SchoolConnects
Web Users’ Guide
Synrevoice Technologies Inc.
SchoolConnectsTM Version 9.21 or later
Copyright © 2002 - 2010 Synrevoice Technologies Inc.
Although the information in this document has been carefully reviewed, Synrevoice Technologies
Inc, (“Synrevoice”) does not warrant it to be free of errors or omissions. Synrevoice reserves the
right to make corrections, updates, revisions or changes to the information in this document.
UNLESS OTHERWISE EXPRESSLY STATED BY SYNREVOICE, THE PROGRAM DESCRIBED
IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EITHER MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT
WILL SYNREVOICE BE LIABLE TO ANYONE FOR SPECIAL, COLLATERAL, INCIDENTAL
OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY LOST
PROFITS, DATA, OR SAVINGS, ARISING OUT OF THE USER OF OR INABILITY TO USE
THIS PROGRAM.
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language, in part or in whole.
You may only redistribute this document internally within your organization (for example, on your
intranet) provided that you continue to check with Synrevoice for updates, and update your version
of the documentation. You may not make it available to your organization over the internet.
SchoolConnectsTM is a trademark of Synrevoice Technologies Inc.
Microsoft is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United
States and/or other countries.
Other products or services mentioned in this document are identified by the trademarks or service
marks of their respective owners.
SchoolConnects Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
The SchoolConnectsWeb Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Navigation Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
SchoolConnects Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
School properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The student household contact data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The relative contact data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Types of Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Attendance Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
About Emergency messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
About canned messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Call-In Profile Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Call-in profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Call-in profile reference card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Example: the football coach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The superintendent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
All grade 9 students in the district. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
About Message Expiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
About Call Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
About Email Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
About Message Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
When to use what priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Contact Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Difference Between the Address Book and a Contact List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Contact list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
The User Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
User types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
User properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
District administrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
About Importing Contact Data from a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Do-Not-Call Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Global Do-Not-Call list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
School’s Do-Not-Call list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Message Suppression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Types of messages that are restricted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
About Cascade Calling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Contact priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
How cascade calling works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
A message is considered delivered when ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
If the message is not delivered ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
SchoolConnectsWeb Users’ Guide
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Using SchoolConnectsWeb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Create a School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
Edit School Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
Change Your Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
Add a New User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
Delete an Existing User Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Create an Announcement With Your Own Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
Step 1: Identify the message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Step 2: Schedule delivery of your message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Step 3A: Record the message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Record a message in your own voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Generate a message using Text to Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Step 3B: Create the email contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Step 4: Specify who to send the message to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Step 5: Review the Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Choose Recipients from the Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58
Select the entire Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Select all members of a grade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Select individuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Choose Recipients from a Contact List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60
Select an entire contact list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Select a subset grouping from a contact list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Select individuals from a contact list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Obtain Recipients from an Import File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
Create an Announcement Using a Canned Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Identify the message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Schedule delivery of your message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Create the email contents (if applicable). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Specify who to send the message to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Step 5: Review the Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Work with Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
Suspend a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
View the recipients for a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Add more recipients to a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Listen to a sample call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Send a sample email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
View the progress of a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Listen to call responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Reactivate a message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Change message settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Send a Message Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
Send the same message again to the same recipients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Send a new message to the same recipients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Create a Reusable Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
View the reusable message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
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SchoolConnectsWeb Users’ Guide
Make a message reusable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Reuse a Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Create a Quick Attendance Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
If you import an absence file two or more times a day ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Create a Contact List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Modify a Contact List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Manually add contacts to a contact list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Add to a contact list from the Address Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Add to a contact list from an import file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Delete a record from the contact list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Change the telephone number for a contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Update the Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Import a new Address Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Search for a student in the Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Manually add a student to the Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Delete a student from the Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Prevent Calls to a Student or Phone Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Delete a record from the Do-Not-Call list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Restrict Messaging for a School or District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Change the restriction schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Cancel the current restriction schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
SchoolConnects Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109
Create an Attendance Message Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Attendance Message Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Create a Canned Message Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Canned Message Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Create a File Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Set Up a Call-In Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
SchoolConnects Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131
Available SchoolConnects Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Status Used in Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
PIN Responses Used in Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Viewing Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Email a report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
View a report online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Request a Notification Task Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Request an Export Call Responses Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Request a Call-In Profile Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Request a Report of Call-In Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Schedule a Recurring Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Retrieve Message History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
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SchoolConnects Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Address Book Fields and What They Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154
Primary Student (Household) Contact Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Relative Contact Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Address Book Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
What the Message Icons Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158
Use School Announcement Settings Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159
User Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160
The Cascade Calling Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162
Contact priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
How cascade calling works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Cascade calling sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
The Telemarketer Zapper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164
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SchoolConnectsWeb Users’ Guide
SchoolConnects Basics
The SchoolConnectsTM software (“SchoolConnects”) is a parent notification system
used primarily by schools and school districts to notify parents about student
attendance and to communicate school announcements and emergency messages to
parents and the school community.
