Direct Loan Source header February 2010
Webinar Training Series
Are you new to the Direct Loan Program or curious to find out more about Direct Loan business processes? Federal Student Aid is offering instructor-led, online training sessions on Direct Loans. The webinar suite consists of six different 90-minute sessions related to key aspects of Direct Loan processing. For more information, access our Direct Loan Training Announcement.

Training for Foreign Schools
Federal Student Aid is conducting special webinars for foreign schools. Each free webinar consists of a 90-minute session related to key aspects of foreign school transition to the William D. Ford Direct Loan Program in the event the pending legislation passes and is signed into law. The webinars will include a Direct Loan Program Overview (what's the same and what's different) and information on the Direct Loan Processing Cycle (Origination, Disbursement, Servicing).

Register today to attend an upcoming foreign school webinar.

Feb. 8: 11:00 a.m. U.S. EST
Feb. 10: 11:00 a.m. U.S. EST

Featured Topics

Road sign graphicRegional Direct Loan Training Conferences Announced

Last month, Federal Student Aid announced its 2010 Regional Direct Loan Training Conferences. These free, one-day training workshops will be offered nationwide and provide financial aid professionals at domestic schools with the essential skills necessary to participate the Direct Loan Program at their institution.

Federal Student Aid established the Regional Direct Loan Training Conferences to ensure that postsecondary institutions participating in the FFEL Program and wishing to augment their federal student loan options have the resources they need to participate in the Direct Loan Program. On January 28, Bill Taggart, Federal Student Aid’s Chief Operating Officer, also sent a letter to these institutions to inform them of this upcoming training opportunity.

Financial aid professionals who are interested in participating in the Direct Loan Program, or who are new participants to the program, are encouraged to attend one of these sessions. Each conference will include instructor-led sessions featuring information about the Direct Loan Program, the systems used to administer the program, and issues to consider if implementing the Direct Loan Program on your campus.

For more information and to register for an upcoming session, please visit Federal Student Aid's Regional Conference home page.

COD Testing for the 2009-2010 Award Year

COD School Testing provides schools, third party servicers, and software vendors an opportunity to test the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) business processes and system software with the COD System prior to the transmission and processing of actual production data. All schools need to test with COD whenever they begin processing a new program. A school will be considered to have completed testing if:
  1. Their Software Vendor/Third-Party Servicer has successful tested with COD
    OR
  2. The school completes at least Phase 1 of COD testing as described in the November 20, 2009 Electronic Announcement: "COD School Testing for the 2010-2011 Award Year"
If you have any questions about testing, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800-848-0978.

Department of ED seal

Questions? Additional information about the Direct Loan Program is available at www.direct.ed.gov. To view our Direct Loan Source archive, visit www.direct.ed.gov/newsletters.html.

We also have experienced staff prepared to answer your Direct Loan questions at dlenrollment_fsa@ed.gov. For information about Direct Loan processing, the COD School Relations Center can be reached at 800-848-0978.