Meteor and Financial Aid Delivery

1
Meteor and Financial Aid Delivery

• Justin Tilton
• instructional media magic, inc.
• As presented at
• HEWI/AACRAO 2001 Student Aid Modernization
  Conference
• September 26, 2001
• Arlington, Virginia

2
Overview

• Status report on the OSFA and some of the key
  initiatives that will impact the future of
  Financial Aid
• Emerging technologies portals, uPortal, channels
  and how this relates to Meteor
• The Meteor Project description, status, and
  delivery timeline

3
Financial aid services

• In the past, regulations drove practices and
  limited services
• Now, information technology drives practices and
  has the potential to increase service
• ________________
• Using information technology, the U.S.
  Department of Education is improving its
  services, setting higher expectations

4
Some key initiatives

• Department of Education OSFA
• Web enabled applications
• Common Origination and Disbursements
• Student loan industry
• ELM Resources
• The Meteor Project
• College and university collaboratives
• JA-SIG (Java in Administration Special Interest
  Group)
• Internet 2 and Shibboleth
• MITs Open Knowledge Initiative
• Florida State University, University of Hawaii
• 30 minute application to funds

5
SFA Web-enabled applications

• FAFSA on the web
• Schools portalrelease 2.0 with single sign-on
• Financial partners portals FY 2002
• Student on-line access todirect loan servicing
• API to SFA systems

6
Web ApplicationFAFSA on the Web - 2001
7
FAFSA On The Web
8
Schools Portal Prototype
9
Federal Experience

• Customers using electronic services are more
  satisfied than those that dont.
• Agencies that measure customer satisfaction
• Have better customer satisfaction that the
  federal government as a whole
• In general, are improving customer satisfaction

10
Expect...

• SFA Common Origination and Disbursements
• 2002-2003 Batch Processing Pilot
• 2004-2005 Schools required to communicate with
  COD using XML
• 2003-2004 Schools have the option to send real
  time messaging
• As reported by Kay Jacks at the 2001 NASFAA
  Annual Conference
• Electronic Signatures
• Limited use of SFA PIN
• Replaced by Internet 2/SAML December 2002 (no
  official commitment)
• As mentioned by Steve Hawald at the 2001 Summer
  JASIG Conference

11
Expect that...

• Alternative loans will be the largest source of
  financial aid by 2005
• Estimated from a forthcoming report by the
  Advisory Committee on Student Financial
  Assistance
• The focal point of financial aid information and
  transactions will be the college or university
• Web services will be the basis for new
  information technology infrastructure
• New college and university administrative systems
  will be based on Web services component
  architecture will become available 2003, and
  widely implemented between 2004 and 2005

12
Impact on colleges and universities

• Changes
• From Batch to Real-time Transactions,
• From Proprietary File Transfers to Internet XML
  Messaging Standards
• From SFA-defined to Industry Standard Message
  Content
• An integrated Student Experience
• Use of SFA-provided Java (J2EE)shared-components

13
NCHELP-sponsored convergence

• Business messages
• OSFA Common Record, IFX Forum, CommonLine, PESC,
  industry XML
• Data transport
• OSFA, CommonLine, PESC, industry SOAP and ebXML
• Authentication (in progress)
• OSFA Internet 2/Shibboleth, JA-SIG, industry
  SAML, SOAP_DSIG
• Directory Services (soon)
• OSFA, Meteor, industry UDDI

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The Meteor Project

• An initiative of the student loan industry
• Collaborative effort of 37 guaranty agencies,
  lenders, secondary markets, and servicers
• On-line, real-time information services
• Separate channels for students and financial aid
  professionals
• Aligned with industry, SFA standards
• ______________________
• Building the IT infrastructure for the next
  decade

15
A Glimpse Florida State University

• In 30 minutes on-line
• Apply for admission and be accepted
• Apply for financial aid, including the FAFSA,
  receive an award, issue credits and initiate
  funds transfer
• Apply for housing and receive a housing
  assignment
• Enroll in classes
• __________________
• FSU reports general agreement with OSFA for
  their designRichard Tombaugh Aug 2001

