ctcLink Learning Opportunities & Support Roundup: July 17, 2024
A weekly round-up of ctcLink learning opportunities, ctcLink support updates, and news for Washington state community and technical college ctcLink users.
If you have questions or suggestions for future editions, contact ctcLink News or slnelson@sbctc.edu.
What ctcLink learning opportunities are available?
ctcLink Support eLists
ctcLink Customer Support teams send notifications of learning opportunities (including trainings, work sessions, user acceptance testing, and more), as well as global and cross-pillar system communications to the applicable ctcLink Support eLists (aka listservs) on a regular basis.
If you are a ctcLink end-user, and not already hearing about learning opportunities firsthand, join one or more support lists today: ctcLink Support eLists
Training calendar
Find the latest learning opportunities, including notices of cancellation or schedule changes, on the ctcLink Training & Learning Opportunities Registration page or on the SBCTC meetings and events calendar (apply filters).
Take a training tour
View the ctcLink Training Overview video for a quick online tour of resources. To view it in full screen, select box icon in the upper right corner.
Learning Opportunities & Work Sessions Ahead
To plan further ahead or find the latest learning opportunities, as well as notices of cancellation or schedule changes, see the complete calendar at the ctcLink Training & Learning Opportunities Registration page or on the SBCTC meetings and events calendar (apply filters).
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| ctcLink Training Quick Reference Guides | The ctcLink Training Quick Reference Guides (QRGs) in the ctcLink Reference Center lists and links to recordings of sessions delivered by the Training Team. |
| Work Sessions in Canvas | The Work Session Canvas Course lists and links to recordings of sessions, including CS Core-offered Work Sessions. Register for the course(s) at ctcLink Training & Learning Opportunities Registration. |
| ctcLink Security Documentation & Training | Find ctcLink Security-related training materials, documentation, Quick Reference Guides (QRGs), useful queries, and more on the ctcLink Security Documentation & Training page. |
| Accessibility and ctcLink Open Forums | SBCTC hosts monthly Accessibility and ctcLink Open Forums to engage Washington's community and technical college system in discussions around ctcLink accessibility and technology. Find materials and recordings from past ctcLink Accessibility Forums on the website. |
ctcLink News
System Environment Updates & Outages
Stay up to date on planned maintenance and service outages for ctcLink and related systems: ctcLink Support Page (includes Planned Service Outages)
Server Maintenance – All Pillars
- Saturday, July 20, 2024, 7 to 9 a.m.
SBCTC will be installing Oracle patches during this maintenance window.
- The entire ctcLink production environment will remain offline during the maintenance window.
- Users logging into ctcLink will be directed to an offline notice with links to college Canvas sites.
- Canvas will not be impacted.
PCD Data Refresh
- Monday, August 5, 2024
PCD (Production College Development) environment will be refreshed. For more details, see the Data, Query & Reporting News section below.
New ctcLink Enhancement Request (ER) Prioritization Process Ready for All
ctcLink Support is pleased to announce revisions to the ctcLink Enhancement Request (ER) prioritization process are finalized and in place:
- Enhancement Requests Start with You at the SBCTC website is a high-level look at the process with links to resources.
- ctcLink Enhancement Requests at the ctcLink Reference Center outlines the process, provides and explains the ER form, and includes an up-to-date ER Status list.
ER Prioritization Process Overview
Since the ctcLink deployment was completed in May 2022, the task of considering and prioritizing Enhancement Requests (ERs) faced competing priorities, resource fatigue, and unclear expectations for the ctcLink Production Support teams responsible for implementing approved ERs.
The underlying goal of this collaborative improvement effort was twofold:
- Solidify a clear voting process for ER prioritization
- Align with recommendations set forth in WACTC’s 2023 ctcLink Improvement Plan to:
- Streamline ctcLink governance structure and processes
- Prioritize and track enhancement requests/system changes that focus on global implementation
Proposal
In response, a team comprised of members of the ctcLink College Collaboration Group (cCCG), the Strategic Technology Advisory Committee (STAC), and ctcLink Support team members proposed a prioritization process for ctcLink Enhancements that aimed to be transparent, inclusive, streamlined, and effective. See the ctcLink Prioritization Proposal one-pager for details.
STAC voted Feb. 16, 2024, to recommend approval of the ctcLink Prioritization proposal to the WACTC Technology Committee (WACTC-Tech). WACTC-Tech approved STAC’s recommendation during its Feb. 29 meeting.
Work plan
Once the move was approved, the cCCG met to develop a prioritization rubric to review the outstanding ERs. cCCG formalized the voting and prioritization process to review the ERs already in the queue and solidified the group’s process moving forward as new ERs come in.
