Posted Date:November 20, 2009
Author: | William Leith, Service Director, Program Management, Federal Student Aid |
Subject: COD School Testing for the 2010-2011 Award Year
The Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) School Relations Center will conduct Common Record Manual Verification and Structured Application Testing for the 2010-2011 Award Year from January 4, 2010 through June 25, 2010. Optional Unstructured Testing will be available June 7, 2010 through October 1, 2010.
The purpose of COD School Testing is to provide schools, third party servicers, and software vendors an opportunity to test Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG), National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant), Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant), Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH Grant), and William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) business processes and system software with the COD System prior to the transmission and processing of actual production data using COD Common Record XML Schema Version 3.0c. It also allows schools, third party servicers, and software providers the opportunity to make corrections or enhancements to software applications and processes prior to sending data to the “live” production environment.
All entities that wish to participate in COD School Testing must submit the “COD School Testing 2010-2011 Sign-Up Document” to the COD School Relations Center. Schools, third party servicers, and software vendors can submit the sign-up document beginning Monday, December 7, 2009.
Complete testing information is available in the COD School Testing Guide (Volume V, Section 1, of the 2010-2011 COD Technical Reference post on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site). In this announcement, we provide useful high-level information about COD School Testing for the 2010-2011 Award Year in the following order:
- Who Should Participate in COD School Testing for the 2010-2011 Award Year
- School Testing Phases
- COD School Testing Sign-Up Process
- Contact Information
Note: An additional opportunity for COD School Testing for the 2009-2010 Award Year is available through February 26, 2010. Information about this testing can be found in a November 10, 2009 Electronic Announcement posted on the IFAP Web site.
Who Should Participate in COD School Testing for the 2010-2011 Award Year
Any school that will participate in the ACG, National SMART Grant, Pell Grant, TEACH Grant, or Direct Loan program for the first time in the 2010-2011 Award Year must complete school testing with the COD System before sending data into production. The only exception to this is new schools using software from software providers or third party servicers.
While other schools are not required to test with the COD System, all schools, software providers, and third party servicers may participate in testing. We encourage schools that use a solution developed in-house (mainframe system, server, software, or other) to send and receive the COD Extensible Mark Up Language (XML) Common Record to test with the COD System.
Software providers and third party servicers may perform their own product testing on behalf of their customers. Schools should contact their software provider or third party servicer to discuss testing plans/concerns. The Department of Education (the Department) will test the EDExpress software before releasing it to schools.
are before releasing it to schools. releasing it to schools.School Testing Phasesr Common Record Manual Verification and Phase II for Structured Application Testing. A school must complete Phase I testing before participating in Phase II testing. Following the completion of Phase I and Phase II testing, a school may participate in Unstructured Testing.
Note: The COD School Relations Center will supply the test student data that must be used during testing.
The testing phases will be available as follows:
Testing Phase | Testing Phase Description | Start Date | End Date |
Phase I | Common Record Manual Verification Testing | 01/04/10 | 06/04/10 |
Phase II | Structured Application Testing | 04/12/10 | 06/25/10 |
Unstructured | Unstructured Testing | 06/07/10 | 10/01/10 |
Phase I – Common Record Manual Verification
The purpose of Common Record Manual Verification testing is to ensure that a school's COD XML Common Record is well formed and properly structured according to the rules of the COD XML Common Record Schema Version 3.0c.
During this testing phase, the COD School Testing Support Team manually reviews a Common Record document that a school e-mails to the COD School Relations Center and assists the school in the identification of potential updates to its Common Record submissions. This testing phase will be available from January 4, 2010 through June 4, 2010.
Phase II – Structured Application Testing
The purpose of Structured Application Testing is to ensure that a school can send, receive, and process batches of records using comprehensive input instructions with detailed expected results issued by the COD School Relations Center. The school uses a test Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) file supplied by the COD School Relations Center that creates a test data set of students to use with the structured test cases.Note: If a school has questions about the structured test cases or its ability to participate using the structured test cases, it should contact the COD School Relations Center for assistance.
During this phase, a school sends Common Record documents to the COD System and receives Receipt and Response documents back from the COD System. The school must verify that these files can be loaded and processed correctly in its system.
This testing phase will be available from April 12, 2010 through June 25, 2010. To participate in Phase II testing, a school must complete Phase I testing first. If a school completes Phase I testing before April 12, 2010, it must wait until the Phase II testing window opens.
Unstructured Testing
The purpose of Unstructured Testing is to apurpose of Unstructured Testing is to allow a school that has completed Phase ool that has completed Phase I and Phase II testing to ensure that ior the future award year. The school uses the test ISIR file data and submits minor variations to test cases such as adjustments to the person information, award amounts, or disbursement amounts throughout the award year.
This optional testing phase will be available from June 7, 2010 through October 1, 2010.
COD School Testing Sign Up
A school registers for testing by completing the “COD School Testing 2010-2011 Sign-up Document” attached to this announcement. The sign-up document is also posted on the COD Web site under the “Click here if you are looking for more information on Common Origination and Disbursement” link.
As explained in the sign-up document, a school may register to participate in Phase I testing, in both Phase I and Phase II testing, or in Phase I, Phase II, and Unstructured testing. In any case, the school must sign up by May 7, 2010.
Once completed, a school should submit the sign-up document to the COD School Relations Center by faxing it to 877/623-5082 or e-mailing it to CODsupport@acs-inc.com with “School Testing Signup” in the subject line. After the sign-up document is received, the COD School Relations Center will contact the school via e-mail to obtain school-specific information and to schedule specific test dates with the school.
Note: Upon receipt of the sign-up document, the COD School Testing Support Team must complete a considerable setup process to establish the school in the COD test environment before testing can begin. Please allow 7-10 business days for completion of the sign-up and set-up processes. A school should take this timeframe into account before beginning to test and provide enough lead-time in its schedule.
Contact Information
If you have any questions about this announcement, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/474-7268 for Grants or 800/848-0978 for Direct Loans. You may also e-mail CODSupport@acs-inc.com.