ctcLink Learning Opportunities & Support Roundup: June 18, 2024

To plan further ahead or find the latest learning opportunities, as well as notices of cancellation or schedule changes, see the complete calendar at the ctcLink Training & Learning Opportunities Registration page or on the SBCTC meetings and events calendar (apply filters).

 

ctcLink Onboarding Training Manuals & Staff Training Participation Application Ready for Use

We are pleased to announce the ctcLink Customer Support Training team has created two important tools to assist colleges with employee onboarding and tracking ctcLink training participation activities:  

• Employee Onboarding Training Manuals 
• Staff Training Participation Application 

These new tools respond to multiple recommendations and requests: 

• Aligns with recommendations set forth in WACTC’s 2023 ctcLink Improvement Plan to help employees better understand which leaning opportunities and trainings they need to do their work in ctcLink. 
• Addresses a recent State Auditor's Office (SAO) finding that employees need to participate in more training and learning opportunities to better understand the ctcLink system. 
• Provides training onboarding and tracking management tools which ctcLink College Leaders (Points of Contact), subject matter experts, and supervisors have expressed a need for since go-live. 

Be on the lookout for open Q & A sessions on the Onboarding Manuals and the Staff Training Participation Application later in the summer!

Onboarding Training Manuals 

Onboarding Training Manuals will assist new college staff in their training journey through ctcLink (PeopleSoft). Although learning a new software system can be challenging, we expect these documents will provide new staff with the information needed to locate, understand, and participate in the various training and learning opportunities available from the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC).  

Each manual is divided into sections highlighting specific topics and information necessary to become more comfortable with our ctcLink system. Section topics may include: 

• Onboarding checklist 
• Welcome to ctcLink Training 
• Each pillar’s place in ctcLink 
• Prerequisite ctcLink courses 
• Role-based training content and requirements (i.e., required and recommended ctcLink self-paced training courses) 
• Additional onboarding resources 

How to use the onboarding manuals 

The Onboarding Training Manuals can be found in the ctcLink Reference Center “Intro to ctcLink” section. Onboarding manuals are available for Finance users, Human Capital Management users, Financial Aid users, and General staff.  

• General Staff Onboarding Training Manual
• Finance Onboarding Training Manual
• Financial Aid Onboarding Training Manual
• Human Capital Management Onboarding Training Manual

Manuals for Campus Solutions and Student Financials users will be available in July 2024. 

The intent is for supervisors to work with staff to provide clarity around staff roles and functions of their job based on the onboarding manual. 

To enhance understanding of the ctcLink system, each ctcLink module lists required and recommended self-paced ctcLink Canvas training courses which directly align to roles and functions performed at the colleges. For example, each staff member is required to complete general prerequisite courses to introduce them to the ctcLink system.  

The included checklist allows supervisors to identify which required and recommended courses should be completed by each staff member. Additional training resources are provided to assist new staff in their onboarding activities. 

ctcLink Staff Training Participation Application 

The colleges have experienced an increased need to track online training course completion and progress for members of their staff. SBCTC has created a web-based application which will display training course completion information extracted from Canvas.  

Phase 1 Initial Launch 

Users will be able to view their own course completion information, as well as course completion information for any staff within their chain of supervision. 

Security roles will be dynamically assigned to all active users in the system to access their own training data, and the training data of any staff in the user’s supervisory hierarchy.  Depending on the security role, staff can search for active or inactive employees' training data by various means including employee ID, supervisor name, employee first or last name, department, or training course title. 

An elevated ctcLink security role, which will provide users with college-level training data, will be assigned to college designated Points of Contact (ctcLink College Leaders). For ongoing role-level access, the individual local security administrators (LSAs) will have the ability to update access for maintenance purposes.

Revised security settings were tested, and the fix will be applied beginning this week, so it may be Monday, June 24, before it's fully in production.

Please see the ctcLink Staff Training Participation Application quick reference guide (QRG) for step-by-step instructions.