Pause & Review
A pause on new ERs was called April 1 to May 31, 2024 to allow ctcLink College Collaboration Group (cCCG) members time to review and prioritize a comprehensive list of 68 outstanding ERs, some of which had been on hold for consideration since 2018 due to implementation activities.
Prioritization results
Formal votes from each college/district were reviewed during the May 22 ctcLink College Collaboration Group meeting. Tabulations were finalized and provided to SBCTC ctcLink Support to get ERs into the work queues.
Work Queues
As of May 31, 2024, the outstanding ERs were either cancelled or assigned to priority work queues:
See the ctcLink Learning Opportunities & Support Roundup: June 12, 2024 under Enhancement Request News for a list of prioritized ERs per pillar.
These lists will continue to change as ERs move through the pipeline. See Enhancement Request Status for the latest details.
While no ERs are currently listed for CS Financial Aid, there has been, and will continue to be, a great deal of work in the Financial Aid arena, which may result in future ERs.
Data Summit 2024: Register Now
Monday, Aug. 19, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., South Puget Sound Community College - Lacey Campus
4220 6th Ave SE, Lacey, WA 98503 Building 1, Room 186; no parking pass required.
This event is a collaborative effort sponsored by the DataLink Steering Committee working in partnership with the Information Technology Commission, Research & Planning Commission, and the ctcLink College Collaboration Group.
Sessions include:
- High-Level Review of Baseline Data Replication Package (BDRP) and DataLink
- Essential data tables and resources within our systems
- Data governance essentials
- Budget reports for day-to-day budget managers
- Enhancing solution sharing with the BDRP Extractor Tool
- Data security protocols
- Information Technology (IT) and Institutional Research (IR) collaboration
- Automating student onboarding with BDRP and Okta
- Security Administration System Improvement (SASI) Project
Register
Please submit this short registration form if you plan to attend.
While we would love to see you all in person, we will also provide a remote option to attend via Zoom. Please register regardless of how you will participate.
ER Year-to-Date Snapshot
Updates as of July 15, 2024
January to July 2024
- 27 Enhancements deployed from January to July 2024
All ERs since 2018
- 286 Enhancement Requests Submitted
- 192 Enhancements Deployed (77%)
- 29 Canceled (via college request or not needed due to being local configuration)
- 2 in testing
- 7 on hold (On hold due to Guided Pathways requirements gathering or Integration, Scope and Cost analysis)
- 56 in analysis, development and/or design
Enhancement Requests (ER) Deployed
- ER 288 – Add COP Profile IDs to Depreciate COP Assets According to OFM - Deployed July 9, 2024
- ER 154 - FWL-Future Effective Dated Hire Row - Deployed June 13, 2024
- ER 224 - SF Customer Account Academic Info Page - Deployed June 13, 2024
- ER 277 - (FYI) New sources needed for the Journal AWE – Deployed May 29, 2024
ER Work Underway (In Flight)
- OAAP ERs #178, 184,169, 183, 212, and 237 approved by Working Group. Work is underway
for Priority 1 (Residency & Citizenship) which includes some crossover between ERs
169, 184, and 237.
- Kastech has completed development work and CS Core will begin testing upon completion of ER 284 activities.
- Finance ER 189 - Stale Dating Checks - Working with Accounting and Business Services
- ER 242 - Offboarding Automation is under development. Offboarding staff will become a mostly automated process in all three pillars. This will save staff hours of manual work.
- ER 232 - Adding Custom Self-Service Questions in Campus Solutions is in development. This will be a custom solution to collect information from students to meet state and federal reporting requirements, as well as for institutional research and student outreach needs. The college system has historically asked supplemental questions of students to collect information needed to meet state and federal reporting requirements. We are currently missing certain data which was previously collected in Legacy at the time of admission and registration. This will fix that.
- ER 122 - Charge Benefit Expense to Primary Job development is in progress. Presently the benefit expense gets split between all the budgets a person is being paid from on a particular payroll, rather than only charging to their primary job. This will change the way the benefits expense - HCA Avg Cost - gets split between budgets and charge it only to the Primary Job. The Primary Job's Combo code needs to be charged for the HCA Avg. Costs. The other charges (benefits or otherwise) should get charged to the job(s) being paid.
ERs Currently in Testing
- ER 166 CampusCE Search/Match Parameter & Descoped Items. SIT activities in-progress alongside descoped items testing
- ER 284 - (FYI) Enable Okta for OAAP in User Acceptance Testing with the colleges; UAT activities ongoing until July 19, 2024.
- ER 289 (FYI) - Enable Advising Notes for student use in HighPoint Campus Experience (HCX). Functional testing in progress
Are Your College’s ctcLink Help Links Up to Date?
