Report Assist

[mhussain]

Hey people just wanted to know that the past year we used report assist 2009 but the company is now bust i was just woundering what type of report writing software do you guys tend to use? please can i have some feed back please thank you

[sparkeh]

Yeah we used to use Report Assist too, not too many glum faces that we won't be using it this year.

 

Basically the Assessment co-ordinator knocked up a word template for people to fill in this year.

 

Options I looked at included:

Reportbox (which I thought was excellent)

Report Plus (which I believe is from the same people as Report Assist - but don't quote me on that)

Report Rascal

[Ryno]

If you have Sims have you tried using the report system in that?

[kaphc]

Report Assist has been replaced by Reportplys - website at EduGeek.net - one of their support people is on this forum sometimes so may well come along and provide more information.

 

I am just setting up Reportplus in our school at the moment. I never used Report Assist so can't compare it directly but it seems OK to use.

[ComputingData]

kaphc is correct. ReportPlus is a good program to switch to if you are already used to ReportAssist. It is not the same program, but has a similar user interface and some of the telephone support staff from ReportAssist also work there.

[smegbrains]

I've been handed ReportPlus to install by one of my schools. Can't say I'm very impressed so far unfortunately. I'm sure it's fine from the teachers side but it's a bit of a nightmare for a tech! There's very little technical information for installation in the manual, none at all for performing a server-based install (as mentioned on website!) and no information on how well it works as a network application with multiple users accessing the same folder.

 

One thing that is particulary concerning me is that it's not made very clear at all exactly what information is uploaded to their servers if following the default install instructions. A little rummaging and educated(ish!) guesswork leads me to think there may possibly be pupil & teacher information in this upload, which seems to be plain text over HTML, with a configuration option buried in menus for enabling HTTPS which has warnings about it being in Alpha testing. Not the most impressive thing to find in production software.

 

Have emailed their support with a request for clarification, no reply yet though so they are probably busy.

[ComputingData]

smegbrains: Sorry you're having a hard time installing the program. I have a pdf I can send to you if you want to install on a network like ReportAssist did - multiple users accessing subfolders of a shared drive. If yo PM me with an email address I'll send it asap.

 

Currently the way a lot of the hubs/school firewalls/proxies seem to be setup, they seem to ban https protocol and only allow standard http over port 80 - that is why it is disabled as default. It would cause more problems than it would solve.

 

I've no idea why so-one at support has responded to the request for more information. If you try again (email 'ask', but mark it for my attention (Anthony)) then I'll sort out the information you need.

 

Here is some info anyhow : To use the program (without the reportserver save/load system) then no teacher data is sent to our server - only username/password combinations - passwords are sent using a one-way encryption system conbined with a salt string so they cannot be reversed, even if you know a known password and the algorithm used. Usernames do not have to be related to teacher names, that is up to the admin of the system on the schools side.

[smegbrains]

smegbrains: Sorry you're having a hard time installing the program. I have a pdf I can send to you if you want to install on a network like ReportAssist did - multiple users accessing subfolders of a shared drive. If yo PM me with an email address I'll send it asap.

 

Installation is quite easy considering, however I tend to poke new programs to death, especially those that deal with sensitive information involving our pupils.

 

My main struggle is with working out precisely what data gets stored where and how, and what is sent over the internet/network. The instructions make it sound like the initial administrative installation (where once configured you upload "settings" to ReportPlus) also sends the imported pupil data, and teacher information. There are many pitfalls and legal issues with any information going offsite. Could you confirm or deny that this is the case?

 

That network guide would be very handy, yes. We are beginning to use Remote Access here so networking is essential for things like this. Sending PM after this reply, I feel that it would be a good idea to make it available for other techs as well on the website for the product, potentially with a technical FAQ.

 

Currently the way a lot of the hubs/school firewalls/proxies seem to be setup, they seem to ban https protocol and only allow standard http over port 80 - that is why it is disabled as default. It would cause more problems than it would solve.

 

That is fair enough, I cannot speak for other schools but here we can and do use HTTPS for anything that potentially contains confidential information. Making a note of it in a Technical FAQ would mean people specifically looking for it can turn it on. I assume then that it is not really in Alpha testing?

 

I've no idea why so-one at support has responded to the request for more information. If you try again (email 'ask', but mark it for my attention (Anthony)) then I'll sort out the information you need.

 

Will do when I get in tomorrow, thanks.

 

Here is some info anyhow : To use the program (without the reportserver save/load system) then no teacher data is sent to our server - only username/password combinations - passwords are sent using a one-way encryption system conbined with a salt string so they cannot be reversed, even if you know a known password and the algorithm used. Usernames do not have to be related to teacher names, that is up to the admin of the system on the schools side.