Phase 2 Checklist Implementation  

The integration of checklists to assign required and recommended ctcLink Canvas course training is under development.  

The Onboarding Checklist available in the Onboarding Training Manuals will soon be replaced with a built-in, automated version. Supervisors will have access to assign and track ctcLink course completions through the checklist feature of the application. 

This Phase 2 checklist enhancement has moved out of the planning stage and into the development phase with anticipated delivery of the new feature in Fall 2024. 

Phase 3 Instructor-Led Training (ILT) 

The ability to track staff participation in Instructor-Led Training (ILT) learning opportunity sessions is in the early planning stages. Anticipated delivery for the ILT participation functionality is late 2024. 

The ctcLink Training and Support teams look forward to partnering with the colleges to provide enhanced onboarding and training experiences for new employees. 

Next PCD Refresh updated to July 1

In support of the Financial Aid community's contingency awarding efforts currently underway, the next PCD refresh date will be Monday, July 1, 2024.

This has been updated on the ctcLink Support webpage: Environment/Pillar Updates and Outages.

Why this change?

There was concern among the colleges and the FA Support team that SAIs from the Department of Education uploaded to PCD might get lost, so they want to wait until they’re confident ISIRs loaded into Production are working as designed, so colleges are assured a record to compare what they see in PROD vs. PCD.

To best support the Financial Aid community's activities, PCD needs to be stood up 24/7. In particular, FA Support will be intently working with college clients June 10-12 to load ISIRs into PROD.

Data Summit 2024: Save the Date!

Monday, Aug. 19 (all day) & Tuesday, Aug. 20 (tentative half-day) at South Puget Sound Community College, Lacey Campus.

Planning for Data Summit 2024 is now underway

The DataLink Steering Committee (IT Commission & Research and Planning Commission) is in the planning stages for another informative event discussing all things data. Last year, participants heard from several areas about work occurring to set a foundation for growth in this area. 

In 2024, the committee aims to build on that foundation with valuable discussions and a more in-depth look at our system’s data landscape and data needs.

The agenda is under development but will include:

• Hands-on work with the data
• Deep dives on hot topics
• Topic-specific groups, rather than role-specific
• Opportunities for collaboration
• Information on what’s coming down the road

For the Tuesday half-day, the planning team is considering hands-on, deep dives into a couple of topics, but nothing is set.

Get involved

We want to hear from you!

• Got some ideas? Fill out this online form.
• Want to have fun with your colleagues and help plan the Data Summit? Fill out this online form.

CS Core Learning Opportunities

CS Core Training

CS Core Trainings, a valuable learning opportunity, are held on the third Wednesday of every month from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. The dates may change, and notifications will be sent in advance. The CS Core training alternates between refreshers and different process approaches. We highly value your participation and welcome all end-users to attend these trainings. You can find details about upcoming meetings on the SBCTC Calendar, CS Core Weeklyish CORErespondence, and CS Core listserv. Please visit the QRG Campus Solutions Learning Opportunities Recordings for a list of previous recordings.

NEW! CS Core Refresher: Enrollment Appointments

Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, 8:30 – 10 a.m., Read more and join the session.

This session will include the following topics:

• Student Program Plan Discontinuation
• Batch Term Activation
• Enrollment Appointments
• Define Student Appointment Blocks
• Create the Enrollment Appointment Table
• Assign Enrollment Appointments in Batch

The term activation batch job runs more efficiently with fewer active program/plan stacks and fewer term-activated students' tuition calculations. Additionally, it prevents accidental term activations. Develop criteria for when a student must reapply to your institution and submit a ticket to discontinue ineligible students.

Next, we will walk through Batch Term Activation. Before enrolling, students must be term-activated; the local business process will determine the number of previous terms to include. Then, we will create Student Appointment Blocks using Student Groups and Cumulative Units. Student Blocks are One-Time Setups. Once you have set up your Student Appointment Blocks, you do not need to recreate them every term. After creating Student Appointment Blocks, we will set dates and times on the Appointment Table. Finally, we will assign appointments in Batch.

