Regent Award's Approach to Subscription Periods

Subscription Periods are self-paced programs using term-based awarding. A student may enroll in as many or as few units as desired for a term. Disbursement is based on the student's cumulative earned units.

SP Program: A Subscription Period (SP) program is designated by a Program Setup configuration, 'Subscription Period Enrollment Level' with a value other than 'None.' Regent Award packages all enrolled terms in that program using that same, configured SP enrollment level, regardless of each student's actual registered units in the term. 

• For example, an SP program might be configured with a Three Quarter Time (TQT) enrollment level of 9 units. All students in the program are packaged at TQT. If one student registers for 2 units, and another registers for 22 units, then both students are still packaged at the same 9-unit TQT enrollment level.

Subscription Period Course Data

SP course dates are more flexible than traditional term-based courses. Unlike normal term-based programs, Subscription Period courses can start before a term's start date and/or end after the term's end date. The course must still have at least one day within the course dates for the system to count the course as having attendance in the term. The school is responsible for sending the correct value for the 'externalTermId' value in the course's SBL data. See Attributes Document (SBL Data Dictionary).

Academic Plan Screen Display

The Academic Plan screen has been updated to display new unit information for Subscription Period programs.

At the top of the Academic Plan screen, Regent Award displays student-level totals for the Cumulative Units for All Subscription Periods.

• The Total Cumulative Units for All Subscription Periods is the sum of all Subscription Period units earned across all Subscription Period programs. This number does not include Transfer units.
• The Target Cumulative Units for All Subscription Periods is the sum of the target Subscription Period units for all terms with an end date in the past, for all Subscription Period programs.

For each Term in a Subscription Period program, a new "SP" marker next to the Enrollment Level indicates the term is using the program's configured Subscription Period Enrollment Level.

Regent Award also displays the detailed Subscription Period information.

• Registered SP Units in Term: Registered Subscription Period Progression Program Applicable Units for the term.

• Attempted SP Units During Term Dates: Total attempted subscription period units during the term dates. This number includes Program Applicable Units in all courses assigned to the term that have any attendance during the term, including withdrawn courses.

• Earned SP Units in Term: Total Progression Program Applicable units for the term. Includes all units in Subscription Period courses assigned to the term that were successfully completed.

• Target SP Units in Term: Expected number of minimum units to be successfully completed during the term based on the program’s configured Subscription Period Enrollment Level.

• Target Cum SP Units at Term Start: Total Target SP Units in Term for all attended Subscription Period terms prior to this term.

• Cum Earned SP Units at Term Start: Actual cumulative Subscription Period Units successfully completed for progression in all previous subscription periods before the start of the term.

• Minimum Cum SP Units for Disbursement: Number of successfully completed Subscription Period units required before disbursements can be released for the term. This is the Target Cum SP Units at Term Start less the Target SP Units in Term for the most recently attended previous term. Cum Earned SP Units at Term Start can be combined with SP units earned in the current or future terms to meet this minimum requirement and clear the disbursements.

Subscription Period Configuration

This section outlines adding a new Subscription Period program and important supporting configuration items.

General Notes

As always, please work closely with your Regent Account Manager and/or Delivery Services implementation team to coordinate any changes to environments.

1. Enrollment Level Setup

Main CZ articles: Enrollment Level Setup and Enrollment Level Setup Data Elements

Schools may re-use preexisting Enrollment Level Setup configurations, and/or add all-new Enrollment Level Setup configurations for Subscription Periods. There are no new SP-specific settings for Enrollment Level Setup.

The school determines the minimum units required to establish each enrollment level. For Subscription Period terms, Regent Award will use the configured minimum number of units to set the 'Target' units to complete in each term.

• For example: A program is configured with a 'Full Time' SP Enrollment Level. The Enrollment Level Setup defines FT as 12 units per term. If a student has completed two terms in that program, then the student's Target Cumulative Completed Units would be 24 units (12+12).

2. Program Setup

Main article: Program Setup Data Elements

A Subscription Period program is defined by a value other than 'None' for the Subscription Period Enrollment Level, the new Program Setup field added in 5.7.0.0.

