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Establishing Remote-Student Identity

How do you deliver digital credentials to remote degree-seeking individuals who may never show up on campus so that they can interact with your institution and you can ensure you're awarding your academic credentials to the correct person?

This survey focuses on the process used by institutions offering degree programs at a distance to verify that the individuals using the campus login and password to access their record is really the right person.

Background

Section 495 of the HEOA (2008)  states that accrediting agencies must require an institution that offers distance education or correspondence education to have processes through which the institution establishes that the student who registers in a distance education or correspondence education course or program is the same student who participates in and completes the program and receives the academic credit. 

However,  the question is how comfortable are institutions that their process for granting access to their resources is secure - namely, that the campus credential they issue to the "student" is really going to the right person.

Who is running this survey.

Who should fill this out.

Privacy Statement and Results.

Terms

Identity Vetting is the process by which digital information about a person is gathered and certain aspects are verified (like is the email address valid). This process creates the digital picture we have about a person.

Identity Proofing is the process used to verify the physical identity of an individual by having them present identifying documents such as a passport or drivers license or through challenge-response questions that contain information about the individual being "proofed" that would not be available to the general public.

Identity Mapping is the process whereby the physical individual is coupled with the correct electronic identity information record collected in the Vetting process above. Typically this is done just after the identity proofing stage.

Credentialing is the process where the user chooses or is assigned a credential (netid) and completes the process to set up their password to be used for authentication.

Credential is an identifier (such as a netid) or identifiying token (such as digital certificate) that has been mapped authoritatively to an individual and is then used (and controlled by) the person to represent them online.

Authentication is verifying that the person seeking access to a resource is the one previously identified and approved. Proper authentication requires that the processes that precede it are not compromised.

Proponderance of evidence is the gathering and vetting of digital information about a person as with Identity Vetting. However it is used in place of identity proofing as verification of physical identity even though no proof has been shown that the physical person is actually the individual reflected in the digital record.

UserID  is an account or login ID (NetID).  Can be name-based or not and may or may not be permanent/persistent.

Digital Identity is the electronic representation of a physical person and is used in online interaction with other machines or people.  The purpose of the digital identity is to establish the level of comfort and confidence in a digital environment that is associated with face-to-face human interactions.

Prospective Student is a person who has expressed interest (or in whom the institution has expressed interest) in submitting an admission application.   

Demographic Information and Environment

  1. Department of the person completing the survey:
    1. Admissions
    2. Registrar
    3. Distance Education / Correspondence Education
    4. Information Technology
    5. Other ______________________
  2. Institution information
    1. Name of Institution (This will not be published in the survey results but will be used to correlate answers from the same school.)
    2. What is the size of the distance education student population?
    3. How many students go through the prospect process at one time?
    4. If your institution offers both traditional and distance education degrees, are your student credentials (username/password) maintained and administered:
      1. Together
      2. Separately
      3. Other____________________________
    5. If your institution offers both traditional and distance degrees, are the admissions and registration functions:
      1. Combined/consolidated into one unit
      2. Separate
      3. Other____________________________

First Contact with Prospect

  1. How do you begin your recruiting process (Check all that apply)?
    1. Internal aggregation of "Suspects" (Inquiries, camp attendees, etc)
    2. Obtain potential "suspects" from third Party
  2. When do you first learn about prospective students? (Check all that apply.)
    1. Test score referrals
    2. High School meetings
    3. Alumni/other "gatherings"
    4. Phone inquiries
    5. Other ______________________
  3. How do prospective remote students make initial contact? (Check all that apply.)
    1. Submit an application
    2. Email inquiry
    3. Inquiry through campus recruiting portal
    4. Phone inquiries
    5. Request for site visit
    6. Response to CRM campaign
    7. Other ______________________
  4. How do you establish an initial communications channel with the prospect? (Check all that apply.)
    1. Use the user-supplied email address
    2. Establish/use institutional email address.
    3. Use the parent/guardian email address
    4. Send by US Postal Mail
    5. Contact by voice (phone)
    6. Contact through personal appearance
    7. Other ______________

