Inside the 2024 SANsational Awards: Meet this Year’s Winners!

The State Authorization Network (SAN) has announced the winners of the 2024 SANsational Awards.

Since 2015, the awards have recognized the achievements of higher educational institutions and organizations nationwide that have raised the bar when developing comprehensive and viable solutions to challenging distance education compliance/state authorization issues.

This year, SAN honored seven winners in three categories:

1. Compliance Innovations: Institution policy, tools, compliance teams, or other inventive or novel compliance management process;
2. Licensure Programs: Notifications and disclosures for professional licensures in each state; and,
3. Location: Identifying student location for regulatory compliance and reporting requirements.

The SANsational Award Process

SAN offers members the opportunity to self-nominate, which includes providing specific information on their solution to the regulatory issue their project/process addresses. Details such as data related to implementation timelines, costs, stakeholder requirements, etc., are often noted within each statement of interest. All submissions are then reviewed by the SANsational Awards Committee, a team of well-respected Distance Education Compliance Professionals. The committee evaluates the submissions in four key areas by ensuring that:

1. The solution meets the requirements and the needs of state and/or federal regulations, the institution, and students.
2. The submission demonstrates a clear, comprehensive, practical solution to meet compliance requirements.
3. The project exhibits the capability of being adapted or replicated as a model for others.
4. The project addresses the specific focus of the category chosen.

Accordingly, the SAN Team extends our sincere gratitude to this year’s Awards Committee, for carefully reviewing and considering all submissions and for providing guidance and leadership when selecting our 2024 award recipients. The 2024 SANsational Awards Committee includes:

• Dr. Bill Hall, Campbell University,
• Dr. Miguel Valenzuela, The Chicago School,
• LaDonna Rodvold, University of South Dakota,
• Sharyl Thompson, CEO, Higher Education Regulatory (HER) Consulting, and,
• Jeannie Pauline Yockey-Fine, J.D., General Counsel, NC-SARA.

About the winners…

Again, this year, SAN presented awards for seven stellar project submissions. The recipients for 2024 are:

• Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Compliance Innovations),
• Post University (Licensure Programs),
• Rio Salado College (Compliance Innovations)
• Southern New Hampshire University (Location), 
• The University of Kentucky (Compliance Innovations and Licensure Programs), and
• University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Location).

Noted below are additional details about each institution and their respective projects.

Winner: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach, Florida)

Category: Compliance Innovations – Project Title: Creating Efficiencies and Ensuring Effectiveness through a SharePoint-based Change Management Process 

SAN is proud to announce that Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), a leader in aviation and aerospace educational programs, has won the 2024 SANsational Award in the category of Compliance Innovations.

ERAU, with campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida. It has residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Prescott, Arizona, and offers online and face-to-face instruction through a network of 128 locations (representing 28 states, 8 countries, and 1 U.S. territory). ERAU’s mission is to prepare students for careers and leadership roles in business, government agencies, and the military by teaching the science, practice, and business of aviation and aerospace. ERAU offers greater than 70 baccalaureate, graduate, and Ph.D. degree programs, including majors in applied science, aviation, business, computers and technology, engineering, space, security, intelligence, and safety.  

The impetus for ERAU’s winning project stemmed from the sheer scale and complexity of its operations. ERAU must often track and implement a variety of changes across the institution, including the establishment or closure of sites, program updates, site relocations, and name changes.

Before implementing the new process, managing these changes involved holding hour-long virtual meetings for each change, with up to 60 individuals from various departments within the institution. On average, 25-30 attendees would attend each meeting, resulting in a cost of approximately $1500 per meeting. During these sessions, attendees would provide input on a checklist of necessary items, often speaking for about 2 minutes each before listening to the remainder of the discussion. This method was not only costly but also time-consuming and inefficient.

In response to these challenges, ERAU transitioned to implementing a SharePoint-based checklist and tracking system that now allows stakeholders to provide their necessary changes/information in written form, which is then transparently shared with all other stakeholders. The benefits of this new approach include increased efficiency, cost savings, improved oversight, and enhanced satisfaction. This SharePoint-based system has transformed the management of ERAU’s complex scope of locations and programs. The process is now more efficient and effective and includes clear and transparent communications with all stakeholders.

Winner: Post University (Waterbury, Connecticut)

Category: Licensure Programs – Project Title: Maintaining Databases in Support of Personalized Student Licensure Advising.       

Post University, a private institution founded in 1890, is located in Waterbury, Connecticut. It is known for its focus on career-oriented education. Post University offers a range of undergraduate and graduate programs, including degrees in business criminal justice, healthcare, and education.

The Post University team serves as a beacon for innovation, as the institution’s commitment to student support, progress, and success is the driving force for this team’s dedication. The Distance Education Compliance professionals at Post University embody the university’s mission of “Post Makes it Personal®”. The team strives to meet the needs of their students by providing the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to become leaders in their respective fields.

