Attending or Not Attending - That is the Question

1. Attending or Not Attending - That is the Question Utilizing existing data to meet federal reporting requirements Thad Spalding – Community College of Denver Tom Biedscheid – Colorado State University

2. Agenda • Learning the hard way • Need to document attendance • Brain storming ideas to document • Utilizing existing resources to document attendance: Blackboard • Covering all the bases outside of Blackboard

3. Program Reviews @ CCD & CSU • Colorado State University • Finding: Enrollment Status not Verified • Noncompliance: CSU was unable to substantiate that students had attended at least one day in a course(s) for which one of the following non-passing grades had been received: • F (Failure) • W (Withdrawal) • U (Unsatisfactory) • Community College of Denver • Review: Show Policy and Procedure on how attendance is determined and maintained. • No Enrollment Status Finding

4. Why do we document attendance? • The institution must return those funds for which it is responsible to the respective Title IV, HEA program as soon as possible, but no later than 30 days after the date that the institution becomes aware that the student will not or has not begun attendance. The Secretary considers that a student has not begun attendance in a payment period or period of enrollment if the institution is unable to document the student's attendance at any class during the payment period or period of enrollment. 34 C.F.R. § 668.21.

5. Why do we document attendance? • In the case of Federal Pell Grant recipients, 34 C.F.R. § 690.80(b)(2)(ii) states that if a student's projected enrollment status changes during a payment period before the student begins attendance in all of his or her classes for that payment period, the institution shall recalculate the student's enrollment status to reflect only those classes for which the student actually began attendance.

6. AskRegs Are We Required to Verify a Student Initiated Attendance in Classes Before Disbursing Aid? • Knowledgebase > Category > Campus-Based (Common) Scenario: We are not an institution otherwise required to take attendance. • Answer: Regulations require an institution to document that a student initiated attendance during any payment period or period of enrollment in which the student receives Title IV aid. Regulations do not specify how and when to document initiated attendance. Consequently, documentation is not required prior to disbursement, but it is required at some point. • For the Direct Loan Program, a student establishes eligibility by initiating attendance in at least one class (as long as the student was enrolled at least half-time at the point when loans disbursed). A student must also initiate attendance in at least one class to establish eligibility for FSEOG and Federal Perkins Loans. For the Federal Pell Grant, Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant (IASG), and TEACH Grant, a student must initiate attendance in each class that contributed to the enrollment status of that student. For example, an institution disburses a Pell Grant based on a student’s half-time enrollment status. The institution defines half-time as six credits. The institution must document attendance in classes that comprise at least six credits in order to demonstrate the student established eligibility for the Pell Grant. • When a student earns a passing grade in a course, that grade is sufficient to indicate the student began attendance. The absence of a passing grade can pose a challenge for an institution to obtain the necessary documentation to show a student established eligibility. This can occur when a student receives a grade such as an “F”, a withdrawal, an incomplete, or a drop. The financial aid office should have a process in place to obtain alternative documentation to demonstrate a student established eligibility.

7. What is Academic Attendance? • “Academic attendance” and “attendance at an academically-related activity”, include, but are not limited to: • Physically attending a class where there is an opportunity for direct interaction between the instructor and students; • Submitting an academic assignment; • Taking an exam, an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; • Attending a study group that is assigned by the institution; • Participating in an online discussion about academic matters; and • Initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course.

