Parents Evening.... Zoom again!

[Koldov]

The Headmaster popped into my office to enquire about doing a video parents evening.

 

So, after looking through various threads on here and giving him some options he has decided on... Zoom!!!

 

We have used GSuite Meets with the students over the lockdown which had varying levels of success and I think that he really wants to go for the easiest option both for parents and teachers.

 

I'm not sure where we all stand on Zoom lately (I don't use it personally), but we seem to have more and more meetings/training with other educational establishments using it (so any warnings will fall on deaf ears), but I would be grateful for anyone's opinion if they have used it.

 

What options need to be set for the meeting, how are invitations are sent out in advance, is there any kind of waiting room, can it be set-up so it isn't recorded etc...

[paulkerton]

If you want the easiest option for Parents and teachers, then:

https://www.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/

 

Hands down the simplest and smoothest solution we've used.

 

Zoom have fixed a lot of the issues they did have, but how many times do you need to put your hand in the crocodile's mouth and have it snap shut before you stop doing it again?

Edited March 23, 2021 by paulkerton

[SteveB_NI]

Another vote here for SchoolCloud - Parents Evening System. Brilliant solution. Even better that it doesn't come anywhere near IT Support to fix, so it must be good!

[DavR]

Another +1 SchoolCloud.

 

We're only running a 30 day trial at the moment, but it looks like just the job. The thirty day trial is full featured and supported, so we're running our first evening in the software for free, essentially.

[Scotbynature]

Yet another vote for school cloud. Been amazing and he support if you ever need it has been great. My wife's primary school also uses it and they love it. They are talking about using it as an additional option to onsite parents evenings even after the pandemic ends as the parents have loved it so much.

[Koldov]

Well, I guess it depends then on your interpretation of easiest...

 

(Un)Fortunately, I have in the past warned about Zoom (in the early days -and I have it in writing that they would use it regardless), but as I said we have many other educational establishments holding meetings/training via Zoom and therefore anything I say to warn them of issues won't be heard and in that respect it won't be my hand in said mouth.

 

As for the solution you proposed, I will certainly put it forward for consideration, but it would seem that although you had a good experience, a few other recent Edugeek links came up on my search (if it's all the same one):

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/219923-schools-cloud-parents-evening-crashed-again.html

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/219741-schools-cloud-parents-evening-system-down.html

 

If answers to this thread are anything to go by, it may be a victim of its own popularity... but I guess with any system, the old 'results may vary' saying holds true...

 

Then there is also purchasing, training, firewall configuration, parent sign-on integration.

 

Now some of these issues may be mitigated with say a free trial, or that the interface is intuitive, or that configuration of the ports is minimal (we don't manage our own) and sign-on maybe via a MIS or something, but that will all still need to be done.

 

I can only think that due to the ease of use (which it seems is a reason in and of itself), the Head will still prefer Zoom.... So, this is where I will need to re-focus this thread...

 

As I mentioned although we have GSuite and can use Meet, he has discussed this with the teachers and believes even that would be too difficult to manage!

Edited March 23, 2021 by Koldov

[bobsmith]

School Cloud gets another vote here.

 

We've done two big parents evenings in the last two weeks and it's made the whole thing so ridiculously easy.

 

Only blip was that we ran the first evening off site - so staff did it from their homes without issue - whereas the second evening was run (mostly) from onsite and we forgot to check the firewall - cost us the first 10 minutes of appointments while unblocking it.

 

Zoom doesn't handle the scheduling or MIS integration does it?

[Koldov]

School Cloud gets another vote here.

 

We've done two big parents evenings in the last two weeks and it's made the whole thing so ridiculously easy.

 

Only blip was that we ran the first evening off site - so staff did it from their homes without issue - whereas the second evening was run (mostly) from onsite and we forgot to check the firewall - cost us the first 10 minutes of appointments while unblocking it.

 

Zoom doesn't handle the scheduling or MIS integration does it?

 

Well, if I got caught out like that it would be a big blip... I doubt I could get our support to unblock ports in 10 minutes (think raise a support request, get queried, fill out a form, send it in, get answered, chase it up the next day)...

 

I'm not sure if Zoom does any of that (I doubt it), I'm sure it will be a manual 'job', but we are a small school.

[Jawloms]

Schoolcloud here too for reasons above.

[DavR]

I think the difficulty with doing the whole thing on Zoom is the scheduling aspect, having people coming in and out of a meeting in quick succession. I guess with Zoom you'd create a meeting per teacher, and then admit people from the waiting room as and when the teacher is ready to see them.

 

Tbh, as much as you don't seem to be keen on Zoom, you also don't sound keen on implementing another solution. And sounds like your head is already sold on Zoom anyway!

 

My experience has been that end users think that video conferencing = Zoom, and Zoom = video conferencing. It's an uphill struggle trying to convince them there are better options.

[MatthewL]

I'm going to state something really obvious, why not just pick up the phone and call the parent using a good old fashioned method, no extra downloads required, no signing up to anything just a call you can answer?

 

Everyone can manage a call and then there is nothing to go wrong really. Give them a time and say to expect a call from said number or withheld if the number is within a 10/15 min gap either side sort thing.

 

Why are things been complicated here?

[Koldov]

My experience has been that end users think that video conferencing = Zoom, and Zoom = video conferencing. It's an uphill struggle trying to convince them there are better options.

 

I think you are right and sadly the Head was sold on Zoom from the first meeting he had last year (he's not very technically minded) and I struggled and failed then to steer him away.

 

He didn't really like the Teams for Business solution we tried, Google Meet was 'ok' at best and Skype for some reason has quietly sloped of to die somewhere...