College ctcLink Points of Contact, as well as Admissions, OAAP, Campus Solutions subject matter experts were asked this week to take a look at their ctcLink Help page links.
What is changing in the OAAP?
As part of Enhancement Request #284 to enable Okta in front of the Online Admissions Application Portal (OAAP), we are updating the helper text within OAAP Okta-generated emails and for pop-up messages within the OAAP site. This is only one of several component changes in this ER.
Currently, there are some global OAAP pop-up messages referring applicants to contact a “system administrator” for assistance. We are working with the vendor to revise these global OAAP pop-messages to refer applicants to the ctcLink Help page for assistance.
Enabling Okta for OAAP will also result in some Okta-generated emails to applicants for matters like password resets and sign-in notifications. These global email messages will also refer applicants to the ctcLink Help page if they need assistance.
We anticipate OAAP Okta-related messages to go into effect the evening of Tuesday, July 30. Following the OAAP Okta implementation, we will continue working with the vendor on a rolling basis to update additional OAAP pop-up messages.
How can you help?
We want to make sure your college’s contact information is up to date, because OAAP help text will direct applicants with questions to the ctcLink Help page.
Please review your college’s content (links and text) at the ctcLink Help page for accuracy and completeness. Send any changes to Sherry Nelson by Monday, July 29.
Apprenticeship Coding Changes in CS
CS Support is updating college apprenticeship academic plans on a college-by-college rollout basis. CS Support has two remaining tickets open with colleges who are not yet done. Colleges were supposed to complete their student cleanup work by June 30 as the reporting FTE calculation change went into effect July 1, 2024. The SBCTC Education Division is following up with any colleges who never began the apprenticeship coding cleanup project.
CS Core Learning Opportunities
CS Core Training
CS Core Trainings, a valuable learning opportunity, are held on the third Wednesday of every month from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. The dates may change, and notifications will be sent in advance. The CS Core training alternates between refreshers and different process approaches. We highly value your participation and welcome all end-users to attend these trainings. You can find details about upcoming meetings on the SBCTC Calendar, CS Core Weeklyish CORErespondence, and CS Core listserv. Please visit the QRG Campus Solutions Learning OpportunitiesRecordings for a list of previous recordings.
NEW! CS Core Refresher: Enrollment Appointments
Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, 8:30 – 10 a.m., Read more and join the session.
This session will include the following topics:
- Student Program Plan Discontinuation
- Batch Term Activation
- Enrollment Appointments
- Define Student Appointment Blocks
- Create the Enrollment Appointment Table
- Assign Enrollment Appointments in Batch
The term activation batch job runs more efficiently with fewer active program/plan stacks and fewer term-activated students' tuition calculations. Additionally, it prevents accidental term activations. Develop criteria for when a student must reapply to your institution and submit a ticket to discontinue ineligible students.
Next, we will walk through Batch Term Activation. Before enrolling, students must be term-activated; the local business process will determine the number of previous terms to include. Then, we will create Student Appointment Blocks using Student Groups and Cumulative Units. Student Blocks are One-Time Setups. Once you have set up your Student Appointment Blocks, you do not need to recreate them every term. After creating Student Appointment Blocks, we will set dates and times on the Appointment Table. Finally, we will assign appointments in Batch.
CS Core Work Sessions
Campus Solutions (CS) Core Work Sessions, open to ALL end users, are held the first Thursday of each month, from 1 to 3 p.m. The CS Functional Support team facilitates, alternating between functional team delivered content and college user delivered content with functional team support. Each meeting includes time for colleges to ask questions about other topics or service tickets.
Find details on the SBCTC Calendar and in the CS Core Weeklyish COREspondence (sent on Fridays to the CSSupport listserv).
Core Sessions: College System & SBCTC Calendar
Hodgepodge: A Treasury of Tiny Topics
Thursday, July 18, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session
So many topics deserve a spotlight but don’t quite merit an entire session by themselves. So, what to do? We are bundling them up for you in a Very Special Hodgepodge Session!
While we plan to cover some fundamentals, such as understanding effective-dating and best practices in testing, much of this session will be a speed-review of reminders and suggestions about fix-it processes like Synchronize Enrollment Totals and workarounds like Bypassing Clean Address.
Designed to prompt many “Ohhh, RIGHT!” responses and build your muscle memory, this session should be a fun one.
Modules: All
CS COREterly Open Q&A Sessions
- CS Core invites you to attend its quarterly Open Q&A sessions! While these sessions are for learning and problem-solving, we want to emphasize that these are also part of our efforts to support community building.
- Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session
- Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session
We want these sessions to provide an opportunity for college users to:
- Get assistance with any functionality they want to better understand or situation they are struggling to make work.
- Seek advice on anything they are trying to solve.
- Share best practices and lessons learned.
- Develop networks and build community.
