1. Best Practices for Creating and Managing E-Forms for Student and Scholar Services
Micah Cooper – University of Georgia
Jeevan Devassy – Georgia Tech
Stephanie Roberts – Emory University

2. Outline Organizing E-forms – Macro/Micro Level
Case Study #1: E-groups at University of Georgia Athens
Case Study #2: Emory University Scholar Request Process

3. Organizing E-forms at the Macro-Level
Developing an E-form Inventory

4. Organizing E-forms at the Macro-Level
Organizing e-forms in E-form Management (E-form Archive vs. Live E-forms)

5. Organizing E-forms at the Macro-Level
3. Creating a “Cheat Sheet” for e-forms creation

6. Organizing E-forms at the Macro-Level
4. E-form Manager
staff member involved in centralizing the e-form process
ensures a consistency of design and structure
duties would include assisting in e-form creation, placement, deletion, naming
update inventory spread sheet

7. Organizing E-forms at the Micro-Level
Structuring your individual E-forms
SECTION I: Text Section- introduction (for who, what, why)
SECTION II: Question Section (identifying type of student)
SECTION III: Consent Section

8. SECTION I: Text

9. SECTION II: Questions
SECTION III: Consent

10. Organizing E-forms at the Micro-Level
Readable and Visually appealing
Not a paper form:
Use of conditionals (streamlined, less clunky)
Use of 2nd Approver function
Tailor Approval/Deny/Follow-up s

11. Organizing E-forms at the Micro-Level

13. What not to do

14. Overview at UGA
UGA is transitioning from formsite.com, which has a user friendly interface and an extensive tool set, for processing requests.
Its disadvantage is its disconnect from our in-house systems. Data still needs to be manually re-entered.
Sunapsis e-form options are not as great but the centralization of information will save a significant amount of staff time.
We went live with 3.0 in May and are just now rolling out our first e-forms and e-groups starting with our I-20 request.

15. Tips Organizing the E-Forms
Make sure the order of e-forms make sense
The progression should not be erratic. You can closely follow existing processes.
For each e-form, be sure to give information about the form before launching into questions
Who needs to see the form? Utilize extension filters when you can.
Filters can be used for J1, F1, H visa types or new admits etc…

16. UGA Example I-20 Request E-Group
I-20 Request for Admitted Students
What information do we need to collect?
Biographical Information
Academic Program and Related Expenses
Dependents
Currently in US?
Transferring?
UGA broke up the previous process from one long online form into smaller individual e-forms.
Limited to new admits only.

17. UGA Example A Simple Student E-Group
Second approver sent to the current advisor
Submission creates an alert

18. UGA Example Instructions on Each E-Form
General Instructions
Notification of uploads

19. Example I-20 Funding Information
We have 14 different program expense tables. These are conditionally displayed based on academic level.

20. Second Approvers and Alerts
We have an external second approver to confirm the transfers are indeed transferring.
Once the last keystone e-form has been submitted, an alert is generated at the guarded level.
A template will be sent to the applicant once the e-group has been approved.

21. Setup Templates and Extract E-Form Data
Based on the academic and funding information e-from, we utilize one of 30 unique templates to pull and customize I-20 financial and program information. This information is maintained by one advisor.
We have one template for the dependents e-form and this could be easily automated.

22. Overview
All scholar requests at Emory are done electronically through ISSS Link (Sunapsis)
Current requests include H-1B, J-1, and TN scholars
O-1, E-3, and Permanent Resident will be added
Paperless process
Require input from department admin, scholar, supervisor, chair, and dean (some schools)

23. Previous Process
Scholar requests done through a bolt-on custom module in PeopleSoft HR
All information submitted by department administrators
Nearly non-existent case management tools
Compliance certification and all supporting documentation were submitted in paper form.

24. Sunapsis Process
Requests submitted through multiple e-form groups in Sunapsis
Information input by both admins and scholars; compliance form(s) signed by supervisor, etc.
Documentation submitted electronically
Compliance process now fully electronic in 3.0

25. Planning for More Complex E-Form Groups
Map out your ideal workflow
Flow charts may be beneficial
Be prepared to make adjustments based on system functionality
Use a top-down approach
What information do you need?
Keep it general – no need to define individual fields yet
Who should it come from?
At what point in the process should it be submitted?
Do this before you start developing e-forms!

26. H-1B Request – Department Process
General flow chart here

27. Designing the E-Forms
Use your planning notes to define data elements, then review to logically divide them into e-forms.
Remember to consider the required source of each piece of information
Don’t be afraid to use multiple forms
Easier for individuals to complete multiple shorter forms than one long form
Consider the “client as second approver” extension

28. Client as Second Approver
This is a major component of Emory’s process
Used to allow scholars to submit information in multiple forms
Scholars don’t have to locate the form in the web app; they receive the direct link via
Drawback: admins can’t see what the scholar has submitted

29. Client (Scholar) View

30. Client Second Approver Setup

31. E-Form Groups in 3.0 Lots of new features! Multiple keystone e-forms
Can require forms to be completed in a specific order
Used at Emory for multiple approvers
Group View
Displays all e-forms from a group together
Includes associated documents, notes, s, templates, etc.
One of the best parts of 3.0 

33. E-Form Chaining

34. H-1B Department Process - Detail

36. H-1B Request – ISSS Office
Emory’s Process
Details with forms, etc.

37. Templates
For complex groups, keep a list of templates and their fields
Ease of update/re-creation later
Learned this the hard way!

39. Related Documents Department user training Scholar guides
Internal manuals