Control vs. Flexibility
At QuickSchools, we often debate on the best ways to present a new module, feature or enhancement. There is indeed a fine balance between control and flexibility. Too much control on a particular module and it can be regarded as too rigid, cumbersome, or hard to use. Too much flexibility and it might not fit what you’re looking for.
Here’s an example:
We recently posted a rather lengthy article on how to set up a QuickSchools account if you don’t have academic terms. Non-overlapping academic terms make it easy for schools to control which information (grades, subjects, enrolment, schedules, etc) is active, and which is archived. But this method of doing things impedes on the flexibility for QuickSchools to cater to schools that don’t have academic terms.
So how would we make the system both flexible enough to cater to schools that do not have academic terms, while still allowing the control for the term-based schools to easily move between academic terms?
This is one of the many challenges we face as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendor, where all customers work off the same code base. Rest assured, our engineers are continually looking for improvements that will work well for everyone.
We welcome suggestions to improve our product and services. If you’re not sure about something, come chat with us, or send us an email at support@quickschools.com.
Want to meet the QuickSchools staff?
Let us know of a conference that you attend, and you might see us there!
QuickSchools is always looking for new conferences to attend, especially conferences that are attended by our subscribers. Send your suggestions to info@quickschools.com, or write in the comments below.
New QuickSchools Report Cards Module
We rolled out a new QuickSchools Report Card module just this past summer. For some of our older subscribers still using the old Report Card module, here is a quick run down of the new module:
No more submission flow
Report cards no longer need to be submitted by teachers and principals before they get finalized. Instead, report cards can be edited by all parties involved. At the end of the marking period, the report cards can be published all at once, making it accessible to students and parents immediately via their respective portals.
Also, to make changes to a completed report card, you simply need to unlock the marking period, and make changes directly to the report card. You no longer need to revert the report card, and then resubmit it.
Customize your own Report Cards
The new Report Cards module comes with a number of report card templates that you can choose from. After selecting a report card template, you can then further configure elements within the report card module. You can even hide or rename fields. This means that schools can start producing meaningful report cards minutes after sign-up, instead of having to wait for our technical staff to customize it for you.
New WYSIWYG Interface
When you edit the report card, you get to see what it looks like as you edit it. You don’t need to wait until the report card is finalized before you can see it. Also, this means that you can print out empty report cards if needed.
Control what subjects are shown in the Report Cards
The report cards will automatically display subjects based on what the student is enrolled in. However, you have the option of hiding specific subjects from the report cards. Say you have a “Homeroom” subject that you’ve created for attendance purposes, or a “Physics Lab” for scheduling purposes, you can now hide these from the report cards on your own, if you need to.
Deactivate specific report cards
You can now deactivate specific report cards from the marking period; making them inaccessible even after all the report cards are published. This would help schools that want to withhold grades from specific parents who have not paid their dues.
Report Card Screen
In summary, the new module is designed to give you more control over the report cards. It’s simpler and easier to use. If you have further questions, please feel free to chat with us.
Where do I log in?
Every school has a unique URL to access their QuickSchools account. To access QuickSchools, you should have received an email invitation from your school containing your username and password. That email also contains a link to your QuickSchools login page. The link will look something like this:
http://<schoolcode>.quickschools.com
If you do not have a username and password, you should contact the school, so that they can email you an invitation.
If the school has already sent you an invitation, but you did not receive it, check your SPAM folder. If you still have not received it, come chat with our live chat personnel, or send us an email at support@quickschools.com. We can manually reset your password for you.
If you have logged in before, and know your username and password, but have forgotten the log in page, you can try chatting with us again, or send an email to support@quickschools.com.
We’ll see you online.
