Domestic on Demand: Making the application process quick and easy for domestic students! 

Posted on Thursday, March 28th, 2024

With the implementation of the new Student Information System, Thesis SM, comes many changes to how we currently do things at the College. Some of these processes will stay the same once we go live, but others will change to improve student success and satisfaction as well as employee satisfaction and productivity. One of the many changes will be the use of Domestic on Demand.

Before we dive into what this means for students, employees, and the College as a whole, keep in mind that this change only applies to domestic students!

What is Domestic on Demand?

If you’ve heard of Domestic on Demand (or DoD) already, then you might know that domestic students applying to Algonquin College will experience a much faster experience thanks to this new process. But what is it?

The short answer? Domestic on Demand is still OCAS.

For the long answer, let’s break it down and explain the perks.

First, DoD provides an improved method of exchanging applicant data with the Ontario College Application Service (OCAS). It will also be integrated with Thesis SM, which will help streamline the process.

Next, DoD will allow us to exchange that data at any time of the day, which will greatly improve the applicant experience and provide the ability to have more current information between OCAS and Algonquin College.

Last but certainly not least, DoD is user-friendly, intuitive, and provides greater transparency for applicants during the college admissions process. That’s a win for both employees and domestic students!

Current State vs. Future State

Today, the admissions process for domestic students begins with OCAS. A prospective student uses OCAS to submit their applications to the colleges of their choice, and Algonquin receives students’ applications from OCAS in batches based on the time that an applicant submits their information.

With this system in place, it can take up to 24 hours before an application is available to review by the AC Admissions Team. Once an Admissions Officer evaluates the application, they send the prospective student an offer through OCAS. This part of the process can take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours before the student sees it.

All in all, the current state of domestic admissions is often a long process for both prospective students and Algonquin’s Admissions Team. This is due to the amount of time it takes for the exchange of data between GeneSIS and OCAS.

A Quick Scenario

Now, let’s provide a brief scenario to better understand the difference between the current domestic admissions process and what it’s going to look like in the future.

A prospective student, Grace, logs into her OCAS account and submits her application to AC on the very first day applications open. With the current process, it would take several days before Grace receives an offer in her OCAS account.

With Domestic on Demand, Grace could receive her offer within the same day. This is thanks to the near real-time advantages offered by the DoD solution and its integration with Thesis SM. Whereas processes take 12 to 24 hours to complete today, they will simply take 5 minutes in the future.

The Benefits of Domestic on Demand

Besides faster turnaround times for applicants and staff, there are many benefits to using DoD once we go live with Thesis SM.

Overall, DoD will be a huge improvement for everyone involved in the process. This new implementation will make the things we do at the college easier and more efficient – and it’s only one of many more!

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We also went over Domestic on Demand at our March R3 Showcase Event! If you missed it, check out the full recording and live demos, where we showed attendees how the process works in OCAS and Thesis SM.

Have more questions? Check out our FAQ page to learn more about the R3 Project!

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