Low Fidelity Interface Mockups for Financial Aid Status and Requirements

From Pipeline "Financial Aid Status" Link, this window would pop up prompting the user for information. 

This is what would show if the user selected "Yes" or if they selected "Not sure" the system would check to see whether or not they did complete the FAFSA and display what we have so far in the system regarding their financial aid package. The button on the bottom would be to check for Requirements after viewing what was offered to them. 

This is where the "View Financial Aid Requirements" button takes the user to and lists out all "Unsatisfied Requirements" needed for submission to the Financial Aid Office.

Interview Plan: Financial Aid Status

My experience at the financial aid office has often made me the receiver for queries regarding a student's financial aid package, loans, status, etc., and so what follows is my interview plan for the Financial Aid Office on what determines everything that goes on behind the scenes. The date and time along with the participants are yet to be announced as an interview hasn't been set up yet. The location is at HPU's Financial Aid Office.

Setting
Objective of Interview
 - Figure out what determines a student's financial aid award package

Date,Time, and Location
 - HPU's Office of Financial Aid, Time and Date (TBA)

User Participants (names and titles/positions)
 - TBA

Project Team Participants
 - Estefania Duterte

Interview/Discussion

1. What are the steps needed to receive financial aid at HPU?
2. How do you know if that student is eligible for financial aid?
3. How do you know if a student is eligible for the Pell Grant?
4. What determines the amount of the award package they receive?
5. When does the aid received in the award package pay out?
6. What if their aid doesn't get paid out?
7. Does every student receive the same amount in financial aid?
8. If a student drops a course, will it affect their financial aid?
9. What if their status changes from a full-time student to part-time?
10. What if they drop all their courses after their aid has paid out?
11. How do you determine a student's financial aid status?
12. If a student accepts their loan awards, do they need to do anything else?

13. Who receives financial aid?

14. How do you determine what documents need to be turned in?
15. Does the process differ between undergraduates, graduates, and military students?
16. What if a student wanted to make changes to the amount of the award they accepted?

Follow-Up

Important decisions or answers to questions
 - What students provide to the Financial Aid Office through FAFSA determines what a student receives in their award package and also determines what kind of documents must be turned in for verification.

Open items not resolved with assignments for solution
 - TBA

Date and time of next meeting or follow-up session
 - TBA

Initial Contact with HPU Financial Aid Office

So, in regards to my brainstorming ideas that I'd posted earlier in my previous blogs about an appointment scheduler for the financial aid counselors and a system that helps students view their financial aid status, here's a recollection of the discussion we had a few days back.

The Financial Aid Office knows that I am a Computer Science major at the school so they may be willing to help me out with this project as much as I am willing to give back to those that have hosted me for the past two years.

I brought up these ideas with them in person to several of the staff members, including the counselors and the Associate Director to ask their opinion of it and they somewhat gave feedback on them. The conversation went something like this:

*Names will be withheld throughout dialogue. I don't remember exactly what was said during that conversation since it's been about days since we discussed it, so this is just what I think I remember was said*

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Me: "Hey (Customer Rep #1), do you think the counselors need an appointment scheduler? Like something similar to the Academic Advising Office?"

Customer Rep #1: "Yeah, definitely! I mean, that would help us out a lot! We should set something up like that... let's ask the Associate Director."

*Walk over to Associate Director's office who's currently speaking with one of the counselors*

Me: "Hey (Associate Director), so I have this idea for an appointment scheduler for the counselors, do you think we'd need it? I'm currently taking a Systems Analysis course and right now we're trying to come up with potential projects for the semester, what do you think?"

Ass. Director: "Oh wow, how cool! I think that's a great idea!"

Counselor #1: "Yeah, that sounds awesome! That could be like your senior project."

Me: "Yeah, haha, but I'll worry about that next semester. The reason I thought of this was because I realized that students continue to make appointments with the counselors through the phones and by email so I was wondering if an appointment scheduler would help."

Ass. Director: "I see.. well, we'll just have to bring that up with the Director."

Me: "Oh, okay. Another idea I had in mind was setting something up where the students would be able to view their financial aid status regarding what needs to be turned in and whatnot because we all know we get students coming in here or calling non-stop asking about the status of their docs and stuff, and I was wondering if we could do something about that."

Ass. Director: "What did you have in mind?"

Me: "I was thinking something like a poll/questionnaire kind of thing where it asks certain questions like 'Were you born before 1990? Are you in the military? Are you currently an undergraduate or graduate?' and all that. In that way, it'll return a list of required documents that students may need to fill out and submit to us. Because as far as I know, we only see the required documents on our end and though we send out email notifications to the students, some of them say that they either don't check their pipeline emails or don't get the emails at all."

Ass. Director: "That sounds like an excellent idea. I don't know how you'd be able to do that though."

Me: "Well, I saw on pipeline that there is already a Financial Aid Status tab under Quick Links but I don't think it's very efficient in helping us with the workload and the students don't seem to know what to do with it because before you can actually view your requirements, it takes you all over the place - at least that's what it seems like. So, I'm not sure whether or not what I'm suggesting is an update for that or something exclusively for our office alone."

