Overview

This article reviews the process of setting up a stage configuration for the Pre-Arrival, Check-In, Continuing, Post Completion/Graduated, and Archived Stages. Information and instructions for students can be set up for each stage of the visa lifecycle so the student has the information when they need it.

Pre-arrival: The initial I-20 or DS2019 has been created, and the student will remain in this stage until 31 days prior to the program start date. They’ll have access to pre-arrival communications and can submit documents related to check-in.

Check-in: Students can access check-in communications and a request screen. The student check-in stage will be triggered by the program start date, calculated 30 days prior to the program start date. Students will stay in the check in stage until they are registered as an Active student then they will move to continuing.

Continuing: Students who have approved Check-In Request and initial registration. Students will remain in this stage while they are in Active SEVIS status. 

Post Completion/Graduated Stage: This stage will include students who have applied for post-completion OPT, and F-1 students who are in their grace period. 

Archived Stage: F-1 Students who have completed their grace period and J-1 students after their program end date. Additionally, any students who have canceled/invalid, deactivated, or terminated SEVIS Status, will appear in the Archived stage. 

• Navigating and Creating a New Stage Configuration
• Conditions
• Content Blocks 
• Welcome
• Personal & Program
• Financial Details
• Available Requests
• Editing an Existing Stage Configuration
• Previewing a Stage Configuration

 

 

Navigating and Creating a New Stage Configuration

To navigate to any of the stages to create a stage configuration for the stage configuration, click on the hamburger menu in the upper left corner of the page, select Configurations > Configuration Wizard >______ Stage.

Once in the appropriate stage, the ISSS Admin is presented with a dashboard with existing configurations, a preview option, and a Create Configuration button. The dashboard is split into two tabs, one for stage configurations for F students and one for stage configurations for J students. Any already created stage configurations will appear on the dashboard with information displaying the name of the configuration, the conditions set up, and when it was last updated. 

In the left corner of the page, the ISSS Admin can click Create Configuration to start a new configuration.

This will take the ISSS Admin to a new view with a five-step process for the following information:

• Conditions: set criteria of what students will receive this set of instructions.
• Welcome: the welcome page students will see when logging into their student profile except for in Continuing Stage. This can contain information about the campus, the program, visa instructions, and any other information the student may need.
• Personal & Program: customize what personal and program information is deployed to the student to be seen, edited, or hidden.
• Financial Details: customize what financial information the student can be seen, edited, or hidden from the student view.
• Available Requests: this section in all stages except for the Invited Stage. This section allows the ISSS Admin to configure which of the requests dedicated to a particular stage are deployed to students as options.

Note: All tabs can be renamed to fit the needs of the ISSS office. All tabs except for Personal & Program and Control Center can be made hidden from students. 

The ISSS Admin will land on the conditions section and begin by giving the configuration a title in the Configuration Description located in the upper left corner. 

 

 

Conditions

In the Conditions section, the ISSS Admin can set up the criteria for which students will be able to see this configuration. This step is required in order to move forward in the configuration process. Think of these as the largest requirements (netting the largest possible) group of students that would see this information.

There are currently two conditions that the ISSS Admin can choose from: educational level and campus site. Multiple options can be selected, for example, the conditions can be for both Bachelor and Master students on the Main Campus. Once conditions are completed, click Welcome to move to the next section. Note: configurations can be saved at any step and be completed at a later time. Click the Save button to save progress.

 

 

Content Blocks

Before diving into the next tabs of a stage configuration, let's review what content blocks are available to ISSS Admins in the Welcome and Financial Details tabs. These two tabs have gridsters where the ISSS Admin can configure important updates, announcements, or other information for students to review. There are three types of content that the ISSS Admin can add: written text, images, and video. 

Content blocks can be edited in their size and location within the working space. To resize the content block, click and drag any of the edges of that block. Click and drag anywhere on the block in order to move its location around the working space.

Written Content Block

In the written content section, the ISSS Admin can put any additional instructions or other needed information for the student to complete. A WYSIWYG editor is available that allows for formatting and stylizing the text.

The text content block can be made viewable to students based on the conditions of their primary major and country of citizenship. For example, you may want to display visa information to all students except those from Canada and Bermuda. To add conditions, click on the three vertical dots located in the upper right corner of the content block. 

The three vertical dots will also give the ISSS Admin access to editing the text content block or deleting the block altogether. 

Image Content Block

Before any images can be uploaded, the Program Wizard and Scholar Admin - ISSS Administrator permissions must be enabled in the Staff Permissions. To enable the Program Wizard and Scholar Adminpermissions for staff members, the ISSS Admin will navigate to Staff > Staff Permissions. Find the group and then select the staff member that should have this permission enabled. Under Program Admin, check the box for Program Wizard and then under Scholar Admin, enable ISSS Administrator, and click Update. For more information, check out this Knowledgebase article on Managing Staff Permissions.

Images can be added by clicking on the Up Arrow button located in the middle of the image content block. The ISSS Admin can upload any image file saved to their computer. 

Clicking on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the image block gives the ISSS Admin to make this image viewable to students based upon the conditions of primary major or country of citizenship. From the three vertical dots, the ISSS Admin can also provide alt text or delete the image. 

