Administrative Users 11/2017

Administrative Users 11/2017 1

Table of Contents... 2 General Information... 3-4 New Features and Functions... 5-6 Passwords, Usernames and Duplicate Accounts... 7-9 Admin Functions Menu and Account Management... 10-11 Bridge Functionality and Transcripts... 12-13 Frequent asked questions for High School Administrators.14-15 Post-Secondary and Training/Preparation... 16 Edit College Feature Overview... 17 2

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR GAFUTURES.ORG LAUNCH What is the name of the new website? GAfutures.org - The website should be referred to as GAfutures with the letters G and A pronounced as letters not as Georgia. GAfutures will replace GAcollege411. When is GAfutures going to launch? GAfutures is currently scheduled to launch July 26, 2016. What type of browser should be utilized in accessing the GAfutures.org website? Mainly your common browser options from Microsoft, Google, Firefox, and Apple are compatible. Attempting to access GAfutures through other browsers may cause compatibility issues. When using a shared computer make sure you log completely out of your account before closing the browser. Will student account information transfer to GAfutures? Student profiles from GAcollege411 (active within the last two years, with the exception of users under the age of 13 at the time of data migration) will automatically transfer to GAfutures. Most users will be able to sign in with their existing GAcollege411 account credentials, some users, however, have a username that contains prohibited special characters and will have to modify their username before signing in the first time No worries, a handy FAQ will be available to make this a snap. Please be advised that non-profile information will not transfer to the new site. Will my STARS/SURFER account information transfer to GAfutures? Yes, you will be able to sign into GAfutures using your STARS/SURFER information and through the Admin functions menu, you will be able to gain access to STARS/SURFER. You can also access STARS/SURFER through the Administrative Section located on the home page of GAfutures. If a student had multiple accounts will all their information migrate to GAfutures.org? Student profiles will migrate. If a student has multiple accounts, he/she needs to sign in with the account that contains their most current information. If they cannot remember their sign in information, the student can use the easy Forgot Username and Forgot Password functionality on the site. Will the services provided on GAfutures be free like on GAcollege411.org? Yes. GAfutures and all of the services it provides will be free. There will be tools for career exploration, planning and applying to college, and increased information on how to pay for college available to users. Will GAfutures be more user-friendly in terms of content and navigation? GAfutures content will be more consistent and at an appropriate reading level. GAfutures navigation is more streamlined and intuitive to aid in the user experience. 3

How is designated staff defined and access set up in GAfutures for each school? Designated staff includes anyone with approved access to certain areas of information on GAfutures. Designated staff can include: K-12 Administrators District Administrator Set up by GSFC. The District user will have access to all system users and students for all schools within their district. Institution Administrator (e.g. the top administrator at a given school) may be set up by the District Administrator or GSFC. Institution User (counselors, teachers) are typically set up by the Institution Administrator at a given school. Post-Secondary Administrators Institution Administrator (e.g. financial aid directors, admission directors) may be set up by a GSFC Administrator. Institution User (academic affairs, student affairs) are typically set up by the Institution Administrator at a given school. 4

NEW FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS What are some of the new features and functions available on GAfutures? GAfutures has a fresh new look with a more engaging, user-friendly experience. GAfutures is well-organized and allows users to find relevant, up-to-date information quickly and easily. The Create an Account process has been streamlined with a more user-friendly design. The five screen process from GAcollege411 has been condensed to one screen and has less required information making account creation quicker, easier and faster. New single sign on capabilities allow authorized users to sign in to GAfutures only once and automatically have access to other systems including STARS and SURFER. No need for separate usernames and passwords. Usernames can be retrieved and passwords reset by the individual user in real time using the new Forgot Username and/or Forgot Password functions. Users can now provide a secondary email address to retrieve their username and/or reset their password. Security questions are unique to different age groups to make them easier for users to remember. New account sharing function allows parents and legal guardians to view their student s account. It is easy and secure. GAfutures search function is more advanced, easier to use, and is powered by Google. In addition to the advanced search functions, an easy-to-use Site Map will be available. It will aid as another option to help users navigate the website and find specific information. GAfutures content is professionally written for its respective audiences, search engine optimized and meets required state and national education standards. For designated staff, the Admin Functions Menu replaces the Professional Center and is the centralized location for access to other systems (STARS, SURFER) and messages. For students and other site users, My GAfutures is the centralized location for messages and managing their account profile. My Transcript allows high school students to request their transcripts be sent to designated postsecondary institutions. For designated staff, an easier transcript exchange process is now located in STARS and SURFER. 5

