InC-Student: Notes from 4/3/2009
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Attending
Andrea Beesing, Cornell University
Karen Hanson, U of Wisconsin
Nancy Krogh, University of Idaho
Scotty Logan, Stanford
Mark McConahay, Indiana University
Angela Mennitto, Cornell University
R.L. Bob Morgan, University of Washington
Karen Schultz, Penn State
Renee Shuey, Penn State
Ann West, Internet/EDUCAUSE
Dean Woodbeck, Internet2 (scribe)
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Action Items
- Mark will send out a write-up of his identity proofing solution for Indiana's new Transcript service.
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National Student Clearinghouse Pilot
Scotty Logan reported that the pilot timetable is on hold for the moment, as Stanford and the NSC discuss the NSC student services contract and addendum. NSC does not want to proceed with production testing until the contract is finalized. To date, there has not been a full end-to-end test between NSC and Stanford.
Bob is planning to have a discussion with NSC during the week of the Internet2 meeting in Arlington, VA, and will add this to the agenda.
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PESC
Bob had a discussion with PESC concerning attributes and they are in favor of moving forward. PESC will, fairly soon, add information to their website to define attributes to be used with NSC.
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Meetings Update
There will be an IdM track at AACRAO, with four or five sessions, including presentations by Ann and Andrea.
Karen reviewed the plans for an article, to appear in College & University magazine, based on the themes that came out of CAMP.
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Round Robin
Penn State - Reviewing and discussing the student life cycle and associated affiliations and attributes that might be needed. One of the objectives is to raise the Level of Assurance as part of student registration process. But how do you achieve LoA 2 which requires in-person proofing for students/alums in other countries? PSU is considering requesting additional information from the user to augment LoA 1 to reach a higher (but not LoA 2) level. There is also discussion about university IDs vs. NetIDs (for example, you may receive a university ID if you attend a camp at PSU, but you don't need a digital identity).
This prompted a discussion about reasonable methods for identity proofing and authenticating parents and students, related to the new FERPA rules. In general, it would be good if other institutions could leverage what is happening at Penn State, or participate with Penn State (as opposed to every institution doing the same thing).
Renee Shuey said she hopes to have this process written-up by late May. There was a suggestion for a possible webinar or other session so that others could benefit from Penn State's experience. We'll revisit this topic on a future call when the recommendations are finalized.
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Cornell - Student access to Google Apps will go live next week. This was originally to be used with Shibboleth, but since Cornell required both web and non-web access (and Shibboleth is a web-bsed service), the Google service will now be synced with the campus ID. The idea is to take another look at Shib when vendors support Shib across-the-board (such as with email clients).
Cornell is also looking for methods to release financial aid information to students online, rather than via postal mail. The university is looking at an online mechanism that would provide a PIN or activation code via the student's cell phone of record. The code would have a limited lifespan, so the person would need to be in front of a computer when they access the code, then log in.
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Idaho - Nancy has been involved with many conversations about course sharing and collaborative projects. Idaho is also looking at ways to share information, such as degree audits, with advisors at community colleges.
Karen Schultz mentioned a Big Ten meeting that will occur soon with the goal of developing solutions to course sharing.
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Wisconsin - Wisconsin is reviewing the student life cycle to ensure it is up to date. When issuing new ID cards, the identity proofing is at LoA2. They are still considering how to identity proofing solutions for distance students and loosely affiliated individuals, hoping to standardize the process. The university currently uses a home-grown system for distance students, and this may continue if the new Oracle system will not accommodate these needs.
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Indiana - The registrar office is about two weeks away from deploying a new transcript system for former students, allowing them to authenticate themselves. The two-phase system requires, first, a name and birth date, university ID, or SSN. Second, individuals must answer four questions:
1. an address at which they lived while enrolled
2. whether or not they were a transfer student
3. whether they attended more than one IU campus
4. a course in which they were enrolled during their last year
The questions are multiple choice. For example, in question number 1, the person is presented with several real Bloomington addresses, including one right answer. For number 2, they are given a list of other universities, including the right answer, plus the choice of "none of the above." If the person answers all four questions correctly, they are authenticated and move through the electronic transcript system. Indiana is also developing a contingency plan for those who can't authenticate themselves.
[AI] Mark will send out a write-up of his identity proofing solution for Indiana's new Transcript service. It was suggested that this be written up and submitted to AACRAO for the organization's IdM site.
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Parked for future meeting:
Potential webinar with the Penn State student life cycle project
Potential write-up on the Indiana transcript authentication system
Next Call - May 1, 2009 at 3:00 pm (EDT)