What’s in store for ApplyBC for fall 2014

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Updates for ApplyBC include refining previous changes and laying the groundwork for future developments

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The ApplyBC team has been hard at work over the summer, developing a strategy to implement improvements to the ApplyBC online application in an effort to improve the service for the students and participating institutions.

There were three primary drivers for the recent changes:

  1. Specific requests from our partner institutions
  2. Feedback from our recent applicant survey
  3. Scheduled review of current security and accessibility

The ApplyBC steering committee developed a work plan to implement the required changes, with the first release scheduled for this month.

Some of the changes in the September release include:

  • Improvements to the visibility of the help text
  • Implementation of a responsive design to improve usability on mobile devices
  • Enabling user-edits in the academic history section (attendance dates and credentials granted)
  • Code optimization
  • The ability to select a user-chosen UserID
  • Addition of a customizable applicant survey link on the receipt page
  • Updates for the SQL database, Java, Tomcat web server, and other technical upgrades

We are regularly considering improvements to the ApplyBC platform to improve the end-user experience, provide additional features to our partner institutions, or increase security/privacy for our partners and applicants. An example of this is the changes we’ve made to the account creation process, which features a more visible informed consent section and the ability to create a custom UserID. Not only does this help us remain compliant with current FIPPA requirements, but it also provides a flexible and memorable sign-in option for the applicants.

The current update will also enable us to accommodate future enhancements while giving us the opportunity to tidy things up from previous changes. We’re very pleased with the progress made thus far on the ApplyBC Modernization Project, and look forward to the continued success of this program.

In addition to the planned updates, we are excited to see more of our partner institutions migrate to the full service application. Douglas College has been operating on the full service platform since this past April, Vancouver Community College has just completed the transition from POST referral to full service, and Kwantlen Polytechnic University is in the process of joining. We’re looking forward to their feedback as to how the change has improved the process for their institutions. Of the 25 post-secondary education institutions in B.C., 15 are now using the ApplyBC full service application process and an additional two are actively planning to join.

For additional information about ApplyBC, or to discuss opportunities for your institution, please contact Ian Mackinnon.

Notable Quotes:

“It’s great to see the alignment of a service that offers a great user experience and helps institutions save money in systems maintenance and processing.” – Randy Bruce Director, Student and Data Exchange Services/Chief Information Officer

Further Reading: