4.1.0.0 Product Brief

Release Summary

Release 4.1.0.0 contains:

1. Merging of the 3.X and the 4.X:

1. Course Override, Delete, and Restore functionality.

2. Disbursement eligibility override functionality.

3. Prior-Prior Regulatory update support.
4. Regulatory Updates 2017-2018:
   1. Update TEACH amounts for Federal Sequestration rules.
   2. ISIR Tab and ISIR Wizard: Verification Tracking Group Bar Updates.
   3. 2017-2018 ISIR Import Process.
   4. 2017-2018 ISIR Import Corrections.
   5. 2017-2018 EFC Calculation Formula Updates.
   6. 2017-2018 Reject Code Updates.
   7. 2017-2018 Updates for SAR C-Codes.
   8. ISIR – Conflicting Information (16-17 vs 17-18).
   9. ISIR Verification: New value of "6" available in 2017-2018.
   10. Automated handling of Tax transcripts documents.
   11. Solution for C-code 399 to block 16/17 Disbursements.
5. Regulatory Updates 2016-2017:
   1. Update COD Reject / Error Code table for COD Fall 16/17 system update.
6. Module packaging/management.
7. eASFA (Regent Access):
1. A Smart form application with a logic similar to FAFSA.
2. Automates state funds application processing and submission for undocumented students.
2. COD 2017-2018 Annual Processing Schema updates. 
3. Additional 2016-2017 Regulatory Updates.
4. Perfective Enhancements
5. Usability Improvements
6. Enhancements specific to 4.0 Release**:
   1. Student level census enhancement
   2. Improved Module Support
7. Maintenance Defects

*For the detailed description of all features listed under item #1 above, please reference 3.5 Release Product Brief.

**For the detailed description of all features listed under item #6 above, please reference 4.0 Release Notes.

Product Release Description

Merge Work

The goal of the merge code development work is to combine two code branches on which the R8 product line has been residing. This consolidation effort will combine features from 3.x and 4.x code lines into one code base for all clients. This consolidation effort will yield one unified product code base for all customers. In parallel to the effort performed by the Regent team to complete the feature and code base consolidation, Regent development has also been working on preemptively identifying and reconciling any variances in the Batch Packaging processes that are possibly caused by the code merge activities. The BP Compare Process involves executing Batch Packaging (plus COD, EST) in two versions of the Regent8 product and comparing the results. The goal of the process is to identify and account for all database level and code changes that occur due to the differences in the code base. Ultimately, Regent will use the BP variances data to assist the customers to prepare and work through these variances during 4.1.0.0 upgrade. Below, please find a table with descriptions of variances that are likely to occur in customers' production environment.

COD 2017-2018 updates

COD Export File updates to support the 4.0c schema

Regent has made updates to the following data elements within the COD export file layout based on the COD published guidance for the 2017-2018 award year and the 4.0c schema:

• Program / SULA related fields being added to and being moved to the Disbursement Block, as well as becoming required on additional funds.
• Pell and ISAG: several new tags added, existing tags updated in the disbursement block, and <ProgramCIPCode> field is removed from the Pell award block.
• Direct Loan: multiple new tags will be added to the disbursement block, <ProgramCIPCode> field is removed from the Pell award block.
• TEACH: multiple new tags will be added to the disbursement block, <ProgramCIPCode> was removed from the award block.

Updates to program related fields

Upon transition to COD 4.0c schema, changes to the student's program will cause the following program fields in the student's COD record to re-export:

• Published Program Length Weeks
• Weeks in Program Academic Year
• Special Programs Code
• Program Credential Level

During the re-export to COD, R8 will associate the paid disbursements to the appropriate program.

