CCCStart Quick Start Guide
Overview
Outcomes is your central hub for viewing and managing CCCStart applications. All application data is available in one place, giving you access to submitted and in-progress applications, powerful filtering and sorting tools, communication features, and fraud insights. Together, these tools help you identify, track, and engage prospective students throughout the application process. Applications are also categorized by fraud status, with direct access to review details in LightleapAI.
As you begin working in Outcomes, you’ll find that it comes preconfigured with a variety of tools and features designed to help you get started. Think of this as your "starter kit" – you can use as much or as little of it as you’d like and customize features to meet your college’s needs.
You may also notice that there are often multiple ways to complete the same task. This guide introduces common workflows and core functionality to help you get started, while links to additional documentation provide deeper guidance as you continue exploring Outcomes. Because the Outcomes Help Center serves a broad range of institutions, some linked articles may reference features or functionality that are not available in your college’s current configuration. Use those resources as supplemental guidance, focusing on the features available in your environment.
If you need assistance while exploring Outcomes, we're happy to help – contact our support team at cccstaffsupport@liaisonedu.com.
Access and Environments
Each college has one or more designated administrators who can add and manage Outcomes user accounts. If you need access, contact your college administrator. If you’re unsure who your administrator is, contact the support team using the information provided above.
Once you have access, you can log in to one of two Outcomes environments:
- Production: the live environment where you perform your applicant management and communication processes.
- Testing: a simulated environment with fictional applicant data (for example, surnames and email addresses) used to learn the system, test workflows, and become familiar with functionality.
If you have access to multiple colleges, you can switch between them by clicking your initials in the lower-left corner of the navigation menu, selecting View My Organizations, and then selecting the college you want to access.
Getting Started in Outcomes
Step 1: Get Familiar with the Essentials
The Dashboard and Navigation Menu
When you first log in to Outcomes, you land on the dashboard, which provides a customizable overview of key data through interactive charts. In addition to monitoring activity and progress, the dashboard serves as a starting point for exploring applicant data, allowing you to click charts and drill into specific groups of applicants.
You can use the pencil icon in the top-right corner to customize the dashboard, including any preconfigured goals. Note that the left navigation menu is collapsible and expandable – click the icon in the top-left corner to change the view.
The Applications Grid
When you open the Applications section in the left navigation menu, the Applications Grid displays. This is likely where you'll spend most of your time working in Outcomes.
- Applications are organized into Phases, which you can click to view only the applications within a specific category:
- In Progress: applications that have been started but not yet submitted.
- Fraud: submitted applications that have been identified as fraudulent through LightleapAI.
- Not Fraud: submitted applications that have been identified as not fraudulent through LightleapAI.
- Changed to Fraud: submitted applications that were initially identified as not fraudulent but were later changed to fraudulent in LightleapAI. Any fraud review updates made in LightleapAI are automatically reflected in Outcomes.
- In Outcomes, filters are called Segments. Using the Segment Selector, you can apply preset filters to narrow the applicant pool by criteria such as student journey, program, or term. You can also access additional filters to identify and engage specific groups of in-progress applicants based on their application responses. For example, you can quickly find applicants who indicated an interest in athletics.
- Click any column header to sort applications by that field.
- Use the gear icon to customize which columns are displayed. For example, you can add fields such as residency status, program start term, or other information collected in the application.
- Click any application row to open the applications sidebar.
- The sidebar provides key application details, including fraud review information. From here, you can open the application in LightleapAI for additional review or view the full application within Outcomes.
- When you select one or more applications using the checkboxes, an action menu appears with options such as sending emails and exporting data.
Step 2: Configure Applicant Communication Tools
Outcomes includes two communication tools: email and SMS messaging. Before users begin communicating with applicants, review and customize the default email templates.
Customize Email Templates
To help you get started, Outcomes includes 10 preconfigured email templates covering common communication scenarios, including:
- Communicating with applicants who expressed interest in athletics.
- Sharing information about California residency requirements.
- Providing financial assistance information.
- Encouraging in-progress applicants to continue their application.
Note: you must edit these templates before use. Once in use, you can edit templates as needed.
Edit Email Templates
- From the left navigation menu, navigate to Settings > App Setup > Email Templates.
- Select a template,
- In the Template Settings section, you can edit the template name (the template key automatically populates).
- In the Email Headers section, either leave the default address information as is or click Customize to update it.
- From Address: the email address used when the message is delivered. While the domain is managed by the system to support deliverability, you can customize the first portion of the address.
- From Name: the sender name displayed to applicants.
- Reply-to Address: the email address that receives applicant replies.
