Importing into SIMS Attendance

[Jonsi]

Hi all,

My first post

I'm new to my job so I've got a lot to learn with SIMS. We've also got PPMS Pisys in the school which we currently use just to create pupil reports. Ideally, since it's web based and very user friendly, I'd like to develop PPMS for teachers to also do assessments, analysis and attendance on it.

Does anyone therefore know whether it is at all possible to import attendance data into SIMS? This facility doesn't seem to be available at first glance.

Many thanks.

[vikpaw]

Welcome Jonsi,

Yes it's possible to import attendance data into SIMS. We use a third party app': Bromcom to do registers, and on the fly it updates the AM and PM registers on the SIMs attendance module.

I doubt it's easy and you probably need a licence to do it without your support team or LA getting annoyed.

I could ask Bromcom for you if you are interested, they write pure SQL (yes i know, real hardcore!), so could probably give you some help. In fact there's no reason why they wouldn't set it up for you for a fee if you really wanted it doing.

i'm going to a forum in Coventry at the end of the month so can ask if you are interested. let me know.

[m2d2]

@Jonsi

I don't think attendance data can be imported in the same way you can import assessment data from Excel spreadsheets into Assessment manager. If you rely on a 3rd party solution for electronic registration then it has to be one which has licensed the SIMS database API from Capita. Bromcom and TASC Software's PARS are two examples.

If you really like a challenge you could create your own virtual OMR device and use that to do a covernsion off attendance data into something SIMS undertands.

[vikpaw]

i still have this old device that says SIMS OCR on it. does anyone use them still?

that might be a way around it.

i wonder how much the api licence costs, surely they'd be giving it away in the hope that third party apps encourage users to stick with SIMS rather than looking for alternatives....

[m2d2]

i wonder how much the api licence costs, surely they'd be giving it away in the hope that third party apps encourage users to stick with SIMS rather than looking for alternatives....

You'd think but it's something to do with covering support costs.

[Jonsi]

Thanks for the replies.

I've just phoned Tasc Software regarding PARS, and was impressed. It seems to be able to do all the things PPMS does, but can also integrate with SIMS and is a lot cheaper annually! The one crutial problem is that it's not web based.

Our teachers have got used to the option of being able to do student reports from home through the internet. They did say however that they plan to bring out web parts for PARS in the new year. What exactly does this mean, and would it involve extra costs?

Many thanks.

[danIT]

You could always buy a web based reporting solution, which you could extract teacher a pupil class information from SIMS, i know of one which would take SIMS data and import that into the report?

[robk]

We used at a system called team, by education software, which did web based reports and also attendance etc. However as we have just moved to CMIS Facility I stopped working on team.

Team had just been Capita approved and could do direct read/writes to the sims database.

Rob Keeling

[PhilNeal]

We only support write backs to SIMS Attendance via licenced APIs - that is because Capita has to support the database and that is expensive when things go wrong. You can find licenced partners on our web site - PARS is one and very good it is too. Capita has its own web based reporting solution based on Microsoft Learning Gateway.

[JohnCondon]

We (Bromcom) can indeed write the attendance back to SIMS using the API's.
This can even be implemented should you not have the front end registration system. We have successfully implemented the attendance write-back for some areas so that the EWO's could access the information and this had to be done for all the schools, even those that weren't using us for registration purposes.
If your interested then please visit the website (www.bromcom.com) all the contact details are there.

[vikpaw]

Can't you use the SIMs profiles module to do reports. I imagine it's possible to use it offline at home via teachers desktop or something... all areas i've avoided in the past.

We do very simple reporting, using the comment field in assessment manager then using the individual reports function.

It allows us to export a load of spreadsheets for staff to take home and fill in and then we can reimport them.

You can get a fair bit of control on layout using the templates, we also send grade summaries this way.

Probably veering slightly off track here from your query regarding attendance though..

[Office_Manager]

Jonsi - We use PARS for out attendance and behaviour although would like to use it more for grading reports and what I understand,it is going Web based from January. I spoke to them a couple of months ago as we would like the facility to enable our teachers to enter grades from home rather than exporting to a spreadsheet and our IT manager having to import the data back to PARS as not all our teachers can do it themselves. We would use the facility via our VLE so the teachers can log on remotely. I have looked this up before about web parts and the easiest way to explain if i'm right is if you look at www.myspace.com you will see a webpart called 'cool new videos' another one called 'my space music'. Task software did explain to me (however it was a while ago and its late and my brain isnt working) that webparts are usually writen to work with Microsoft Sharpoint(?) but Task have written then to be used with any web . I do remember checking out costs for Sharepoint which is way above our budget so the fact that they will work with VLE is great. I'm not technical so sorry if I've used incorrect technical terms. If you have spoken to them before, give the PARS support desk a ring at Task, they are usually very helpful.

[jenny_urey]

Good morning
One of our schools in Lancashire sent me the link to this forum so have set up a login. I am the PARS Training Officer at TASC Software and Jonsi... yes we are going web based for those who want to use PARS remotely. Its always worth going on site at local schools to see how they use their electronic attendance; pop me over an email and I can put you in touch with schools who use PARS in your area if that will help. Julie did mention in the previous message about calling our support ....yes, please feel free to give the office a ring if you want to discuss further. I'm not here to sell so I will leave it there.
Many thanks
Jenny Urey