The National Training Team-Schools has created a new training module in the SCO Training Portal: VA-ONCE Remarks Training. This training is meant to increase automation with the use of standard remarks by presenting common scenarios that SCOs encounter. You can find the training here.

In January 2022, VA completed Round 1 of our Enrollment Manager Usability Testing (UT). UT is a research method to understand how a small, representative group of participants approach new technology and whether they find it intuitive. It allows us to simulate an environment where our prototype is used, without bias, giving us insight to the user's true experience. Often UT uncovers obstacles or pain points that researchers would not have identified without the human influence. 

Overall, 14 School Certifying Officials (SCOs) and VA Subject Matter Experts tested the Enrollment Manager prototype with an overall success rate of 97%. Users enjoyed the redesigned features of adding students and enrollments to streamline and simplify the SCO experience. Said one participant, "I found the new designs to be intuitive, easy to read and follow. I found the page prompts to be appropriate. It was very user-friendly for a new user/SCO"

Our teams will begin updating current designs based on user feedback and look forward to conducting additional usability testing sessions with SCOs in the future.

As we continue to modernize the GI Bill experience, we are encouraging users to create a VA.gov account using ID.me to take full advantage of the new features we have to offer. By using ID.me to create an account, students and School Certifying Officials (SCOs) can submit questions online using Ask VA. Your questions will then be routed directly to the appropriate benefit office so you can get an accurate, timely answer. In the future, your students will be able to utilize future Digital GI Bill (DGIB) enhancements including auto-populated application information, the ability to download their Certificate of Eligibility (CoE) and easily access their statement of benefits online which can reduce confusion about their benefits. To learn more about the process of creating a VA.gov account using ID.me, utilize this step-by-step video.

For those who use Ask VA for business and personal inquiries, VA has created a guide to help you separate your personal and business profiles. You can access the guide here.

Ask VA, or AVA, is an online service that all Veterans and members of the Veteran community can use to submit questions, concerns and recommendations to VA so that you can get the answers you need. When you submit a question through Ask VA, we route it directly to the appropriate benefit office so you can get an accurate, timely answer.

The National Training Team- Schools has created an AVA FAQ document to address some of the common concerns here.

Your students rely on you to help them understand all the uses for their GI Bill benefits. One benefit they sometimes miss is the tutoring benefit. If a student is having trouble in a required subject and needs a tutor, they can be reimbursed by the GI Bill for up to $100 a month and a maximum of $1,200 annually, as long as they’re studying 51% or more of full time. Please share this information with students and any relevant academic advising offices as you see fit. If they need more information, or want to apply, you can share our webpage on the benefit.

Every Fall and Spring term, VA experiences an increase in the education workload due to the peak enrollment period. During these periods, there is no need for schools to either hold or resubmit previous enrollments. We have reached our peak enrollment for the Spring 2022 term. Our current fiscal year 2022 timeliness standards for average processing times are 12 days for new claims and six days for re-enrollments. If you are aware of any student experiencing a financial hardship due to a delayed GI Bill payment, please have them contact the Education Call Center at 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551). If you have questions, please review the SCO Handbook or contact your Education Liaison Representative (ELR).

Multiple requests have been received recently with no information about the requestor. When requesting VA-ONCE access, please ensure that the supervisor is copied and that the type of access needed is specified:  Read-Only or the ability to manage schools and School Certifying Officials.

Are your Post-9/11 GI Bill students asking about the enrollment verification process? We developed an enrollment verification process video to inform students about the process and provide tips to successfully verify their enrollment. This video also shares information about the new email verification option.

If your students opted out of text verification, can’t verify by text or have a non-US mobile number — they will be automatically enrolled in email verification. For more information, check out the enrollment verification webpage, FAQs and our recently published VAntage Point blog.