CS Core Work Sessions

Campus Solutions (CS) Core Work Sessions, open to ALL end users, are held the first Thursday of each month, from 1 to 3 p.m. The CS Functional Support team facilitates, alternating between functional team delivered content and college user delivered content with functional team support. Each meeting includes time for colleges to ask questions about other topics or service tickets.

Find details on the SBCTC Calendar and in the CS Core Weeklyish COREspondence (sent on Fridays to the CSSupport listserv).

Core Sessions: College System & SBCTC Calendar

CS COREterly Open Q&A Sessions

• CS Core invites you to attend its quarterly Open Q&A sessions! While these sessions are for learning and problem-solving, we want to emphasize that these are also part of our efforts to support community building. 
• Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session
• Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

We want these sessions to provide an opportunity for college users to:

• Get assistance with any functionality they want to better understand or situation they are struggling to make work.
• Seek advice on anything they are trying to solve.
• Share best practices and lessons learned.
• Develop networks and build community.

To support the varied work areas of our users, each session will have a breakout room for each of the following modules:

• Records & Enrollment, which includes Student Program/Plan, Term Activation, Enrollment Appointments, Enrollment, Transfer-In Credit, Transcripts, Graduation and so on.
• Campus Community, which includes 3Cs, BioDemo, Service Indicators and so on.
• Curriculum Management, which includes class building, course catalog management, enrollment requirements and so on

Along with your colleagues who can share their real-life experiences and the solutions they have employed; CS Core team experts will be present in each room. We encourage you to submit your questions before the session (but doing so isn’t required). Enter your questions on the CS COREterly Question Submissions tab. Knowing your questions ahead of time just helps us to be prepared and allows us to help as many people as possible.

We hope you’ll join us even if you don’t have specific questions! We look forward to connecting with you and for you to connect with each other.

Hodgepodge: A Treasury of Tiny Topics

Thursday, July 18, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

So many topics deserve a spotlight but don’t quite merit an entire session by themselves. So, what to do? We are bundling them up for you in a Very Special Hodgepodge Session!

While we plan to cover some fundamentals, such as understanding effective-dating and best practices in testing, much of this session will be a speed-review of reminders and suggestions about fix-it processes like Synchronize Enrollment Totals and workarounds like Bypassing Clean Address.

Designed to prompt many “Ohhh, RIGHT!” responses and build your muscle memory, this session should be a fun one.

Modules: All

Questions? Contact CS Core Support.

Behind the Integration Broker (IB): Data Synchronization between HCM and CS Pillars

Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Read more and join the session

Seeking clarity about what data moves from HCM to Campus Solutions? And how? We hope to not only satisfy your curiosity but also make it easier for your Student Records and HR offices to stay in sync and achieve your intended outcomes.

This session will be an introduction to what Integration Broker (IB) is, how it works and what it does. We’ll discuss some of the basic consideration points and tips about managing biodemo data, particularly those nuances of being in a multi-pillar, global environment. 

Questions? Contact CS Core Support.

FIN Learning Opportunities

FIN Work Sessions: FY24 Grants & Projects

Please join the ctcLink Finance Customer Support team for two collaborative support sessions to help troubleshoot, clear-out errors, and reconcile prior Fiscal Year End 2023-2024. This includes ALL Grants, Program Projects, and Capital Projects.

• Session 1: FY24 Grants & Projects - BEFORE 6/30: Thursday, June 27, 2 –3pm, Read more and join the session
• Session 2: FY24 Grants & Projects - AFTER GL Close & BEFORE OBIS Billing Deadline of 7/15: Thursday, July 11, 2 - 3 p.m., Read more and join the session

Questions? See the contact information listed in the event calendar listings above.

ctcLink Accounting Team presents: Chartstring Clean-Up & Special Topics

Join the SBCTC Business Operations ctcLink Accounting team every Thursday from 10 to 11 a.m. for special topics and ChartString clean-up working sessions.

