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.

Tracking student progress over time

One of the key things that schools have been asking for is the ability to show how you are making a difference to students learning across time.  One way to show this is by looking at a student's results in the assessments that they undertake.  These may be standardized tests such as PAT and STAR, Curriculum Best Fit Levels, Running Records, GLoSS, IKAN, JAM, National Standards etc.

We have recently updated Edge to make the tracking of individual student progress in assessments over their time at school much easier.  When you bring up a students profile page you will now see a new tab labeled Assessment Summary. 

In this area you will see the curriculum areas that your school has configured assessments for in Edge.  Clicking the blue arrow (chevron) next to one of these headings will open a page containing tracking graphs showing results for each assessment configured.  As soon as a result is entered in the achievement area these graphs will update to display the latest information.  Where relevant the graphs will also display published national average results for comparison purposes.

 Hovering over a data point will display the actual result recorded.  If required, each graph could be printed or downloaded as a picture file by clicking the 3 horizontal lines in the top right corner of the graph.

Drilling into the data

When you need to look closely at the assessment information for a cohort of students (class, year, group) over time we recommend the use of the Overall Tracking section of the achievement area.  We have covered this in a previous post, but to recap, this part of Edge allows you to easily isolate results across several years.  This gives you the ability to scan results for a cohort of students to identify how the students are tracking and to identify individual students who may need additional support or challenges.

For more on this see the post Achievement Updates in Edge Student Manager.

New Look for Edge Student Manager

We are excited to be releasing a new look for the menu system in Edge Student Manager.  This is due for release in time for Term 2, 2017 and is designed to make the menu system more logical.  It is also an opportunity for us to bring you a more consistent look and feel across the product over the administration, teacher, student and caregiver views.

One of the things that you will notice when you start using the new menu system is that the sub-menus no longer disappear if you move your mouse diagonally over the menu.  Another benefit is that there is now going to be a single button for Achievement.  Clicking through to Achievement will take you into what was the Achievement New assessment data entry and analysis area of Edge as well giving you access to the Markbook feature.

Here's a short video created by Jason giving an overview of the changes.

Analysis of stanine and scale score results in Edge

Updates to Edge Student Manager on 23 February 2017 included new options for the analysis of assessments that include stanine and scale score results such as the STAR and PAT assessments.  In Achievement New it is now possible to add in a stanine normal distribution curve on bar graphs and also to display bar and scatter graphs for scale score results.

To access these tools from the assessment landing pages click on the chevron beside the assessment name.  Select the assessment point that you want to analyse and then click the View Current Attainment Analysis option.

Stanine Normal Distribution Curve

To display a stanine distribution curve on a bar graph from the Data tab on the graphing menu select Type = Bar Graph > Data Types = Stanines > Format = Percent and tick the Include Bell Curve option box.  Next click the Display button.

Note that where you are working with data for multi-year classes or groups it is also possible to tick the All Tests option box to display a single bar graph rather than a separate graph for each year level.

Scale Score Analysis

To display a bar graph of students scale score results in comparison to the NZCER's published national average scores select Type = Bar Graph > Data Types = Scale score > Format = Number. Click the Display button and a horizontal bar graph showing each students scale score result will be displayed.  The national average score for the relevant year level(s) will be displayed as a vertical line meaning that it is easy to consider individual students results in relation to the national average score.

An alternative option for displaying scale score results is to use a scatter graph.  Simply change the Type field to Scatter Graph and click the Display button.  A scatter graph may be particularly useful where you have large numbers of students in the group and want to quickly see how the group compares with the national average.  Hover over the dots to display student names and results.

These analysis tools are available for class, year level, group and whole school data in Edge.

New Filterable Lists

The list printing facilities in Edge have been significantly enhanced with the release of the New Filterable Lists facility.  This can be accessed by users with the administrator view in Edge through Enrolments > Students > Student Lists > New Filterable Lists.  Note that this facility is not currently available in the teacher view.

In this area you will have access to a wide variety of student information and be able to create your own list that can then be saved as a private or public list, identified as a favourite list so that is always available at the top of the selection box and deleted if it is no longer required.

The Output Options section gives you the ability to set the font size and type, pdf orientation, add blank columns with their own headings as well as the option to create profile type documents and summative tables as required.

The Filterable List Fields section allows you to select the information (columns) that you want to appear on your list.  This section is grouped into four categories:

• Student Details (most items from the student's enrolment record including NCEA fee information and the total debt owed)
• Membership Details (the year, class, group house details for the students)
• Teacher Details (useful when creating your own staff lists)
• Caregiver Details (all the caregiver details including status flags and relationships)

Simply click on the required heading to expand the lists and tick the items that you are wanting on the list.

Once selected the items will appear in the Filterable List Output section.  In this area you will be able to drag and drop the fields to re-order them, filter on particular columns eg, show only 1 room or 2 rooms, set how you want the list to group eg by room and/or gender and also set a sort order/ranking.