16
Students expectations shaped by...

• Their experience applyingfor federal financial
  aid
• Their use of financial services portals
• Their use of the Internet
• Their life in a real-time, information rich
  environment

17
Students now expect...

• Customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Complete information froma single source
• Delivery by Web, e-mail, telephone, facsimile,
  and wireless devices
• response time of 15 seconds for telephone, 10
  seconds for Web, and 2 hours for e-mail and
  facsimile
• access to a complete customer history

18
College students choose a Web site...

• Ranked by importance
• College or universitys portalif adequate
• Suggestions of other students
• Print advertisements
• Web search

19
Is technology important?

• Technology choices determine the quality of
  electronic services offered to Web-savvy
  prospective students, current students, alumni,
  faculty, staff and the public.
• Technology choices will determine with whom you
  do e-business and how it is done.

20
SFA technology choices

• XML - B2B Standard
• Business Messages
• XML Schema (data validation)
• Java - Transportable Programs
• Shared Java Components
• Web Implementations FAFSA
• UML - Unified Modeling Language

21
eBusiness Web services architecture

• XML tagged data content
• eXtensible Markup Language
• SOAP data transport
• Simple Object Access Protocol
• XSL transformations for presentation
• eXtensible stylesheet language
• XML Digital Signature
• for Server Authentication
• UDDI/WSDL directory services
• Universal Description, Discovery, and
  Integration,and Web Services Description Language

22
Technology standards
Industry
Web Services
Microsoft
Sun One
uPortal
Meteor
JA-SIG
OSFA
.Net
IBM
ü
ü
ü
ü
ü
Java Programming Language
ü
ü
ü
ü
ü
ü
XML Markup Language
ü
ü
ü
ü
ü
SOAP Data Transport
M
ü
ü
ü
ü
ü
UDDI Directory
M
ü
ü
ü
ü
ü
WSDL Service Description
M
M - from Meteor installation O - optional
23
Announced support of Web services

• Feb 2000 OSFA U.S. DOE
• Sep 2000 NCHELP CommonLine ESC
• Oct 2000 NCHELPs Meteor Project
• Dec 2000 IBM Corporation
• Feb 2001 Sun Microsystems
• Mar 2001 Microsoft Corporation

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24
Portals, uPortal (JA-SIG), and Channels
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Portal defined

• generally synonymous with a gateway, for a World
  Wide Web site that is or proposes to be a major
  starting site for users when they get connected
  to the Web
• www.whatis.com, May 19, 2001
• A portals main reason for existence is to
  integrate disparate systems and data into a
  unified, centrally accessible interface.
• Jim Paroza, Enterprise value of portals is
  clear,
• eWeek, Sep 13, 2002

26
Yahoo, the portal standard
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MyYahoo, a personal portal
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The Academic Web World
Research
Library
Administrative
Instruction
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Why a campus portal?

• Improves productivity and satisfaction
• Integrates divergent systems
• Creates a set of templates and standards for
  developing and delivering Web materials
• Becomes a platform to quickly and efficiently
  introduce new technologies (channels)

30
Why are portals important?

• Helps knowledge workers to be more productive
• Preferred by users
• Market share
• Brand identity
• A viable architecture for information services
• Time to market
• Improved services
• Lower costs

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Features of uPortal

• Framework for presenting aggregated content
  (channels)
• Personalization
• Role-based access control
• Single signon to multiple systems

32
A students view of the Web
33
A students view of the Web
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A Customized Portal
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uPortal for the Pilot Implementation

• Open Source Software
• Features used by Meteor
• Readily available

36
JA-SIG

• Java in Administration Special interest Group
• A development collaborative and a clearinghouse
  for JAVA based software developed specifically by
  and for colleges and universities.
• Current focus uPortal an full feature
  enterprise web application portal

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37
uPortal Interfaces

• Authentication
• Proving your identity
• Authorization
• Deciding what you can access
• User preferences
• Profiles, structure, themes, skins
• Channel information
• Availability and configuration

38
Content Transformation
XML
XSLT Processor
XHTML Web Browser
HTML PDA
Stylesheet
WML Cell Phone
39
Tab / Column Layout
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Tree / Column Layout
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Theme uosm
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Theme java
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Theme imm
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Theme matrix
45
Multiple Target Devices
46
What is a Channel?

