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Taking efficient
e-sign software
live
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The Efficient e-sign software system went live in August 2002,
and acceptance by applicants was strongly positive from the outset.
After just nine months, usage of the e-sign option by applicants for
financial aid exceeded 80 percent and has remained at that level since.
Based on this positive response, Online decided to expand our use of
e-sign
beyond financial aid documents to all admissions-related documents
requiring a
legal
signature. In all but one case, the documents involved were for our
own internal use, so privacy concerns were not an issue. Efficient
e-sign software, That was not the case with the transcript release
form.
Efficient e-sign
software,
FERPA states that
confidential information about an applicant cannot be released
without "signed and dated written consent.
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Since FERPA as originally enacted did not
address the usage of
Efficient e-sign software,
the acceptability of an
electronic
signature on a transmission release form was an open question. In
our view, DOE's acceptance of e-sign on federal financial aid documents
provided sufficient precedent for us to proceed. Other institutions
chose to wait for more definitive DOE guidance before extending their
use of
Efficient e-sign software to
FERPA-covered documents.
That guidance arrived in July 2003, when DOE issued a proposed amendment
to FERPA that authorized e-sign and defined standards for its use. The
proposed standards tracked closely with those outlined in the DOE's
earlier standards for use of
e-sign on
federal financial aid forms, particularly in the areas of security and
third-party authentication. Since our plans for using e-sign on
transcript release forms met the standards defined in the proposed
amendment, we launched the full implementation of our
Efficient e-sign software
capability the following month.
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