 

Thankyou for the extra information and the reply.

Edited April 13, 2010 by smegbrains

[ComputingData]

The guide was written as general instructions, if the school doesn't feel comfortable sending the information in that very last section then they don't need to - they can save the settings to memory stick or as a compressed file for importing to other computers (or they can use the alternative method that I've emailed to you). In fact, the original ReportAssist also allowed the user to save settings to their server via plaintext ftp using a standard MS access file.

 

If you're installing remotely then you may like to know that the install has a '-silent' switch, this will install without any messages or windows being opened. If you want or need more switches, please contact me with what you would like them to do and I'll try put them in for you.

[laserblazer]

Has anyone actually got this set up? I've installed it, added all of our class teachers, created a csv of pupils including a field with the teacher details but this hasn't appeared anywhere in the imported pupil details, so I can't associate pupils with their class teacher. I've sent Anthony an email requesting help but I have to get it up and working today.

[ComputingData]

Hi,

 

If you edit the pupil details (there is an edit icon on the left of the pupil list), then there is a pulldown option to select the class teacher. You can also right-click a pupil and set the class teacher that way, or assign a specialist teacher for a certain subject.

 

I haven't seen the email you sent? (unless you sent it today - in which case, I've just replied - are you R.B.?).

[kaphc]

Laserblazer - I had to go through and edit each pupil manually to assign a teacher to them. Be careful with any job shares too, as you have to enter two people as one teacher IYSWIM.

 

Not tried assigning specialist teachers yet ... that's an interesting feature which I shall look into for our French stuff.

 

Incidentally, I set up our users but have yet to find a way of editting their username or deleting them once they've been set up. Is this possible?

[ComputingData]

kaphc: If you PM me the details (also include your licence name and the first and last letters of the password) - I can sort the changes to the usernames/delete them for you.

 

If you want to mass-edit the teachers allocated to pupils then you can use the pupil-subject matrix - it's on the teacher menu at the top of the screen. It may look very complicated, but it's like a spreadsheet. Just select the teacher, then tick the pupils who are in his or her class (one of the first columns).

 

laserblazer: If you email me your csv file, I'll take a look at it and see what went wrong - that way it can be fixed for the future.

[kaphc]

ComputingData: Thanks, I'll Pm you tomorrow morning when I'm at work and have the details. It's only one username which needs editting at the moment so nothing too onerous :-)

[laserblazer]

@kaphc, I worked out how to do it in bulk and then Anthony emailed me an easier way. That said, and despite Anthony's help, we've thrown the towel in. I managed to upload data to the server via my unfiltered connection but the filters block normal traffic. Along with that, there are a number of features missing from Reportplus that our HT isn't happy about. So, I've blown the dust of the ReportAssist disk and we will us that again this year, with a view to looking at SIMS for the future.

[ComputingData]

Laserblazer: I'm sorry to hear that. Could you let me know what features were missing? I'll be adding them asap!

 

It is a pain how much some of councils lock down web access for teachers - I think they have seen one too many episodes of 24! lol

 

The web side of things is optional, you could use memory sticks in virtually the same way as you did with ReportAssist. See:

http://reportplus.co.uk/downloads/usb_settings.pdf and http://reportplus.co.uk/downloads/usb_reports.pdf

 

Over the summer I'm creating an alterative method of transporting the data using http, this doesn't seem to have any of the proxy server problems that the normal ftp system has - if you can create the teacher username when this new method would work fine.

Edited April 27, 2010 by ComputingData

[kaphc]

@Laserblazer .... there's always a way in the end isn't there! Would be interested to know what is missing as I never used ReportAssist - if you get a minute could you PM me so I can anticipate any teacher questions.

 

@ComputingData - our teachers are starting their report writing on Tuesday next week (4th May) so no doubt I'll be back with any quetions that crop up :-)

[laserblazer]

It may not be important to others but the drop-downs for grades, teachers and attainment in the Subject boxes is a big miss. There are probably other things as well but we never got as far as letting teachers loose on it. I'm sure Reportplus is fine once it is up and running, it has just taken me too long to get anywhere, along with LEA blocking FTP. Within an hour of deciding to dust off ReportAssist, teachers had a memory stick to start reporting and I don't need to do any training OK, the subsequent merging and printing is a bit of a pain but the admin staff can do that.

[ComputingData]

I didn't know about those drop downs until relatively recently. Because of the way that RA works - each subject is in it's own edit box and RP uses a single window to edit a report (similar to a wordprocessor) - adding that feature required a little more planning than normal in order to 'get it right'.