• Displays content
• XML feeds (events, news items, etc.)
• Legacy systems (registration, library)
• Interactive applications
• Meteor
• Bookmarks
• Email, chat, threaded discussions

47
XML feed Channel
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48
Where does The Meteor Project fit into all of
this?
49
Relationship of Meteor and JA-SIG

• JA-SIG

uPortal
The Meteor Project
Meteor Channel
50
The Meteor Project

• Meteor is the software and service to obtain a
  students own financial aid information from a
  number of different sources.
• The software can be installed on any Website--a
  school, lender, guaranty agency, secondary
  market, servicer, or collection agency.
• The software is Open Source--a gift from the
  Meteor sponsors to the financial aid community.

51
Data from multiple sources, locations
The Pilot Implementation
52
Reference implementation

• The reference implementation includes
• Authentication of the user
• A list of loans
• Details on any specific loan
• Error, warning, and information messages for the
  user

53
Meteor authentication
54
Meteor list of loans
55
Sample Meteor loan detail
56
User message, no Meteor service
57
User message, please call
58
How does Meteor work?
59
Meteor in a nutshell
UDDI
Lender
XML
60
The first step
The student chooses a portal to their Financial
Aid information
61
Next, a secure connection
62
Requests sent...
Guaranty Agencies NSC SFA
XML
ltLoanHistoryRqgt ltCustPermIdgt448377707lt/CustPermI
dgt ltDateOfBirthgt1980-09-03lt/DateOfBirthgt lt/LoanH
istoryRqgt
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Responses returned
XML
NSC
XML
GA
XML
SFA
ltLoanInformationgt ltLenderIdTypegtOPEIDlt/LenderIdTyp
egt ltLenderIdgt809063lt/LenderIdgt ltLenderNamegtBank
of Oklahomalt/LenderNamegt ltSchoolIdTypegtOPEIDlt/Scho
olIdTypegt ltSchoolIdgt003152lt/SchoolIdgt ltSchoolBranc
hgt00lt/SchoolBranchgt ltSchoolNamegtUniversity of
Central Oklahomalt/SchoolNamegt ltInformationSourceId
TypegtOPEIDlt/InformationSourceIdTypegt ltInformationS
ourceIdgt809063lt/InformationSourceIdgt ltInformationS
ourceNamegtBank of Oklahomalt/InformationSourceNamegt
ltInformationSourceDategt2000-11-12lt/InformationSou
rceDategt lt/LoanInformationgt
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Aggregated data in portal
65
Student wants details
66
Request for detail sent to Lender
Lender
XML
67
Detail screen displayed
Lender
XML
68
Diagram of Meteor Concept
Web Services HTML
Meteor XML
Student Access Provider Data Provider
69
As implemented ...
Web Services Secure HTML
Meteor Secure XML
Standard Browser
uPortal
Meteor SOAP
Meteor SOAP
Database
70
The development configuration
Linux Apache Tomcat
Linux Apache Tomcat
uPortal
Standard Browser
uPortal
Meteor SOAP JAVA Components
Meteor SOAP JAVA Components
Database JDBC Connection
71
Some history

• White paper
• Sponsors believe in the concept
• A convergence effort
• Development of Pilot
• Community awareness
• Enterprise software development

72
Convergence Data Transport
73
Convergence Business Messages
CommonLine R5 ESC
LoanML IFX
CommonLine XML ESC
Common Record SFA
June 2000
May
December
74
Convergence Authentication
SFA NCS Proprietary
XTASS VeriSign
AuthML Securant
S2ML Netegrity
SAML Oasis
Internet 2 Shibboleth
December 2000
June
March
75
The pilot demonstration