Changes to Enrollment Status value sent to COD

For COD export files, beginning in award year 2017-2018 and forward, the EnrollmentStatus field, which is exported at the disbursement level, is required. R8 has been updated to ensure proper enrollment status reporting of DL and TEACH, and Pell.  The functionality will apply to all award years, both 2017-2018 and prior. R8 will allow the enrollment status exported at the time of origination to be based on anticipated or actual enrollment; but for the COD exports when DRI=true, the enrollment status exported to COD at that time will always be based on actual enrollment. The user will be able to manually override the value for the enrollment status tag via the enhanced Step 3 of the Modify Award Wizard (MAW).

Pell YTD, TEACH and Direct Loan Rebuild

Regent updated the COD Rebuild data record layouts for TEACH Grant, Pell YTD, and Direct Loan Rebuild files to support 2017-2018 files loaded via R8’s COD Rebuild Process.

Additional 2016-2017 Award Year Regulatory Updates

Regulatory Updates for Reject Codes

Regent updated the hover-text message content that displays in the Reject Codes column on the student's ISIR tab.  Reject Codes 1, 4, 11, 20, and 21 now display the updated messages. Refer to the Release notes for further details regarding the updated messages.

Perfective Enhancements

1. SAP report enhancements: The Student - SAP report was enhanced with an option to include historic SAP records. A new filter "Include Historic SAP?" was added.  When the filter is set to "No," the report output only includes records relevant to the selected Term(s)/Payment Period.  When this filter is set to "Yes,"  the report output includes the latest historic SAP record for all students regardless if they also have a SAP status in the Term(s)/Payment Period selected. Multiple records may be returned for the same student. If multiple SAP records have the same SAP Date and Review Period as the most current SAP Date (Calculated and Manual records), the most restrictive SAP status will be used as the most current SAP status.
2. ISIR Print Format Improvements: Regent has enhanced the ISIR printed output feature to be in line with the DOE's ISIR Guide. R8 has maintained the ability to print each individual ISIR, present or past, by clicking on the "View Report" button on the ISIR tab. However, the new printed output is concise, easier to read, and closely duplicates the ISIR Sample Output Document layout provided by the Department.
3. First day of the instructional week configuration: R8 was enhanced with the ability to select any day as a first day of the instructional week for a program.  Instructional weeks are used for the calculation of Alt-EFC months for loans, as well as duration-based costs (monthly, weekly).  The new field "First Day of Instructional Week" was added to the Institution, Campus, and Program Setup screens to allow this setting to be set at each level, if necessary. Further details about the configuration set up for this field can be found in the 4.1 Release Notes.
4. A-B-A Program Change Enhancements: R8 has been enhanced to accommodate student's returning from a current Program B to a prior Program A that he/she was enrolled in the past (this scenario will be referred to as the A-B-A program change scenario).  The student enrolls in and attends Program A for a period of time.  The student then has a program change into Program B.  Student may or may not attend Program B, but Program B has become the active program in R8.  The student then changes programs back to Program A. R8 is now able to create a new program record for Program A when Program A is received in the "next" nodes of the {{<academicInformation>}} on the SBL file, and a record for the same program already exists.
5. Import SBL Process Update: Regent enhanced the Import SBL process to allow updates to a program's Program Completion Date field, even if the program was attended or active in the past. In the Academic Information node of the SBL file, the program information must be provided through the main program node (externalProgramId), which allows R8 to update the Program Completion Date for the program provided in the externalProgramId field.
6. SBL Import validation process change:  Prior to the release 4.1, R8 would not allow for a course to have a future enrolled date compared to the date in which the the SBL file is loaded into R8. For example, R8 would not allow enrolledDate=2018-03-11 to be imported on system's date that is 2017-03-11. With the 4.1 release, Regent is removing this validation for the Enrolled Date field thus the enrolled date is no longer required to be less than today's date. It is important to note that clients using Regent8's student level census functionality should continue to ensure that the Enrolled Date on their non-transfer, term courses are not future dates.
7. Reporting Academic Year Dates to COD for Term-based Direct Loans:  Regent has enhanced Academic Year (AY) reporting to COD to accommodate cases when a students finishes his or her program with fewer terms than a normal, fully defined Academic Year. These such cases, R8 will now report the shortened Remaining Period of Study to COD with the full Academic Year dates. The Loans tab shows the COD-reported AY dates as the Academic Year Begin and End Dates. If any term has a nonzero Direct Loan disbursement, R8 includes that term in the loan's Academic Year Begin and End Dates and the loan's Financial Award Begin and End Dates. The improved Academic Year date reporting reduces the occurrence of COD Reject 046.

