There is a little-known beta feature in QuickSchools called the Student Navigator. This widget, which appears when accessing the student record, allows you to easily navigate between students alphabetically, using the Previous and Next button. You can also search for students by student number or student name, and the system filters the records (similar to an auto-complete function).
Just like how you can mass message parents and students by grade and homeroom list, you can now mass message by subject lists. This upgrade is up and running for all schools. Let’s check it out!
One of the awesome features in QuickSchools is the Student Portal. If you’ve seen the Parent Portal, it works very similar. Either way – whether you’re a newbie student portal user or an old-hat, here’s a quick summary of some of the things you can do from within your student portal.
Login to your account–
Check Report Cards – if your school posts Report Cards online, you can see them from your “Reports” Tab.Read More »
QuickSchools is fantastic for managing complex records and reports, such as the files kept for special education students. If you’re looking at how to setup your account to work best, given a handful of special education students – or a whole school body – here are some of the ways that we recommend tracking information.
Managing Records & Files
There are quite a few features that might be helpful for tracking forms, files, and special accommodations. Here are some highlights…
Grading
Because QuickSchools is so flexible, there are quite a few different ways of going about managing grades are reports for special education classes. Here’s some information on the different features in the system that might be helpful.Read More »
The Test Scores/Certificates app has been a fantastic addition to the QuickSchools app store. It’s a powerful app that’s great for high schools, language schools, higher education, and other institutions that need to track standardized test scores for students. Let’s take a look at the app’s awesome system for managing all those score reports.
First, admins can install the app from the app store. During installation, settings can be configured. It is possible to allow some, any, or all teachers to enter scores, and admins can chose if students can view their own scores in their Student Portal.
We’ve just released an awesome new feature in the Students module. Now, student pictures can be uploaded through DropBox. It’s a very nifty system – let’s take a look at how it works!
The Imports page integrates with your DropBox account to access student pictures quickly and easily. DropBox is a cloud-based data storage system that’s known for ease and simplicity of use. We thought it would be a perfect fit! It’s also free to sign up for DropBox, so feel free to head to their page to start an account, if you don’t have one already.
After uploading your students’ pictures to your dropbox account, they can be easily imported via the Students module and the Imports page.
The other day, one of our awesome new schools requested a checklist for how to set up report cards. The checklist is such a fantastic idea that we decided to share a step-by-step guide with everyone. So, whether it’s your first time setting up Report Cards, or your umpteenth time, here’s the how-to (with nifty pictures, of course!)
1 – Go to “Report Cards”
2 – Click on “Setup Report Cards”
3 – Click “Create New”
4 – Give your Report Cards a descriptive nameRead More »
Recently, we have been helping out with several questions related to deleted data. So if you’re clearing out records or thinking about deleting data here are some of the best times to delete or not to delete –
Mistake – Delete
You made a mistake. No worries – it happens! 🙂 Maybe a batch of student records are imported with the wrong names, a duplicate report card session is created, or a subject is made for the wrong grade- these are all great moments for the “Delete” button.
Student Left School – Don’t Delete
If your student transfers or moves away or even simply goes on leave, rather than deleting the student’s records, you can just mark the student as left. Go to the student’s record → “Actions” → Set Leave Date. And if the student is also no longer taking any classes, you just can unenroll them.
Once you note the student as left, their record will disappear from view and be removed from your billing at the next monthly cycle. However, you will still have access the records, including their transcript, and if they return, you can restore their record to your Students module.
Semester is Over – Don’t Delete
At the end of semester, it’s best not to delete any data – just go to New Semester Setup and make a new semester. This will automatically archive your previous semester’s data.
If you make a new Semester, your previous semester’s data will still be accessible in Report Cards and Transcripts and you will be able to activate the previous semester to see all of the information.
Report Cards – Don’t Delete
We totally understand how important it is that Report Cards are exactly correct, but even if you think you made a mistake in the report cards or no long need a certain batch of them, it’s best not to delete a Reporting Session (a group of report cards). Teachers may have entered grades or comments onto the report cards, and if the Reporting Session is deleted, their work on the report cards will be deleted too!
So instead of deleting, try making a second version of report card, and letting everyone know which one is the correct one to use (maybe via Teacher’s Lounge? 🙂 ) One tip to consider is using a nifty naming convention to show which version is the most recent and the right one to use.
Especially with report cards, it’s always better to be safe and keep your data, rather than delete it!
An Important Note on Data Recovery
While we do frequent backups and often can recover lost data, we can’t guarantee deleted data will be restored. But if you do run into an issue with accidentally deleting things, please let us know. We’ll hunt high and low to recover anything that might have been lost, but we can’t be certain that deleted data will still be around. Most of the time, deleted data recovery is successful, but it’s always better to be safe by archiving old data, rather than deleting it. In general, a good rule of thumb is “Delete if it didn’t happen” – deleting is for errors that weren’t ever accurate in reflecting what was actually happening at school.
Hope this helps answer a few questions you might have about when to delete things and, more importantly, when not to delete! If you have any questions or if there’s anything we can do to help, please feel free to chat in.
As you may know, Class Discussions was one of the awesome new features we rolled out over this summer. It’s a great platform that allows teachers, students, and parents to discuss topics related to a class in a controlled and safe environment.
To turn on Class Discussions on QuickSchools, Admins go into the Settings → Turn Features On/Off menus. The Class Discussions module is connected to the Homework module, so they are turned on together:
To enable teachers to post updates to their own classes, as well as configure who can post for to others’ classes, head over to the configure menu. Now, as to a few ways to use it…
Because Parents, Students, and Teachers connected to a specific class all see the Class Discussions, the module is a great way to get the word out about specific events related to your class. It’s especially well-suited to class-related announcements since your posts can be emailed to students and parents when they are posted.
Because so much communication is done online now, blogging is one of those useful skills that many teachers want to encourage their students to develop. Because all QuickSchools data (including Class Discussions) is completely private and secure, student work is entirely safe while they practice their skills at writing for an online audience. For example, students could be encourage to rotate at writing a blog post for each week.Read More »
