Remind Teachers to Take Register

[SJBlackGeek]

The Head has asked me for teachers to receive a popup message reminding them to take the register at 5 minutes past the beginning of each lesson. Our teaching staff have their own OU within AD, so something that can target users (not computers) this way would be ideal. I need to ensure they don't get irrelevant reminders at the weekends or during holidays, but receiving them when they have a free period wouldn't be the end of the world.

 

Does anyone else have a solution for this in place? I've tried with msg.exe (simply unable to target users on a domain without knowing the PC they're logged onto), and also psexec & schedulded tasks to run vbscripts, but I'm struggling to get anything working reliably. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[SJBlackGeek]

Sorry, just realised this is probably in the wrong area. Hopefully an admin can relocate it.

[gh5000]

Netsupport notify is what we use. It's not expensive and reliable

[gh5000]

Netsupport notify is what we use. It's not expensive and reliable

Also use it for lockdowns and emergency messages.

[SJBlackGeek]

Thanks. I've just filled our their enquiry form online to get some pricing. The school is currently repaying a financial deficit, so funds are tight. If this product is cheap then I might be able to get the go-ahead. If not, I will need something open source or a reliable way to leverage native Windows functionality.

[KarlGoddard]

is the pricing per seat or site?

 

(not too keen or signing up to get a price then start fielding umpteen follow up sales calls!)

[SJBlackGeek]

It was per seat. Expecting sales calls but that's okay if the pricing is acceptable.

[6Foot2]

Netsupport notify is what we use. It's not expensive and reliable

 

Same idea, but we were using Impero.

 

[DavR]

We bought Notify and it only came out as a few hundred quid for us. One time purchase, with optional annual maintenance. We took the maintenance as it was spare change money.

 

I haven't looked at it for a while, but it can be scripted to send messages, so you could have this run via scheduled tasks.

[mavhc]

I'd just add a scheduled task to their user that ran at 9am https://www.dummies.com/computers/pcs/create-a-task-to-display-a-pop-up-message-in-windows-task-scheduler/

[SJBlackGeek]

How would the scheduled task differentiate term time from outside of term time? One of my initial ideas was for a scheduled task (pushed out to the teachers' OU by GP) to run a script which checked that the device was on-site by pinging the DC's local IP, and then displaying a msgbox if it received a reply. However, the task scheduler didn't seem to natively support the sort of timing I would require, meaning I'm down to scheduling a separate task for each lesson which just seems really inefficient. This solution also entails me cobbling together a script which interprets the reply from the ping command. Lastly, I've not had much success using GP to actually apply a scheduled task to a user rather than a computer. ☹

[mavhc]

What if you store the script to display the message on the server? Then when offline it just can't run. Do the teachers have their own laptops?

[SJBlackGeek]

Yeah they have their own laptops. I had stored the script on a network share and pushed out a scheduled task to a test teacher account (not to a specific PC) to run it with wscript but it didn't seem to work even after I'd set the trigger to logon and used gpupdate /force and logged off and logged in again. I could manually execute the script so the malfunction was something to do with applying a scheduled task to the user. 😒

[dmason2]

in one place of work we had a scheduled task that ran 5 mins after every registration that runs a video file that says 'Reminder to take your register' with a chime, it ran on every teach PC if users were logged in. although slightly intrusive it did its job to push teachers to take registers

[mthomas08]

Thanks. I've just filled our their enquiry form online to get some pricing. The school is currently repaying a financial deficit, so funds are tight. If this product is cheap then I might be able to get the go-ahead. If not, I will need something open source or a reliable way to leverage native Windows functionality.

 

School has money problems and you are looking to spend a bit just to remind teachers to take registers...

 

If this was a problem here - talking with the Governor hat on.... I would be concerned. I think you are going to be lucky to find something very cheap or free to do this and is reliable. I used Netsupport some years ago and it was cheap compared to other products but still an expense. Not something I would consider buying for this..

 

It must be part of their routine. If they can forget this.. what else can they forget?

 

Sorry - I know this doesn't help you!

[Boredguy]

Our office staff just e-mail those staff that do not do their register in a timely fashion as it was easier. If we wanted to do an automated system it would be a nightmare as not all our classes start at the same time this year as the 2 key stages are staggered so our social areas are not over capacity.

[mavhc]

Yeah they have their own laptops. I had stored the script on a network share and pushed out a scheduled task to a test teacher account (not to a specific PC) to run it with wscript but it didn't seem to work even after I'd set the trigger to logon and used gpupdate /force and logged off and logged in again. I could manually execute the script so the malfunction was something to do with applying a scheduled task to the user. 😒

 

Check the event log/history for the task.

 

There's a condition "start only if the following network connection is available"

 

And then the security options, what user is it running as?

[Danp]

I was asked to look at something like this. I refused. I said it the teachers job to make sure they do the register, they shouldn't need a reminder for it. It's literally their job to make sure the children are safe and accounted for. This was agreed. Now, if staff miss a register, they receive an email from the head and they have to explain themselves. 2 weeks later, we only have the odd one missed.

[Davit2005]

Keep it simple.

 

Students arrive in classroom

Teacher says good morning children/students etc.

Teacher takes register

 

What could be simpler than that .

Edited May 17, 2021 by Davit2005

[mavhc]

Easier just to fire them for being incompetent, if they can't remember that what kind of education are they providing?

[6Foot2]

Keep it simple.

 

Students arrive in classroom

Teacher says good morning children/students etc.

Teacher takes register

 

What could be simpler than that .

 

Follow the instructions!

 

 

[paulkerton]

This is the basics of their job. It's a simple task they should be able to remember to do.

I don't think technology is neccessary here. You'll have attendance officers who can spot a missing register, and alert the teacher and escalate it to the Head if it becomes a regular occurance, I'd have thought? This certainly has the feeling of one or two have an issue, so let's send alerts to everyone so that we don't single out the problem and instead annoy the whole group!

Edited May 17, 2021 by paulkerton

[mavhc]

You'd think the attendance system would send an alert out automatically

[clareq]

Which MIS do you use? SIMS has a missing registers notification - the attendance officer has to chose which alerts to send, but it's a simple tick box:

https://faq.scomis.org/kb23337/

[SJBlackGeek]

Thanks everyone for all the replies so far.

 

I agree with the sentiment that technology shuoldn't be required in these situations, but the Head has asked and I'm obliged to comply.

 

The school's MIS is Arbor. I will ask if they offer any sort of reminder, but I'm not sure what form this would take which wouldn't require staff to either have the website open or an active Outlook session, neither of which are guaranteed, which is why I have been trying to use Windows popup messages.

 

I assumed there would be something readily used and free for this and similar scenarios, but apparently not!