This participant guide instructs college financial aid personnel in the use of the EDExpress system as it relates to direct student loans. The first chapter contains a welcome and introduction to the training sessions, and the second session contains an overview of the six-step data process, a discussion of key players in direct loans (DL), a discussion of how schools process loans, and an outline of the basic concepts of records query under EDExpress, the automated financial aid system. The third session discusses beginning the process, the creation of loan records, and exporting and importing origination records. Session four deals with promissory notes, and session five discusses the creation of actual disbursements and handling those records. Making changes to DL records is the subject of session 6, and session 7 focuses on using DL tools and the reconciliation process. The final session deals with uses of reports and how to locate information resources for DL. (SLD)