• To show the operation of Meteor, the
  demonstration presentation included the uPortal
  with a Meteor Channel on the top half of the
  screen and a secure telnet session showing the
  flow of traffic--specifically the SOAP messages
  that included in the XML content--to and from the
  Meteor server, on the bottom half. (A sample
  screen follows)
• The demonstration was a dial-in connection, to
  the Internet, accessing servers in the
  Washington, DC office. The dial-in connection was
  operating at 28.8 Kilobits per second (roughly
  2,900 characters per second) . The message
  turnaround was less than one second.
• January 13 and 17, 2001, Bal Harbour, Florida

76
Split screen demonstration
77
Meteor student authentication
78
Meteor XML Request message

• gtgt(Tue Jan 09 115058 EST 2001) Processing SOAP
  request...
• ltSOAP-ENVEnvelope
• xmlnsSOAP-ENV"http//schemas.xmlsoap.org/soa
  p/envelope/"
• xmlnsxsd"http//www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema"
• xmlnsxsi"http//www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema-in
  stance"gt
• ltSOAP-ENVBodygt ltns1getLoanHistory
• SOAP-ENVencodingStyle"http//xml.apa
  che.org/xml-soap/literalxml"
• xmlnsns1"urnifx-loan-server"gt
  ltIFXRequestElgt ltIFXgt
• ltSaisSvcRqgt
• ltRqUID/gt
• ltSPNamegtgov.studentclearin
  ghouselt/SPNamegt
• ltLoanHistoryRqgt
• ltCustIdgt
• 
  ltSPNamegtgov.ssalt/SPNamegt
• 
  ltCustPermIdgt448377707lt/CustPermIdgt
• lt/CustIdgt
• ltDateOfBirthgt1980-09-0
  3lt/DateOfBirthgt
• lt/LoanHistoryRqgt

79
Meteor XML Response message 1

• Launching query ...
• gtgt(Tue Jan 09 115059 EST 2001) Sending SOAP
  response...
• ltSOAP-ENVEnvelope
• xmlnsSOAP-ENV"http//schemas.xmlsoap.org/soa
  p/envelope/"
• xmlnsxsd"http//www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema"
• xmlnsxsi"http//www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema-in
  stance"gt
• ltSOAP-ENVBodygt ltns1getLoanHistoryRespons
  e
• SOAP-ENVencodingStyle"http//xml.apa
  che.org/xml-soap/literalxml"
• xmlnsns1"urnifx-loan-server"gt
  ltreturngt ltIFXgt
• ltSaisSvcRsgt
• ltStatusgt
• ltStatusCodegt0lt/StatusC
  odegt
• ltSeveritygtInfolt/Severi
  tygt
• ltStatusDescgtSuccessful
  l Retrievallt/StatusDescgt
• lt/Statusgt
• ltRqUID/gt
• ltSPNamegtgov.studentclearin
  ghouselt/SPNamegt

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Meteor XML Response message 2

• ltCustInformationgt
• 
  ltDateOfBirthgt1980-09-03lt/DateOfBirthgt
• ltPreviousPermIdgt
  lt/PreviousPermIdgt
• ltFormerLastName/gt
• lt/CustInformationgt
• ltStudentStatusgt
• 
  ltCurrentlyEnrolledgtYlt/CurrentlyEnrolledgt
• lt/StudentStatusgt
• ltLoanInformationgt
• 
  ltLenderIdTypegtOPEIDlt/LenderIdTypegt
• 
  ltLenderIdgt824607lt/LenderIdgt
• 
  ltLenderNamegtOklahoma Student Loan
  Authoritylt/LenderNamegt
• 
  ltSchoolIdTypegtOPEIDlt/SchoolIdTypegt
• 
  ltSchoolIdgt003152lt/SchoolIdgt
• 
  ltSchoolBranchgt00lt/SchoolBranchgt
• 
  ltSchoolNamegtUniversity of Central
  Oklahomalt/SchoolNamegt
• 
  ltInformationSourceIdTypegtOPEIDlt/InformationSourceI
  dTypegt
• 
  ltInformationSourceIdgt824607lt/InformationSourceIdgt

