Groupcall Emerge iPad / iPhone / iPod Touch app for MIS access.

[vikpaw]

SUPERSTOKED! w00t

Got it installed today, only took 50 mins over logmein, and some fiddling around, mostly cos sims was running slow and need to add an ISA rule. So much easier than getting adp up and running.

It's working on my phone and i've got no data cos its the holidays, kids missing, staff not all on, and no timetables, but it's so awesome.

Will feedback more tomorrow, after training.

Thanks Paul

[vikpaw]

So far so good. Training was basically not necessary. Just needed to see how to add a device and see the different consoles there are to view what's going on. Had some little niggles dealing with my proxy server, and making sure there was access to the server that hosts the service, but that's all sorted now.

In fact the server could be made public facing ( or at least traffic routed to it ) and then you could synch from anywhere - but we don't want that really.

 

Did some testing by forcing date backwards to see how it would look with timetables and data and it's really good. Even with our crazy week. You can set it to show up to 5 days of registers / timetables in advance. The first day is always 'today', so it doesn't matter that my weeks starts Saturday. Good news for those middle east schools. @NorthernSands @AlanofArabia

 

Some screenshots:

 

 

On first load the icon images take a while to load and the title just shows $app_title$ but that could be my laggy phone. Also, after phone goes to screen saver, you have to re-enter passcode, 4 digits chosen at setup by user. The digits panel refreshes for no apparent reason on first showing. After 15mins of inactivity ( roughly ), you have to enter the password for the user set at server level. Changing user is fairly straight forward, but needs access to the server, so could be an issue when out of range, or on a trip. Also it says it's clearing all data, and therefore i think it reloads it which is also a pain.

 

**Perhaps to log out should require a password to be entered...

 

There are 2 user levels, senior management and teacher. The teacher level, just shows less info on the staff, i.e. no contact details (address / numbers) or mobile number.

 

The graphs for student attendance are really good. The timetable is handy. The best bit is behaviour, highlighting that which is unresolved. You can also see other students involved.

 

One minor let down is the medical info, it only shows the condition, and not much other info, not even the attached note, which is useful for the extra detail, especially when the category is 'other'. So we wont be using it for the clinic staff just yet.

 

The server does a nightly data synch, but also does them on the fly when data is requested, which can slow the app down sometimes. Especially the photos! We use rather hi-res photos in SIMS (much bigger than recommended), it shrinks them down on synch, and give a very high quality photo on the device both thumbnail and full screen - would be scary on an iPad.

 

It's not very good at handling the connection when you have wifi or 3G but no access to the server. It seems to try to connect twice before it will offer you to go offline and this takes time and drains battery, as well as potentially using up some 3G allowance. If you turn wifi off it goes offline immediately, so presumably would be fine if i walked somewhere that was out of wifi range - if i can find somewhere, but i got caught in this fix on my way home and it was having a fit for a while. It is being looked into though. It's easier just to put it into offline mode deliberately. I don't think this will be an issue for the PE staff though as it should work fine out in the field.

 

The various databases each have an expiration date, after which they will need to synch again. I need to test more. I had a few that had expired but when in offline mode they still worked. One issue however, is that by changing the device date / time, you can fool the app into thinking the expiration date is much further away. Not sure how this would work in practise but could do with being looked at. As mentioned in earlier posts, the remote disablement only works if you connect to the server and receive the message that you are no longer allowed to use the app. So in offline mode it just works. I'll see what happens over the rest of the vacation and report back what happens after everything has expired, it may be that the whole app will stop working after the app's expiration date is reached, in which case that is exactly what we want. We just need to be able to configure it, which i'm sure we can with a file somewhere.

 

That's all the findings so far. Hope it's useful.

Edited July 25, 2011 by vikpaw
auto-save didn't like my pics, clarity

[vikpaw]

So, I have been using the app offline for over a month now, and all the databases have expired, however nothing has changed with my ability to access data. I got a message asking if i wanted to go online, but i was able to cancel that.

 

I really would like to see someway to make it lock down without needing to synchronise with the server and receive a kill command.

 

[McBridge]

Hi,

 

Does anybody know if they will be providing the dinner money register in emerge? As this would be really usefull here.

 

Thanks

[vikpaw]

Hi,

 

Does anybody know if they will be providing the dinner money register in emerge? As this would be really usefull here.