8. Ideas to Document Attendance • As an institution that does not take attendance, how do we document attendance? • Request forms for each Pell Grant student? • Mizzou, CSU and CCD have ~6,000 Pell students each X 4 classes each = 24,000 forms • Track activity in classrooms, such as clickers, quizzes, etc. • What are the technological capabilities of your institution? • Integrate Blackboard documentation of attendance • Develop interface between your FAMS system and Blackboard

9. CCD Measures Attendance Other than Attendance LDA Reporting required for F and U grades Attendance Verification QA Outside FA office Drop for No-Show strictly enforced Post Census date disbursement PWD and R2T4 list monitoring for changes in enrollment Multiple modules

10. Blackboard Utilizing an existing technology resource to collect and document information

11. Blackboard • Covers 93% of undergraduate classes at Mizzou and about half of all sections taught at CSU • From the 2013-2014 Federal Student Aid Handbook (Vol. 3, Chapter 3), “Department does not dictate the method a school uses to document that a student has begun attendance.” • Both Mizzou and CSU look to Blackboard software first when checking for classroom activity. A student may access grades, obtain assignments, contribute to class discussions, etc. We consider this to document attendance for activity when the student accesses content through a particular course for the term.

12. Blackboard • We do not track students if records reflect the student merely logged into the Blackboard system. • Some students have no Blackboard activity • Merely logging in doesn’t count, students MUST access course content, take exams, post to discussion boards etc. • It is common for students that failed to attend class to login after the end of the term and check their grade. • If Blackboard activity does not exist for a particular student, the Financial Aid Office contacts the instructor for the course and ask for attendance information.

13. Blackboard @ Mizzou – Technical setup • SIS developed a nightly SQR that identifies Pell Grant and loan recipients • SQR is reported out to a new table UM_REG • Identified students are then compared against the Blackboard tables • If the student did not previously exist in that table, a record will be written recording his course enrollment information in PeopleSoft, the associated course in blackboard data, and whether or not the student has logged into that course site (see table layout below). • If the student does exist in the table, the record will be updated with the “last access” date from the COURSE_USERS table in Blackboard • Tables referenced on Blackboard • BB_BB60.USERS • BB_BB60.COURSE_USERS • BB_BB60.COURSE_MAIN

14. Blackboard @ Mizzou • Each Day, a report is generated based on a change in enrollment with blackboard activity which equal less than 12 hours. • The main purpose of this line is to catch those students who have withdrawn or dropped a course with a Pell grant on the system. The table the report pulls from is looking at every student with the Pell eligibility indicator on the ISIR set to a yes.

15. Blackboard @ Mizzou, Comment Entered • A comment will also be posted to the students account under View Financial Aid Status: FBLKBD, this is done by the system when the report runs each morning. • The comment will list the TERM and the individual courses the student is enrolled in along with whether or not the student accessed, or was able to access blackboard for the course before they dropped or withdrew. • The comment will list out each individual course number, if a course has a lab and a lecture component, there will be two individual blackboard accesses for each course number. • As long as the student has accessed at least one course number then the student has “attendance” for the term for the course.

16. Blackboard @ Mizzou, Comment Format • The comment format is as follows: (Course ID)-(Course Title)-(Enrollment status)-Last BB Access-(Access Info); • Example: 15145-Elementary Span-E/WDRW-Last BB Access-(no BB RECORD for course) • There are three different types of enrollment status’; E/WDRW (student withdrew from course), E/ENRL (student is currently enrolled), D/DROP (student dropped course).

17. Blackboard @ Mizzou, Types of Access • No BB RECORD (Blackboard does not exist for course) • No BB ACCESS for course (student could have accessed Blackboard and did not) • No BB RECORD before drop (student could have but did not access Blackboard before they dropped the course, typically is seen when Pell is added after a student drops a course) • Last BB Access: if a student did access Blackboard before they dropped or withdrew from a course then a date will be listed after Last BB Access.

