The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, is a set of forms that every college student needs to fill out prior to beginning each subsequent year of their college career to qualify for federal student aid. Filing this document can be confusing, so Learn More Indiana and IHETS decided to collaborate to bring the state of Indiana FAFSA Friday to help students and their families.
The first of its kind in the nation, the FAFSA Friday webinar — via IHETS Interactive — brought together over 250 users statewide to watch the informational videos created by Learn More Indiana and allowed for real-time, interactive chat between users and financial aid counselors. Users could log on at any one of the four designated times throughout the day. Those same URLs now lead to the final archived videos of each of the sessions that took place on February 27.
In IHETS Interactive, the space emulates a regular classroom. There are instructors and students, both of whom can be given access to audio, video, and text-based, chat modules. As in the setup of FAFSA Friday, the instructors were the only ones who needed the use of the audio and video chat modules, as the event was more like a lecture-based classroom with side conversations during the presentation in text form. In the center of the space is a presentation module, which allowed the FAFSA Friday coordinators to show videos and PowerPoint presentations on filling out the FAFSA forms.
As of the March 10 deadline, Learn More Indiana noted a 41% increase in Indiana FAFSA filing over last year, hopeful that their efforts helped these participants to fill out their forms without error and with more confidence. Learn More Indiana’s overall mission and the major goal of FAFSA Friday is “the education of people [in the attempt] to break down barriers and get [students] to and through college.”
Karen Bush, Community Alliance Manager at Learn More Indiana, formulated the original idea at the Southeast College Cooperative. Intending to brainstorm for an online webcast of presentations and videos about FAFSA filing, Karen met wThey explained the possibility of a “live and interactive online classroom,” provided by IHETS Interactive, powered by Adobe® Acrobat® Connect™. IHETS Interactive allows for an experience unparalleled by a simple webcast or archived training video; it includes in-window chat services (both private and public), live video and audio conferencing between participants, and in-window broadcasting of PowerPoint presentations and external videos.
Elizabeth Crouch, Public Relations and Media Coordinator at Learn More Indiana, is already preparing for the festivities of next year’s FAFSA training program. This year was a learning experience, which included successes and surprises that will contribute to the success of next year’s webinars. The surprises that stood out at this year’s sessions included: “The ease of use of IHETS Interactive, the sheer number of questions pertaining to taxes and tax forms, and just how many people stayed connected throughout the entirety of FAFSA Friday. With the knowledge of the true need for help in filing the FAFSA, Elizabeth and Karen joke, “We might have to make it FAFSA February next year.” Learn More Indiana’s marketing team will be working, as early as October, to get the information about next year’s happenings out to the people who will need it most. On Wednesday, October 14, they begin their College GO! Week that aims to further Learn More Indiana’s goal of getting people educated about college and “to and through college.”