With the launch of GAfutures, GSFC has expanded the transcript calculation cycles for the HOPE GPA. There will now be two cycles per day instead of one. Can two or more accounts share the same email address? Yes. The username must be unique, but the email address does not have to be unique. It is common for parents to use their own email address for their account as well as for the account of their younger children. 6

PASSWORDS, USERNAMES, AND DUPLICATE ACCOUNTS What if a student forgets their username and/or password? For convenience, GAfutures has a Forgot Username and a Forgot Password function on the sign in page. Passwords can be reset by one of the following methods: Use Forgot Password Help Feature Answering previously chosen security questions Contacting designated staff (counselors and teachers) an email with login assistance will be emailed to the email designated in student s profile. Contacting GSFC Usernames can be retrieved by one of the following methods: Use Forgot Username Help Feature Contact a designated staff member with an administrative account (counselors, teachers) look-up student username Contacting GSFC The Forgot your username and Forgot your password functions should significantly reduce the number of duplicate accounts created. Will designated staff be able to retrieve and/or reset student username and passwords on GAfutures? With GAfutures, designated staff (counselors, teachers) will be able to: Retrieve individual usernames for users associated with their school Initiate Password Reset for users associated with their school email with temporary password will be sent to student through email in GAfutures Profile. Note: For security reasons, viewing, retrieving, or printing existing passwords is prohibited. Will designated staff have the ability to mass reset passwords? No. for security reasons, only students, authorized users (parents, legal guardians) and designated staff have the ability to reset individual passwords. On GAfutures, will designated staff (counselors, teachers) have the ability to look up student accounts to help prevent creating duplicate accounts? Yes. Depending on the level of access, certain users can look up students on the school level, district level, or system-wide. Designated staff (counselors, teachers) can look up any student at their school. 7

District administrators can look up any student in their district. Designated staff can help students retrieve their own username and/or reset their own password through the Forgot Username and Forgot Password functions regardless of the school. GSFC can look up any student anywhere. This wide variety of options should also significantly reduce the number of duplicate accounts created. If a duplicate account is created, what can a designated staff member do so the duplicate account(s) do not reflect in their reports? Designated staff can opt to hide specified accounts so they are not reflected in GAfutures reporting. The hide feature is available in the Admin menu (Edit/Account Management). What accounts are migrated to GAfutures? Only accounts active within the last two years of launch (July 26,2016) will be uploaded into the GAfutures database; Note: Administrative Accounts will be initially migrated with Admin Functions Menu access if user has STARS/SURFER access prior to the launch of GAfutures. For security reasons users 13 and under at the time of migration account profiles were not transferred over to GAfutures. Resolving conflicts with existing user names when uploading accounts from GSFC and XAP: STARS/SURFER accounts have priority over XAP accounts. If conflicts are detected, XAP user names will be altered. Special character replacement algorithm for user names in imported accounts. Only the characters below will be replaced in the user names: Special Character Replacement 1a Single quote ; 2b Semicolon, 3c Comma & 4d Ampersand " 5e Double quotes ` 6f Apostrophe - 7g Dash (space) 8h / 9i Slash \ 0j Back Slash 8