Assigning/Choosing Prospect Credentials

  1. At what point is the first login credentials chosen or assigned (e.g. email address, userid/password pair, etc.)?
    1. First contact from prospect and request for information
    2. Initial application
    3. Completed application portfolio
    4. Admitted 
    5. Received deposit/earnest money
    6. Registration completed
    7. We don't assign initial login credentials. We accept existing credentials from services like Google, Facebook, Twitter, CollegeNet, etc.
    8. Other ______________________
  2. For what purposes is this initial login credential used? (Check all that apply.)
    1. Admissions
    2. Financial aid
    3. Housing
    4. Course enrollment
    5. Learning management system access
    6. Distance education services
    7. Testing/assessment
    8. Campus services (portal, calendar, email, etc.)
    9. Other ________________________
  3. How is this initial login credential communicated to the remote person? (Check all that apply.)
    1. Send via US Postal Mail
    2. Send to a prospect-provided mobile number
    3. Send via email to a prospect-provided address
    4. Send a one-time link to a password selection page (via US Mail or email or mobile)
    5. Ask a prospect to access a webpage and choose/obtain login credentials (userid/password)
    6. Other ______________________
  4. Is this initial login credential used throughout the student's tenure?
    1. Yes. (Go to next section.)
    2. No (Go to question 5.)
  5. If other login credentials are chosen or assigned, please indicate at what point the permanent login credentials are established?
    1. Initial application
    2. Completed application portfolio
    3. Admitted 
    4. Received deposit/earnest money
    5. Registration completed
    6. Other ______________________
  6. How is this permanent login credential communicated to the remote individual? (Check all that apply.)
    1. Send via US Postal Mail
    2. Send to a prospect-provided mobile number
    3. Send via email to a prospect-provided address
    4. Send via email to an institutionally-provided address
    5. Send a one-time link to a password selection page (via US Mail or email or mobile)
    6. Ask a prospect to access a webpage and choose/obtain login credentials (userid/password)
    7. Other ______________________
  7. Upon first login with permanent credentials, is the person required to change the password?
    1. Yes
    2. No

Physical Identity Verification

  1. At what point is supporting documentation about an individual received from external third parties (e.g., testing service, etc)? (Check all that apply.)
    1. Prior to first contact from person
    2. First contact from person and request for information
    3. Initial application
    4. Completed application portfolio
    5. Admitted 
    6. Received deposit/earnest money
    7. Registration completed
    8. Never
  2. If supporting documentation is received, does the new information result in increased confidence about the identity of the person?
    1. Yes (If yes go to 3)
    2. No (Go to 4)
  3. Do you provide access to more sensitive information and services based on the increased confidence resulting from the documentation received from external third parties?
    1. Yes
    2. No
  4. At what point do you perform primary identity proofing of the individual? (Identity Proofing is the process used to verify the physical identity of an individual by having them present identifying documents such as a passport or drivers license or through challenge-response questions that contain information about the individual being "proofed" that would not be available to the general public.)
    1. First contact from prospect and request for information
    2. Initial application
    3. Completed application portfolio
    4. Admitted 
    5. Received deposit/earnest money
    6. Registration completed
    7. None of the above. We don't do identity proofing.
    8. Other ______________________
  5. What business office is involved in doing the identity proofing of remote individuals? (Check all that apply.)
    1. Admissions
    2. Registrar
    3. Bursar
    4. Identity/Campus Card
    5. Orientation
    6. Academic Unit
    7. Distance Education
    8. Other ______________________
  6. Does the identity proofing process result in any of the following:
    1. Password reset requirement
    2. Issuance of an identity card 
    3. Issuance of a new/permanent login credential
    4. Other ________________________
  7. Why did you choose the stage you chose for primary identity proofing? ______________________
  8. What information do you have about the remote person at this stage? (Check all that apply.)
    1. Name
    2. Address
    3. Birthdate
    4. Email address
    5. High school transcript
    6. Test scores
    7. Parent/guardian name
    8. Parent/guardian address and contact information
    9. Academic interest
    10. Academic term of interest
    11. Financial aid information
    12. Credit card number or bank account number
    13. Post-secondary institution (if transfer student)
    14. Other notable ______________________
  9. What evidence do you require from the person to prove their physical identity?
    1. Government picture id
    2. Credit card
    3. Physically notarized documents
    4. Electronically notarized documents/forms
    5. In person appearance at notary office
    6. In person appearance on campus
    7. Use a third-party vendor to validate identity. Please specify: __________________
    8. Other
  10. How are these identity documents sent sent to you?
    1. Email
    2. Fax
    3. US Postal Mail
    4. File Upload
    5. Other ______________________

Auditing and Governance

  1. Do you record the act of providing evidence for the identity proofing?
    1. Yes
    2. No
  2. Do you capture the image of the evidence and link it to the person's record?
    1. Yes
    2. No
  3. If changes were proposed to the identity proofing process for distance education students, who would be involved in the decision? Check all that apply.
    1. Campus-wide governance board
    2. Admissions/Registrar Office
    3. Audit Office
    4. Identity/Card Office
    5. Office of General Council
    6. Security Office
    7. Privacy Office
    8. Distance Education Office
    9. IT Management Team
    10. IT Technical Staff
    11. Other____________________________
  4. Please indicate any concerns with this process (e.g. having unauthorized individual obtains financial aid or gains access to FERPA-protected data, labor intensive, inconvenient for prospects and students): ______________________
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