8. PMW "Allow Overlap" flag to allow Overlapping Academic Years for Track ChangesProduct Revisions: Regent8 will now allow for the creation of a new manual Academic Year at the start of the new track, that overlaps with the dates of the previous Academic Year. The end user will no longer need to use the "Manually Shortened AY" checkbox in order to process a track change. This is necessary to support student scenarios in which student's track changes and the Academic Plan needs to be modified with the new track starting at the beginning of a new Academic Year (AY). A new checkbox has been added on the Manual AY editor within the Program Management Wizard (PMW), next to each term (displayed on the right side of the screen), to allow the term to be marked as “Allow Overlap.”  Designating a term as "Allow Overlap" will indicate to R8 that another AY's dates will overlap with the dates of the "overlap" terms.  When this checkbox is selected on a term in the middle of an AY, all subsequent terms in that AY must also be designated as "Allow Overlap."  

9. ISIR Levels for Graduate and Undergraduate Programs: Regent enhanced awarding processes when students do not have an active ISIR that matches their program's graduate or undergraduate level. The ISIR's level is shown by the "Grad" Y or N value on the ISIR tab. The system will now validate, prior to awarding, that student's program grade level and ISIR grade level match; specifically, if a student has a graduate ISIR, but enrolls in an undergraduate program, R8 will not use the graduate ISIR for packaging the student's undergraduate awards. R8 also cancels any of the previously packaged awards that had used the mismatched ISIR. The same logic will be applied for the reversed scenario when a student with a graduate level ISIR enrolls in an undergraduate program. For all students currently existing in the system with mismatched programs-and-ISIR grade levels, R8 will allow the aid to be packaged as if their existing active ISIR correctly matched their program level. If any subsequent or corrected ISIRs are loaded for those students, the new ISIRs will need to match and have a correct answer for Grade Level ISIR field.

10. Awards not changing to "Manual" for amounts lower than system calculated eligibility:  When a user enters an "Accepted", "Offered", or "Estimated" amount that is less than or equal to the Calculated Eligibility amount (and makes no other changes in the MAW), R8 will not mark that award as "Manual." R8 will continue to manage that non-Manual award and adjust it as needed.

11.  New Data Views:

1. Activity Log Entries new Data View: R8's new data view (dataExtract_ActivityLog_Last120Days_View_v001) returns Activity Log Entries in R8 that were created in the last 120 days. Any entries older than 120 days are not populated in this view. This view was created in order to decrease the size of the exported data view payload for customers who use Regent's BCP Export process. The view's data set has a significantly smaller size footprint; therefore, it could also be useful for customers who import the data from the Regent8 (R8) Data Views directly into their own databases.

2. Unmatched ISIR data view: this view contains all unmatched ISIR data. 'Unmatched' refers to all ISIRs for which R8 could not find a student match.  The schema for this view matches the schema for the dataExtract_ISIR_View data view with the exception of the following columns not included:

• [studentId]
• [externalId1]
• [externalId2]
• [externalId3]
• [externalId4]
• [locationExternalId]
• [siteExternalId]