To support the varied work areas of our users, each session will have a breakout room for each of the following modules:
- Records & Enrollment, which includes Student Program/Plan, Term Activation, Enrollment Appointments, Enrollment, Transfer-In Credit, Transcripts, Graduation and so on.
- Campus Community, which includes 3Cs, BioDemo, Service Indicators and so on.
- Curriculum Management, which includes class building, course catalog management, enrollment requirements and so on
Along with your colleagues who can share their real-life experiences and the solutions they have employed; CS Core team experts will be present in each room. We encourage you to submit your questions before the session (but doing so isn’t required). Enter your questions on the CS COREterly Question Submissions tab. Knowing your questions ahead of time just helps us to be prepared and allows us to help as many people as possible.
We hope you’ll join us even if you don’t have specific questions! We look forward to connecting with you and for you to connect with each other.
Questions? Contact CS Core Support.
Behind the Integration Broker (IB): Data Synchronization between HCM and CS Pillars
Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Read more and join the session
Seeking clarity about what data moves from HCM to Campus Solutions? And how? We hope to not only satisfy your curiosity but also make it easier for your Student Records and HR offices to stay in sync and achieve your intended outcomes.
This session will be an introduction to what Integration Broker (IB) is, how it works and what it does. We’ll discuss some of the basic consideration points and tips about managing biodemo data, particularly those nuances of being in a multi-pillar, global environment.
Questions? Contact CS Core Support.
FIN Learning Opportunities
ctcLink Accounting Team presents: FIN Daily Fiscal Year-end (FYE) Work Sessions
Join the SBCTC Business Operations ctcLink Accounting team for Fiscal Year-end 2023-2024 accounting support and guidance. Topics include FYE preparation, reconciliation, and processes.
These focused work sessions will run daily, Monday through Friday (except holidays), 10 to 11 a.m., July 1 through August 2, 2024.
Questions? See the contact information listed in the event calendar listings below.
FIN Work Session: Grants/Projects Q&A Drop-In Sessions
Every second Monday of the month at 11 a.m. join the ctcLink Finance Customer Support team for a collaborative, interactive and troubleshooting drop-in session on everything Grants/Projects.
Questions? See the contact information listed in the event calendar listings below.
Need help with setting up FY25 grants? Feel free to reach out to Michele Rockwell, MSML, ctcLink Finance Functional Analyst.
You are invited to drop in with any questions related to grants and projects at the open Q&A sessions.
| DATE/TIME | EVENT/TOPIC |
|---|---|
| Monday, Aug. 12, 11 a.m. | FIN Work Session: Grants/Projects Q&A Drop-In |
| Monday, Sept. 9, 11 a.m. | FIN Work Session: Grants/Projects Q&A Drop-In |
| Monday, Oct. 14, 11 a.m. | FIN Work Session: Grants/Projects Q&A Drop-In |
Finance (FSCM) College Users Production Support Meetings
Meetings are held every Tuesday, from 2 to 3 p.m.
These sessions are open to ALL Finance (FSCM) end users. The ctcLink Finance Customer Support team provides updates on Service Tickets, PeopleSoft enhancements, and open forum time to ask questions or request future topics.
| DATE/TIME | EVENT/TOPIC |
|---|---|
| Tuesday, July 23, 2 p.m. | FIN Work Session: FSCM Prod Support Meeting with DYK “did you know?” topic on Grants/Projects |
| Tuesday, July 30, 2 p.m. | FIN Work Session: FSCM Prod Support Meeting (DYK on CM/TR) |
| Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2 p.m. | FIN Work Session: FSCM Prod Support Meeting (DYK on GL) |
| Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2 p.m. | FIN Work Session: FSCM Prod Support Meeting |
| Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2 p.m. | FIN Work Session: FSCM Prod Support Meeting |
| Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2 p.m. | FIN Work Session: FSCM Prod Support Meeting |
Monthly Student Finance/General Ledger SF/GL Open Forum
Every second Wednesday, 2 to 3 p.m., the SBCTC Business Operations Accounting team invites you to bring your questions (and solutions) to share during this open forum meeting space for all things Student Finance/General Ledger (SF/GL) related.
There is no formal agenda as we welcome all questions about everything from item types and second journal sets to waivers, queries, or internal cash reconciliation.
See the SBCTC meetings and events calendar and look for ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting.
| DATE/TIME | EVENT/TOPIC |
|---|---|
| Wednesday, Aug 14, 2 p.m. | ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting |
| Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2 p.m. | ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting |
| Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2 p.m. | ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting |
Financial Aid Award Processing Update
Despite the late start this year, most colleges are on target with their financial aid awards as compared to last year. We have been reaching out to colleges and continue to offer our full support.
