10 th Anniversary 1999 - 2009 Prospective Student Portal - Building MyFuture By Rebecca Bond.

10th Anniversary 1999 - 2009

Prospective Student Portal - Building MyFuture

By Rebecca Bond

General Announcements:

Please turn off all cell phones/pagers If you must leave the session early, please

do so as discreetly as possible Please avoid side conversations during the

session Questions will be answered …..

Thank you for your cooperation

Outline For This Session

Brief Introduction PSP Project Development Technical Roadblocks Building PSP Where Are We Now?

– including a brief demo Future Plans

Brief Introduction

Disclaimers I’m not a Banner nor Luminis expert – my colleagues are

here to help me with questions on those subjects. Prior to this project, I had no prior experience in

Admissions Recruiting – my background is IT. This is my first PABUG

I was asked to take on the PSP Project due to my experience with using Luminis for our Accepted Student Portal (since 2006)

My work on this project was part-time (around 18 hours a week)

PSP Project Development

Development began in January 2009 with a goal to launch PSP in June 2009.

First Steps Searched for other examples of PSPs Polled Admissions staff to learn what prospects

need and want to know. Assessed existing resources that we had

available to use for content and images. Brainstormed about technical issues to address

PSP Development: First Steps (cont)

Narrowed down guiding concepts for development, which included:

Recycle/reuse existing content resources as much as possible.

Make content contribution and management easy to access and maintain.

Emphasis on personalization of content, engaging recruits on an ongoing basis with relevant and comprehensive content.

Established general site organization.

Technical Roadblocks: Out of the Box

Luminis Issues Content management within Luminis

requires a lot of effort. We decided to use blogs for content management. Feeding blog entries into Luminis using

categorized RSS feeds. Example: Internet / No Internet

Channel migrator from test server to production dropped all non-role based prospect attribute “Audience” criteria on channels.

Technical Roadblocks: Out of the Box

Luminis Issues (cont) Refresh delay of changes to channels in Luminis

4 force wait of about 10 minutes for changes to take effect.

A fragment MUST include a tab We had hoped to create fragments to push to recruits

that were just a collection of channels.

SCT tells us that adding our own Prospect Attributes is not possible right now.

We had hoped to have a “Recruiter” attribute in order to target content to each recruiter’s prospects.

Technical Roadblocks: Out of the Box

Luminis Issues (cont) “Filter Groups” concept is not used by

published/targeted channel “Audience” criteria. Each channel/section requires you enter everything every time.

Role criteria: 5 clicks each Attribute criteria: 8 clicks each Example:

Internet Access No Internet Access

Technical Roadblocks: Out of the Box (cont…)

User Account Issues There is no mechanism in place to handle

forgotten usernames or passwords. Admin reset of passwords on linked

accounts in Luminis disrupts BSSA connector.

Solicited account usernames limited to 8 character username: 1st initial + last name

Unsolicited accounts are the email address provided by prospect.

Technical Roadblocks: Out of the Box (cont…)

User Account Issues (cont) Documentation on how PSP accounts link to

banner is inadequate. How are unsolicited accts matched to banner?

– SRIPREL How do we change associated banner ID due

to human error? What default values in banner need to be set

for use by matching process?

Technical Roadblocks: Out of the Box (cont…)

User Account Issues (cont) SCT says customization needed to require

unsolicited users to enter mailing address and phone at account creation. How do we dup check during banner matching without that? - ITS figured out how to require them.

Technical Roadblocks: Out of the Box (cont…)

SSB Issues PSP access to Self-Service Banner is tricky. Prospects have no way of updating their

banner interests within the PSP. Not clear how to set up fragments that know

whether user account has or has not been linked to banner record (an issue with unsolicited accounts only).

Our Fragment Definitions

Our Fragment Definitions

Our Fragment Definitions

Building PSP: Collaboration

ITS Developed: My Information form: a self-service banner

(APEX) form to allow users to update interests, addresses and more, PLUS the mechanism for controlling the flow of these changes into Banner.

RSS Reader to display blog feeds Implemented the portal layout designed by

Marketing/PR SSB Application Checklist channel

In Luminis / As Channel

Building PSP: Anatomy of a Targeted Content Channel

Sample screen shot walkthrough Internet Access No Internet Access

Building PSP: Pilot and Launch

Once testing was far enough along, we proceeded to full blown development which was completed in late May 2009.

We implemented two pilot test groups 1st pilot – June ‘09: about 20 hand picked recruits, mostly

employee dependants 2nd pilot – July ‘09: about 150 recruits with strong interest

Launched in September 2009 Postcard campaign to all HS Seniors and Juniors Added link to MyFuture on Admissions website

Where Are We Now?

Number of accounts created so far

Site Demo: http://myfuture.messiah.edu Username = guest Password = dem0stu

Site Demo (if no internet access)

Future Plans: ITS

ITS Projects Develop channel that we can let recruits

respond to a fun poll and see all responses. Develop a Slideshow style RSS Reader – to

rotate through feeds one at a time. Develop “Forgot my password” feature (and

possibly “Forgot my username” too) Source tracking: A form for recruits to answer,

“Where did you hear about MyFuture?” and import to Banner.

Future Plans: Admissions

Admissions Projects Life-cycle strategy: plan out content/fragments for recruits

from prospect to deny. Content Plan: create a plan of content of 1 year for each

channel. Better organize paper and electronic content resources. Work on relieving text-heavy site, without losing depth. Develop content for transfer and international recruits. Feature important events, including announcing counselor

high school visits to appropriate recruits. Review interest codes due to paradigm shift from “What

are you doing?” to “What do you want to know about Messiah?”

Open to the Floor

Questions If we run out of time, you can contact me at:

[email protected] or 717-766-2511 x2292

Comments