[sims] Spring 2013 Release

[vikpaw]

OK, so I am an idiot, or something was changed at the last minute. I'm sure when i saw this at BETT i complained to the product manager about having to set the timeline config manually on a per user basis. I must have remembered it wrong and it was one of the things he showed me that i didn't realise you could do.

 

Based on my own previous post above, i failed to notice the timeline config : Edit : 'ALL' option.

This when set, gives access to editing the default config, so no need for the guidance video or users to get annoyed. YAY! )

 

I've just set the timeline for all to start on a Saturday, hurray.

They still need the edit (own) permission so they can view the panel but they get that by default.

 

Phew.

[PhilNeal]

@eddyc you're probably already aware but we produce a QRS (Quick Reference Sheet) which is a single page with instructions.

[eddyc]

@PhilNeal Yes we use those already but our data team like to have a play ahead of the update going onto the live system.

[Max_Power]

I put it on my test server today. Excited and disappointed all at teh same time.

 

It's looking really good. The timeline is especially good, and works with my week, but the cycles for reporting data still think the week starts on a monday, so they are a bit pants. Plus it needs to be configured per user, which though is simple enough means we have to check and make sure it's done right!

 

It does however look really good, and the right click feature to quickly access info for that class is cool.

 

The start and end times on the configuration seem to have no effect whatsoever on the display, and the 10 min morning reg period is a tiny strip of a few pixels! I'm not even sure where the bottom strip which is PM reg has come from as school ends at 14.30 be interested to know where that time was set.

 

One caveat which hopefully won't affect most, was that we have custom permissions groups, and the timeline wont show unless the user has edit (own) permission on the homepage config options section, which isn't immediately obvious. You'll know if you get an error message displayed in the title bar for teh panel.

 

It is part of basic class teacher so if you use that or have a permission group derived from that you'll be fine.

If like me you've customised from the old days, it's here:

Core System | Core | Home Page | Home Page Options | Timeline Configuration | Edit (Own)

 

The initials in square brackets are the head of faculty but it can hold more than that if applicable. I like the ability to see Cover in advance for the week, if it's planned. )

 

The way the panels wrap around is nice depending on window size, and the timeline is large and first.

 

It won't show another week, or i haven't worked it out yet, so not sure how to deal with two week timetables. On an admin login there are little bars on the left and right for next appointment which don't do anything, but for a teacher it's just the blocks and no way to move that i can see, it does reflect the week in the block though.

 

The print option does take you to a nice preview screen, but still no week 2. However you do have email and export options.

 

The behaviour and achievement panels are now just called conduct. So you can have either types included or a combo, then your graph is positive or negative depending on the net points. I can see staff wanting 3 now, behaviour, achievement and a combo.

 

The config screen looks a little different with just a vertical strip to represent the panels which could be confusing. Just tell staff it's the order of preference for them and they can drag and drop the order and they should get the drift.

 

Last point, which i don't recall being mentioned but is a very pleasant surprise is that in Edit Marks, it now reflects the actual period names that you have set up. So if you timetable registration, your period numbering isn't offset by 1 for the morning and possible more in the afternoon. ) It's great. the column heading actually now makes sense. This will save so many confusions.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]17654[/ATTACH]

 

@vikpaw - just wondered how you managed to get your timeline to show all the information it does? Ours shows the period and length of lesson - nothing more and its driving the teachers bonkers. They can see it if they hover over the top but thats not very good in honesty.

 

Do you have to configure it per user or can it be for whole group class teacher?

[vikpaw]

Hi, i didn't configure anything for the display, that is the default coming through from Nova-T6. Do you use that?

The data shown is dependent on the size of the period blocks on screen, so could depend on the screen size / resolution. Also the display setting. If you right click on the times on the left and change the number lower it will broaden the blocks and maybe show the extra info you want. It depends on how long your periods are, ours are 80 mins, so they are large by default.

 

I have come across a minor issue whereby the Current Week is still based on teh concept of the week commencing date which i think is hard coded as monday. This means by default i'm looking at last week if i start my week on a saturday, so we're having to manually change to the correct week.

[Steven_Cleaver]

Only had this release on last week quite impressed with this release.

 

Some nice new features Pupil Premium, also like the Home Page and the Information it allows you to link in and configure more easily.Knew these were coming but always reserve judgement until I see how these work, but these seem to work really well and are excellent.

 

The Information you can easily access for specific students say on Behaviour, Attendance from the Home Page if these are added in and the overview of Student Information as well that is easily accessible from here think this is presented much better and in an easy format for staff to follow, also from here easily linking to specific information, prints in a reasonable format as an overview etc again excellent.

 

Assessment Key Indicators for students is good this may have been their before but I hadn't noticed this as to be honest the refreshing look has made me have another look at this.

 

Well done Capita all in all looks good.

[zag]

No problems with the install so far...

 

Anyone know how you show the registers timeline on the front page?

[vikpaw]

The timeline on the homepage? It should be there by default. Or based on the user settings.

You can push it to them using homepage groups config, and configure the timeline panel using the timeline config. Both available under the Routines Menu to a sufficiently permissioned user.

[Max_Power]

Had a number of issues since the release - SIMS support gradually resolving them. Timeline half resolved now. thanks for response @vikpaw

[zag]

To get the timeline back do this

 

Sims frontpage >> configure >> show timetable check box

[FragglePete]

Hmmm.... I've got an issue where not all the lessons are appearing on the teachers timelines. You can do a search on the Take Register button and get to see all the lessons for the day but I'm look right now at a teacher that has lessons for all five periods today and only two are visible on the timeline!

 

Call is in with Capita.