The ctcLink Financial Aid support team has delivered hands-on financial aid support sessions for colleges. Currently, colleges are requesting support by submitting service tickets.
Overall Numbers as of July 15
To date, all 34 colleges have loaded ISIRs in the ctcLink awarding environment and all summer header colleges have begun awarding aid in ctcLink production.
As of July 15, 9,258 students have been awarded for the summer term, and 8,225 students for the fall term of the 2024-2025 academic year.
By comparison, as of the same date last year, 8,286 students were awarded for the summer term, and 10,588 students were awarded for the fall term of the 2023-2024 academic year.
We are up 972 for summer awards year-to-date. While we are down by 2,363 for fall awards year-to-date, this is not unexpected given the intense focus on summer awarding activities.
WSAC Updates
SBCTC relies on the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) for certain state financial aid services and activities. We’ve been working with WSAC since mid-April regarding delivery of WASFA applications, and we are pleased to announce their third-party technical vendor, Regent, was able to deliver three important components recently.
Paul Francis and Grant Rodeheaver plan to meet with WSAC leadership to ensure these components are delivered as quickly as possible to help award aid to students.
Washington College Grant (WCG) and College Bound Scholarship (CBS) Eligibility Checker
Colleges use this tool to validate award amounts and maximum usage timeframes for the students awarded. Delivered: July 2, 2024
WASFA uploading capability
Conversations were underway since mid-April and on June 24, WSAC responded to our request to inform SBCTC of the necessary technical requirements for integration with ctcLink and we were able to implement the change. When colleges download WASFA ISIRs from the WSAC portal, Transaction Source and Type will now have populated values. Delivered: July 3, 2024
WCG formula and Federal Tax Information (FTI) tags
WSAC provided the correct formula and calculation elements to SBCTC in late June. Our technical developer updated the formula and marked the FTI components. While a couple of colleges were able to test this before release, the ctcLink support team will connect with the Financial Aid System Team (FAST) and Financial Aid Council (FAC) in the days ahead to ensure the formula is working as expected. Delivered: July 11, 2024
Enrollment Intensity FLF Process Updated
Instructions for a new process to manage Financial Aid Load Less than Fulltime (FLF) were delivered to the colleges yesterday, July 11, and the new queries went into production today.
FLF supports the authorization and disbursement process, preventing the disbursement of financial aid that exceeds the amount for which the student is eligible, based on enrollment intensity.
The process identifies students whose enrollment intensity at the time of awarding is different than the enrollment intensity at the time of authorization and disbursement. In addition, the process identifies students who need their awards adjusted from full-time to less-than-full-time.
Oracle PRP Release to Fix Bugs
Oracle delivered another PeopleSoft Release Patchset (PRP) last Thursday. The new code was loaded into the test environment and Financial Aid Support is working on it this week.
This patch corrects Social Security Administration (SSA) labels which are displaying as Social Security Number (SSN) for AY2025 and, it is hoped, will reduce manual work for the colleges.
Of course, there will continue to be adjustments from the Department of Education (ED) and requisite coding changes from Oracle, so this effort will be ongoing as FA Support receives further releases from Oracle.
Upcoming Learning Opportunities
Find the latest information, including notices of cancellation or schedule changes, on the ctcLink Training page or on the SBCTC meetings and events calendar (apply filters). Here are a few:
Loan Set-Up and 2024/2025 Loan Processing: Trailer Colleges
Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Read more and join the session
This hands-on workshop will walk Trailer college staff responsible for Direct Loan Origination and Outbounding through setting up the new AY loan run controls for to begin processing loans in the 2024-2025 Aid Year (AY). The Header college session was held June 25.
College Success Foundation Offering Free FAFSA Help to 2024 High School Graduates
The College Success Foundation (CSF) is offering free support this summer to 2024 high school graduates in Washington who need help completing their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and/or Washington Application for State Financial Aid (WASFA) forms.
CSF is hosting free, virtual one-on-one sessions through September for students to meet with CSF financial aid experts to complete their FAFSA/WASFA, review their financial aid award letter, or create an FSA ID. Sessions are available in English or Spanish.
CSF is especially interested in reaching students from the Class of 2024 in their mission population, who graduated from high school, intended to go to college, but have not yet completed the FAFSA.
SBCTC FAFSA Resources Webpage
Visit the 2024-25 FAFSA Resources web page for regularly updated information for college employees and includes updated FAQ templates including a Q&A center.
