For decades, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms were processed electronically by the legacy Central Processing System. In 2021 the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) initiated a system development effort and in December 2023 deployed a new system to process forms for the 2024-2025 school year. However, student aid…

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the entry ramp to federal grants and loans that many students depend on to afford college. Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in 2020 in part to make it easier to apply for federal aid. However, Education's rollout of the new FAFSA has suffered from numerous challenges and delays.…

Students, policymakers and institutions all need to have high quality data about how today's students access and pay for higher education--and what contributes to their success. But the data that are available now are woefully inadequate. We need to improve the national postsecondary data infrastructure The report thoroughly explores seven options…

The launch of HealthCare.gov, the website of the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare), was a major public relations disaster for the Obama administration. This case examines some of the factors that contributed to the failure of the launch and then details how Optum, an information technology service provider, considered the opportunity provided by…

It was 2:35 am on a Saturday morning. Wiki Lim, process specialist from the Process Innovation Centre (PIC) of Hippi Care Hospital (HCH), desperately doodling on her notepad for ideas to improve service delivery at HCH's Emergency Department (ED). HCH has committed to the public that its ED would meet the service quality criterion of serving 90%…

For information systems development project student teams, learning how to improve software development processes is an important training. Software process improvement is an outcome of a number of creative behaviours. Social cognitive theory states that the efficacy of judgment influences behaviours. This study explores the impact of three types…

Historically, managing access to information systems (ISs) required direct interaction with a limited number of users. Increasingly, managing access involves handling an increased numbers of internal and external students, faculty, and staff as well as partners such as workforce development centers, the U.S. Department of Education, and the…

Acquiring the knowledge to assemble an integrated Information System (IS) development process that is tailored to the specific needs of a project has become increasingly important. It is therefore necessary for educators to impart to students this crucial skill. However, Situational Method Engineering (SME) is an inherently complex process that…

Systems analysis and design is a standard course offering within information systems programs and often an important lecture topic in Information Systems core courses. Given the persistent difficulty that organizations experience in implementing systems that meet their requirements, it is important to help students in these courses get a tangible…

The Computing Curricula (2005) place Information Systems (IS) at the intersection of exact sciences (e.g. General Systems Theory), technology (e.g. Computer Science), and behavioral sciences (e.g. Sociology). This presents particular challenges for teaching and learning, as future IS professionals need to be equipped with a wide range of…

User participation and its relationship to system success have been discussed in the information systems (IS) literature from many theoretical and practical perspectives. In reality, most of this discussion is grounded in empirical research that has yielded mixed results on the importance of user participation and its relationship to system…

This paper presents an example of integrating IT skills using an interesting real life problem. We describe how the reverse- and forward-engineering of the USA National Do Not Call registry was used in our capstone course to illustrate the fusion of different (but interdependent) issues and techniques learned in the IT program. The purpose of the…

Discusses conceptual frameworks for the designing process, including conclusion-oriented design and decision-oriented design; describes the systemic quality cube of design that incorporates process, product, efficiency, and effectiveness and considers total, global, and systemic quality; and discusses present applications, including computerized…

Outlines the ETHICS methodology for workplace system design. This structured approach includes recognizing needs, setting objectives, choosing strategies, and evaluating results. Through user involvement, effective communication, and informed choice, ETHICS seeks to achieve greater realization of the advantages of new work systems. (JKP)

Reports on a pilot study in which a proposed design model was developed to characterize intergroup communication among designers, developers, and users. Design roles, themes, and networks based on two histories of design situations are described for several design phases; and future work is suggested. (24 references) (LRW)