 

Thanks

I don't think it's on the timeline, they are concentrating on behaviour and then assessment as far as i know. As well as widening to other OSes / devices.

[vikpaw]

According to the website they added the cancel button to stop remote synching though as mentioned before it doesn't work too well and crashes the app. I've got a case logged to review this.

Also, the ability to cancel the synch, as far as i know will prevent the remote disablement which is the safety feature in case the device is lost or stolen. I still think this needs addressing, especially as it moves towards purportedly less secure platforms such as Android.

[Hayleywow]

So how do you go about trialing this........ i'm thinking it could be quite useful in our school, some teachers already have Ipad2 etc.....

 

How much does it cost to trial & setup, and do you have to get someone from "Groupcall" to help set it up.

 

When does it become NOT a trial but a full APP etc etc

 

Sorry if this is going over stuff that has already been discussed, but I have read everything, and am still a little confused on the above.

 

Thanks in advance guys

 

Hay

[vikpaw]

The delivery method has changed now, so you can just download the app from the app store for free. When it asks if you want to hook up to the test database just say yes. This lets you try out the app, linking to the web to their test data.

 

The provisioning i think for this was up to a year, when downloaded the old way, i'm not sure how it works now, i think you can just keep the app for as long as you want.

 

To get actual school data on, you'd need to contact Groupcall, or SIMS to set up a trial, i think you can get a month or so. It makes all the difference to see your real data on it. We did a basic test data trial and opted for it direct. Only took a few hours to set up, over a remote session on to my server.

 

Then, you just tell your app that you want to connect to your server instead of the test database and presto you're away.

 

The trial i believe would be free. The costs of the app are listed elsewhere, around £100 per device, with a cap of ~£3000 for a secondary school. This is per year, and includes installation and support.

 

It's pretty intuitive so no need for a manual or training.

 

Groupcall Emerge - the powerful yet intuitive iPhone / iPod 'App' which enables schools to have an up-to-the-minute copy of their MIS data instantly and securely available in the palm of their hand Check this link for info and hit the contact us link to set up a trial.

[zag]

Just had this installed, it was relativley painless.

 

But I'm not impressed to be honest, its not stable and the ipad version is incredibly slow.

 

We keep getting this error message

 

[vikpaw]

Hmm, is this final install or a trial?

If you get errors like that, it means there was an error during a synch, or it's not fully synched. Either from settings update database, or best thing, though a pain is to change user which will initiate a full database reload.

I have some slowness, but thought it was my 3GS at fault. It does take a few seconds to load each module, and there is the issue with the icons loading slowly, but once the module is up, flicking into data is pretty good. I think photo size may have something to do with it, and of course what else the device is running.

I don't know if the photos get resized to a fixed resolution / size, or just shrink down a percentage from the original. If the latter it's a pain as i store photos way bigger than SIMS recommend!

[zag]

Are you using the stable version from the appstore or the beta versions from the ollielevy.me host?

[vikpaw]

I got mine downloaded via the old method, go to .co.uk website on phone and swipe to install. For some reason i have two provisioning profiles on my phone for Emerge and at some point soon one of them goes out of date. Haven't used the one from the store yet. Still waiting for a phone call, from someone regarding my support cases i logged. Been waiting a week, since giving them my direct dial, but no joy yet.

[zag]

Whats the client install website?

 

I think I have a link to the beta software maybe thats why I'm having issues

[vikpaw]

I think that's what i used. But, that is not how they suggest you install it now. If you click on check for updates, it should make sure you have the latest version and it was working fine for me. Like i said, the only issues come when the synch doesn't complete.

Why don't you download the version off the appstore?

[zag]

Why don't you download the version off the appstore?

 

There are 2 versions on the appstore :/

[vikpaw]

One from Groupcall and one from SIMS - just spoke to tech support for an hour about other issues. They are the same app, but i would opt for the Groupcall one, as they are likely to be first to publish.

 

I gave them a lot of feedback, and hopefully will get some of my change requests on the roadmap:

The way Main numbers are pulled back, needs modifying.

The timeout on failed data connection needs shortening.

There needs to be a built-in kill switch to go off after x days.

[zag]

Android version is coming!!