Questions? See the contact information listed in the event calendar listings below.

FIN Daily Fiscal Year-end (FYE) Work Sessions

Join the SBCTC Business Operations ctcLink Accounting team for Fiscal Year-end 2023-2024 accounting support and guidance. Topics include FYE preparation, reconciliation, and processes.

These focused work sessions will run daily, Monday through Friday (except holidays), 10 to 11 a.m., July 1 through August 2, 2024.

Questions? See the contact information listed in the event calendar listings below.

FIN Work Session: Grants/Projects Q&A Drop-In

Every second Monday of the month at 11 a.m. join the ctcLink Finance Customer Support team for a collaborative, interactive and troubleshooting drop-in session on everything Grants/Projects.

Questions? See the contact information listed in the event calendar listings below.

Finance (FSCM) College Users Production Support Meetings

Meetings are held every Tuesday, from 2 to 3 p.m.

These sessions are open to ALL Finance (FSCM) end users. The ctcLink Finance Customer Support team provides updates on Service Tickets, PeopleSoft enhancements, and open forum time to ask questions or request future topics.

Monthly Student Finance/General Ledger SF/GL Open Forum

Every second Wednesday, 2 to 3 p.m., the SBCTC Business Operations Accounting team invites you to bring your questions (and solutions) to share during this open forum meeting space for all things Student Finance/General Ledger (SF/GL) related.

There is no formal agenda as we welcome all questions about everything from item types and second journal sets to waivers, queries, or internal cash reconciliation.

See the SBCTC meetings and events calendar and look for ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting.

PeopleSoft Release Patchset (PRP) 2.7

PRP 2.7 will be implemented in ctcLink production the evening of Thursday, June 20.  Colleges with FA JobSets or processes scheduled to run between 5 and 7 p.m. are asked to cancel them. Detailed steps are available in the Process Take-Down Instructions QRG.

Once the FA Support team has validated the migration, they will notify colleges the FA JobSets and processes can be rescheduled.

REMINDER: Please do not perform any Pell or Direct Loan processing (origination, disbursement, or load COD response files) for the 24-25 award year until you hear from us on Friday, June 21.

SBCTC has created a supporting document that includes the changes the user will experience once the PRP is implemented. To learn more about these changes, attend this one-hour Q&A session, see the Campus Solutions Financial Aid PRP 2.7 Overview - June 2024

Financial Aid Award Processing: Week 1 Recap

On Monday, June 10, colleges began loading ISIRs to begin awarding aid. Most colleges loaded their ISIRs Monday, with the remaining colleges completing this activity Tuesday morning. Colleges may continue to load ISIRs daily if they choose to.

On Wednesday, June 12, at 11:30 a.m., colleges were informed that they could activate their 2025 jobsets if they felt ready, and 18 colleges did so.

Good news, bad news

• Eight colleges experienced failures due to local security role issues or problems with the Washington College Grant (WCG) Pop Update process.
• Ten colleges successfully executed their jobsets and moved to awarding students on Thursday morning. The colleges that successfully ran their 2025 jobsets on Wednesday evening now have significant numbers of students to award.

Hurry up and wait

On Thursday, June 13, colleges were asked to pause running new 2025 jobsets due to an issue with the Washington College Grant (WCG) Pop Update of the job process. The SBCTC Financial Aid Support and Application Services teams identified and tested a resolution, which went into production shortly before noon today, Friday, June 14.

Once the fix was validated by the SBCTC Financial Aid Support team, college FA staff were notified during the support Webex they could resume their 2025 jobsets.

The SBCTC Financial Aid Support team continues to follow up with additional information and resources to the financial community as issues arise.

Getting there

Twenty colleges have now been able to award financial aid in ctcLink production as of today (June 18).

Financial Aid ISIRs Work Sessions

Colleges were asked to block out June 17-18 and June 20-21 for the same times as last week (9 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 4 p.m. daily). June 19 is a holiday.