The QuickSchools Parent Portal
The QuickSchools Parent Portal is a great tool for the school and for teachers to communicate with parents. Depending on which features are enabled, the school and teachers can inform the parents about the following:
- Upcoming Events
- Student details and contact and info
- Student Attendance
- Subject Enrollment Info
- Current Grades (from the Gradebook) and Report Cards
- Disciplinary Incidents
- Homework Assignments
- Outstanding/Unpaid Fees and other charges
If you’re wondering what the parent portal looks like, or if you want a quick tutorial about how to use the Parent Portal, check out the video below: Read more…
Predefine Gradebook Calculations
Previously, when setting up a Gradebook Calculation Column in QuickSchools, only used categories would appear on the list. However, at the request of many schools, you can now select any category in the gradebook calculation column. This means that you can set up the final grade for the academic term up front, and not have to wait for all the categories to be used first. Read more…
Share your experience with us
If you’re a subscriber of QuickSchools, and are enjoying your experience with us, we invite you to send us a video testimonial. Let us know how QuickSchools has improved the way you run your school. We’d love to hear from you, as would our other customers.
If you’re comfortable putting together your own video, you can simply upload it to youtube and send us a link. Or you can send us your video footage, and we can either post it for you, or make some edits (if the footage is raw). In any case, we’d love to hear from you.
If you need help putting together a video, here are some tips: Read more…
QuickSchools Data Back-Ups
One of the frequent questions we get is with regards to backups. How safe is your data, really?
As a software service provider, one of our main priorities is the safety and security of your data. This is one of our core expertises. And we provide this service so that schools can concentrate on their core expertise – teaching our youth. But just to elaborate on some of our data backup features:
As with most enterprise-level applications, our database is replicated. What that means is when you interact with your account, and data is saved to our database, that same data is replicated to another database on another server. So if our main database server ever fails, we can easily fail over to our secondary server with minimal loss of data. Read more…
This article aims to answer the following question:
How do we best structure classes/courses if we don’t have academic terms?
QuickSchools relies on the concept of academic terms in order to archive grades. When an academic term is archived, it becomes read-only, and safeguards your data from inadvertent changes in the future. Here’s how it works:
In QuickSchools, you can define multiple academic terms. However, only one academic term can be active at any one time. All other inactive academic terms are effectively archived (read-only). You can of course activate any academic term at any time, but you’d have to coordinate it with your staff. This is because when users make changes to subjects and grades, it only effects the current activated academic term. You can check out our blog post about “Creating New Academic Terms (and New Gradebooks)”
Only one academic term can be active at one time
So what happens if your school does not have academic terms? For example, if you have a 9-week program that starts in early November, then another 6-week course that starts 2 weeks later (i.e. courses start and end independently of one another), how would I structure my academic terms? Read more…
Only pay for what you use
At QuickSchools, we believe in keeping things simple. So when it comes to billing, we try to keep things simple as well. Here we discuss how schools are charged based on the selected plan and the number of students in your account.
First off, you can upgrade or downgrade your account at any time, either during your free 30-day trial, or even after subscribing. You’d do so simply by clicking on the “Features” page, and then selecting one of the available plans. Upgrades/downgrades are instantaneous, and any data that you have in your account will remain intact.
Secondly, we only charge based on the active number of students in your account. For more information on how to activate and reactivate student records, check out this article:
http://blog.quickschools.com/2011/11/15/activating-and-deactivating-student-records/
Finally, we don’t do any sort of complicated pro-rating when it comes to billing. When you first subscribe, we will simply count the number of students in your account and multiple it with the rate for the plan that you selected. And every 30 days after that, we’ll again take a snapshot of the number of active students in your account, and multiply it with the rate for the activated/selected plan. The system will not pro-rate anything based on activity in between billing periods.
So for example, if you’re billed today for 10 students on the Apollo Plan, and you add 10 students tomorrow, and then 15 graduate the following week, the system will only count the 5 currently active student records in your account when you are billed in 30 days. If you decide to upgrade to Athena the following day, you would not be billed for it until the next billing cycle.
If you have further questions about this, please come chat with us.
