# IPEDS, ACTS and Federal Reporting for Institutional Research with AI > Higher Education · ibl.ai > Source: https://ibl.ai/courses/higher-education/ipeds-federal-reporting-with-ai > Last updated: 2026-11-14 *Institutional research, year-round* **A higher education course from ibl.ai (self-paced, 12 to 14 hours, free).** Assemble IPEDS and ACTS files reproducibly: field crosswalks, deadlines, the ACTS injunction status and the 2027 earnings rule, with audited AI agents. - **Price:** Free - **Format:** Self-paced, online - **Time:** 12 to 14 hours - **Pace:** 3 hours per week - **Level:** Intermediate - **Language:** English - **Subject:** Institutional Research [Enroll](https://lms.ibl.ai/platform/highereducation/courses/course-v1:highereducation+ipeds-federal-reporting-with-ai+self-paced) ## Course description IPEDS reporting is now a year-round job: the standard IPEDS components, the new Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS) with its record-level admissions data, and a program-level earnings accountability rule that takes effect on 2027-07-01. This course teaches institutional research offices and data stewards to assemble those files reproducibly, with every transformation logged and every number traceable to a source record, so a keyholder can defend the submission months later. You will map ACTS field definitions to your student information system, build a crosswalk and lineage sheet, design the audit trail, and run a sample extract through an AI agent that assembles and validates a file while a human keeps the submit button. The course is neutral on the litigation and exact about its status: a preliminary injunction issued on 2026-04-03 covers public universities in 17 states, and thousands of other institutions still must comply. Last verified 2026-09-28; the rules are still moving, and the course shows you how to track them. ### About this course IPEDS reporting is now a year-round job: the standard IPEDS components, the new Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS) with its record-level admissions data, and a program-level earnings accountability rule that takes effect on 2027-07-01. This course teaches institutional research offices and data stewards to assemble those files reproducibly, with every transformation logged and every number traceable to a source record, so a keyholder can defend the submission months later. You will map ACTS field definitions to your student information system, build a crosswalk and lineage sheet, design the audit trail, and run a sample extract through an AI agent that assembles and validates a file while a human keeps the submit button. The course is neutral on the litigation and exact about its status: a preliminary injunction issued on 2026-04-03 covers public universities in 17 states, and thousands of other institutions still must comply. Last verified 2026-09-28; the rules are still moving, and the course shows you how to track them. ### What you will be able to do - State which institutions must report to IPEDS, the keyholder and coordinator roles, and the 2025-26 ACTS close dates (2026-03-18 for keyholders, 2026-04-01 for coordinators) from the NCES record. - Describe the ACTS litigation status as of 2026-09-28 (the 2026-04-03 preliminary injunction for public universities in 17 states, the later extension to hundreds more schools, and the thousands still covered) and locate the 2026-09-14 Federal Register notice that revises ACTS for 2026-27. - Build a field crosswalk from the ACTS survey instructions to SIS source fields, with a lineage entry and a data owner for every field. - Configure an AI agent that assembles a sample ACTS file, validates it and logs each transformation, and specify the boundary where a human takes over. - Design an audit trail that lets a keyholder reproduce any submitted figure from source records six months later. - Read the 2026-07-01 earnings-accountability final rule and extract the program-level test's definitions with section citations, and set up a monthly check of the Federal Register and court actions. ### Who this course is for **Roles:** institutional research directors and analysts; IPEDS keyholders and coordinators; registrars and admissions data leads who supply ACTS records; data stewards, data governance leads and campus IT staff who own the student information system extracts; general counsel's office staff who track the litigation. **Institutions:** any institution that reports to IPEDS, with dedicated attention to public universities in the 17 states covered by the 2026-04-03 preliminary injunction and to the thousands of institutions that remain covered by ACTS. **Before you start:** at least one IPEDS collection cycle completed in any role, familiarity with your SIS reporting extracts, and comfort reading a Federal Register notice. Spreadsheet skills. No coding. ### Format - Estimated time: 12 to 14 hours. - Level: intermediate to advanced practitioner. - Hands-on: a field-crosswalk worked example, an AI-agent lab that assembles and validates a sample ACTS extract, a rule-reading worked example on the earnings rule, three templates (crosswalk and lineage sheet, audit log, collection calendar), two discussions, and a capstone. - Structure: 4 sections, each ending in an AI conversation assessment, then a capstone assessment. Self-paced. Every lesson is taught by an AI tutor that opens with a short story and works through one idea and one question at a time. Each section ends with an AI conversation assessment, and the course closes with a capstone assessment. Section assessments count for 60% and the capstone for 40%; 70% passes. There are no multiple-choice quizzes. ### Currency of this course Last verified 2026-09-28. This is a regulatory course. The ACTS collection is under active litigation and the Department of Education re-noticed it for 2026-27 on 2026-09-14; the earnings-accountability rule takes effect on 2027-07-01. Dates and requirements below are correct as of the verification date and are re-checked monthly. Section 4.2 teaches learners how to track the changes themselves. ## Outline ### Section 0 · Start here - 0.1 Orientation ### Section 1 · IPEDS fundamentals - 1.1 The system and who reports - 1.2 Why accuracy matters downstream - 1.3 Section 1 assessment ### Section 2 · ACTS and the earnings-accountability rule - 2.1 The Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement - 2.2 The ACTS litigation, as of 2026-09-28 - 2.3 The earnings-accountability rule - 2.4 Section 2 assessment ### Section 3 · Building a reproducible reporting pipeline - 3.1 The data layer and lineage - 3.2 Agents that assemble, humans who submit - 3.3 The audit trail - 3.4 Section 3 assessment ### Section 4 · Operating the annual cycle - 4.1 Calendar and staffing - 4.2 Tracking the rules as they move - 4.3 Section 4 assessment ### Section 5 · Capstone & wrap-up - 5.1 Capstone - 5.2 Capstone assessment - 5.3 Wrap-up ## Instructors - ibl.ai Higher Education, Course team (ibl.ai) ## More higher education courses - [Will Your Programs Pass? The New Federal Earnings Test and Academic Portfolio Review](https://ibl.ai/courses/higher-education/program-earnings-accountability) - [ADA Title II Digital Accessibility for Course Content: The 2027 Deadline](https://ibl.ai/courses/higher-education/ada-title-ii-course-accessibility) - [AI Academic Advising at Scale: Caseload Triage, Proactive Outreach and Human Handoffs](https://ibl.ai/courses/higher-education/ai-academic-advising-caseload-management) - [AI Agents Inside the Trusted Research Environment: Sandboxed Code Execution on NIH, CUI and DUA-Governed Data](https://ibl.ai/courses/higher-education/ai-agents-trusted-research-environment)