SchoolConnectsWeb is the primary interface for SchoolConnects. Most daily or
occasional functions can be done through SchoolConnectsWeb, which means that
users can access the system from any machine on the same network without having to
install any software. School administrators can use SchoolConnectsWeb to send
automated telephone messages to their entire school community or to selected grades,
groups, or individuals. District administrators can use SchoolConnectsWeb to send
automated messages to one or more schools, the entire district, or to selected
individuals or groups.
This chapter describes the basic SchoolConnects concepts and introduces the
SchoolConnectsWeb user interface.
Contents:
•
The SchoolConnectsWeb Window
•
SchoolConnects Schools
•
The Address Book
•
Types of Messages
•
Attendance Messages
•
Announcements
•
Call-In Profile Messages
•
About Message Expiry
•
About Call Times
•
About Email Times
•
About Message Priority
•
Contact Lists
•
Difference Between the Address Book and a Contact List
•
The User Manager
•
About Importing Contact Data from a File
•
Do-Not-Call Lists
•
Message Suppression
•
About Cascade Calling
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
1
The SchoolConnectsWeb Window
The SchoolConnectsWeb window is divided into two parts: The Navigation pane on
the left and the work area on the right. The work area on the right shows the contents
of the option selected in the Navigation pane. No matter what window you are working
on in the work area, you can click on an item in the Navigation pane to go immediately
to a different function.
If you do this without first saving your changes, you may lose any changes you
have been working on.
NOTE:
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
The Navigation Pane
The Navigation pane looks like this:
Home
Use this option to return to the view you saw when you first logged in.
Change School
Available only to District users or administrators. Use this option to select a
school or all schools to work with. After you make a selection, that selection is
maintained until you make a new selection.
Send Message
Available only to users who have permissions to create a new message. Use this
option to create a new announcement, emergency message, or attendance
message, or to reuse a message.
View Messages: Announcement
Use this option to view all announcements in the system for the selected
school(s) and date. To view announcements for a particular date, click the date
in the calendar and click Announcement.
View Messages: Emergency
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Use this option to view all emergency messages in the system for the selected
school(s) and date. To view emergency messages for a particular date, click the
date in the calendar and click Emergency.
View Messages: Attendance
Use this option to view all attendance messages in the system for the selected
school(s) and date. To view attendance messages for a particular date, click the
date in the calendar and click Attendance.
View Messages: Call-In Profile
Use this option to view all announcements launched by calling in to the system
for the selected school(s) and date. To view call-in profile messages for a
particular date, click the date in the calendar and click Call-In Profile.
View Messages: All Messages
Use this option to view all messages in the system for the selected school(s) and
date. To view all messages for a particular date, click the appropriate date in the
calendar and click All Messages.
Reports
Use this option to request a custom report or to view message history for a phone
number or student ID.
Settings
Use this option to suppress messages, or work with message templates, school
properties, restriction schedule, user accounts, or other system settings.
Manage Contacts
Use this option to work with the Address Book, contact lists, or Do-Not-Call
lists.
Need Help?
Use this option to access videos, frequently-asked questions (FAQs),
documentation, and the Remote Support Portal.
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
SchoolConnects Schools
In SchoolConnects, the term school is just a label. A SchoolConnects school may
represent an actual school, but it may also represent a virtual school. For example, in a
district system, one school may be called “Staff” and may have an Address Book
containing contact information for all staff members in the district.
School properties
Each school has its own properties. Each school can have its own Address Book and may
have its own message templates, contact lists, and so on.
The school code is the building code or location code for the school. This appears on any
text files you import into the system.
The name message is a recording of the school name. This recording is used in messages
to identify the school that is calling. You can have this message recorded for you,
keeping it in a consistent voice with the remainder of the message, or you can record
your own message.
The explanation message is used in attendance messages and is optional. It is used to
allow each school to have a slightly different message. For example, a middle school
may want to end an absence message with:
“In future, please call our 24-hour attendance line and leave a message for the attendance
secretary if you know the student will be absent that day.”
But the high school may want to end an absence message with a much longer:
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
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“You must send a written note explaining the reason for the absence on the student’s
return to school. Please be aware that no credit will be given for a course if the student has
more than 6 unexplained absences for that course.”
You can have this message recorded for you, keeping it in a consistent voice with the
remainder of the message, or you can record your own message.
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
The Address Book
The Address Book contains contact information for people associated with the school
or school district. At the minimum, the Address Book contains an entry for each
student in a school. Because the Address Book is used to contact groups of people
associated with the school, it may also contain a record for each of the staff members in
the school, or other groups such as bus drivers.
The student information in the Address Book is imported from the student
information system periodically, sometimes even daily, to ensure that student records
are up to date. The file used to import the data is called an import file. Records for
people other than students can be added manually, but are typically added via an
import file also.
Student records are frequently viewed by grade, but can be viewed by home room,
language, teacher, or custom fields. Within these groupings, student records can be
sorted by home room, teacher, name, language, student ID, or custom fields. These
groupings are provided to make it easy for you to send a message to a particular group
of students. For example, if you want to send a reminder notice to all Grade 9 students,
you can easily select that group.