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Meteor XML Response message 3

• ltLoanInformationgt
• 
  ltLenderIdTypegtOPEIDlt/LenderIdTypegt
• 
  ltLenderIdgt809063lt/LenderIdgt
• ltLenderNamegtBank
  of Oklahomalt/LenderNamegt
• 
  ltSchoolIdTypegtOPEIDlt/SchoolIdTypegt
• 
  ltSchoolIdgt003152lt/SchoolIdgt
• 
  ltSchoolBranchgt00lt/SchoolBranchgt
• 
  ltSchoolNamegtUniversity of Central
  Oklahomalt/SchoolNamegt
• 
  ltInformationSourceIdTypegtOPEIDlt/InformationSourceI
  dTypegt
• 
  ltInformationSourceIdgt809063lt/InformationSourceIdgt
• 
  ltInformationSourceNamegtBank of Oklahomalt/Informati
  onSourceNamegt
• 
  ltInformationSourceDategt2000-11-12lt/InformationSour
  ceDategt
• lt/LoanInformationgt
• ltLoanInformationgt
• 
  ltLenderIdTypegtOPEIDlt/LenderIdTypegt
• 
  ltLenderIdgt831163lt/LenderIdgt
• ltLenderNamegtFirst
  Oklahoma bank amp Trustlt/LenderNamegt
• 
  ltSchoolIdTypegtOPEIDlt/SchoolIdTypegt
• 
  ltSchoolIdgt003152lt/SchoolIdgt

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uPortal Meteor Channel - loan list
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Pilot detail inquiry implementation
Home Page
Access Provider Website
Student Authentication
National Student
Clearinghouse

• Loan Locator List

National Student

• Loan 1

Clearinghouse

• Loan 2

• Loan 3

PHEAA
Great Lakes
Sallie Mae
84
What we learned...

• The XML/SOAP business message turnaround is less
  than 1 second the industrys best sites are 3 to
  5 seconds
• Because of the scope of authorization for access
  and different uses, Meteor needed two separate
  channels
• Student and parental access to the students
  information
• Financial aid professionals access to information
  about students

85
Professional - Authorization
86
Selection
87
Display
88
Why is Meteor important?
89
The Meteor software

• Provides an information servicefor students and
  alumni
• Provides an information resource for financial
  aid professionals
• Becomes a first step toward implementation of the
  Department of Educations real-time Common
  Origination and Disbursement -due in 2003

90
Meteor software will be available as

• A channel in JA-SIGs uPortal 2.0 or later
• A Java servlet that can in incorporated into any
  Website that supports servlets
• Possibly a channel in Apache Foundations
  JetSpeed portal (also IBMs general portal)

91
The school experienceAuthentication, a barrier
to implementation
92
Authentication and authorization

• Level of identification
• Incomplete standard protocols for authentication
  or authorization
• Web Single Signon
• Internet2/Shibboleth (now Dec 2001)
• SAML Security Assertion Markup Language
• Indeterminate policies and procedures
• Legal - new law and lack of precedents
• Lack of business experience

93
Boston College expectation

• Only regular students and employees in the
  financial aid office will access Meteor through
  the Colleges secure portal.
• The National Student Clearinghouse, and
  subsequently others, will trust the Boston
  College authentication.

94
The trusted college
Secure College environment
Secure Internet connection
College logon and password
User logon and password
Loan list message
Web presentation
Employee Boston College Clearinghouse User
Access Provider Data Provider
95
As a proxy service
Secure college environment
Secure Internet connection
User logon and password
User logon and password
Loan list message
Web presentation
Student college Clearinghouse User
Access Provider Data Provider
96
Meteor supports localization

• Why localize Meteor?
• The Meteor channel becomes consistent with the
  access providers look and feel
• The user has a consistent experience
• Users can use local authentication to achieve
  single signon
• _______________________
• Personalization combined with localization and
  useful local content (channels), increases user
  satisfaction and their loyalty to a particular
  Website or portal.

