MUSAC Conference

Thanks to all those who attended the MUSAC conference in Christchurch on June 1 and 2. It was great to see so many people attend with a wealth of ideas being shared and contributed.

It's very early days but we are already thinking ahead to the 2018 conference which will also be MUSAC's 30 year anniversary.

Edge Release - 29 May 2017

Achievement

·     The ability to enter previous years’ assessment data by Assessment Points has been added. This functionality can be enabled on the School Settings page (Admin>Setup>School Settings).

To add a result for a previous year: Click the down arrow on the assessment, choose the previous year’s assessment point, then click Edit/View Results.

NB: Previous years Assessment Points can be viewed/edited on the: Achievement>Assessment>Achievement>Setup of Assessments page, then select the year from the top of the page.

Admin

Import/Exports

·       NZQA: The ability to select a Vertical or Horizontal Class for the NZQA Submission sorting has been added for schools using both class types.  (The default is Vertical class).

Security

·       A new responsibility of Relief Teacher has been added to User Responsibilities. This will allow relief teachers access to mark rolls without giving them Attendance Officer Rights.

When this role (and only this role) is selected on a reliever, they will log in to Teacher mode. From there they can click the Attendance button, choose the teacher they are relieving for, then choose the relevant class to mark attendance for.

Caregivers

·       Occupation and Notes fields have been added to the individual Caregiver page.

Students

·       Quick Search: Ethnicity, Year Level and Gender filters have been added to the Student Search at the bottom of the page. Once a filter has been Applied the search list only displays the filtered students, one of whom can then be selected as usual. To clear the filter the selected Year and Ethnicity filters can be deleted, and Gender changed to All. NB. multiple filters can be applied at the same time.

·       Quick Find (Tag Lists): This functionality allows users to define and save groups of students from which they can add, edit or view specific data using the Prev/Next buttons. Quick Find has been added to the right-hand end of the purple banner within Edge.

.Clicking the funnel icon brings up the Quick Find filters and Tag List functionality box.

On here a combination of filters can be chosen, then the Search button clicked to list the required students. Some or all of these students can then be selected then Saved as a tag list. Tag Lists can then be Applied to show only those students

Edge Mobile App update - Term 2, Week 4

The latest release of the Edge Mobile app sees the first deployment of caregiver and student versions. It's the same app for all but the user login determines what features they see. 

For caregivers and students to use the app the Portal settings in Edge need to be enabled: Admin>Setup>School Settings. Caregivers and students then use the same login they have for the portal .. preferably one that is tied to their Google or Facebook account.

This update is mainly for area and secondary schools as it has added three views of the timetable. Staff see their own timetable and those of the students. Students see their own timetable and caregivers see their children's timetable. 

If the phone is held upright you see today's timetable with the current class highlighted. If the phone is held horizontally the timetable for the week is displayed.

 

Tapping the calendar grid in the top corner changes to a month view. Tapping it again takes you back to the week or day, depending on which way you are holding the phone.


NB. As a number of changes have been made to app we recommend Android users tap 'Check for Update' in Play Store to ensure they have the latest version.

Edge Feature Additions - 12 May 2017

The fourth week of term 2 sees the addition of one oft requested feature as well as a good number of minor refinements.

The headline item is Custom Categories. These are configurable fields that can hold any additional information relating to student’s. i.e. sports activities, awards, internet access, etc.

Enrolment Officers can set up and edit these categories, but all staff can view them on the new  Classes>Student Details>Custom Categories  tab.

Enrolment Officer view

Data can be output via New Filterable Lists.



Student Details

• A new Caregiver Reports tab has been added to the Student Details page.
• ATL graphs have been added to the Assessment Summary tab.
• A filter has been added to the MoE Field Bulk Update.

Announcements

• Macrons can now be added to School Announcements.

Medical

• Added the ability to attach files to medical details. e.g. for immunisation evidence.

Markbooks

• Comments can now be added to markbooks (maximum characters = 1500). This is done by adding the new data type of Comment then applying this to the relevant markbooks. Once added to a markbook double clicking the cell alongside a student opens the comment box for text entry.

Edge Mobile v2

Along with the deployment of the new look and feel in Edge at the end of the holidays, we also released v2 of the Edge Mobile app. The app has had a complete makeover and ongoing fortnightly releases will incrementally add to the functionality.

It is available for both iOS and Android. Search for MUSAC Edge in either App or Play Store.

With this version staff can mark their class attendance as well as look up student and caregiver details; 

- Phone numbers can be dialed or sent a text message by tapping the number.
- Emails can be created by tapping the email address.

Future updates will add features such as notifications, timetable and calendar. Before the end of May caregivers and students will also be able to use the app.

Taking your class attendance is so convenient and straight forward on the app that we highly recommend all staff download and start using it straight away.