NAU News Submission Example
NAU ITS – Solution Spotlight
Department of Defense Tuition Aid (DODTA)
Who:
Student employee Jake Jones, from the Business Process and Service Management Team (BPSM) in ITS
Jake Jones, Business Analyst in Enrollment Management
Jake Jones, Assistant Director of NAU Veteran and Military Services
What:
Department of Defense Tuition Aid (DODTA) is a student-centered solution, created for the NAU Veteran and Military Services (VMS) Department
Why:
To improve the student experience by providing an easy to use form to apply for the benefit and to better support the VMS staff’s desire to provide better customer service.
Details:
NAU student employee Jake Jones, from the ITS Business Process and Service Management (BPSM)Team and full time employee Jake Jones, a Business Analyst in Enrollment Management, worked together to create an automated solution that makes the process of obtaining tuition aid for military students much easier. Jake Jones is a junior at NAU currently working to get his bachelor’s degree in Information Systems and his certificate in Enterprise Systems. He has been working with the BPSM team since April of 2019 and has been a student employee in ITS since August of 2018. Jake Jones has worked for the university for 9 years; six as a student employee and full-time staff member in the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid, and three as a full-time Business Analyst in Enrollment Management.
This solution involved an electronic form and workflow that were developed in OnBase, an enterprise tool used to automate manual processes. This allowed the NAU Veteran and Military Services (VMS) Department to fulfill some of their duties at a more efficient and capable pace than they were originally able to with their paper forms. This new process helps veterans obtain approval for their aid faster than ever before. Using OnBase to automate the Department of Defense Tuition Aid (DODTA) process bolsters VMS’ record keeping and workflow efforts. It also strengthens reporting efforts; OnBase has Reporting Dashboards where VMS can easily view real-time reports and graphs related to their DODTA process, and use that information to make important decisions on the fly.
Students on Active Duty with the military are able to utilize the DODTA benefit to advance their education while serving. NAU offers the benefit of a tuition rate of $250 per credit hour for all DODTA eligible undergraduate AND graduate students, which matches what the military will pay in tuition per credit. Laurie Jordon, Assistant Director of VMS said, “Many of these students are taking classes online while serving in the military halfway across the globe, the real-time feedback is hugely helpful. The data will also be available via the new dashboard. This will be very beneficial for Tuition Assistance reporting purposes. Less paperwork means less errors and better customer service.”
https://in.nau.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/201/CKLST_DODTA_Mar-22.pdf
Way to go Jake Jones!