- Reply-to Name: the name displayed to applicants when they reply.
- In the Message section, you can:
- Add formatting such as headings, bold text, and bulleted lists.
- Insert merge fields to personalize your message. Merge fields are placeholders that automatically populate with applicant-specific information. If multiple values exist for a merge field, all values will be included in a comma-separated list.
- Add images, videos, and links. Attachments cannot be added to email templates but can be included when sending a message. You can add up to five attachments, with a maximum size of 50 MB per attachment and 250 MB total.
- Use Preview to review your template, including how merge fields will appear to recipients.
- Be sure to Save Changes when done.
Send Email Communications
After templates have been configured, you can send emails in two ways:
- Send an email to multiple applicants via the Applications Grid.
- Send an email to an individual applicant from the sidebar (or full application) via the More Options menu.
Once the email editor opens, you can select a template (or construct a new message), make any modifications, and add attachments. You can add up to five attachments, each with a 50MB limit, for a total of 250MB. Additionally, you can preview the email's merge fields and send test emails to yourself and others.
Tracking Emails
From the Activity section in the navigation menu, you can open the Emails section to see which messages were sent, when they were sent, and the number of recipients.
Clicking into an individual email brings you to a summary page with key details. From here, you can see who received the email and track engagement, including how many people opened it and how many clicked any links.
Monitor Email Statuses
When monitoring emails, statuses can include:
- Sent: the message is being processed for delivery to the recipient.
- Bounced: the message was rejected by the recipient’s email server; you should verify the recipient’s email address.
- Delivered: the recipient’s email server received the message; however, this does not indicate that the applicant opened or viewed the message. The recipient may have recently changed their email address, or they may have rules or junk mail settings enabled that prevent the email from reaching the inbox. Applicants are encouraged to maintain updated contact information and disable junk mail filters.
- Opened: the recipient received the message and opened it.
- Clicked: the recipient received the message, opened it, and clicked a link or image.
Send SMS Messages
Outcomes also supports SMS messaging. You can initiate SMS messages using the same workflow as email communications, either from the application grid or from an individual application. Unlike email, SMS messages do not use templates. Instead, you compose each message when it is sent.
Once an SMS conversation has been started, any responses from applicants appear in the Conversations area accessible from the left navigation menu. The conversations grid organizes messages by status:
- Open: conversations that are awaiting action.
- Responded: conversations you responded to.
- Resolved: conversations that have been completed and closed.
Within an individual conversation, you can:
- Reply to the applicant.
- Resolve the conversation when no further action is needed.
- Reassign the conversation using the arrows icon next to the resolve button.
Step 3: Add Users
To add users, navigate to Settings > Organization > Users. When you add a user, you assign them a role. Roles determine both what users can do in the system (permissions) and what data they can access. By default, the system includes four roles, which you can modify as needed (or create new roles to meet your college’s needs). The following descriptions provide a general overview of each role. To view the permissions assigned to a role, navigate to Settings > Organization > Roles. For definitions of individual permissions and instructions for editing roles, review the Managing Roles article.
- Administrator: configures and manages the system, including communications and user access.
- Admissions: uses the system’s features to manage applicant outreach, communications, and day-to-day activities.
- Executive: monitors dashboards, reports, and key metrics with limited access to operational and configuration features.
- Support Staff: assists with support needs using a limited set of features and data.
Note: before adding users, review and customize your email templates. Since some roles can send emails to applicants, configuring templates first helps ensure communications are ready before users begin working in the system.
Additional Information and Other Outcomes Features
Understanding Student Journeys (i.e., Applicant Types)
When an applicant completes the My Journey section of the application, their responses determine their student journey. The journey personalizes the applicant’s experience, including the questions they see, the programs available to them, and the information they can change after submission.
Learn More About Student Journeys
How Journeys Are Determined
The four journeys are:
- Dual Enrollment
- Noncredit
- Credit (i.e., Standard)
- International
The following table shows which questions and responses determine each journey. You can use this reference to better understand the applicant data you see in Outcomes when reviewing applications or building segments. Note that applicants are not presented with every question shown below. The My Journey section follows a decision tree, displaying questions based on previous responses. As a result, some questions are only presented if earlier responses did not already determine the student journey.
