[sims] Can I see SIMS as a particular user would see it?

[ICTLady]

Possibly silly question alert!

 

Since we upgraded I've had lots of queries from staff who can't see x or whose home page is now showing y. Obviously I don't mind going up to their classrooms and getting them to log on and show me the problem but I'm just wondering is there any way that I can look at SIMS from the comfort of my own office and see their view? Particularly the ability to see a particular member of staff's new homepage with their timetable would be useful.

 

Thanks

[network41]

Just use VNC to connect to the users PC when they are logged on with SIMS open

[tombry]

I used a former member of staff's profile to see what his view would have been, then made mine look the same.

 

I then used screencast-o-matic's free version to make a video showing staff how to do it.

 

didn't get any complaints yesterday or today...

 

although I did have one older member of staff tell me that it was quite a surprise yesterday morning when they opened SIMS, I replied that I had sent out no less than 6 emails over the last 6 weeks preparing staff for it, to which he told me that if an email has more than a sentence, he deletes it.

 

that's inspiring.

[vikpaw]

@ICTLady - No. Unfortunately not.

VNC is a good option, and after reading an angry technician's blog post i tried out the windows remote support, and that too works so long as it's enabled on the PC.

 

What i do is have a test server where i've got a few users whose password i've reset. It's also useful if you have someone whose password you know on the live system!

 

For non specific things, you can make your own test user and clone the permissions of a teacher on to them, but for specific things e.g. timetable / homepage it will need to be a real person's view you see.

 

Worst case, when they report it, say you are resetting their password to Itsakindofmagic for the rest of the day, while you investigate, and then you can send them a reset when you're done.

 

What sort of issues are you having with the timeline / homepage? We've had a number, and it seems despite pushing out settings, once they go in and start fiddling it will retain their mess rather than overwrite what i want. Some settings are just for the user.

[vikpaw]

...

to which he told me that if an email has more than a sentence, he deletes it.

 

that's inspiring.

This is so true. I've learnt to put the instruction in the first line, bold, colour highlight whatever with plenty of space around it. or just put the instruction in the subject if possible.

 

then have the info and blurb after.

 

e.g.

 

If you don't see the correct day : Right Click on some white space on the timeline and select Go To Today

 

Unfortunately, due to a bug, you need to do the above every sat / sun until september. It has been reported and we are working on it. Very sorry for the inconvenience.

If you have difficulty seeing the registration period : right click on the times down the left hand side and change the interval to be smaller.

Many thanks, your friendly IT goblin buster.

[edutech4schools]

Would be handy to have a feature like Facebook so you can simply click a button and see how the system looks from another users point of view without having to log out and in as them.

[ICTLady]

Thanks all. @edutech4schools that's just what i would love to see! The main issue I've had has been with lessons with cover assigned disappearing from the timeline, so when the teacher has returned to school they can't find their registers. Once I've seen it occur once and worked out how to get round it, then i can advise anyone else who comes to me with the same issue, but it's annoying not being able to recreate the issue myself.

@vikpaw, was interested in your comment about pushing out settings. I'm the data person here rather than the techy, and I didn't know you could set things centrally that affect the users' set-up. Can you point me in the right direction to find out more please?

[vikpaw]

If you have the correct permissions then from the Routines menu the last option is Homepage, this lets you configure the homepage, homepage timeline to a degree and also the lock settings.

As for the cover. Covered lessons are supposed to be removed, but it should only be for that day. It is mentioned in another thread here and has the link for the KB article from SupportNet. Do let us know if it's removing it for ever, that would be nasty.

[ICTLady]

Thanks @vikpaw. I found the relevant thread and the KB. My situation today has been summed up by @CAM's comment on the other thread: "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."

 

Lots of panic at the idea of lessons "disappearing", the timetable being "broken" etc - you get the picture

[vikpaw]

Absolutely agree with you and @CAM i mentioned it to our account manager and product manager (for indy schools) but at the moment there's a more pressing issue with the timeline.

 

To change that new 'feature' would be a change request, as would this "view as another user" feature. Happy to support if you want to create it, but i don't hold much hope on it ever happening. I have seen it on some other systems though, and it's a nice feature, but i can imagine making sure no secure info is breached is pretty difficulty. You'd need to compare viewee's permissions against the viewer's and then only show the stuff that matches.

[CAM]

Wow, two mentions in my inbox and not even posted in the thread.

 

The downside of that permissions matching @vikpaw is you then wouldn't see what is being seen on the teacher's screen. Capita need to accept that, with the exception of full permissions for Personnel and Payroll, a SIMS admin pretty much needs (if not already has) access to everything.

[vikpaw]

It's cos you're famous

Well it would have to be a clever formula of add view versions of the viewee for non personnel / finance data. Although, technically, i have with my admin rights the same basic permissions as the teacher, just not the ease of viewing. So it would match for viewing a timetable / class list, homepage...

[tombry]

If you have the correct permissions then from the Routines menu the last option is Homepage, this lets you configure the homepage, homepage timeline to a degree and also the lock settings.

As for the cover. Covered lessons are supposed to be removed, but it should only be for that day. It is mentioned in another thread here and has the link for the KB article from SupportNet. Do let us know if it's removing it for ever, that would be nasty.

@vikpaw - I've used that previously to force staff to have a view that I think they should have (well, SLT too), but the one thing that annoys me is the goofy shortcuts that can be shown down the left. I managed to turn it off on my computer, but all of our staff have it showing, and none of them use it. I just can't remember where I turned mine off from - any help?

[vikpaw]

Can't disable that, but can use the left<>right arrows to minimise it [hide launcher] as a per user action.

 

I actually think it worked well to centre the rest of the page, however with the new look it's not needed so much.

 

I do however have some power users that make good use of it, as i've shown them how to add their own internal and external shortcuts to the bar which saves lots of time.

[TheScarfedOne]

The new look, on some screen resolutions causes the nice tiles to go into one column as well - which isnt so nice. I think the days of needing the menu are nearly gone now - the menu bar is good enough and youve got favorites too. I would say its days are numbered...wish you could turn it off for all by default tho until then!

[PhilNeal]

Capita need to accept that, with the exception of full permissions for Personnel and Payroll, a SIMS admin pretty much needs (if not already has) access to everything.

 

I don't think we could accept that the admin needs to see everything it would go completely against data protection law and we could not entertain doing anything that put schools at risk of revealing data that the user has no right to see.