing Plan-Your student population will change every year so you will need to continually market to reach your next cohort of students.  Annual Process Review-Conduct an annual review of the process with your vendor and project implementation team to discuss what is working and what needs improvement.  Continued Improvement-Allocate time and resources each year to implement enhancements and features that were not turned on or available during the initial implementation process.  Record Archiving-What process will you use to archive your application, review and award data to make it available for audit and reporting purposes.

Customer Service & Support Annual Client Conference Unlimited Support On Demand Training Videos Web Trainings Customer Community Forum “The product has been easy to use and the service provided by AcademicWorks has been outstanding!” Shawndi Wilson, Director of Scholarships Tarleton State University “AcademicWorks customer service and technical support is second to none! Not only do they respond to questions, they go above and beyond normal service expectations!” Tyra Krause, Assistant Director University of North Texas Financial Aid and Scholarships Office “In my 20 years of experience, I have never seen customer service at the level provided by AcademicWorks.” David Jones, Executive Director Allegany College of Maryland “I have more confidence that scholarships are being awarded more consistently with donor intentions, thanks to AcademicWorks and their team.” Christine McGee, Executive Director Milwaukee Area Technical College