|
Student Journey |
Trigger Question |
Answer |
Additional Condition |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Dual Enrollment |
What grade will you be in at the time of enrollment? |
K–11 |
— |
|
Dual Enrollment |
What grade will you be in at the time of enrollment? |
12 |
AND “Are you planning to take college classes while you’re still working on finishing high school or getting your GED?” = Yes |
|
Noncredit |
Do you plan to take only noncredit courses, or will you also be enrolling in credit-bearing courses? |
I will only be taking noncredit courses |
— |
|
Credit |
Do you have or will you need an F1 or M1 visa to attend the California Community Colleges? |
No |
— |
|
Credit |
Are you currently taking noncredit classes and want to take credit classes this semester? |
Yes |
— |
|
International |
Do you have or will you need an F1 or M1 visa to attend the California Community Colleges? |
Yes |
— |
Program Availability and Changes After Submission
The student journey also determines their default program availability and the information they can change after submitting an application. Use the following table to review the default behavior for each journey.
|
Student Journey |
Can Apply to Credit Programs |
Can Apply to Noncredit Programs |
Can Apply to International Programs |
Can Change Journey? |
Can Edit Educational Goal After Submission? |
Can Edit Enrollment Status After Submission? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Credit |
✅ Yes |
✅ Yes |
❌ No |
❌ No |
❌ No |
❌ No |
|
Noncredit |
❌ No |
✅ Yes |
❌ No |
✅ Yes, may change to Credit for the same term or future terms |
✅ Yes |
✅ Yes |
|
International |
❌ No |
❌ No |
✅ Yes |
❌ No |
❌ No |
❌ No |
|
Dual Enrollment |
✅ Yes |
✅ Yes |
❌ No |
❌ No |
❌ No |
❌ No |
Note: the program availability shown above reflects the default configuration for each student journey. Colleges can configure additional program availability rules that affect which programs are available to applicants.
Exporting Data and PDFs
Outcomes includes export tools that allow you to download applicant data and PDFs for reporting, review, analysis, or operational purposes.
Learn More about Exports
Similar to sending email communications, you can export data and PDFs in two ways:
- Select applicants from the Applications Grid, click Export, and then choose the desired export type.
- Open an individual application, click the More Options menu, click Export, and then choose the desired export type.
Default export types include:
- My Current View: exports the data currently displayed in the Applications Grid.
- Default PDF Export: exports the full application in PDF format.
- Default JSON Export: exports all application data in JSON format.
- Sample Export: a preconfigured export template containing commonly used applicant data fields, such as applicant name, contact information, address information, athletic interest, and other key data points. From Settings > Import/Export > Application Exports, you can modify the template – including its name – and add, remove, or reorder fields to meet your institution’s needs.
Running Applicant Phase Automations
Applicants are organized into Phases (In Progress, Fraud, Not Fraud, and Changed to Fraud) based on the fraud scores assigned by LightleapAI. Each day at 7:00 AM PT and 3:00 PM PT, Outcomes automatically moves applicants into the appropriate phase based on the latest fraud information received from LightleapAI.
Learn More About Automations
Because these automations run on a schedule, there may be a slight delay between when an applicant submits an application, when a fraud score is received, and when the applicant appears in the appropriate phase. For example, if at 9:00 AM PT an applicant submits an application and LightleapAI identifies the application as fraudulent, the applicant will remain in the In Progress phase until the next automation run at 12:00 PM PT, at which point they are moved to the Fraud phase.
If needed, you can manually run automations at any time:
- Navigate to Settings > App Review > Automations.
- Select the automation(s) you want to run:
- Move from In Progress to Fraud: moves applicants identified as fraudulent from the In Progress phase to the Fraud phase.
- Move from In Progress to Not Fraud: moves applicants identified as not fraudulent from the In Progress phase to the Not Fraud phase.
- Move from Not Fraud to Changed to Fraud: moves applicants from Not Fraud to Changed to Fraud when their fraud status is later changed to fraudulent.
- Move from Fraud to Not Fraud: moves applicants from Fraud to Not Fraud when their fraud status is later changed to not fraudulent.
- Note: the Applicant Type automation is used for background system processing and runs automatically on a scheduled basis. You can disregard this automation when manually running applicant phase automations.
- Click Run Now.
Running an automation immediately processes the latest data and updates applicant phases as needed.
Automating Applicant Emails
You can use workflows and automations in Outcomes to automatically send emails to applicants. The option you use depends on whether the email should be sent once when specific conditions are met or as part of a recurring process. Contact the support team for guidance on configuring a process for your specific needs.
Learn More About Automating Emails
Using Workflows for One-Time Emails
Workflows are sequences of actions that run once when specific conditions are met. They are best suited for emails that should be sent only once per application. For example, you can use a workflow to:
- Send a welcome email when an applicant starts an application for your program.
- Send a submission confirmation email when an applicant’s submitted application moves to the Not Fraud phase.