 

First view of Emerge on Android « Groupcall Ltd

[jonrose]

Hi Guys

 

I first saw a demo of GC Emerge at Bett and was impressed by the demo. Currently I am looking into the possibility of having it installed in our school, but before I present it to our SLT I want to gather as much info about it as possible to convince them to give it a trial (they already have iPads each so shouldn’t be too hard!). I have contacted Groupcall themselves, but would like some unbiased feedback from real life users. Some info on the good points and failings of the software would be great.

 

I am also interested to know how other schools put this software to use on an average day to day basis. I can think of the obvious uses such as class/school trips (can registers be taken for user defined groups for instance?) and events off school site, but if someone has found other less obvious uses I would be interested to hear about them.

 

Also if there are any schools in the Greater Manchester area, or surrounding areas, that currently have it installed, then I would love the chance to visit to see it in action. I have the demo on my phone but without live data its limited.

 

Cheers

[jonrose]

Also, any news on release dates for full software releases for OS other than iOS?

 

Jon

[zag]

It works, but there is no native iPad app yet.

 

The app on the store is only an iphone one but it does work well.

 

Bit blurry though.

[vikpaw]

@jonrose

you can read my views littered throughout this thread. there are a couple of shortcomings, but they are all things that could and should be fixed in the future, i've put forward detailed explanations and recommendations, and at least one of my suggestions was taken up almost immediately.

I could see it's use for emergency medical attention, but we found it didnt give much detail, though we're changing exactly how we store that info on medical conditions in sims to make it more useful.

we foresee senior teachers, using it as they walk around the school, instantly able to tell who should be where. looking up staff and student details. having emergency contact info is really useful, and in a phone, you can call and now text.

i'm pretty sure you can get a trial setup, with live data, and it makes all the difference, to actually show senior management, what power they can have.

[ama178]

We are a SERCO school and had our trial install scheduled for about a fortnight ago.

 

During the install it became apparent that the app was just not going to work for us this is because the API that groupcall use for reading and writing data to and from the server supports just 7 register calls that can be mapped to the register codes used in school. We use on a daily basis 13 different codes for lesson by lesson registration.

 

The problem comes when the software doesnt understand what a code pre input into a register is. For example if we were to input a student holidays into the register using a 'H' but then EMERGE doesnt map the 'H' to its software then on EMERGE that student would have a blank field and a teacher would assume when the register is called that he/she was absent and mark as such overwriting the original code pre input into CMIS.

 

We are now waiting for Groupcall to sort out a work around with SERCO to allow us to use our full set of register codes. We shall wait and see!

[LawrenceRoyston]

Hi

 

A couple of points to clarify and then I will explain what enhancements we are working on. The Serco API allows us to read and write all codes for roll call (AM/PM), so there are no problems marking a student with any roll call attendance code from Emerge. *You rightly say that the Serco Lesson Attendance API only allows us to writeback 7 codes and this is an issue.

 

When taking lesson attendance, Emerge will show you the attendance code (in half intensity) of the AM or PM roll call, if there isnt already a mark for that lesson, otherwise it will show you the mark. At the moment, it filters out marks that cant be entered, so this is the situation you have described where an H entered by the office cannot be seen by the teacher taking lesson attendance. What we plan to do is allow the mark to be shown even though it cannot be entered, so a teacher would see the H and therefore not overight it. This should help, although its not a perfect solution.

 

Obviously Serco's main focus is Progresso right now, but we have requested an update to the E-Portal API to allow us to write back all lesson attendance markks (which used to be there in an older version of the API). I am sure our customers support on this may help this happen quicker.

 

Lastly, there is an argument to say that detailed reasons of why students are not attending a lesson are probably not known by teachers when they take lesson attendance, more likely they will be prefilled in by School administrators using the SERCO MIS, so the fact that the teacher cannot enter more than the basic marks is not such a problem. If that was true and as long as the teacher can see that mark, in the short term, the solution we have may be a useable workaround.

 

Appreciate your comments,

 

Best

Lawrence

[HarryMonkey]

Am I correct in thinking that once a register has been taken that it can't be retaken? It would be useful to be able to take an emergency register so that the device could be used during a fire evacuation.

[glennda]

It works, but there is no native iPad app yet.

 

The app on the store is only an iphone one but it does work well.

 

Bit blurry though.

 

That is coming - from looking at the dev site when i have been downloading beta's to test with the issues we have they currently have Emerge HD which is a Ipad version.