For these reasons, SAN is proud to award Post University the 2024 SANsational Award for its groundbreaking approach to advising and providing necessary disclosures to its students. In an effort to provide personalized advising to any student interested in licensure, which includes one-on-one contact before, during, and after enrollment, Post University maintains spreadsheets of state requirements with almost 23,000 data points on them. Simpler versions of these sheets are provided for university associates outside of the Credentialing Team that present over 8,400 data points. Potential and enrolled students interested in licensure programs are tracked on spreadsheets shared with Admissions, Advising, and Academics.

There are six sheets containing between 8-73 categories of information. To keep costs down and lighten the training load for associates, both Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Teams are employed (it should be noted that these are programs the University already utilized). Because of these methods for maintaining accurate data, 1,740 potential students were efficiently outreached regarding licensure in 2023. The verification and maintenance of data, as well as all student advising, is managed by a team of only four associates. SAN salutes Post University for providing a model that facilitates personalized service and a commitment to student success!

Rio Salado College – Tempe, Arizona  

Category: Location – Winning Project: College Compliance Calendar Tool: Free Accountability for Us All

The SAN team presented an award to the Rio Salado College (RSC) team for their project submission in the Location category. RSC, a public, not-for-profit, institution located in Tempe, AZ.

RSC was established in 1978 as the “College Without Walls” and was created to serve non-traditional students and began offering fully online classes in 1996. Today, RSC offers more than 600 online classes and approximately 130 degree and certificate programs to learners throughout Arizona and throughout the United States. RSC is recognized nationally and prides itself in being an innovative leader in online learning by making education accessible, flexible, and affordable to meet the needs of today’s students.

RSC’s SANsational Award-winning project is rooted in the Office of Institutional Integrity and Compliance (IIC), a department that coordinates with various stakeholders across the college to ensure compliance with all regulatory triad (federal government, state government, accrediting bodies) mandates. Through collaboration with stakeholders, RSC developed a compliance calendar using a SharePoint list for the college to monitor and maintain compliance. However, over time, many realized that the calendar was not user-friendly, and user access was a challenging issue.

At issue was the fact that RSC needed to find a way to maintain institutional and staff accountability for their compliance actions while simultaneously creating a user-friendly system that a public 2-year community college with a limited budget and resources could utilize. Accordingly, the idea to create a Google version of the calendar was born, but with a unique twist.

Instead of users simply adding information into a basic spreadsheet, each user was provided with a unique dashboard of their compliance items which is linked to a main Google sheet calendar. Users delegated their access based on the items they were assigned. Only the specific/authenticated user could access their calendar dashboard (unless they delegated someone else to manage it for them). Automated emails are sent reminding the staff of their items due with an option to add a reminder to their work Google calendar. These items are then fed back to the master calendar once tasks are completed. The master calendar has a reporting feature that can send custom reports of items past due or pending to the leadership.

The RSC team reports that the new process saves time and effort and was created with $0 in incremental costs. Additionally, the project followed a structure of shared governance which increased transparency and promoted accountability for staff who now have ownership in completing compliance tasks annually.

University of Kentucky – Lexington, Kentucky

Category: Compliance Innovations – Winning Project: The Global Compliance Pilot Project the Evolution of Distance Education Global    

Known as the state of Kentucky’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky (UK) exists to advance the Commonwealth. UK does this by preparing the next generation of leaders, placing students at the heart of everything they do. The UK is delighted that it is transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research, creative work, service, and health care. The institution also prides itself on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds.

It is in that spirit that the SAN team is proud to celebrate UK for its exceptional contribution to the field with its Compliance Innovations project. This award-winning project emerged as the COVID-19 pandemic transitioned many students to online learning and created new restrictions on distance education emerged across various countries.

Concerns arose related to educational authorization, national security, cybersecurity, tax obligations, and other legal requirements in each foreign market where online programs might be offered. In response, the university launched a pilot project and established the Distance Learning Global Compliance Research Group (GCRG), consisting of members from Distance Learning Compliance, IT Cybersecurity, University Financial Services, and the Office of Legal Counsel. With no pre-existing policies or best practices to draw from, the university developed innovative frameworks and workflows that have set industry precedents.

The GCRG also implemented a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to streamline research documentation and the approval process, while creating dashboards for both public and internal use. After a year of implementation, the outcomes of the pilot project generated new insights and significantly influenced UK’s strategy. By sharing knowledge and best practices, the UK aims to advance industry standards in global distance education compliance, foster collaboration, and ensure sustainable practices across the sector.

University of Kentucky – Lexington, Kentucky

Category: Licensure Programs – Winning Project: Certification Procedures Planning Project: Collaborating Across Campus for Effective Regulatory Implementation

At UK, the Distance Learning Compliance Team led a campus-wide compliance project, collaborating with Information Technology Services, Institutional Research, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, the Graduate School, Professional Schools, Financial Aid, and managers of all licensure programs.

