(GENERAL-21-61) FSA Partner Connect – September 2021 Updates to FSA Partner Connect Website

Author
Federal Student Aid
Electronic Announcement ID
GENERAL-21-61
Subject
FSA Partner Connect – September 2021 Updates to FSA Partner Connect Website

We are pleased to announce the implementation of additional customer-focused updates to the FSA Partner Connect website. The updates outlined in this announcement support our overarching goals for FSA Partner Connect—providing improved experiences for customers in accessing data pertinent to their school or organization, information contained in the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Handbook, and guidance published and maintained in the Knowledge Center.

Overall FSA Partner Connect Updates

  • We updated the FSA Partner Connect website to automatically open external links in a new browser tab. All links outside of the website, including other U.S. Department of Education websites, will open in a new tab.

Student/Parent/Borrower Profile Updates

School Profile Updates

  • We updated the School Profile feature to include a direct link to the Dashboard for school users. We also added code names and descriptions for the data fields in the School General Information and Main Campus Information sections within the School Profile landing page.

FSA Handbook Updates

  • We improved formatting parameters related to the digital FSA Handbook. When a customer uses Ctrl-P while viewing a chapter of the digital FSA Handbook, the entire chapter will now appear and be available to print. FSA Handbook PDFs may continue to be used for printing purposes as well.

Knowledge Center Updates

  • We added an internal print function to all publications on the Knowledge Center. Publications include Dear Colleague Letters, Electronic Announcements, and Foreign School Updates as well as numerous other operational communications. The new internal print function replaces a customer’s need to use a computer’s browser print function (Ctrl-P) and produces a formatted version of the published guidance versus printed version of the webpage itself. Look for the blue button at top left above the publication content that reads “Click here to print”.

    An image of the blue print button that has a printer icon and the words

    Note: To print Knowledge Center FAQs and Topics pages, continue using Ctrl-P. For FSA Handbook printing information, refer to FSA Handbook Updates.

  • We updated Knowledge Center display functionality to include the Dear Colleague Letter ID, Electronic Announcement ID, and Foreign School Update ID in front of the publication’s Subject at the top of each publication and whenever the publication appears in What’s New, Library, and search result listings.

    In the case of Electronic Announcements, only those published on or after Sept. 12, 2021, will include the Electronic Announcement ID in front of the publication’s Subject. When we began assigning Electronic Announcement IDs on Jan. 1, 2021, it was necessary to manually place the ID at the end of the Subject until we could implement this system change, and prior to Jan. 1, 2021, we did not assign Electronic Announcement IDs.

    An image of the Dear Colleague Letter Library listing showing two items with the ID in parentheses at the beginning of the listing

FSA Partner Connect Resources

A comprehensive set of training resources about FSA Partner Connect, including webinars, tutorials, and quick reference job aids, is available on the FSA Training Center website. Refer to the March 11, 2021 Training Announcement for details about how to access the training resources, including how to create a username and password for the FSA Training Center if you do not already have one. After logging in, select Training Courses from the main menu bar, then FSA Partner Connect from the drop-down menu.

The Partner Experience Council includes over 350 individuals representing schools, servicers, and state agencies that provide services related to federal student aid and provides FSA with direct, continuous feedback from our partners in the field. Members share their knowledge and insight by participating in optional user engagement and research activities such as surveys, interviews, usability sessions, and focus groups. In addition, members provide feedback on and test new features before deployment. FSA seeks additional council members on a bi-annual basis in conjunction with the FSA Training Conference.

If you have questions or would like to provide feedback about FSA Partner Connect, complete the Customer Support form in the FSA Partner Connect Help Center or call the School Relations Center at 1-800-848-0978.