Inactive Enrollments

California Community Colleges continue to face challenges with fraudulent activities in student applications and registrations. Like many institutions across the state, our district has seen an increase in fraudulent enrollments. Last year alone, we successfully blocked over 10,000 fraudulent applications. Despite ongoing efforts, advanced techniques still bypass our detection measures.

The California Community College State Chancellor's Office focuses on continuously upgrading CCCApply to improve fraud monitoring and detection.

To address this issue, the State Chancellor's Office has introduced ID.Me verification into the student application process. SDCCD is also working with IT to develop further strategies to identify and prevent fraudulent activity, ensuring these measures do not create barriers for actual students.

Instructor Strategies for Fraudulent Enrollments

Here are some strategies that instructors can use to help us address fraudulent enrollments:

Week 1 Strategies

Assign a variety of required check-in assignments during the first week of class. This might include a syllabus quiz, a getting-to-know-you survey, and a discussion board prompt that asks students to be creative and/or reflect on personal experiences.
Make space to share a low stakes, humanized experience with students. Let them see you seeing them. This will inspire authentic engagement in your class and positively impact the way you interact with your students, while making sure they are human beings (ie: not bots!). See how MOST Coach Jason does this in his Humanizing Icebreaker activity.
Develop a clear drop policy for your syllabus specifying the period of inactivity after which students will be dropped if they fail to submit any work.
Ask students to record video introductions. They have access to Canvas Studio which is free and allows them to record from their phone and embed to discussions in Canvas.
Ask students to update their Canvas profile picture as part of the first week’s assignments.

Throughout the Course

Regularly review student activity and submissions on a weekly basis
Use Notes in Canvas (which is hidden from students) to track potential bots in Grades.
Incorporate creative projects when possible.
Encourage students to offer peer feedback throughout the course.
Have students complete video reflections throughout the course to reflect on their learning.

Suspected Fraudulent Enrollments

If an instructor suspects fraudulent enrollment, they can contact the following individuals:

Victor DeVore, Dean, Student Services, SDCCD @ vdevore@sdccd.edu
Daniel Velasquez, Business Systems Analyst, Student Services, SDCCD @ dvelazquez@sdccd.edu

Per state and federal regulations, faculty should also ensure the removal of students who are no longer active in their classes. If you need assistance with your census rosters, please get in touch with Mesa’s Admissions and Records office: SDMesaAdmissions@sdccd.edu

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