In the example above we would get a list grouped by Room first and then Gender second.  The list would then be ranked (sorted) by preferred name.  The output could be displayed on screen, downloaded to pdf or csv files.  As a pdf the first page of this list would look like this:

If you want to save the list for future use simply give it a name and click the Save as New button. That way when you next need to print the list you simply select the list from the dropdown box and then click the Display, PDF or CSV button on the screen to generate a new list with the latest student details.

Creating a summative table

Perhaps you would like to generate a table showing the number of students by ethnicity (MOE6), grouped by room and then gender.  

Firstly in the Output Options section tick the Summative box on the right hand side of the box:

Next, select the data fields that you want to summarise in the table from the Filterable Lists Fields box.

Choose to group first by MoE 6 Ethnicity (1), then by Room (2) and then by Gender (3).  The Filterable List Output section would look like this:

And the output would be as follows:

We hope that you will enjoy using this new facility in Edge.  As usual if you would like to get some PD to help you get the best out of the New Filterable Lists please email our Services team at services@musac.io

Achievement Updates in Edge Student Manager

We are pleased to announce some important new features in the Achievement New section of Edge Student Manager.  These features have been developed to make the tracking of student assessment information over time easier and also to improve some of the visual aspects of the way that assessment information is displayed.

Overall Tracking

The Overall Tracking part of Edge is accessed off the sub-menu on the assessment landing page (orange underlined):

This is the area to go to when you are wanting to see how groups of students performed in assessments across several assessment points.  You can analyse data by class, year level or group. It is possible to select several assessment types and also to drill down to specific aspects of each assessment eg. scale score and or stanine result.

Once in the overall tracking area for your selected student group you will be presented with a selection box displaying the curriculum areas configured for your school:

Click the + symbol next to the curriculum area you wish to analyse to expand the display to show all configured assessments.  Next select the year(s) and then the relevant assessment point(s).  Click the Display button to have the assessment information displayed on the screen.

At this point you are probably seeing too much information so now you can click on the Column tab to regulate what information is displayed.  As well as selecting specific assessment columns you can also choose to display selected demographic information eg. gender, ethnicity, year etc.

Now you will see the selected data on the screen in sortable columns (simply click the vertical arrows in a column heading to sort in ascending or descending order).

The beauty of this is that you can now easily compare how students have performed in assessments within and across years.  You are also able to export the selected data to a .csv file for further analysis in Excel if you wish.

Landing Page

We have made a number of adjustments on the assessment landing page.  Some of the key changes are:

• Added the ability to scroll across the page using a horizontal scroll bar
• All menu buttons are now live and will take you to the selected area of Edge. The return to Edge button has been removed.
• You are now able to see all of the assessment points for data analysis purposes.  Previously you could only see the two most recent assessment points.

• The left hand menu now allows you to display and analyse data by year level as well as by class and group.  New assessment results can only be entered by class or group.
• For all PAT and STAR assessments the stanine and scale score results are displayed.
• The Probe Assessments (1 and 2) will display the student's latest result irrespective of whether it is fiction or non-fiction.
• For GLoSS, IKAN and JAM assessments the date sat will be displayed making it easy to identify students who have not been recently assessed.
• The students room and year level is now displayed next to their name.  This is useful for example when viewing results by year level and you need to check which room individual students are in.

Assessments

Changes made to individual assessments include:

• Added the ability to see the students age next to their name in the National Standards data entry pages.
• Added the ability to enter <4 (Stage) as a result for IKAN.
• Added the ability to enter a result with <96% accuracy in Probe 2.
• Added the ability to enter Pre level 1 for all curriculum strands eg. Planet Earth and Beyond
• Added the ability to enter a Best Fit level for all Curriculum areas i.e. English, Maths, Science, Technology etc.
• It is now possible to manually enter e-asTTle results if desired.
• JAM values have been adjusted to reflect the JAM marking sheet.

Analysis

In the assessment analysis areas key changes include:

• Junior Assessment: Added the ability to see Running Record and ROL results in the sortable table.
• Junior Assessment: Added the ability to select age range on graphs/tables.
• Junior Assessment: Added the ability to select multiple sub-tests on graphs/tables
• Schonell spelling analysis graphs/tables now have results grouped in age bands
• Added the ability to view full analysis for e-asTTle.
• Added the ability to export analysis tables to PDFor JPG (click the 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the table).
• Cohort analysis is now available for Running Records.
• PAT and STAR assessments now have a summative stanine table on each graph.

New Features on Student Summary Page in Edge Student Manager

Our developers have been working hard behind the scenes to transform the student summary page in Edge Student Manager. Our vision is for this area of Edge to be a one-stop shop to find out key information about any student in your school. The page is available to access in both the administration and teacher views in Edge. Check out the short video below to find out more.