 

Pete

[BizarroPrime]

Hmmm.... I've got an issue where not all the lessons are appearing on the teachers timelines. You can do a search on the Take Register button and get to see all the lessons for the day but I'm look right now at a teacher that has lessons for all five periods today and only two are visible on the timeline!

 

Call is in with Capita.

 

Pete

 

This sounds similar to issues we're having here. No lesson for today as they have moved to Saturday.

The user can log on to another computer in another room and the timetable will be back to how it should be.

We're going to try re-installing Sims.

[CAM]

Same here. Spring release came down the pipes today and Teacher A can see their KS3 classes but not sixth form whilst Teacher B can see their sixth form classes but not KS3. Take Register is affected too but next week it has gone back to normal for Teacher A on Take Register (not heard from Teacher B's checking of the register browser yet).

 

EDIT - Also checked the Timeline routine and everything is ticked, even NCC but Teacher A's NCCs don't appear on his timeline.

Edited April 19, 2013 by CAM

[CAM]

I may have found a solution for missing lessons. Were they covered? SupportNet has posts about people having lessons covered but the UI design hides the covered lesson from them completely in the timeline as if it doesn't exist.

[FragglePete]

I may have found a solution for missing lessons. Were they covered? SupportNet has posts about people having lessons covered but the UI design hides the covered lesson from them completely in the timeline as if it doesn't exist.

 

Sorry, I should have followed up with another post. I spoke to Capita and indeed it does not show a covered lesson for that teacher, but another teacher can search and view their timeline and see all lessons. Not sure if its always been like that but it caught us out.

 

Pete

[pete]

If I configure the homepage (adding the timeline back, for example) as an admin and then turn off enforced configuration, does it revert back to what the user had previously, the SIMS default layout or does it keep the admin-specified config, but the end-user can now modify it?

 

(The latter is what I'd like to happen)

[vikpaw]

If I configure the homepage (adding the timeline back, for example) as an admin and then turn off enforced configuration, does it revert back to what the user had previously, the SIMS default layout or does it keep the admin-specified config, but the end-user can now modify it?

 

(The latter is what I'd like to happen)

i believe it's the latter.

i've had a few users where if they configured things themselves, it wouldn't even push out my settings.

i think they'd have to tick default in order to get it.

 

It's not helped that the conduct panel is not uniquely named anymore whereas before it would have been an achievement and a behaviour one, now when they go in to edit and save, it complains about the naming.

[vikpaw]

I may have found a solution for missing lessons. Were they covered? SupportNet has posts about people having lessons covered but the UI design hides the covered lesson from them completely in the timeline as if it doesn't exist.

 

Sorry, I should have followed up with another post. I spoke to Capita and indeed it does not show a covered lesson for that teacher, but another teacher can search and view their timeline and see all lessons. Not sure if its always been like that but it caught us out.

 

Pete

 

According to KB30521 this is expected behaviour. I did a test yesterday and a partial cover blocks out part of the day, so it makes sense. The teacher only sees what they need to see for that day.

[FragglePete]

According to KB30521 this is expected behaviour. I did a test yesterday and a partial cover blocks out part of the day, so it makes sense. The teacher only sees what they need to see for that day.

 

Yes - it's just confusing a few teachers as nobody really noticed it here before.

 

I'm currently getting reports from various teachers that some of their lessons are showing a 'CLASH' but they haven't been given cover. I've really got no idea on the inner workings of SIMS so at a lost of where to start on this one.

 

Pete

[vikpaw]

Are there classes suspended? Perhaps for exams / mocks. This used to cause a clash, maybe it's clashing with itself! Right click and select take register used to let them still take the registers.

[CAM]

It makes sense to hide the lessons from a development point of view, but in reality it causes people to go "This is a new feature, where are my lessons? Is it broken?" and the questions then make their way to us.

 

Also with a week view, a teacher can see all their lessons that week and double click for access to the register and marksheets as an alternative route (I can confirm that teachers seem to prefer this over My Marksheet Entry!). Hiding the lessons takes that ability away.

[vikpaw]

If anyone has experienced speed / performance issues there is a separate discussion, which i'll make sticky in a sec. It covers the patches created to resolve this.

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/111802-spring-release-server-2003-slow.html

Edited April 27, 2013 by vikpaw

[Ecclesbury]

Finally upgraded to the Spring Release (Dummy tip of the day - you can't upgrade your server with only 1.8 GBs of space on the server! Yikes!)

 

One useful touch that I hadn't expected was that the new Pupil Premium indicator is included on the Bulk Update routine. Very handy.

 

Quick question though, I notice on the favourites panel on the home page there are new tabs for Reports, Students and marksheets (I say new, I've never seen them before, so apologies if they've been there for ages.) The implication seems to be that you can set up favourite students (for example) which seems handy for certain people. Does anyone know whether this is the case and, if so, how to add favourite students...or marksheets.

 

Cheers,

 

Jonny.

[Ecclesbury]

I'm an idiot.

 

Massive green cross button with the word 'Favourites' at the top of every student's profile! Now I see it , I'm sure that it's always been there.

[vikpaw]

I'm an idiot.

 

Massive green cross button with the word 'Favourites' at the top of every student's profile! Now I see it , I'm sure that it's always been there.

I made that same mistake too a while ago. Good for following interventioned kids, but mostly likely will be used by teachers who are parents!

The favourite reports is a really useful feature that's been around for a bit.

 

The space thing is mostly because it tries to create an uncompressed backup and that usually defaults to your C drive. My DB is 4.3 GB, and i always have probs on the small test server if i forget to suppress backups.

 

I'm gutted because the timeline issue showing the wrong days of the week is not going to be fixed until Summer release, so we got a workaround for the next 10 weeks - get all staff to configure to daily view, which also doesn't work as it shows last monday for our sat/sun. Reported it, but not heard back yet.