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97
Meteor Project standards

• Implements SFAs information technology
  standards
• Business messaging using XML
• Software components using Java
• Systems design using UML
• Data transport using Internet,
• SSL/TLS, and SOAP
• Directory of Participants using
• UDDI
• SFA Software Developers ConferenceMarch 2001

Feb 2000
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Mar 2001
98
Why is that important to schools?

• Schools need to implement XML business messaging
  to participate in Common Origination and
  Disbursement (COD)Real-time in 2003
• Schools need to use Java to implement SFAs Java
  based software components
• Need analysis EFC, entrance and exit interviews,
  and Pell Grant computation

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99
Can Meteor access school systems?

• We are briefing student information system
  vendors about the Meteor software and
  implementations
• The Meteor sponsors will determine a schedule to
  release the software and documentation to vendors
• Software developers may test using the Meteor
  development site--it is open to anyone for
  demonstration and testing

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100
Versions of the Meteor channel

• 0.7 - Current version support loan lists
• National Student Clearinghouse pilot
• 0.9 - Access to lenders, guaranty agencies
• NSC multiple guaranty agency, lender pilot
• 1.0 - Shared authentication, distributed data
  sources

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101
Recommendations to the community

• Invest in the these technologies
• XML as used for e-commerce
• Java technologies
• Focus on customer behavior and preferences
• Students and parents (Student Channel)
• Faculty and Staff (Professional Channel)
• Keep an eye on the industry leaders
• NCHELP - standards, industry directories
• JA-SIG - Portal technology, Java and XML

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102
Meteor sponsors

• American Education Services
• American Student Assistance
• Bank One
• College Foundation, Inc. NC
• The College Board/CollegeCredit Education Loan
  Program
• Connecticut Student Loan Foundation
• Education Assistance Corporation
• Education Funding Association
• Florida Department of Education, OSFA
• Georgia Higher Education Assistance Corporation
• Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation
• GuaranTec, LLP
• Higher Education Student Assistance Authority
• Illinois Student Assistance Commission
• Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation
• Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority
• Key Education Resources
• LoanStar Systems, Inc.

103
Meteor sponsors

• Michigan Higher Education Assistance Authority
• Montana Guaranteed Student Loan Program
• National Student Loan Program, Inc.
• New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance
  Foundation
• New York State Higher Education Services
  Corporation
• North Carolina State Education Assistance
  Authority
• Northwest Education Loan Association (NELA)
• Oklahoma Guaranteed Student Loan Program
• Oregon Student Assistance Commission
• Panhandle-Plains Student Loan Center
• Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance
  Authority
• Sallie Mae, Inc.
• Southwest Student Services Corporation
• Student Loan Finance Association
• Student Loan Guarantee Foundation of Arkansas
• Student Loans of North Dakota
• Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation
• United Student Aid Funds
• Vermont Student Assistance Corporation

104
And we had help...

• The National Student Clearinghouses Roberta
  Hyland and Joy Wang provided data access and
  programming assistance to make their database
  available to Meteor users.
• Interactive Business Solutions Software Engineer
  (and Harvard University graduate student) Peter
  Karchenko joined the Meteor team working on the
  project.
• Priority Technologies, Inc. extended the Meteor
  software and contributed the UDDI/WDSL
  implementation.
• Credit Onlines Dennis Warnke and Glenn Leyba
  shared LoanML drafts and their experience
  implementing IFX SOAP messaging.
• Great Lakes Steve Marganeau provided CommonLine
  XML as it was being produced in December 2000.
• Sigma Systems Inc.s Andy Sprague provided test
  data and design guidance and Randy Timmons gave
  Meteor briefings and demonstrations.

105
The endwww.meteorproject.orgwww.meteorproject.n
et8080/portal/and www.immagic.com