 

Added to that, I tend to be a little too enthusiastic about the detail of configuration needed at my end to get these things to work safely and securely, get them on the teacher's machines and through the network (justifying my job I guess) instead of them just magically working - done too many years of that...

 

Unfortunately, for whatever faults it may have (or maybe because of them), Zoom has just worked.

[DavR]

I'm going to state something really obvious, why not just pick up the phone and call the parent using a good old fashioned method, no extra downloads required, no signing up to anything just a call you can answer?

 

Everyone can manage a call and then there is nothing to go wrong really. Give them a time and say to expect a call from said number or withheld if the number is within a 10/15 min gap either side sort thing.

 

Why are things been complicated here?

 

We did our last Parents Evening by telephone, parents weren't happy! Video chat has become the baseline now, sadly.

 

As an aside, you also have to be mindful of how many outgoing phone lines you have available. Most school phone systems can't support every teacher dialling out at once. We had to ask staff to use their mobiles (numbers withheld) unless they had no other option.

[DavR]

Unfortunately, for whatever faults it may have (or maybe because of them), Zoom has just worked.

 

You say "just worked", we had a nightmare getting it through our firewall in the beginning. It's a real scatter gun of ports and addresses behind the scenes, our firewall guy hates it. It was frequently not quite right, even after that.

[MatthewL]

Maybe I'm old school but I'd rather have a phone call that a video one!

 

Too reliant on technology these days.

[Koldov]

You say "just worked", we had a nightmare getting it through our firewall in the beginning. It's a real scatter gun of ports and addresses behind the scenes, our firewall guy hates it. It was frequently not quite right, even after that.

 

We've never had any FW problems, but we don't manage ours, so they may have been opened centrally when the plague started and schools began requesting them. We had generic MS and GSuite ports opened magically as well... not sure why they were blocked in the first place, but that's LGfL for you!

 

Maybe I'm old school but I'd rather have a phone call that a video one!

 

Too reliant on technology these days.

 

Personally I'm in-between.. Can't stand talking to people on the phone or video calls.... I'd prefer to text or email....

[DavR]

We've never had any FW problems, but we don't manage ours, so they may have been opened centrally when the plague started and schools began requesting them. We had generic MS and GSuite ports opened magically as well... not sure why they were blocked in the first place, but that's LGfL for you!

 

Ahhhh, then you benefited from my tears @Koldov! We're an LGfL school too and I did a lot of firewall troubleshooting with them, and they then used our settings for their wider rules.

 

You're welcome

[fiza]

I would get the trial of School Cloud and to a test parents evening to show how well it works.

[paulkerton]

As for the solution you proposed, I will certainly put it forward for consideration, but it would seem that although you had a good experience, a few other recent Edugeek links came up on my search (if it's all the same one):

 

I mean, every system might have a hiccup or two, but I'm not entirely sure any platform has had as many as Zoom.

 

https://www.tomsguide.com/uk/news/zoom-security-privacy-woes

 

Keystroke logging, sharing entire screen when you specifically ask it not to, chinese backdoor allegations, zoombombing, historical issues with installing web servers on Mac to allow them to autotrigger a reinstall of Zoom, post-removal... Accused of lying about security features, security flaw that allowed remote access to devices it was being used on...

Edited March 23, 2021 by paulkerton

[Deanuk]

If you are a 365 school, we have found Microsoft Bookings to work really well. You do need an A3 account but Bookings will automatically setup the Teams meeting for you so you pretty much have zero input (apart from the initial setup).

[soapyfish]

We use the School Cloud purely for placing and manging the bookings, which we have found works well.

 

For the meeting itself we use Teams. The staff member calls the students and has the meeting. The parent is present on screen as well, and if one parent lives away the staff member stating the meeting can invite them into the call. Doing it this way means that the students are familiar with Teams as they have been using it for a year, the parents need no technical guidance and it encourages the parents and students to both engage together in the parents evening. It also addressed the schools concern of quality of service and capacity of the school cloud system, which I hear has had its issues, although to be fair so has Teams!

[Koldov]

I mean, every system might have a hiccup or two, but I'm not entirely sure any platform has had as many as Zoom.

 

Agreed... it's an absolute car wreck of a piece of software, but other than completely refusing to help them and possibly losing my job, the argument is a moot point.

 

I'm not at a level where I can tell the Head what he can or cannot do, I can only strongly advise and give alternatives at best.

[Danp]

I setup School Cloud at last school, worked really well. No need for it so far at current school.

 

For the last round of meetings, I setup a few events using https://zcal.co/ and let parents pick their own time. The class teachers then used these create Google Meet links and shared with parents.

[AJWhite1970]

School Cloud for us, not only for all the standard parents evenings but also for things like parent/tutor virtual teas and pre-enrolled students etc.

 

Staff and parent feedback is good to the point we are already questioning if we keep them virtual post pandemic as it’s just easier (plus no appointment overruns....)

 

Yes, before Christmas there were a few issues as the system struggled under the load and ports were not always open (but Swgfl changed their default firewall config pretty quickly) but since then it’s been fine, we did one last week with 1100 appointments with 65 teachers in a 3 hour window.

[Boredguy]

Been using SchoolCloud since it came out last year (used the normal parents evening booking portion previously, so not much of a leap to move to it)

 

Fact that it automatically ends the session at the end of the time is a major bonus to ensure all the appointments run to time. One of our other schools that used Teams ended up having to have a member of staff forcefully disconnect the meeting for some staff as they just kept on talking well after the 5 or 10 minute slot had run over by double the time.

 

Yes we had the issue when the service dropped on 2 occasions (both Thursdays) but that only affected a small proportion of the slots, which we rescheduled for another day.