Usability Improvements

1. Ability to Benefit (Student Eligibility Code) related field names in the Student Details tab in R8: a number of Ability to Benefit (Student Eligibility Code) related field names have been updated on the Student Details tab, to reflect the corresponding text field names used in the COD documentation. 
2. Updated heading for ISIR numbering on ISIR details, Comparison Wizard, and Verification/Corrections Wizard:
1. "ISIR Field" on main ISIR question tabs for ISIR Details and ISIR Vericiation/Correction Wizard, as well as Compare ISIR Wizard.
2. "CPS Correction #" on Verification group tabs for ISIR Details and ISIR Verification/Correction Wizard.
3. A number of configurable enhancements that are controlled via SNAP configurations have been added to the R8 Awards Portlet. Schools may elect to display a Cost of Attendance (COA) grid, Statement of Understanding (SOU) acknowledgement, an Estimated Balance Due Banner, and different Action options when viewing/accepting/declining awards.  Students can view the following award details in the Awards grid: award type, disbursement status, payment periods amounts, maximum eligibility amount, Action options to determine how/what amounts to utilize, and the current amount that is accepted. The student can view all the awards broken out by academic year and payment period. The Awards Portlet also shows the start/end dates for each academic year and payment period/term. See further details in the release notes.

Enhancements specific to 4.0*

1. Student level census: R8 has been enhanced to account for scenarios where a student is not packaged for the very first time until after the student's designated term census date.  In these cases, the date that the student is first packaged with a valid ISIR should become that student's census date for the term.  The key here is that the student has a valid ISIR (with a non-blank EFC) available for packaging for the FAY.  Therefore, the date upon which R8 FIRST packages the student for the term, using a valid ISIR, becomes the student's census date for that term.  In subsequent terms in the FAY, the term census date will be used for the student.  
2. Improved Module Support: Regent enhanced its modular processing capabilities in this release, to accommodate schools who have multiple modules of varying lengths within a term.  These modular courses may overlap other modules, or run concurrently with full term length courses.  R8 is now able to identify the module at its lowest level - a single course - and determine the student's period of actual enrollment for the term for proper calculation of cost and EFC for the student.  Schools do not have to create a Module Setup within Term Setup to use this capability, and as a result, do not need to make any modifications to the manner in which they are sending their courses on the <courseData> node of the SBL.

*Further details about these enhancements can be found in Release Notes for 4.0.

Configuration Updates and System Requirements

System Requirements

Any client currently on the R8 R3.x and 4.x branch may take R4.1.0.0 for UAT and ultimately production upgrade.

Configuration Updates

1. Client specific permissions must be configured by clients to ensure appropriate level of access to the overrides capabilities.
2. To use the new "Assume attendance functionality," a school must access the Institution Setup screen to set the Assume Attendance value to 'Yes', and the "Effective as of" date; in doing so, R8 can assume attendance on courses whose end date is on or after the "Effective as of" date or a date in the future of the "Effective as of" date. This configuration option will also be available at the Campus and Program Setup levels in R8.  Programs can inherit the configured value from the Campus, and the Campus can inherit the configured value from the Institution.
3. A school will be able to choose, via configuration options on the Institution Setup screen, whether or not to use the Automated Pre-Start Program Change functionality. If a school chooses “Yes” in the “Automated Pre-start Program Changes” field, the “Automate Program Changes within X days of Plan Start” field will become available (field will remain inactive if “No” is chosen in the “Automated Pre-start Program Changes” field). The value entered in the “Automate Program Changes within X days of Plan Start” field will determine how many days after the start of the learner’s Academic Plan in R8, that a program change can automate as of the start date. Access to both of these configuration options are controlled by Permissions.
4. Several changes have been implemented in Regent8 setup to accommodate the Automated Program Change enhancement:
   1. The Institution Setup screen now allows a school to choose whether or not to use the Automated Program Change functionality (including during Abbreviated Period if applicable).
   2. The following enhancements will be implemented on the current Program Groups screen:
      1. Label tab heading “General.”
      2. Add the “External Program Group ID” field to the UI.
      3. Add the “External ID” field to the grid in the top half of the screen.
5. New SNAP configuration options that support the Award Portlet enhancements.

Variances Descriptions

Other Documentation

• FAQ's - frequently asked questions provided by product management and customer support.
• Release 3.5 Overview, which provides an insight in some of the key features of the 3.x code line.
• Release Notes - detailed description of all items included in the release.

Release Updates and Known Issues