If a program will be offered at two different enrollment levels (example: a HT version and a FT version), schools must configure separate Programs in Regent Award for each different enrollment level. For example, a school might have HT and FT versions of the same Accounting program. The school would configure two separate Programs in Regent Award: one for HT and one for FT.

Settings specific to a Subscription Period program:

1. First, configure the 'Default Enrollment Level Setup' to the selected Enrollment Level Setup
2. Next, configure the 'Subscription Period Enrollment Level' with a value other than "None."

Note: Subscription Periods cannot be used with the 'Enable Enrollment Anticipation' settings. If a Subscription Period Enrollment Level is configured with a value other than "None," Regent will ignore the 'Anticipated Enrollment Level' setting.

3. Term Setup

Main article: Term Setup Data Elements. See also Anchoring a BBAY .

Schools may re-use preexisting configured Terms, and/or add new Terms for Subscription Periods. 

Updated setting for Subscription Period programs:

• Pell Recalculation Date:  Schools may configure a date (such as the term's end date or later) when all courses would have attendance posted for a term.
  • Note: If the same term is also shared with traditional term-based programs, the Pell Recalculation Date should be set to a value after the Census Date and before the term's end date.

Regent Award will honor other, preexisting Term Setup settings such as 'BBAY Anchor Determination Date,' 'Begin Actual Date,' and 'Accelerate Begin Actual for Registered Units.'

In the 'Programs' sub-tab, select the Associated Programs and their Enrollment Level type.

4. Disbursement Schedule Setup

Main article: Disbursement Schedule Setup Data Elements

Schools may re-use preexisting configured Disbursement Schedules, and/or add new Disbursement Schedules for Subscription Periods. The settings are designed so different types of programs may share the same disbursement schedule if needed.

Schools might wish to optionally create a new set of Disbursement Schedules for Subscription Period programs. For example, a school might need to maintain other, non-Subscription-Period program types with higher values for EST Release Units and EST Release Weeks.

Disbursement Schedules have one new and one updated setting for Subscription Period programs.

New setting: Restrict Disbursements for Subscription Period Programs

• Yes/No Checkbox
  • Default value is Yes/selected to apply Subscription Period logic to a term with a Subscription Period. 
  • This setting only affects Subscription Period programs. It is ignored (has no effect) for programs that are not in Subscription Period terms.

Using the new setting:

• When 'Restrict Disbursements for Subscription Period Programs' is selected/Yes, Regent Award will not release disbursements for a term until a student has met the term's minimum number of cumulative total Subscription Period Units for disbursement. If the term has started, the student must also post attendance during the Subscription Period term dates.
• The new setting should be set to Yes for all Title IV funds.
• Schools might configure as Yes or No for other funds. For example, if a school has non-Title-IV funds such as institutional scholarships/waivers or non-disbursable funds, the school might configure those disbursements with 'Restrict Disbursements for Subscription Period Programs' to No.
• The new setting works independently of other Disbursement Schedule settings, such as EST Release Units and the preexisting settings for confirming attendance.

Updated setting: EST Release Units

This preexisting setting has been adapted to use Subscription Period units for some of the EST Release Unit options relating to attendance or Census units. Subscription Periods do not use Census units. Also, Subscription Periods might have courses that have attendance prior to a term's start; however, Title IV funds that require attendance should only be released when there is attendance during the term dates. 

For Subscription Period programs only, Regent Award's EST Release Unit Types have been adjusted to use a different Course Enrollment (CE) field: the Total Attempted Subscription Period Units During Term Dates. Those Attendance and Census-related Release Unit Types will use the new unit tracker, CE field totalAttemptedSubscriptionPeriodUnitsDuringTermDates.  The preexisting behavior is unchanged for other program types. 

The following Release Unit types will now use the new CE bucket, totalAttemptedSubscriptionPeriodUnitsDuringTermDates, for Subscription Period terms only: 

1. PA Attempted

2. PA Attended

3. PA Census

4. All Attempted

5. All Attended 

6. All Census

Using the updated EST Release Units: The new functionality automatically applies to all Subscription Period terms, regardless of other Disbursement Schedule settings. However, because SP students might enroll in a lower number of units than normal, schools might configure the 'Release Units' to have a lower value that matches the minimum units for one course. 