On Thursday, June 20, the team will determine the need for a support Webex on Friday, June 21, given that several colleges are on summer schedule and may not be working.

FA Support Sessions are scheduled for Tuesday, June 25, and Wednesday, June 26, to assist colleges in updating their COD origination file run controls and handling any errors.

FAFSA Simplification Known Issues Tracker

While colleges are meeting with success, they continue to experience a variety of issues with jobsets and packaging equations, among other things.

A FAFSA Simplification 2024-2025 Known Issues in ctcLink tracking tool is posted at the ctcLink Reference Center under FAFSA Simplifications 24-25. 

This page compiles known issues and bugs, most of which have been discussed with the financial aid community in work sessions and/or emails. Each item includes statement of impact, workaround (if any), timeline for resolution, priority level, and status, as well as which organization is responsible for troubleshooting (e.g., Department of Education, Oracle, SBCTC, WSAC).

There will continue to be adjustments from the Department of Education (ED), bug fixes, and requisite coding changes from Oracle, so this effort is only the beginning and awarding financial aid is by no means easy yet.

Here are just a few:

• College Bound Scholarship (CBS) packaging equations and work study equations are pulling in inflated/incorrect amounts, i.e., $4,000 + a term instead of the correct amount.
• The Washington College Grant (WCG) Eligibility View page still needs manual calculation due to the WCG Income field and requires manual updating with locking/unlocking so recalculations can be done once the Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) addresses technical issues.
• The Financial Aid Council (FAC) community has requested a mass unlock process/query for the WCG Eligibility View once it’s been Calculated (Calc’d) and Locked. The FA Support team has a process, but it’s a query used for another purpose, so the team will need to talk through implications before the query can be considered for use in a Calc unlock process.

Bug Fixed

In the initial 2024-2025 COD update, the schema was delivered with an incorrect update to the namespace. This fix has now been applied in ctcLink. Before the fix, the namespace showed “2021” instead of “2023” in the 5.0b schema required for 2024-2025 Pell and Direct Loan file processing.

SBCTC FAFSA Resources Webpage

Visit the 2024-25 FAFSA Resources web page for regularly updated information for college employees and includes updated FAQ templates including a Q&A center.

FAFSA Simplification Q&A center (for colleges)

Submit questions and ideas about FAFSA simplification efforts to the SBCTC FAFSA Response Team 

FAFSA in the News

• Keep up with the latest news from the NASFAA FAFSA Simplification Web Center

FA Learning Opportunities

Financial Aid (FA) Work Sessions

Financial Aid (FA) Work Session meetings are on the fourth Thursdays, from 1 to 3 p.m.

The FA Functional Support team facilitates alternating between functional team delivered content and college user delivered content with the support of the FA functional team. The end of each meeting is open for colleges to ask questions about the topic presented. These sessions are open to ALL end users.

Find the latest information, including notices of cancellation or schedule changes, on the ctcLink Training page or on the SBCTC meetings and events calendar (apply filters).

HCM Learning Opportunities

BENEFITS 24/7 Training and Q&A with HCA

Wednesday, June 26, 1 to 3 p.m., Learn more and join the session 

Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) staff will present this training and Q&A session on BENEFITS 24/7, the new online benefits enrollment system that replaced PEBB My Account and SEBB My Account. The HCA Team will provide a list of items for discussion and demonstration to be shared with the HCM Support list.

Module(s): Benefits

Primary Audience: Benefits Administrators

Presenter/Facilitator: Agnieszka Pederson, HCM Support; Washington State HCA Outreach and Training

Questions? Contact HCM Customer Support.

HCM Work Session Meetings

Human Capital Management (HCM) meetings are held every other Wednesday, from 1 to 3 p.m. The HCM Functional team along with the training team offers Work Sessions and Training Sessions around the different functionality in HCM.

