Hello,
I just wanted to let you know about a problem I ran into and give you some suggestions for improvement.
Our students generally don't upload their financial aid documents to Populi as we direct them to send them to us or upload to our financial aid servicers; however, one student uploaded their files anyway and I received this notification.
"[Staff Name],
[Student Name] has posted a file on your 2019-2020 financial aid application. To view this application and download this file, log in to Populi and go to [Student Name]'s Profile.
Thank you,
Populi Notifications"
The problem is that this notification is very vague. I went to the student's "Profile" and clicked through every tab and saw no indication for where these files might be stored. I went to the Financial>Financial Aid tab, checked both aid years and still saw no files. It wasn't until I ventured into the "student view" on the correct aid year that I was able to view and download the file the notification indicated. The process of locating the files could have been a much better experience if the notification just gave the proper direction.
My first suggestion would be to have the Files section also visible on the "admin view" rather than hiding them on the "student view" only. This would make the most logistical sense.
However, whether you let the files be visible on the admin view or not, my second suggestion is to add a link in the email notification to that specific view where the files are visible. Including a link would make the email notification exponentially more valuable turning the current "find the student & six click deep" file hunt into a convenient one click service.
Alternately, if there are policies in place against a link to the view, you could at least make the notification text more clear. Instead of directing us to the student's "Profile" where a user has to click on everything if they don't already know where they are going, direct us to the "student view on the Financial Aid tab in the student's profile under the [2019-2020] Aid Year" or wherever it is we need to go. I can understand wanting to keep the wording generic so the notification doesn't need to be changed if the process is changed, but as it is, the notification is not very helpful.
My final suggestion would be a bigger project. To add a reporting tab to Financial>Financial Aid>Aid Applications called "Student Documents" or something similar that could be filtered by Aid Year and Date Uploaded at least possibly by student name to list all files a student has uploaded for all of their aid years. Have it list the student, the aid year, the file name, the date uploaded, and a download link for the file.