* Special character replacement in user names may result in conflicts with other user names. The strategy to handle user name conflicts will be defined in the data testing cycle 2. Resolving conflicts with existing user names after replacing special characters: After performing special character replacement, if another user account already exists with same user name, the user name being updated/loaded will be changed to: New User Name + _ (underline) + First Letter of User s First Name in lowercase. In very few cases, a _1 will be added to the new user name along with _ + first letter of first name. If this happens, it means the same account exists in all 3 account sources. o Example: John Doe has an account with the username gafutures. This username could be updated to gautures_j if a duplicate exists. Special character replacements/removal for other user account fields: In order to prepare for the launch of GAfutures, current users can help prepare their accounts to ensure profile information is migrated correctly. User Phone Number: Remove dashes, parentheses, and spaces; Remove X for extension, and extension number. Keep only phone number; If phone number field has more than 1 number separated by comma, remove dashes, parentheses, spaces, and comma. Keep only first phone number in the list. If phone number starts with 1 keep 1 in the phone number after special character clean up. Date of Birth: Enforce format MM/DD/YYYY when possible. State/Province, and Country: If record has valid state 2-letter code then find corresponding ID in normalized State/Province and Countries table. If not, leave it blank. 9

ADMIN FUNCTIONS MENU AND ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT Will there be a Professional Center in GAfutures? No, instead there will be an Administrator Center where designated staff will manage access for school administrators and those who need access to STARS/SURFER (Transcript Exchange will be a part of STARS/SURFER). Teachers can still use GAfutures in the classroom but will not have access to student accounts or profiles (including password reset functionality). Students will be responsible for their username and passwords and will be able to reset or retrieve their credentials as with other websites. Will designated staff be able to print a list of students from GAfutures? Yes. In the Admin Functions Menu, designated staff will be able to print lists of students with accounts on GAfutures. How can student account information be retrieved for a student at my school? Within GAfutures, there are several ways to look up student information. Designated staff (counselors, assigned teachers) can look up any student at their school. District administrators can look up any student in their district. Designated staff can help students retrieve their own username and/or reset their own password via the Forgot your username and Forgot your password functions regardless of school. GSFC can look up any student. Will designated staff (counselors, teachers) be able to see students new to their school that may have created an account somewhere else? If the student s account has not yet been updated to reflect the new school: Designated staff (counselors, teachers) from the previous school can look up any student at their school. District administrators associated with previous school can look up any student in their district. Designated staff can help students retrieve their own username and/or reset their own password via the Forgot Username and Forgot Password functions regardless of school. GSFC can look up any student anywhere. If the student s account has already been updated to show the new school: Designated staff (counselors, teachers) from the new school can look up any student at their school. District administrators associated with the new school can look up any student in their district. 10

Designated staff can help students retrieve their own username and/or reset their own password via the Forgot Username and Forgot Password functions regardless of school. GSFC can look up any student anywhere. If a student is associated with a school, but no longer attends that school, and the designated staff does not know what school the student now attends, can that student be removed or deleted from the original school? No. The student s record cannot be deleted but designated staff can hide any student from reports or groups without associating them with another school. By hiding the student s account, the student s information (saved activities) will not reflect in the school s reporting. 11

BRIDGE FUNCTIONALITY AND TRANSCRIPTS Will my students be able to complete BRIDGE activities on GAfutures? No, students will not complete Bridge activities through GAfutures. Both GSFC and the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) have decided that BRIDGE and CCRPI requirements are best suited to be maintained by the GaDOE. This will allow GSFC and GAfutures to be more focused on our mission of helping all Georgians access higher education through the financial aid programs we administer and the educational services we provide. Further, GaDOE has the systems and resources to provide schools with single-system access and more up-to-date course lists, career clusters and pathways. DOE is in the process of developing a transition plan for the 2016-2017 school year and will share that information in the coming month. Message from GaDOE regarding BRIDGE and CCRPI Requirements for 2016-2017 The GaDOE has established a task force of counselors and GAcollege411 users around the state to work on a plan to complete BRIDGE Bill requirements as well as CCRPI indicator requirements for the upcoming 2016-17 school year. This plan will be both short term for next year as well as some long term planning. The summer workshops for counselors will be held on May 31 through June 2 counselors can register through the CTAE Resource Network or at the following link: http://goo.gl/forms/nwxed39qal During these workshops, the plan will be discussed in more detail and counselors will have the opportunity to ask questions in order to plan accordingly for next year. Who do I contact at DOE with questions or concerns? Dr. Myrel Seigler at mseigler@doe.k12.ga.us or Maria Grovner at mgrovner@doe.k12.ga.us are the contacts at DOE. Will a student who has had a portfolio on GACollege411 for a few years still have access to his/her portfolio information on GAfutures? Once GAfutures launches, portfolio information from activities on GAcollege411 will no longer be accessible. If schools would like to retain any portfolio information or results, they will need to do this prior to the launch of GAfutures. Once GAfutures launches, portfolio information on GAcollege411 will no longer be accessible. My students have completed tasks on GAcollege411. Will this roll over to GAfutures? No, Activities completed on GAcollege411 will not be retained. We encourage you to print any and all information you want retained before GAfutures is launched this summer. Examples of what you might want to print: 12

