Timed messages before break every day

[enjay]

Policy here is if you're teaching Period 2 or Period 4 (the ones immediately before break) you escort any students in your class who have breaktime detentions to a central location where SLT run a detention. This escort hasn't been happening consistently, so I've been asked about sending a reminder/alert to everyone shortly before each break.

 

Notes and caveats: Staff laptops are all in their own VLAN which means NetSend messages from the servers presumably wouldn't work; also, these would go to support staff too. We need a system which doesn't stack the messages until you next log on, so staff who aren't teaching at the time of the alert don't get late alerts (which rules out NetSupport Notify, for example). The time of lunch break changes during exam season, so we'd need to be able to change the alert time. I'm keen the method doesn't require my team to change something every time a new person starts or leaves, or a laptop is changed.

 

I can push back and say "that's a human problem not a technical one, find a human solution", but want to be sure I've exhausted the technical options first.

 

Suggestions, comments and reasons for/against delivering this all welcome!

[RLR]

As you said, really not an IT problem to fix but as we all know we get involved in these sorts of things. Another option is to send an automated email but I guess that relies on the users checking their email before lesson ends?

[PotNoodleTech]

Sounds like this just needs to be dealt with through SLT-down instruction. Anyone who doesnt turn up / escort their students gets dragged in for a "awkward converstion"

 

If you've got something like Impero or netsupport notify you can create scheduled messages on that.

[David44]

IF this is going to be an IT solution, it needs to be targeted. If people see a message, pop-up or email, twice everyday they will become trained to ignore it, especially when the majority of the time they don't need to take any action (I assume most teachers won't have a student who has a detention in their class before any given break). IF this is going to be an IT solution then only the teachers who are teaching students with a detention should see the message. That's IF an IT solution is appropriate.

[fiza]

We need a system which doesn't stack the messages until you next log on, so staff who aren't teaching at the time of the alert don't get late alerts (which rules out NetSupport Notify, for example).

 

 

We use Notify and as far as I am aware it doesnt stack notifications when we use it. The only time I have seen stacked messages is when the staff member has locked a machine and walked off.

It will only send messages to machines that have a logged in Staff user. We also have altered lunchtimes during exam season and we can quickly change the time any scheduled message goes out.

[Iain.Faulkner]

Just to add with NetSupport notify, I think you can put a time limit on how long the message is displayed for. So if you set a timer for 60 seconds, after that expires the message will disappear meaning they won't get stacked.

[enjay]

Okay, so it sounds like I need to give Notify another look as maybe I was seeing the stacked messages because I wasn't setting expiration times on them.

 

I must admit, I completely agree with the points raised by @PotNoodleTech about the "awkward conversation" and @David44 about alert blindness. Teacher frustration will be through the roof too, so I'd definitely need SLT to take full and public ownership of this. I get enough grief about the frequency of SIMS password changes since we moved to Scomis (they change every 6 weeks), so I dread to think what people are going to say about messages which pop-up and take focus twice a day!

[fiza]

Just to add with NetSupport notify, I think you can put a time limit on how long the message is displayed for. So if you set a timer for 60 seconds, after that expires the message will disappear meaning they won't get stacked.

 

confirmed.

 

[Iain.Faulkner]

Okay, so it sounds like I need to give Notify another look as maybe I was seeing the stacked messages because I wasn't setting expiration times on them.

 

I must admit, I completely agree with the points raised by @PotNoodleTech about the "awkward conversation" and @David44 about alert blindness. Teacher frustration will be through the roof too, so I'd definitely need SLT to take full and public ownership of this. I get enough grief about the frequency of SIMS password changes since we moved to Scomis (they change every 6 weeks), so I dread to think what people are going to say about messages which pop-up and take focus twice a day!

 

This was the problem we had a few years ago when we replaced all school bells with notifications from NetSupport notify. I think staff found it rather frustrating having multiple popups throughout the day. The worst was the staggered lunch alerts when during the final lesson before lunch staff had 3 or 4 popups in that hour to say it was time for Y7/Y8/Y9 etc to go for lunch.

[dmj]

I'd be inclined to do it through a calendar notification.

Depends on what you are using for calendars and if you can force a notification on a single event (presumably you wouldn't want to force a notification for every timetabled lesson!).

 

Calendar seems the most obvious solution for a timetabled event, which this is.

 

Edit: you should be able to get your MIS manager to timetable it for the correct people, then it's out of your hands!

Edited December 8, 2022 by dmj