• Wednesday, July 10, 1- 3 p.m., HCM Work Session: Fiscal Year DRS Calendar Update/Creation (Rescheduled from June 26)

Behind the Integration Broker (IB): Data Synchronization between HCM and CS Pillars

Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Read more and join the session

Seeking clarity about what data moves from HCM to Campus Solutions? And how? We hope to not only satisfy your curiosity but also make it easier for your Student Records and HR offices to stay in sync and achieve your intended outcomes.

This session will be an introduction to what Integration Broker (IB) is, how it works and what it does. We’ll discuss some of the basic consideration points and tips about managing biodemo data, particularly those nuances of being in a multi-pillar, global environment. 

Questions? Contact CS Core Support.

SF Learning Opportunities

Please feel free to reach out to SFSupport@sbctc.edu if you have any questions or need further clarification.

SF Work Session: Second Journal Set (SJS) Updates

Thursday, June 20, 2024, 1 p.m., Learn more and join the session

Join us for a comprehensive training session on the SJS enhancement, which went live in February. We will review the added benefits of this crucial financial tool to ensure everyone is up to date.

As part of our annual updates, we will demonstrate how to update SJS item type project/activity information. We are planning to streamline access so you can make these updates at your convenience without the need to submit a ticket.

Our session will cover:

• Locating, updating, and validating your SJS item types to ensure proper configuration.
• SBCTC Business Operations Division will provide guidance on reviewing and manually posting SJS-generated journals
• The option to automate the generation process.

Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your understanding and efficiency with the SJS system. Join us and stay ahead with these important updates.

Monthly Student Finance/General Ledger SF/GL Open Forum

Every second Wednesday, 2 to 3 p.m., the SBCTC Business Operations Accounting team invites you to bring your questions (and solutions) to share during this open forum meeting space for all things Student Finance/General Ledger (SF/GL) related.

There is no formal agenda as we welcome all questions about everything from item types and second journal sets to waivers, queries, or internal cash reconciliation.

See the SBCTC meetings and events calendar and look for ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting.

Query Developer Learning Opportunities

Instructor-Led Query Development Training

The ctcLink Training Calendar has been updated with next quarter’s instructor led query development training schedule. Have a look at their fresh offerings.

Step Up your Query Game

Learn more about the Designated Query Developer Training series and start your journey to becoming your college’s very own query guru! Or query wizard, if you prefer. Or maestro. Maybe a goddess, crackerjack, wizard, or maven. It’s up to you!

Upcoming courses include:

• July 9, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 101 Basics - Part 1
• July 10, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 101 Basics - Part 2 y 30, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 201 Intermediate - Part 1
• July 31, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 201 Intermediate - Part 2
• Aug 21, 8:45 a.m., PS Query Training 102 - Query Security
• Sep 10, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 301 Advanced - Part 1
• Sep 11, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 301 Advanced - Part 2
• Sep 24, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 401 Expert- Part 1
• Sep 25, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 401 Expert- Part 2

Plan ahead for 2024

The ctcLink Training Calendar has been updated with 2024 instructor-led query-related training. To clear filter settings, select None. Then select ctcLink Learning Opportunities > Reporting Training.

How to for Query Developer Courses

The process to enroll in Query Developer Canvas courses has been streamlined. Now, instead of emailing Data Services, simply:

• Visit the ctcLink Training Registrationpage,
• Select the class(es) from the Designated Query Developer Training section,
• Follow the sign-up process.

More for PeopleSoft Query Developers

Find more ctcLink PeopleSoft Query Development resources including forms, documentation, and tools at the ctcLink PeopleSoft Reporting web page.

ctcLink Accessibility Monthly Open Forum

Join us! The ctcLink Accessibility monthly forums engage Washington's community and technical college system in discussions around ctcLink accessibility and technology. We aim to improve communication and transparency while providing space for productive and solution-focused dialog. Our main objective is to deliver accessible technology for all our students, staff, and the larger community.

Meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month, 11 a.m. to noon.

The next ctcLink Accessibility Open Forum will be Tuesday, July 9, 2024, at 11 a.m. All are welcome to attend via Zoom.

In case you missed a meeting, please see materials from past Open Forums.