Assessment Results College Interests Career Interests Plan of Study Anything else stored in GAcollege411 portfolios or the Professional Center that might help you or your students in guidance activities. How will I complete the requirements of the BRIDGE Law? DOE will be communicating any and all expectations in regards to the BRIDGE Law for the 2016-2017 school year and beyond. Will XAP continue to handle transcripts? Transcripts will no longer be processed by XAP. With the launch of GAfutures, GSFC will manage all aspects of transcripts processing. Currently, transcripts are uploaded from the high school to XAP. GSFC then downloads the transcripts from XAP daily to be used for HOPE GPA calculations. GSFC then completes the calculation and provides reports to the high schools for their verification. When GAfutures launches, the high schools will upload their transcripts directly to GSFC through STARS which will eliminate XAP entirely. This process change, once GAfutures launches, will allow GSFC to process transcripts more than once per day. Will XAP continue to process applications? Yes, this process is not changing. Students will be able to apply to college through GAfutures and colleges will continue to access applications through XAP in the Control Center. 13

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR HIGH SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS How do I find documents that will assist me with the Transcript Exchange Process? STARS>Documentation>Quick Guides GAfutures>Resources>GAfutures Training/FAQs/Quick Guides>Quick Guides - Administrators What are the due dates for the HOPE GPA calculation? Preliminary Reporting and Verification is due on February 15 Final Reporting and Verification is due on June 30 Underclass Reporting is at least once a year by June 30 What happens if I do not verify my student s final HOPE GPA calculation? The student and the Postsecondary Institution will not be able to access the student s HOPE GPA What are the three essential fields that have to be included in all transcripts for the Final HOPE GPA Calculation? Enrollment Status code of G for graduated Valid Graduation Date Has to be today or in the past Valid Diploma Type C - (College Prep) or G - (General) Will the HOPE calculation be performed even if a high school senior does not meet the rigor requirements? Rigor requirements must be met In order to be considered for the HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarship therefore, the HOPE GPA calculation will not be performed. Please visit the HOPE & State Aid Programs tab for eligibility requirements. How do I receive access to STARS/SURFER? For District Admin access, contact us @ TREX@GSFC.ORG For Institution Admin access, contact your District Admin ( High School officials only) For Institution Admin access, contact us @ GaryM@GSFC.ORG (Postsecondary only) If you are an Institution Admin and your school does not have a District Admin, contact us at TREX@GSFC.ORG For Institution User access, contact your Institution Admin or District Admin 14

Who is my District Admin? Who is my Institution Admin? In most cases the District Admin is the head/lead counselor of your district and the Institution Admin is the head counselor or senior counselor for your school. If you are still having trouble locating your admin, please use one of the following methods. Contact your Outreach Representative Submit a GAfutures Help request How is designated staff defined and access set up in GAfutures for each school? Designated staff includes anyone with approved access to certain areas of information on GAfutures. Designated staff can include: District Administrator Set up by GSFC. The District user will have access to all system users and students for all schools within their district. Institution Administrator (e.g. the top administrator at a given school) may be set up by the District Administrator or GSFC. Institution User (counselors, teachers) are typically set up by the Institution Administrator at a given school. 15