FAFSA Simplification Q&A center (for colleges)
Submit questions and ideas about FAFSA simplification efforts to the SBCTC FAFSA Response Team
FAFSA in the News
- Keep up with the latest news from the NASFAA FAFSA Simplification Web Center
FA Learning Opportunities
Loan Set Up for Schema 5.0b and 2024/2025 Loan Processing: Trailer Colleges
Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Read more and join the session
Audience: Trailer college Financial Aid staff responsible for Direct Loan Origination and Outbounding
By request, some colleges have expressed interest in a session to walk through setting up the new AY loan run controls for when you begin processing loans in the 2024-2025 Aid Year (AY).
This Financial Aid Session is a hands-on workshop to set up/adjust your Run Controls for the 2024-2025 AY in preparation for sending out your Direct Loan files for the Fall Term.
Agenda
- Updating/checking Loan Fee Set Up
- Updating/checking Loan Fee in Item Types Set Up
- Updating/checking the Loan Fee in Create Loan Types page
- Updating the Process Loans Run Control ID parameters to 2025 AY
- Break: 10:30 – 10:45 a.m.
- Updating the Odd Year (OY) Summer Include & Summer Exclude Run Control ID parameters to 2024/2025 dates and AY
- Updating the OY Process Loan Dates Run Control ID to 2025 AY
- Updating the Schema to 5.0b on the OY Generate Direct Loan Data page
- Updating and/or creating OY Run Control IDs for your Direct Loan Reports
This session will be recorded. There will be no presentation slide deck, as we will work hands-on in the production environment.
Financial Aid (FA) Work Sessions
Financial Aid (FA) Work Session meetings are on the fourth Thursdays, from 1 to 3 p.m.
The FA Functional Support team facilitates alternating between functional team delivered content and college user delivered content with the support of the FA functional team. The end of each meeting is open for colleges to ask questions about the topic presented. These sessions are open to ALL end users.
Find the latest information, including notices of cancellation or schedule changes, on the ctcLink Training page or on the SBCTC meetings and events calendar (apply filters).
HCM Learning Opportunities
HCM Work Session Meetings
Human Capital Management (HCM) meetings are held every other Wednesday, from 1 to 3 p.m. The HCM Functional team along with the training team offers Work Sessions and Training Sessions around the different functionality in HCM.
- Wednesday, July 24, 1-3 p.m., HCM Work Session: Automated Step Increment Process
Behind the Integration Broker (IB): Data Synchronization between HCM and CS Pillars
Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Read more and join the session
Seeking clarity about what data moves from HCM to Campus Solutions? And how? We hope to not only satisfy your curiosity but also make it easier for your Student Records and HR offices to stay in sync and achieve your intended outcomes.
This session will be an introduction to what Integration Broker (IB) is, how it works and what it does. We’ll discuss some of the basic consideration points and tips about managing biodemo data, particularly those nuances of being in a multi-pillar, global environment.
Questions? Contact CS Core Support.
SF Learning Opportunities
Please feel free to reach out to SFSupport@sbctc.edu if you have any questions or need further clarification.
Work Session: SF Smörgåsbord
Monday, July 29, 2 to 4 p.m., Learn more and join the session
We’re serving up a delightful spread of tiny topics. Here’s what’s on the menu: tuition group override functionality, tips on mass assigning/releasing service indicators, the ticketing system, browser organization, and a top 10 list of hidden gems. Join us for some tasty SF morsels!
Monthly Student Finance/General Ledger SF/GL Open Forum
Every second Wednesday, 2 to 3 p.m., the SBCTC Business Operations Accounting team invites you to bring your questions (and solutions) to share during this open forum meeting space for all things Student Finance/General Ledger (SF/GL) related.
There is no formal agenda as we welcome all questions about everything from item types and second journal sets to waivers, queries, or internal cash reconciliation.
See the SBCTC meetings and events calendar and look for ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting.
| DATE/TIME | EVENT/TOPIC |
|---|---|
| Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2 p.m. | ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting |
| Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2 p.m. | ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting |
| Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2 p.m. | ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting |
SF Year in Review
As we reach the end of another remarkable year, the Student Financials team wanted to take a moment to celebrate its collective achievements. Throughout the past 12 months, they tackled ambitious projects, overcame challenges, and hit significant milestones in ctcLink. Each effort has contributed to our growth and success as a system.
Milestones and Projects
2023-24 brought many new changes/updates to the SF module. Thank you to all that participated in any testing or requirements gathering to help us improve some of the daily processes. Below are some of the major projects we worked on together.
1098-T Improvements
With help from the prior year’s working group, we rolled out a new electronic consent communication, updates to the training, improvements to queries, and overall, less stress. We are already gearing up for incorporating the lessons learned and feedback from the survey into this year’s training and the current year’s working group.
Item Type Updates
We are continuing to clean up Item Types systemwide. Between updating funds (840 to 790) to adding Keywords to basic GL review to find any missing/mismatched values, we have made many improvements to ensure Item Types are working properly in ctcLink. We’ve also rolled out a few new versions of the item type spreadsheet to help streamline the process for everyone to ensure item type creation/updates are done in a timely manner. Item Type security was also a big lift to help end users have the right access to item types on certain pages.
