1. Providing educational institutions with the tools and training they need to
develop and deliver high-quality student services online.
Vicky Frank
Seward Inc.
Paul Wasko
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities

2. Established as a partnership among the Western
Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications
(WCET), the Minnesota State Colleges and
Universities (MnSCU) and Seward Inc., CENTSS
expands upon WCET's research on best practices
in student services online.
History

3. CENTSS Launched November 2005
• Searchable Resources (over 100)
• Models of Best Practice (23)
• Workshops
• Audit Tool (over 200)
The CENTSS Online Student Services Audit has been used by over 200 post-secondary
institutions in 30 states and Canada.
History
AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT,
HI, IA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MD,
ME, MI, MN, MN, NC, ND,
NE, NM, OH, OR, SD, TX,
VA, WA, WI WV, WY,
Canada

4. • 31 Student Service Audits
• Respond from a Student’s Perspective
• Critical Components:
8-14 “Questions” Per Service
Audit Structure
CENTSS Online Student Services Audit

5. • Responses Correlate with Generations 1-5
– Generation 1: Service is not provided on web site
– Generation 2: Informational, internal focus on institution
– Generation 3: Informational, audience focused (Prospective
students' link, continuing students' link, etc.)
– Generation 4: Process oriented - customized community,
personalized, portal
– Generation 5: Virtual mentor – process orientation, and decision
making guide
Audit Structure
CENTSS Online Student Services Audit

6. Critical Component:
As a student, I can find tools for saving for college and information
about how to evaluate financial assistance sources, such as
scholarships, grants, and loans.
Critical Components
Personal Services Suite > Financial Planning
Generation 1: Student cannot find information or services on the web site.
Generation 2: Student can view general information about saving for college.
Generation 3: Student can download PDFs of articles about saving for college, read FAQs
about saving for college, link to reputable college savings programs.
Generation 4: Student can view information on an institution-sponsored wiki, blog, or web
page about college savings; access online tools for estimating how much
savings needed for college; access online evaluation tools for scholarships,
grants, and loans.
Generation 5: Student can access live help via chat or web forums with a knowledgeable
financial planner about college savings plans and evaluating financial aid
sources.

7. • Establish a baseline of how you deliver online student
services now
• Quickly identify problem areas and develop strategies
for improvement
• Create a common language for improvements
• Benchmark your progress against your peers locally,
statewide, or nationally
• Track and compare your progress year over year
• Inform decisions about technology purchases using
tested and individualized data
Audit Benefits

8. The CENTSS Online Student Services report offers interactive access to your audit
data. Audit responses to each service audit is provided in chart or data views.
Service averages are
shown for your
institution vs. 2-year, 4-
year, or all institutions
in your consortia.
Individual licensed
version does not
provide this
comparative data.
Data Drill-Down – Service Detail

9. Hot Spots represent specific areas within each service that may warrant special
attention.
The Service
Respondents tab
provides a list of
people who have
responded to this
service audit so you
can track participation.
Data Drill-Down – Service Detail

10. Question Detail provides comparative data within the consortia (consortia version only)
specifics of responses to a particular question (component.)
In this example, this
Question has been
identified as a Hot
Spot. The button
“Remove from Hot
Spot list” allows you to
remove this Question
from your Hot Spot list.
Data Drill-Down – Question Detail

11. Autogenerate a list of Hot Spots on the Hot Spots Data page using the “Gather Hot
Spots” button. Or individually identify areas to add to or delete from this list.
Data Drill-Down – Question Detail
Autogenerated Hot
Spots are Questions
that score one or more
generations lower than
the average for the
Service to which the
Question belongs.
You also can
customize this list to
meet your line of
inquiry.

12. “The CENTSS audit results have opened many
eyes around the college, and provided a point of
entry from which to begin our journey to
improved online student services.”
Quotes from Users

13. “A significant benefit of the CENTSS project is
that the College now has a benchmark tool for
demonstrating success and evaluating the logical
next steps.”
Quotes from Users

14. “We realized the importance of thinking
functionally rather than departmentally and
aligning our online tools to enable students to
progress through the enrollment process without
barriers and limitations.”
Quotes from Users

15. “Some of the concepts we found most relevant
included:
• Reviewing services/resources from the students’
perspective rather than the institution’s view,
• Writing style for Web vs. copying text from existing
print materials,
• Customization/personalization vs. generic information,
and
• Interactivity and automatic update features”
Quotes from Users

16. And The Winners Are…