POSTSECONDARY AND TRAINING/PREPARATION Will students still be able to access college applications through GAfutures? Yes. If a postsecondary institution currently has a link to their admissions application on GAcollege411.org, students will be able to access that college application through GAfutures. Colleges will access and download their applications through the same process in the Control Center. How will transcripts be received at colleges for admissions purposes? With Transcript Exchange being handled solely by the Georgia Student Finance Commission, transcripts can be retrieved and downloaded in SURFER. The Control Center will only be used to download applications for your school. Are there any privacy restrictions for postsecondary institutions whose students are largely adults and over 18? Yes. Postsecondary institution staff cannot look up any accounts (other than their own) as these users, in general, are legally adults. What can my school do to prepare for the transition from GAcollege411.org to GAfutures.org? Schools and students can best prepare for the transition to GAfutures.org by updating profile information on GAcollege411.org prior to the migration of the data. The more information in the user profile prior to the transition, the easier it will be to retrieve and initiate user accounts on the new site. Will there be training resources available for GAfutures? Resources will be available on GAfutures (within the Resources Tab) to aid users in different tasks on the new site. There is a Help feature throughout the site to assist users and questions can always be sent to GAfutures@gsfc.org. How can customers receive more information or submit questions regarding GAfutures? Questions about the website and requests to be added to the GAfutures email list to receive updates about the new site can be submitted to GAfutures@gsfc.org. 16

Edit College Feature Overview Overview Participating Georgia colleges and universities have the ability to update certain areas of their College Search profile. Postsecondary Institution Administrators can grant permissions for their Institution Users to update school information in the GAfutures College Search database. Users can access the editable information through the GAfutures Admin Functions menu. College Search Annual Update College Search information on GAfutures is compiled by Wintergreen Orchard House (WG/OH) and updated annually, usually September 15. The update will override any information previously edited by institutions so please review your institution s updated information for accuracy. In order to correct your institution s record in the WG/OH database. Please submit any changes via email to Colene Glennon at cglennon@carnegiecomm.com using the following format: Subject line: GAfutures College Search (School Name) In the body of the email: (The information you would like to update). 17

Obtaining Access to the Edit College Feature The Edit College feature is accessed through the Admin Functions menu located in My GAfutures. Postsecondary Institution Admins have access to the Edit College feature and the ability to grant access to Institution Users at their school if necessary. For step-by-step instructions on how to add/edit or review administrative rights, review the Updating and Assigning Administrative Rights Quick Guide on GAfutures. Using the Edit College Feature on GAfutures Sign in to My GAfutures. Select Edit College located in the Admin Function menu, to the right side of the screen. The Edit College feature will display below the menu. Using the green menu bar, select the area to be updated and edit the information. In addition to using the Edit College feature on GAfutures, please remember to submit your changes by email to Wintergreen Orchard House directly at cglennon@carnegiecomm.com in order to keep your institutions record update to date within the Wintergreen Orchard House database. Please submit your emails using the same format to submit changes. 18

EDIT COLLEGE SEARCH FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS How does GAfutures collect data for the College Search? Wintergreen Orchard House (WG/OH) is the third party data source GSFC uses for the College and Scholarship search engine. How does Wintergreen Orchard House (WG/OH) collect their data? WOH collects its data from participating colleges by survey via mail or web. Mail in surveys are sent to colleges and universities during the months of January April. If there is no response, a second attempt is made via web survey. How often is the information in the College Search updated? GSFC receives one data transmission from WG/OH once per calendar year. GSFC usually will refresh all data in the College Search September 15; if this date falls on a weekend, the data refresh will take place the following Monday. How can Admins update fields that cannot be edited using the Edit College feature? Schools can submit the information to be updated to Wintergreen Orchard House directly at cglennon@carnegiecomm.com. 19