 

I'm looking at adding a system I'm calling 'QuickMarks'. It will allow you to do the drop downs for grades, attainments and more. Basically you are not limited to the 2 boxes (one on the left, one on the right) you have with RA. You can also have multiple 'sets' of them per subject. For example some text, some grades, some more text, more grades, etc... if you like. Although it may be too late for your school, this should be added to the program *very* soon. It will be added in such a way that it doesn't disrupt the reporting process.

 

You may want to try using ReportPlus again next year, once more LEAs know about it and/or the http system bypasses them anyhow. In any event I'd stop using Report Assist as soon as you can as the problems it has with Vista and Windows 7 won't go away, they get even worse if you have a 64-bit version of Windows. I'm not quite sure if the reporting system in SIMS would be a good choice though, have you looked at it yet?

[laserblazer]

I agree, the drop down boxes in RA are limited and positioning is not brilliant. I admit I haven't looked at the SIMS reports yet but if I had my way, reports would be handwritten like when I was at school.

[ComputingData]

The problem then would be that the teacher handwriting is often worse than the pupils (even the under 10's) , so nobody would be able to read it! lol.

[dpittaway]

I've been dealing with this program at one of my schools for the last couple of weeks - it's been a bit of a nightmare to setup having been given the responsibilty half way through the setup process and no information about it whatsoever.

 

Anyway, it's pretty much setup now, but can someone tell me exactly what information is sent and received when the admin uploads and a teacher downloads new settings. I'm concerned because I have had to make some tweaks to the settings and print layouts, and have uploaded them to the server. I'm a little wary of going ahead and downloading the settings onto the teachers laptops if they have started their reports.

 

ComputingData, any chance you can confirm that their reports won't be overwritten by doing this? So far they will probably have saved the reports.rp file to the HDD, but probably not uploaded them to the server for back-up/merging.

[ComputingData]

First, to make it clearer, here is what happens when the various 'buttons' are clicked...

 

An admin validates the admin account and creates users, they should never need to unvalidate. They give the user/password combinations to the other teachers, each teacher should have his/her own username/password.

 

When an admin clicks on 'Upload settings' it sends the school details and settings, teacher names (not usernames) that have been created, custom subjects, custom layouts, subject order and a blank set of pupils and any template 'pupils' they may have created.

 

When an admin (within the admin dialog) selects a user, then clicks 'download', it will download a copy of that users work into the 'reportplus/admin' folder in docs and settings (it creates the folder if it doesn't exist at the same time). It doesn't load the report afterwards, it is just a way of backing up what we have.

 

If the admin (within the admin dialog) selects MORE THAN ONE user, the 'download' turns into 'merge' and by clicking this it will download into the admin folder the select users reports, then it will merge them together with the current report. This way the admin can see a current 'state of play', it appends a '_merged' to the save filename, so the admin can't accidently overrwrite his/her original work (in case they are a teacher as well and also using the admin as a username).

 

A user validates his/her account, they should never need to unvalidate.

 

When a user clicks on 'download settings' it will download all the settings, etc that the admin has uploaded. The program will then shut down and should be restarted for the new settings to take effect.

 

When a user has done some work they can save as normal to the hdd or to memory stick, if they also wat a copy to be saved online they click 'upload pupil file to server', we may change this text to 'save pupil file to server' next year to avoid confusion. It is saved on our system under the validated username they used, that is why each teacher should their own username.

 

If the user wants to recover their file from the server they can also 'download pupil file from server'. This downloads their file that is stored under their username.

 

Finally, in order to answer your original question, settings and pupil text are independent from each other, this means that as an admin you can change settings and layouts then re-upload them. If the users then re-download them it will not delete work. However, if you rename or merge subjects (to create a new subject) then people who have started work on the original subject will see that text disappear. But if they re-enable the original subject it will re-appear - it is not deleted. If you are just messing with page layouts, etc then there won't be a problem. Changes to templates will obviously not be applied once a user has started work as they may have changed some of the text that is within what the template created.

 

I know it's not related to your question, but one thing that may be confusing is that the teacher pulldown is just an aid to seeing just your pupils out of the school list of pupils, a teacher cannot see other teachers work. It saves the admin a stage in cutting up a school csv file for each teacher. Reports are usually only merged at the end, it is not a 'live' merge.

Edited April 28, 2010 by ComputingData

[dpittaway]

Thanks for the response - it answered my questions and then some!

 

I'll get the staff to download the new settings in the staff meeting tonight then, and hopefully all will be well and they can go away and start using it properly!

[ComputingData]

Sorry for going on. lol!