As a consumer, I would like to know if a school is considered a less-than-2-year school so that I can tell the difference between predominantly certificate and associate degree schools

[brian9]

When we go to a school's page, and it has 2 or 4 year icon, how will we represent that if it is a predominantly certificate school?

Related to issues #951 and #952

[LisaGee]

@brian9 We have an icon for a Certificate school.
But I guess maybe we should think about what this icon actually tells a student about a school to see what makes the most sense.

[barkimedes]

@jjoteal What should we do here? If a school is PREDDEG=1 (predominantly certificate), what should show up on that school's page as its designation (currently only do 2 year or 4 year)?

FYI, in js/src/picc.js is the code that determines the year designation:

picc.access.yearDesignation = function(d) {
  var degree = picc.access(picc.fields.PREDOMINANT_DEGREE)(d);
  switch (+degree) {
    case 2: // 2-year (AKA less than 4-year)
      return 'lt_four_year';
    case 3: // 4-year
      return 'four_year';
  }
  return null;
};

Based on this, the behavior (if we change nothing) will be some sort of bug because some school will have PREDDEG=1.

[claremccann]

The policy team is also discussing and will circle back.

[jjoteal]

@barkimedes -- we have an icon for certificate programs already (just not currently in-use). Looks like this:

Will ensure that the .svg is in Drive > PICC > Designs > Consumer Tool > Assets for the front-end devs.

[barkimedes]

Per conversation with @mitzkow, we will default to showing the 2 year logo for certificate schools for now with the understanding that we can change this later if necessary.

Will leave the issue open because I think we still have the open question of what should we do in general here and this resolution only gets us through adding certificate schools and having something there.

[barkimedes]

As we discussed last week, instead we will have predominantly certificate schools show <2 years rather than the current certificate icon.

@jjoteal Do you have an ETA on when the new <2 year asset will be available (or if it is already)?

[jjoteal]

Yes, here is the new icon:

I am thinking that this format will be consistent with the other icons and accordingly won't make it look more "special" than the others. Let me know if this will work or if you think I should explore other options.

[LisaGee]

Out of curiosity, why <2 vs. Certificate icon?

[LisaGee]

Okay by me. Thanks, Jess..

[jjoteal]

RE: Why not the certificate?
The Dept. of Ed had concerns that the certificate icon, since it was a graphic, made it feel more "special" than the 2-year and 4-year icon, so we opted for the <2-year icon to keep things in a consistent, uniform format.

[LisaGee]

Thanks. Do we know how students think of schools? Would they call a school a “less than 2 year” school? Or would they have some other way of describing it? Do you know? Want to make sure we’re using vocabulary that will mean something to our audience. Thanks..

[jjoteal]

We can definitely test this in upcoming usability test sessions, but my gut would say that the average high school student would NOT know what "< 2 years" or "certificate" means. I think terms like "bachelors" and "associates" and "professional certificate" or "license" might be more familiar. That said, I'm not sure what "< 2 years" all includes.... could we get a list of what specific degrees those would be?

[claremccann]

Jess and/or Lisa, why don't you call me tomorrow to discuss further?

[barkimedes]

Necessary for #951, #952, #953, #954, #955.

[LisaGee]

Thanks, Clare. Jess is on leave until Jan. 7th, so she’ll catch up with you then.

[barkimedes]

@abisker: we will get a final asset from @jjoteal, but up until that point, does it make sense to have someone update the logic around using the new asset? Then when we get the final one, we can just plop in the replacement.

For now, let's use the latest <2 year asset that was added to this issue as the placeholder.

[jjoteal]

Hi folks,

Per various discussions, we will be testing this solution (along with the 4, 2, and <2 icons) on Wednesday during our focus group with DC-CAP:

Test Against:

[jjoteal]

Based on usability testing and Ed's concerns, we have 2 options for the final "icon" for certificate schools. @LisaGee could you make the final call between these 2:

---- OR -----

[barkimedes]

Personally, I prefer the first one. I know the second one feels more consistent when they're next to each other, but I feel like it would look weird on the page since it is by itself (not next to the others).

[abisker]

After speaking with @barkimedes we're going to go with the first one (using only the full word certificate); @yozlet, @ultrasaurus, @shawnbot -- ready to move forward here.

[barkimedes]

@shawnbot, @jjoteal gave the OK in the PR. Methinks we're good to go here. Thanks!!

[shawnbot]

Great, moving to accept!

[barkimedes]

Awesome 🇺🇸