Digital signature replies to letters

[MK-2]

I think I asked this a while back but it's been raised again here and we're struggling to find an answer.

 

At the moment we have moodle set up to host school letters for information, trips, reply slips etc. Parents can login, print and return the forms with their kids.

The parents are now asking if there is a way we can allow them to digitally sign and return the form online instead of printing off.

 

Obviously this raises a few queries.....where does it get sent back to (who will admin/collate the replies).....how much would such a thing cost,etc.

 

Does anyone know of a way? I'm thinking a letter is shown on a webpage, and under it the parent is given a box to sign and return (using sendmail or something) which accepts a unique ID given to them (either checked against AD or a DB).

[Norphy]

This sounds like something InfoPath and SharePoint would do. May be worth looking at those?

[apearce]

This sounds like something InfoPath and SharePoint would do. May be worth looking at those?

 

you could use SharePoint Foundation (free version) and create a custom workflow that emails them and then requires their digital signature (approval workflow). Quite a bit of work involved but certainly something you can do.

 

Note: SharePoint digital signature is different to word.

[plexer]

Can't you just do it with them entering their details into a pdf form and it emailing it to someone?

 

Ben

[Sylv3r]

I am considering something similar here but using Google Forms - as you say it's the collation of all data which will be the difficult part. The information coming out is only as good as the information the parents put into the system.

[SYNACK]

I am going to be different and say that the data colletion and collation are the easy part. The hard part is verifying that it is the parents themselves doing the 'signing' as such from a copability point of view the school must make sure it is the parents. Signatures are easy as they have been long accepted as a means of concent/contract but electronic stuff is different.

 

Legally the school would really need to have the parent come into the school with ID ans sign an agreement once to confirm who they are and that anything submitted and agreed to by their email account was the same as their signature. They would also need to take responcibility for the security of their own email account and not blame the school if their child got into it.

 

Ideally such a system would be sorted when the student was first enroled and the parent could either be given a logon or preferably provide an authorized email address. Any forms could then be emailed to the correct address and replies collated. This would prevent the whole 'can you reset my password' nightmare and assosiated identification hassle of requireing a positive ID of the patent to reset it.

 

Probably need the LA's lawyer to look over such a form but once in place it could be a much nicer system to deal with than the paper nastyness.