5. Fund Setup

Main article: Fund Setup Data Elements

Schools may re-use preexisting configured Funds in Fund Setup, and/or add new instances of Funds.

No new Fund Setup settings cover Subscription Periods. However, schools will need to select the Programs and link any new Disbursement Schedules.

6. Cost Setup

Main article: Cost Setup Data Elements

Schools may re-use preexisting Cost Setup and Cost Items, and/or add new Costs for Subscription Periods.

Schools might wish to add a new set of Costs for Subscription Period programs. For example, a per-term cost might have a Cost Frequency of 'Enrollment' and a Cost Per 'Flat Rate.' 

Any unit-based Costs that apply to a student are still applied. For example, if a program has a Lab Fee with a Cost Per Unit, Regent will calculate the cost based on the student's registered units in the term.

Additional Configuration Settings

These settings are optional but they might help integrate Subscription Periods with other Regent Award features.

Document Setup

Main article: Document Setup Data Elements

Optional. Schools might add a new Document Requirement to block Positive Disbursements for Subscription Period students. 

Federal rules require all Subscription Period students to commit to an Academic Plan of at least Half-Time enrollment in each Academic Year. Disbursements must be blocked for the Academic Year until the student fulfills the requirement. 

Schools might configure a blocking document and assign the document manually. Alternatively, schools could track the ALHT commitment outside of Regent Award.

Institution Setup - Program Groups

Main article: Institution Setup Data Elements#_Toc447867226ProgramGroupsTab

Optional, but strongly recommended for schools using Program Change automation. If a school has enabled the Institution Setup settings in 'Automated Program Change Settings,' the school needs to group related programs together in Program Groups. Any Program Change involving two programs that are not in the same Program Group would be considered as Not Substantially Equal (NSE) by default. Program Groups should be configured before students have any Program Changes sent on SBL data. Starting with Regent Award version 5.6.0.0, Program Changes are not reprocessed retroactively as SE or NSE if the Program Change has already occured.

A school might create a Program Group to store Substantially Equal programs. For example, if a school has an Accounting program with Subscription Period Enrollment Levels of Half-Time and Full-Time, each version is a separate configured Program in Regent Award's Program Setup. For ease of processing, the school could put both programs in the same Program Group to assist with Program Change automation. 

Institution Setup - R2T4 Automation

Main article: Institution Setup Data Elements#R2T4Tab

The 'Cease Attendance Date' is required if a school is using R2T4 Automation for Subscription Periods or nonterm programs. The setting is Optional otherwise.

If a school is already using the 'Cease Attendance Date' for nonterm programs, the setting will remain unchanged and will also apply to Subscription Period programs.

SAP Setup

Main article: SAP Setup Data Elements

Schools might add a new configured SAP Policy in 'SAP Setup' for tracking Satisfactory Academic Progress in Subscription Period programs.

SAP Status Source - A school might use a SIS-provided SAP, Manual SAP, or use a new 'Assume Satisfactory' option.

New option:

• Assume Satisfactory - Regent Award applies a 'Satisfactory' SAP status to all SAP review periods. The school does not separately provide SBL SAP data. Schools should only choose the Assume Satisfactory option when all students covered by the policy will always be considered to be meeting or exceeding the school’s SAP standards, as determined by the school outside of Regent Award.

Population Selection - If multiple, different SAP policies are configured and have overlapping Effective Dates, the school must ensure each SAP policy has a different Population Selection. For example, the school would unselect the checkbox for 'Apply this SAP policy to all available programs of the Program Type(s).'

Note: Calculated SAP has not been tested for the initial release of Subscription Periods. Federal Rules do not require a 'Pace' calculation for Subscription Periods.

Task Setup

Main article: Regent Award Task Triggers

Schools with term-based programs may continue using the same term-based Tasks for Subscription Periods.

The following R2T4-related Tasks have been tested for Subscription Periods:

• Review R2T4
• Review Return from LOA or CORE
• Review Late DL Disbursement - Student LTHT
• Review Late Disbursement - Term Ended