Second Journal Set Redesign & Automation
Big sigh of relief with this one. This enhancement has been in the works since 2019. Having a daily journal created along with seeing activities linked to project values has been an enormous lift to reconciliation.
24-25 Tuition Term Fee updates
With Legislation approving tuition rates in October, we can connect with everyone before the next academic year’s enrollment begins to ensure those tuition rates are updated.
Instruction Mode changes
We helped the Data & Reporting Enhancement Request (E260) which provided new instruction mode options to course/class fees. Colleges had a mountain of updates to take care of and did so with grace. Well done, all, to accommodate this need!
Running Start
Several functional updates to this amazing program, such as to “allow colleges to code all Running Start students as residents until a permanent fix in statute can happen during the 2025 legislative session.” We updated each college's tuition group in ctcLink by removing the non-resident fees. This modification ensures the resident rate is now automatically applied to any student coded as SRSR or SRSL. We also included the ability to select “Grade 10” on the custom page.
Apprenticeship redesign
Wow! Over 200 apprentice programs are now being offered by the community and technical college system. Renton Technical College and our colleagues at the Community Colleges of Spokane worked tirelessly with us to ensure proper programmatic management. We are working to bring this vital program onto a more efficient and global platform for processing in ctcLink and look forward to sharing the results very soon.
Alt loan cleanup
The SF Team worked with all colleges to review, reconcile, and clean up this program. We trained to make this task a global process for disbursement on this type of aid. Major kudos to all for giving this item a much-needed review and revamp.
Academic info link updates (ER 224)
Have you noticed the improvement on the Academic Information link via the View Customer Accounts page yet? The information contained within the Academic Information link will be displayed by term in descending order, include the institution field, and only display data relating to your SACR Business Unit Security.
SF Reminder Topics
Term Transfer
Kudos to South Puget Sound Community College (specifically Sophia, Victoria and Amy Y) for their due diligence with various scenarios to help us improve the process. If you are interested in using term transfer when paying current year balances with Financial Aid, please log a ticket with SF Support.
Collections review
Ready to start reviewing student accounts and sending past due letters out? Submit a ticket! We also have some new items to chat about like a Due Date Update process to more accurately reflect due dates on certain charges. We also rolled out a single write-off item type.
Select Charges To Pay + PAYNOFUT CPL
Don’t forget about the select charges to pay hyperlinks with student and corporate accounts. Both help target specific charges and limit payment swapping.
Third Party Contracts
When assigning nodes, please remember to use the smallest inclusive node possible, such as CLASS_FEE_STATE_FUNDED or CLASS_FEES, instead of ALL_CHARGES.
We recommend never using ALL, ALL_CHARGES, or any Refund, Collections, Payments/Financial Aid credit nodes as these can produce undesired results. Still have questions, log a ticket with our training team.
New charge priority list (CPL) Spreadsheet
We’ve made some improvements to help us evaluate charge priority lists (CPLs) as a system, including some new spreadsheets to identify what is included in a CPL and how a change may impact certain item types.
College-specific visits and ticket sessions
Thank you to all the colleges that have welcomed us on campus and/or joined us for a ticket review session. If your college is interested in connecting with our team for a ticket review, email us at SFSupport@sbctc.edu.
- Highline College June 2023 campus visit
- South Puget Sound Community College August (campus) & October 2023 (Webex)
- Community Colleges of Spokane, October 2023
- Lake Washington Technical College, October & November 2023
- Peninsula College, November 2023
- Renton Technical College, January 2024
- Pierce College, April 2024
- Everett Community College, May 2024
- Walla Walla Community College, June 2024
PCD Refresh and Your Queries: Get Ready!
The PCD (Production College Development) environment will be refreshed from PRD on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Beginning Friday, Aug. 2, at noon, PCD will not be available for query development until after the PCD is refreshed.
What you need to do
Make sure any PCD queries you want to keep begin with the prefix DEV_ unless you have submitted a ticket requesting backup of queries that will be used for BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, or nVision reports.
Standard Queries
Any queries in PCD that do not begin with DEV_ will be deleted.
- This applies to all standard Public and Private queries. SBCTC will perform a query backup for in-progress queries (private and public) that meet the DEV_ naming convention.
- This backup will NOT be done by folder. This means if a query is in the DEVELOPMENT folder but doesn’t begin with DEV_ it will be overwritten and lost.
BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, and nVision Queries
Any query used in a BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, or nVision report DOES NOT have to follow the DEV_ protocol as it is very time-consuming to change them back when they are ready to migrate.
