Thoughts and considerations on rostering platforms

[always_flying]

We've had the joy of opening a new school this summer. Completely from scratch, with rather minimal input from our school group on requirements and/or suggestions on maintaining up-to-date rostering.

 

Currently, O365 accounts are created by the IT guy, everything else by me... Not really what I have been brought in to do, but am keen to look at options available that help keep the rosters updated for most, if not all (but am being realistic), of the software we use around the school. It can be a bit of a minefield to know the pros/cons of various systems, so your 2¢ is appreciated.

 

For context:

 

MIS - iSAMS (SSO from Azure AD)

LMS - Toddle (connected to iSAMS via API)

Library - Destiny Follett (apparently not updatable via an API in iSAMS

CPOMS (connected to iSAMS via API)

Office 365 domain with Teams, not currently linked by SDS, but aiming to shortly.

Timetables Rock Stars

Busy Things (not yet connected to SSO)

Brain Pop

Explore Learning

LanguageNut

White Rose

 

To name but a few... I fully hope and expect that we conduct a gap/overlap analysis on these at the end of the year to rationalise them down.

 

Current considerations:

 

Classlink - expensive but extensive support and coverage

Clever - more limited support

Wonde - unsure how this would help the day-2-day work of ensuring an updated roster

[dhicks]

Currently, O365 accounts are created by the IT guy, everything else by me...

 

We use iSAMS, with accounts automatically created in Google Workspace by Salamander Soft (they also support Office 365). Data is also exported from iSAMS (iSAMS have a good API for that kind of thing) to Wonde. Wonde is used by various third-party applications to get limited pupil data, including usernames - I think Timetables Rockstars, Busy Things, Brain Pop, Explore Learning, LanguageNut and White Rose are supported, although you'd need to check exactly.

 

For applications that don't support Wonde / OAuth login-with-Google and that require a CSV file of usernames to be uploaded, I have a set of scripts that get data from iSAMS and export CSV files in the formats needed.

[CTIDTech]

We use ClassLink at trust level and the support has been great, although we had to negotiate on price -so I would suggest having a conversation with them to see if they can meet your goals.

We SSO into every resource (google, purple mash, BrainPOP etc and even websites too) and the user interface saves time in the classroom which was the aim!

 

Another benefit is we don't pay for MIS integration (Wonde or Group Call) anymore as we control the data (it is our data in the first instance) and therefore any MIS integration charge we use to pay is saved as Classlink rosters them all after the rules are created and the application is notified of the change. Finally, it is script free and we can change/amend easily as we see fit.

 

We used to use a variety of tools to achieve these goals previously and these also all fit the bill however one platform just makes it easier for us.