18. Blackboard @ Mizzou, Comment Example • The course this student dropped had a lab and lecture section. The lab and lecture section report out as two separate entries, because blackboard is only tied to one part of the course based on the way the course was set up with the academic units. • A comment is entered at each change of enrollment

19. Blackboard @ CSU – Official Withdrawals • For official withdrawals when Blackboard data exists • Gather course data from Banner • Check for activities in Blackboard from the first day of class through the withdrawal date for each course • Compile the data, if any, and determine a min and max date of activity for each course • Review aid disbursed, the extent of attendance, and if there is a resulting change in the students enrollment level

20. Blackboard @ CSU – Official Withdrawals • For official withdrawals when Blackboard no data exists • Gather course data from Banner • Review aid disbursed, the extent of attendance, and if there is a resulting change in the students enrollment level • If no Bb data for a course and there is a need for additional information, email instructor • Instructors are directed to a secure website where they can login and enter information about the student • If no response from the instructor after a second notification, we assume the student did not attend

21. Beyond blackboard

22. Documenting Students Outside of Blackboard • Currently, if we cannot document Blackboard access, we e-mail the instructor • We are close to implementing a cold fusion application to collect faculty verification. • The Faculty Verification Portal has two purposes • To document attendance for 10-11 and 11-12. • To automate the e-mail notification process to faculty

23. Beyond BB @ CSU – Gather Data

24. Beyond BB @ CSU – Instructor Contact Cam T. Ram cam

25. Beyond BB @ CSU – Instructor Email Subject: Enrollment Confirmation Required Student: Cam The RamCSUID: 888888888Course: BUS 690BCRN: 70201Dear Instructor:Colorado State University is required by federal regulations to monitor the last date of academic participation for financial aid recipients. This student received an F, U, or W grade in your class this fall semester, therefore it is unclear if the student was academically engaged the entire semester. Your assistance is required to document the last date of academic participation.The last date of academic participation is the last date an academically-related activity was recorded. An academically-related activity includes, but is not limited to verifiable class attendance, an exam, a tutorial, computer-assisted instruction, turning in a class assignment, or attending an assigned study group session.Please click the Enrollment Verification link below to submit the last date of an academic activity for this student. Responses must be submitted no later than Wednesday, March 23, 2011.You may receive e-mail notifications regarding other students. You must click the link in each e-mail to respond to each request.Enrollment Verification WebsiteStudent Financial ServicesColorado State University1065 Campus DeliveryCentennial HallFort Collins, CO 80523

26. Beyond BB @ CSU – Instructor Portal

27. Beyond BB @ CSU – Instructor List Cam T. Ram Fall 2012 F

28. Beyond BB @ CSU – Instructor Detail

29. Beyond BB @ MU – Instructor Detail

30. Unofficial WITHDRAWALS

31. Beyond @ CSU – Unofficial Withdrawals • For unofficial withdrawals, after the end of the term and grades have been posted, for Title IV aid recipients • Query Banner for any non-passing grades (F, U, W, NG or blank) • Categorize students as • Having all non-passing grades • Some non-passing with Pell • Some non-passing without Pell • Follow the same steps as an official withdrawal • Addition of Banner functionality that allows instructors to submit a last day of attendance if the grade is non-passing

32. Beyond @ Mizzou – Unofficial Withdrawals • For unofficial withdrawals, after the end of the term and grades have been posted, for Title IV aid recipients • Query PeopleSoft for any non-passing grades (F, U, W, NG or blank) • Categorize students as • Having all non-passing grades • Some non-passing with Pell • Some non-passing without Pell • Follow the same steps as an official withdrawal • Document activity in each course • Contact faculty and determine a last date of attendance • PeopleSoft does not require instructors to submit a last day of attendance if the grade is non-passing

33. Beyond @ CCD • Desire2Learn checks • Most courses have D2L shell • Attendance can be monitored and recorded there • Registrar Hot on the Case • Actively reviewing courses and grading process • Keeps FA involved in Late Drops/No Show reports • Faculty/Instructor handbook gives guidance or reporting No-Shows • Obligation to report supported by Provost • Reminders of process sent by Registrar twice per term.

34. Contact info • Nick Prewett – University of Missouri • Director, Student Financial Aid • prewettn@missouri.edu • Thad Spaulding – Community College of Denver • Director, Financial Aid • thad.spaulding@ccd.edu • Tom Biedscheid – Colorado State University • Director, Student Financial Services • tom.biedscheid@colostate.edu