Instead, please submit a Service Desk ticket under Data Services – Reporting – Other with the title “PCD Refresh Backup Request.” Provide the name of the query being developed for use in one of the advanced reporting tools in the request. These queries will be individually backed up on an as-needed basis.
What to expect
- The queries in the backup will be imported back to PCD after the refresh is complete and a notice is received from Application Services.
- Data Services will send a message to you once our work is complete.
- Please do not log back into PCD after Friday, March 1, at noon but wait until you receive a notification from Data Services.
- Queries that do not follow these naming conventions will be lost
Naming convention for queries
- Being developed in PCD: MUST begin with the prefix DEV_
- Used for training in PCD: MUST begin with QXX_TRAIN
- Being developed for use in BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, or nVision reports in PCD: MUST begin with the appropriate convention based on the reporting tool being used. Do not follow the DEV_ convention. Request must be sent to Data Services via Service Desk ticket.
Why you need to do it
Queries that do not follow this convention will not be backed up and will be lost.
Contact Emily Mullins, Reporting and BI Solutions Analyst for ctcLink, if you have any questions.
Query Developer Learning Opportunities
Instructor-Led Query Development Training
The ctcLink Training Calendar has been updated with next quarter’s instructor led query development training schedule. Have a look at their fresh offerings.
Step Up your Query Game
Learn more about the Designated Query Developer Training series and start your journey to becoming your college’s very own query guru! Or query wizard, if you prefer. Or maestro. Maybe a goddess, crackerjack, wizard, or maven. It’s up to you!
Upcoming courses include:
July 30, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 201 Intermediate - Part 1
July 31, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 201 Intermediate - Part 2
Aug 21, 8:45 a.m., PS Query Training 102 - Query Security
Sep 10, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 301 Advanced - Part 1
Sep 11, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 301 Advanced - Part 2
Sep 24, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 401 Expert- Part 1
Sep 25, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 401 Expert- Part 2
Plan ahead for 2024
The ctcLink Training Calendar has been updated with 2024 instructor-led query-related training. To clear filter settings, select None. Then select ctcLink Learning Opportunities > Reporting Training.
How to for Query Developer Courses
The process to enroll in Query Developer Canvas courses has been streamlined. Now, instead of emailing Data Services, simply:
- Visit the ctcLink Training Registrationpage,
- Select the class(es) from the Designated Query Developer Training section,
- Follow the sign-up process.
More for PeopleSoft Query Developers
Find more ctcLink PeopleSoft Query Development resources including forms, documentation, and tools at the ctcLink PeopleSoft Reporting web page.
Meat and Potatoes … and Magic
You may never meet them directly, but the Application Services team “keeps the lights on” for Washington’s community and technical colleges 24/7 by supporting ctcLink pillars, systemwide IT applications, and managing the network data load behind-the-scenes.
Campus Solutions
Application Services updated the SQL script to lock fraudulent accounts in the Distributed user profile tab in the CS pillar. This means accounts flagged as fraudulent will no longer be able to log in to ctcLink.
Finance
- Implemented an Asset data fix that will reset the depreciated assets, so corrupted assets can be retired.
- Updated travel authorizations to allow cancelation. This will allow users to clear encumbrances.
ctcLink Security Activities Roundup
Completed
The Local Security Administrator Recertification process was performed so SBCTC and the colleges remain audit compliant.
In progress
- The systemwide Security Role Cleanup effort to make sure the right people have the right access is 98% complete.
- Lots of work is underway as the SBCTC ctcLink Security team gets ready for the next HCM and CS Image updates.
- Work to develop finance data masking requirements awaits response from auditors.
SASI College Advisory Group
The Security Administration System Improvement (SASI) College Advisory Group continues its work on complex employee onboarding and offboarding processes around security access for employees transferring to another college or working at more than one college.
See the Security Administration System Improvement [SASI] Project Information Guide for more information.
Accessibility Highlights
- We reported some minor accessibility issues to Kastech about the OAAP Okta integration and they resolved them.
- Okta End User Account Settings is still going through a redesign and needs to be completed by the end of the year. Progress had stalled but is picking back up again.
- Okta is still working with vendor, Deque, on accessibility audits.
- Requested replication steps and details for accessibility bugs in HCM 49.
ctcLink Accessibility Monthly Open Forum
Join us! The ctcLink Accessibility monthly forums engage Washington's community and technical college system in discussions around ctcLink accessibility and technology. We aim to improve communication and transparency while providing space for productive and solution-focused dialog. Our main objective is to deliver accessible technology for all our students, staff, and the larger community.
Meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month, 11 a.m. to noon.
The next ctcLink Accessibility Open Forum will be Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, at 11 a.m. All are welcome to attend via Zoom.
