SIMS: Admissions: Additional info data entry

[Paul_Cluett]

We use CTF from the LA to import new Year 7's.

 

At the moment we use paper forms to capture among other things contact details, allergy info, permissions info etc. The issue we have (and I'm sure many others) is trying to read the forms received back and then entering the data manually into SIMS. If we had an electronic copy of all of them in Excel it would be a start and we could at least use cut-and-paste into SIMS.

 

 

 

Has anyone created an online form for their website to replace a "paper form" for admission data?

 

If so, how did you secure that data from being hacked?

 

Or any other suggestions to capture the above data?

 

 

Thanks

Paul

[aicrd]

Would a Google Form Suffice? (Assuming you have G Suite)

 

You just need to ensure that the Google Sheet is locked down and that staff aren't allowed to share it outside your domain. I'd recommend 2FA if at all possible so staff accounts and data aren't compromised.

 

Microsoft also as a similar option to Google Forms if you're using O365.

[Ditto]

When I was Data Manager at my first school, the admissions team sent out a Google Form to the parent with all the questions we needed answering. I then took the data (Google Sheet) and did the usual cleansing, key matching, duplicate removals etc. to create a csv file. Our MIS was Progresso, and it supported data imports so we didn't key the data at all. I expect something similar could be done with Microsoft Forms. As for the data import in to SIMS, it's not something I've done, but I'm sure others will advise. The data was secure by applying the appropriate share options on the form and underlying Google Sheet. As an approach, it worked pretty well for us, saved a lot of keying and mis-typing and was very cost effective compared to manual/paper based systems.

[PhilNeal]

SIMS has a free (at least when I was there) add-on Parents App Lite which allows parents to update and maintain their own data. There is an approvals process which allows the admin staff to accept or reject changes.

[Paul_Cluett]

It looks like Google Forms is the way to go to get the initial data into SIMS, followed by Parents App to let carers keep data up to date.

 

Can I ask what GForms can do?

 

Can it verify correctly formatted data inputs for:

 

Birthdays

Email addresses

Phone numbers (correct amount of digits)

Postal Codes

 

Can it look up Postal Codes - probably not but just a hope

 

Does it provide the ability to create drop-down lists? e.g. Mother, Father, etc or British, French, Vietnamese etc

 

Can you attach scans to a form e.g. Passport

 

Thanks

Paul

[Knil92]

if you had it in an excel spreadsheet, you could use powershell to read the spreadsheet and create a ctf and then import the ctf with all the extra information like contact info and stuff.

[Ditto]

It looks like Google Forms is the way to go to get the initial data into SIMS, followed by Parents App to let carers keep data up to date.

Can I ask what GForms can do?

Can it verify correctly formatted data inputs for:

Birthdays

Email addresses

Phone numbers (correct amount of digits)

Postal Codes

Can it look up Postal Codes - probably not but just a hope

Does it provide the ability to create drop-down lists? e.g. Mother, Father, etc or British, French, Vietnamese etc

Can you attach scans to a form e.g. Passport

Thanks

Paul

Can I ask what GForms can do? That's a big question! Let's see how this goes...

Can it verify correctly formatted data inputs for:

Birthdays You can collect set the input field to a date field

Email addresses You'd set this as a short answer field and enable 'Response validation' and select 'email'.

Phone numbers (correct amount of digits) There's some basic numeric 'Response validation', but nothing that's perfect out of the box, but see later. Previously I hit one or two challenges with the leading zero and those that entered say +44.

Postal Codes - Nothing standard that I'm aware of but see later.

Can it look up Postal Codes - probably not but just a hope - see later.

Does it provide the ability to create drop-down lists? e.g. Mother, Father, etc or British, French, Vietnamese etc - Very much yes, you can build drop down lists and make it 100% match your MIS.

Can you attach scans to a form e.g. Passport - Wow, I like the ambition! There is a 'Upload attachment' input type, but I'd be wary releasing that to all the parents!

 

 

And now we are later... Behind the form, there is a whole scripting language. I've not done much of it, but to what extent it can interact real-time with the online form, is beyond my current knowledge. But, a different route, there are a whole gamut of Form add-on apps and there's a decent chance there is something that meets most of your needs. A couple of links if you have the time to explore...

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1SUKuaebpDku1Fubw8ZPz5XLGl8Clca-dC4KGdM3ZMQs/edit?addon_store

https://developers.google.com/gsuite/add-ons/editors/forms

[PhilNeal]

There are lot of interlinked tables within SIMS. You would need to use the Capita APIs to manage the data or you will incur charges if you get it wrong - not to mention the GDPR issues that could occur if you don't get the links right.

 

The free app does it all and provides a means of passing a massive management issue from admin staff to parents.

[AJWhite1970]

Not a free solution but we worked with the tech team at TASC earlier this year to include the self service functionality in Insight for pre-admissions students which was then subsequently released. The whole process of parents entering all their own info made a massive difference to the MIS team and also the quality of the data entered. Edited September 15, 2019 by AJWhite1970

[Ditto]

There are lot of interlinked tables within SIMS. You would need to use the Capita APIs to manage the data or you will incur charges if you get it wrong - not to mention the GDPR issues that could occur if you don't get the links right.

 

The free app does it all and provides a means of passing a massive management issue from admin staff to parents.

I've just installed the app as a parent for my child's school. Indeed it handles most of the important details. Where I think Google/Microsoft forms with Progresso was strong was supporting custom (user defined) fields. I'm not sure if the SIMS parent app does, but frankly it is the icing on the cake.

[djrscally]

I've just installed the app as a parent for my child's school. Indeed it handles most of the important details. Where I think Google/Microsoft forms with Progresso was strong was supporting custom (user defined) fields. I'm not sure if the SIMS parent app does, but frankly it is the icing on the cake.

Am I imagining things, or could parents not request changes to their child's details through their login to Progresso?

[Ditto]

They could. IIRC, you change some details under their account and you can decide whether to accept the change or not - it worked but the data fields they could control was pretty limited. I remember rejecting a parents request to remove the only contact phone number we had for them!