Video Content Block

The video must first be uploaded to a video service and the video code copied and pasted into the ‘embed your video code’ field. A video cannot be added directly to this content block from a saved file. 

Like the text and image content blocks, video content blocks can also be made to be viewable to students based upon the primary major and country of citizenship conditions. Clicking into the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the block will give ISSS Admins to add the conditions and delete the content block. 

Welcome 

Once the ISSS Admin has completed the Conditions section, they can then move forward with the Welcome section of the configuration. This section can be renamed by the ISSS Admin to what is needed by their office, campus, or department.

Here the ISSS Admin can configure messages, announcements, and any additional information to present students when they first log into their site. This will be the first thing that students will see when logging in and can always navigate back to this section if they want.

To add content to the welcome section, click on the Plus button in the lower right corner of the working space. The ISSS Admin can add written text, images, and videos blocks to the Welcome tab. Review the Content Blocks section above for designing text, image, and video blocks. 

Once configured with content blocks, the ISSS Admin can preview the Welcome tab from the student's perspective by clicking on the eye icon located in the lower right corner of the gridster.

After configuring the Welcome tab, click on Personal & Program Information to move to the next section.

 

 

Personal & Program 

The next step in the configuration is the Personal & Program section that houses the information of the student and the program that they are a part of. The ISSS Admin can configure the fields that will be shown and editable to the student. This tab will contain all information and blocked into Personal Information, Program Information, Contact Information, Dependent Information, and Other Information.

Note: the Other Information section contains all fields that were configured in the Field Configuration page. Check out the Field Configurations article for more information. 

In the dropdown menu to the right of each information field, the ISSS Admin has four options to select from:

• Editable/Not Required - formerly Editable; Student can edit but is not required to complete this field
• Hidden - Student does not see this field when logged in
• Read-Only - Student can see but not change this field when logged in
• Required - Student is required to complete this field before they can complete a save to their profile or Submit I-20 request in the case of an Invited stage student

Note: Fields required for profile creation do not have the option of Editable/Not Required. Also, the Editable/Not Required option cannot be mass applied because in cannot be applied to the required fields.

The fields can be configured both by individual fields and en masse per section. To configure en masse, select the checkbox in the upper right corner of the section. Select the configuration desired in the Apply this configuration to checked fields located along the top of the section and then click apply. 

Custom questions and file uploads can be created in each of the information blocks on the Personal & Program tab. Located in the bottom right corner of each information block, click on the configure icon to open the modal window for the custom question.

To add a new question or file upload, click on the plus icon located on the right side of the modal window. The ISSS Admin will can then select however many file uploads or questions required for that information block. 

The ISSS Admin can make the question item required. If the question item is no longer needed, select the Hiden toggle item to remove from the student view. Once created, click submit to save. 

Once the Personal & Program section has been configured, click on Financial Details to move to the next section. 

 

 

Financial Details 

In this section, the ISSS Admin can set up content similar to how content is set up in the Welcome section. To review how to set up content, refer to the content blocks section above. Here, the ISSS Admin can add text, image, and video blocks for instructional purposes. 

Like in the Welcome tab, this section can also be renamed by the ISSS Admin. On the right side of the screen, this tab can also be made invisible to students by moving the toggle to the left. 

Scrolling down the screen, there will be a section much like the Personal & Program section, the Financial Details section can be set up to have the information fields be read-only, hidden, or editable by students. These configurations can be done for individual information fields or en masse. 

Create custom questions for the financial details as well by clicking on the configure icon in the lower right corner of the Financial Details information section. The ISSS Admin can set up questions or file uploads for the student to complete as part of the Financial Information. 

Once the Financial Details section has been configured, click on Completed to move to the next section

 

 

Available Requests

The Available Requests section is the final step for the Pre-arrival, Check-in, and Continuing Stages. In this section, the ISSS Admin can select from the total bank of available requests and select which requests should be available for students in their respective stages. Select by clicking on the checkbox next to the request, this will show this request to students of that on their Requests tab. 

If the ISSS Admin had previously created a new request in the Requests Configuration, that request will automatically show the request as checked if the correct stage is selected in the request creation process. For more information on Request Configuration, check out this ISSS Student: Request Configuration.

Once completed with the desired configuration, click on the Save button to save all work. In the upper right-hand corner of the screen, there is a Preview button that will allow the ISSS Admin to see the configuration from the student's perspective. 

 

 

Editing an Existing Stage Configuration

Editing a configuration follows the same process of setting up a configuration. Begin by navigating to the stage that the configuration belongs to. The ISSS Admin has the option to edit a configuration or to remove a configuration. Note: once a configuration has been deleted, it cannot be restored. Click on the Trash Can icon to the right of the configuration name to delete a configuration. 

To edit a configuration, click on the configuration’s name. This will bring the ISSS Admin into the set-up that was previously seen during the building of the configuration. From here, the ISSS Admin can click into the desired sections to edit and complete those changes. Once completed, click the Save button to save the updates.

 

 

Previewing a Stage Configuration

ISSS Admins can preview the stage configuration from the student's perspective from the configuration wizard tool. To begin, click on the stage configuration that you would like to preview. In the upper right corner of the page, click on the preview experience button to view the stage configuration from the student's view.

The ISSS Admin can navigate through the tabs to preview how content and fields were configured. To exit, simply click on the x button in the upper right corner.