UK developed the “DE PPA (Department of Education Program Participation Agreement) Licensure” program inventory and implemented a triple-level compliance screening integrated into various application systems to ensure transparency and clarity for applicants. This screening process allows prospective students to verify their enrollment eligibility before applying and remitting an application fee, preventing unexpected enrollment restrictions, and safeguarding their educational journey. Additionally, the project facilitated an inventory of the university’s licensure programs, automated direct disclosures, and increased campus-wide awareness of compliance and data management for state authorization, global compliance, and licensure programs.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas Las Vegas, Nevada

Category: Location – Winning Project: Accuracy in Data Collection (ADC) for Out-of-State Learning Placements (OOSLP)

Founded in 1957, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a doctoral-degree-granting institution with approximately 31,000 students and over 3,600 faculty and staff. UNLV is proud to be a Minority Serving Institution (MSI) with Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) & Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) designations as well, having EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504 designations.

With more than 158,000 degrees conferred and over 140,000 alumni worldwide, UNLV is classified as an R1 research university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education®.

Naturally, SAN is proud to have presented the 2024 SANsational Award to UNLV for their submission in the Location category. Their initiative, Accuracy in Data Collection (ADC) for Out-of-State Learning Placements (OOSLP), provides an innovative and comprehensive approach to tracking and documenting student location.

When responding to the mandatory reporting requirements from NC-SARA, (requirements began in Spring 2019), UNLV identified the need for an improved method of tracking out-of-state learning placements. To begin the process, the compliance team connected with all UNLV colleges and schools, educating them about learning placement activities and identifying courses with learning placement activities.

However, due to differences in organizational structures, the team found it challenging to create a universal tracking method that would work across all colleges and schools. Each college and school had to rely on its own system to track placements throughout the year, resulting in inconsistencies in reporting. For four years, the Office of Educational Compliance (OEC) requested annual reports from colleges and schools via a spreadsheet, which proved to be an antiquated and rudimentary approach that needed more consistency and accuracy. 

Recognizing the need for improvement and the demand for reliable data, UNLV sought a better solution. It was concluded that the most accurate data on student locations was known by course instructors. To capture this data effectively, UNLV developed a system that prompts instructors at the end of each semester (during grade submissions), to indicate the state in which the student completed their learning placement activity.

Specifically, courses with learning placement activities are flagged in the system. Thus, UNLV developed an overlay in the grading module for these courses that prompts instructors to indicate the state where the student completed the learning placement activity. Only when this information is provided can instructors enter the student’s grade. This data is then stored in the registration system, allowing for efficient report generation when annual reports are due.

Multiple levels of administration and offices collaborated on this initiative, which took two years to implement. The process was facilitated with significant contributions from the Office of Information Technology.

Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, New Hampshire

Category: Location – Winning Project: Identifying Student Location and Reporting Such Information  

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution, located on a 300-acred campus in Manchester, New Hampshire. SNHU serves more than 200,000 learners worldwide, making it one of the fastest- growing universities in the nation. Founded in 1932, the University has undergone a transformation from a school of accounting and secretarial science to an institution that now offers over 200 accredited programs. SNHU’s academic offerings include undergraduate, graduate, certificate, and doctoral-level degrees.

SNHU’s programming and support services are strategically designed to fit the needs of today’s learners and the ever-evolving workforce. SNHU is committed to ensuring that students are keeping pace with innovative technologies and professional requirements, while simultaneously offering learners an exceptional student experience featuring nationally recognized academic programs.

The SANsational Awards Committee was impressed with SNHU’s innovative process that identifies and reports students’ physical locations, ensuring compliance with state and federal regulations. The ability to do so is particularly crucial for students enrolled in distance education and licensure programs. The process is grounded in automated biannual pop-up notifications in the student portal, which require students to update their location. SNHU advisors are automatically notified when a student’s location changes, enabling them to provide guidance on state-specific licensure requirements. These initiatives help SNHU maintain accurate student records, support compliance, and enhance the student experience.

Learn more about the 2024 Winners!

The SAN team expresses our sincere congratulations and well-wishes to each of the SANsational Award Winners! We are proud of your accomplishments and are grateful for your willingness to share your ideas and processes with our member institutions and organizations! Please also know how much the SAN team enjoyed our visits to each of your campuses when presenting their SANsational award in person.

For additional details on these fascinating projects, visit the SANsational Awards webpage. There, you will find recorded presentations from each of our winners detailing their processes, challenges, and outcomes. The recorded presentations are also transcribed and are approximately 20 minutes long.

Please keep in mind that your team/project could be a SANsational Award winner! Mark your calendars for the 2025 award self-nominations process which will begin in the summer.

For more information about the activities, events, and resources provided by the State Authorization Network (SAN), please visit the SAN Website or contact the SAN team at san-info@wiche.edu.

This post was written by Jana Walser-Smith, SAN