When an applicant meets the conditions you define, the workflow runs and sends the configured email.
Example Workflow Configurations:
Using Automations for Recurring Emails
Automations run on a schedule and are best suited for processes that need to occur repeatedly. For example, you can create an automation that runs daily to encourage applicants with applications still in progress to submit. Before configuring the automation, we suggest creating an application property to track whether an applicant has received the email. The automation can then:
- Identify applicants who meet your criteria, such as applicants in a specific In Progress Application segment whose email tracking property is not set (i.e., not answered).
- Send an email to those applicants.
- Use a Set Property action to update the application property to indicate that the email was sent.
- Together, the application property and Set Property action help prevent applicants from receiving the email multiple times. After the automation sends the email and sets the property to Yes, the applicant no longer meets the criteria the next time the automation runs. Without this configuration, an applicant who continues to meet the automation criteria may receive the email each time the automation runs.
Example Automation Configuration:
Configuring Programs (via the Configuration Portal)
The Configuration Portal is accessible from Outcomes and lets you manage program details, branding, and availability that applicants see in the application.
Learn More About Configuring Programs
Liaison works directly with colleges to configure programs in the production, testing, or both environments. The information below covers the most common tasks you’ll perform after setup.
Accessing Your Programs
To access your programs in the Configuration Portal:
- Select My Tools in the Outcomes navigation menu, then select Configuration Portal. The portal opens in a new browser tab or window.
- Use the navigation menu on the left to locate your programs (select the CCCStart application, then the cycle, then the college).
- After selecting your college, a list of your programs appears.
From the program list, you can:
- Edit a Program: to edit a program, hover over the arrows on the right side of the program row and select Details. The Details page lets you update program information, including fields that are prepopulated for you. Additionally, you can select the Branding tab at the top of the page to customize how the program appears to applicants.
- Update Multiple Programs: if you need to make the same changes to multiple programs, you can use the Bulk Edit > Edit Program Attributes feature.
- Create a New Program: when creating a new program, use Copy Program (instead of Add Program). Copying an existing program preserves important configuration settings and program availability rules that determine which student journeys can view the program. Creating a program from scratch with Add Program does not include these existing rules and can result in an incorrectly configured program. As a best practice, copy a program that matches the type of program you’re creating. For example, if you’re creating a new noncredit program, copy an existing noncredit program so the appropriate program availability rules are retained.
Managing Program Availability
In CCCStart, there is a separate program for each combination of major, term, and student journey. Program availability rules are applied to each program to ensure it is available to the appropriate applicants based on their student journey and, when applicable, educational goal. For example, applicants with a noncredit student journey would only be allowed to choose programs identified as noncredit.
During the initial program load, Liaison applies prebuilt rules to each program based on the program data received from the CCC Tech Center. Review the rules applied to your programs to ensure they reflect the intended program availability. While you can change the rules applied to individual programs, keep in mind that any changes affect the default program availability established during the initial program load.
Default Program Availability Rules
The Configuration Portal includes five prebuilt program availability rules:
- Credit/Dual Enrollment Program
- Make Program Unavailable for Transfers
- Noncredit Program
- International Available
- Transfer Available
These rules are applied individually or in combination based on the program type. Use the following table to review the rules applied by default and how they affect program availability.
|
Program Type |
Rules Applied by Default |
Resulting Availability |
|---|---|---|
|
Credit |
|
Available to Credit and Dual Enrollment applicants, except applicants who select Transfer to a 4 year institution as their educational goal. |
|
Noncredit |
|
Available to Credit, Dual Enrollment, and Noncredit applicants, except applicants who select Transfer to a 4 year institution as their educational goal. |
|
International |
|
Available to International applicants. |
|
Transfer |
Transfer Available |
Available to applicants who select Transfer to a 4 year institution as their educational goal. Intended for programs that award an AA-T or AS-T degree. |
Updating Program Availability Rules
To change which programs a rule applies to:
- In the Configuration Portal, navigate to Organization Rules.
- Click the pencil icon for the rule you want to update.
- Click Continue until you reach step 3, Linked Programs.
- Select the programs you want to link to the rule.
- Click Save.
Program Attributes vs. Program Availability Rules
Each program includes various data points called program attributes. You must populate these attributes with the appropriate information for each program. Program attributes are useful for exporting and auditing program data, but they do not determine which applicants can access a program – program availability is determined by the rules applied to the program. For example, setting the Transfer Eligible attribute to Eligible does not make the program available to applicants who select a transfer educational goal. You must also apply the appropriate program availability rules to make the program available to the intended applicants.