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*Then Customer Rep #1 suggests that we take that up with the Director and see if we could try to work something out with the IT Department regarding pipeline. In case you're wondering where Customer Rep #1 came from, he along with Counselor #1 and myself were all in the Associate Director's Office the entire time.* 

Stakeholders for Financial Aid Appointment Scheduler

Based on my idea of the Financial Aid Office's need for an Appointment Scheduler, here is a list of possible stakeholders:

Financial Aid Counselors (Executive): 

• The counselors are the ones who we are trying to aid in their efforts to provide service and satisfaction to their customers, a.k.a, the students. Though this is mainly for the administrative side of HPU, this greatly benefits both the students and the office.

New and Current Students (Operational):

• The students and/or their parents are our target group for this project and we want to try to make it a smooth and easy process for them when planning on setting up counseling appointments with the Financial Aid Office. Basically, they are our customers. 

Technical and Support Representatives (Executive/External Operations): 

• When the system is implemented, technical and support is a must. Technical staff helps to establish and maintain the scheduling system, while the Support staff helps provide user training and troubleshooting. 

Stakeholders for Financial Aid Status Updates

Based on my idea of the Financial Aid Office's need for Financial Aid Status Updates, here is a list of possible stakeholders:

New and Incoming Students (Operational):

• With this system in place, new and incoming students will have a better understanding in regards to what is needed for documentation. The system, based on information gathered by the user, will list out requirements for them in order to properly process their financial aid package.

Financial Aid Customer Representatives (Executive):

• Though the system is intended to cater towards the students, the customer representatives benefit a lot more through the system even though they do not technically have direct relations with it. The customer representatives are the ones that collect these documents from the users for processing, so the system saves them and the users time and increases work efficiency.

Technical and Support Staff(Executive/External Operations):

•  When the system is implemented, technical and support is a must. Technical staff helps to establish and maintain the status update system, while the Support staff helps provide user training and troubleshooting.

Stakeholders for Ruby App

Based on my idea for a Ruby app, here is a list of possible stakeholders:

Students (Operational): 

• The students may implement this app as a sort of reference and guideline for basic Ruby syntax, methods, formats, etc,.

Application Staff (Internal):

• Creators or makers of the Ruby app

Technical and Support Staff (Executive/External Operations):

• Apps need technical and support  - it is a must. Technical staff helps to establish and maintain the app, while the Support staff helps provide user training and troubleshooting if any. 

Appointment Scheduler for HPU Financial Aid Counselors

Alright, so you're probably thinking why the title with the HPU Financial Aid Counselors and why an appointment scheduler? Let me just give you a little background about myself. I currently work at the Office of Financial Aid at our beloved Hawaii Pacific University. I have been for the past two years as a Federal Work Study (FWS) student and am currently the Senior FWS student there. Working there a while, I have noticed that HPU students still schedule appointments via email, phone or in person. So, I thought, "Hey! What about an appointment scheduler for the counselors?" and here we are. Let's brainstorm, shall we?

Problem Description
The Financial Aid Office services about 150+ students a day, not including the multitude of calls and emails that come in simultaneously from students and/or parents inquiring about their or their child's:

• Financial Aid Status
• Financial Aid Requirements
• Required Document Corrections
• Holds
• Loans and Lenders
• FAFSA
• Financial Aid Refunds (the most inquired about - people have bills to pay, rent to give up, unwillingly, I might add, a new laptop they want *ahem* need... what? o_o)
• etc.,

On a good day, we can accommodate walk-ins for students and their parents right away if they wish to speak to their assigned counselors and answer any general questions students may have. During our busy days, we'll have students lined up and piling into the office just waiting to speak to or follow up with their counselors about a matter they've discussed previously. With that comes post-it notes and scribbles all over counselors' offices and the front desk calendars. 

I recommend that we set up an appointment scheduler similar to one that the Academic Advising Office has here. It's nice and simple and as a student, myself, very convenient without having to go down to the office and schedule one in person or waiting for a reply via email.

System Capabilities

The new system should:

• Give a list of services
• Financial Aid Counseling
• Loan Counseling and Repayment
• Collect information about the student and whether they are:
• Military/Veteran
• Undergraduate
• Graduate
• Have information on the current Financial Aid counselors and who the students should see
• List of counselors
• Provide available dates and times to meet with counselors
• Be able to receive student details, such as:
• Name
• Contact Number
• Email
• Additional Info (Student ID, Major, Purpose for Appointment)
• Give confirmation for set appointment
• Be accessible via Wi-Fi (Internet) and transmitting data
• Be easily accessible and convenient for students and/or parents

Business Benefits

With this new system implemented, the Financial Aid Office should see:

• Definitely a shorter line at the front desk waiting area
• Less frequent surprise visits from students with/without their parents
• An increase in productivity for answering calls and responding to emails for front-desk staff without having to deal with students coming in for walk-in appointments
• Less disorderly notes and scribbles on calendars
• Counselors have time to view a student's account and have somewhat of a grasp of the student's status and situation before-hand

There, now... that's what I've got for brainstorming ideas. It's pretty detailed but it's because it's modeled after what the Academic Advising Office has set up for theirs. It looks like they're using a software called GenBook to help with their appointments.

Let's try to keep people happy and keep folks like these away, shall we? Believe me, they're out there.

Alright, let me know what you think - Yay or Nay?