You can also search for a particular record in the Address Book by typing your search
criteria in the field provided.When you locate a student in the Address Book, you see
the following:
Note the single-person and two-person icons to the left of the student’s name.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
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Clicking on the single-person icon allows you to see the student household contact
data. Clicking on the two-person icon allows you to see any relative contact data
defined for the student.
The student household contact data
The student household contact data contains the student properties, including name,
ID, grade, home room, language, and other fields specific to the student. It also contains
primary contact information (telephone and email), and secondary contact
information, if applicable. It may also contain the household address, if used. It also
includes two customizable fields available for use for fields such as bus route.
The relative contact data
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Each relative record can contain contact information for a parent, guardian, or other
relative of the student. It also includes the name, relationship, and priority.
For an explanation of each field in the Address Book, see "Address Book Fields and
What They Mean".
RELATED LINKS:
Update the Address Book
Create a Contact List
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
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Types of Messages
SchoolConnects provides the following types of messages:
•
Attendance messages
•
Announcements
•
Emergency messages
•
Call-in profile messages
Attendance messages notify parents when a student is absent for one or more periods
or an entire day, or if a student is late.
Announcements are generally messages sent to the entire school or a group of people.
These messages may be ad-hoc, recorded in your own voice (or using the
Text-to-Speech feature), or they may use one of many canned messages prepared for
you that cover a variety of situations.
Emergency messages are usually broadcast to the entire school population. These are
usually messages that must be sent immediately, regardless of the time of day. An
example is when the district notifies the community that a school is closed for the day
due to severe weather. Emergency messages are sent with a higher priority than other
announcements and may be routed to another calling system to be expedited.
Call-in profile messages are messages that are launched from a telephone. The message
is pre-configured so that the user only needs to record the message via the telephone
before they launch the message.
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Attendance Messages
Attendance messages are those messages sent when a student is absent for one or more
periods in a day or for an entire day, or when a student is late. The information used to
send these messages comes from attendance records in the student information system.
Attendance data is retrieved at least once a day from the student information system.
Attendance messages are sent the day the student is absent at a predetermined time.
An attendance message is specific to the student’s case: If the student misses a single
period, the message indicates what period was missed. If the student is absent for an
entire day, the message indicates that.
The attendance message is highly customizable. The Default Period Absence message
sounds something like the following.
When played to a person:
“<School Name> calling, please hold. This is a message from <School Name>. A student
in your household in grade <grade> named <student’s first name> was absent <date of
absence> in period <list of periods missed>. Please call the school at <school phone
number> to provide an explanation. To listen to this message again, press 1."
When played to a machine:
“This is a message from <School Name>. A student in your household in grade <grade>
named <student’s first name> was absent <date of absence> in period <list of periods
missed>. Please call the school at <school phone number> to provide an explanation."
The message is always placed twice to an answering machine, in case the first part of the
message is cut off.
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Announcements
An announcement is a message that you send to the general student population or to a
distribution list. A typical announcement to the general population might be that
report cards will be ready to be picked up on a particular date. A typical announcement
to a distribution list might be to announce a change of time for the football practice.
There are multiple ways to create an announcement. You can:
•
Record a message in your own voice.
•
Record a message by writing the message text and converting it to a speech file
that uses a computer-generated voice.
•
Use a canned message, which is prerecorded in the same voice as the
SchoolConnects attendance messages (in English only).
•
Send email messages whether or not you also deliver the messages by telephone.
You can include email attachments that are exactly the same for every student,
such as newsletters, forms, notices, and so on. You cannot email items such as
Report cards, which are different for each student.
Announcements are delivered within the times you specify, but not before 7:30 a.m.
and not later than 9:00 p.m. If other messages are being sent to the same household,
they are combined into one telephone call. You can use an announcement for any
message you create yourself that does not need to go out outside of the regular
announcement hours or does not need to take priority over all other calls.
There are some special types of announcements:
•
Emergency announcements have a higher priority and a broader range of calling
times.
•
Canned messages are announcements where the message is prerecorded for you.
SchoolConnects comes with several stock (out of the box) messages. Some of
these deliver customized messages to each of the recipients, such as the
outstanding items message.
The Announcement option is available only to users who have permission to
record messages. If you do not see Announcement in the Send Message window, you do
not have permission. If you need this access, please contact your district administrator.
NOTE:
About Emergency messages
An Emergency message is a message that you record yourself and send to a group of
recipients. Each Emergency message is unique and is usually used only once. A typical
Emergency message might be that a particular bus route is delayed or cancelled. You
use an Emergency message when it must go out immediately. If a message must be
delivered outside normal calling times, you must also use Emergency.
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
NOTE:
Emergency messages take priority over all other calls, so be careful when sending
one.
•
Emergency messages are not combined with any other messages scheduled for
delivery at the same time.
•
No other calls are delivered until the Emergency call delivery is complete.
•
Emergency priority calls can be delivered 24 hours a day. They are sent out at any
hour of day or night if you set them to go out at those times. You can use the
Emergency feature to send calls during prime-time hours, such as 6 p.m. to 9
p.m. if you need your message to take priority over any other calls that may be set
to deliver during this time. NOTE: Sending an Emergency call at the same time as
Attendance calls may prevent the Attendance calls from being delivered.
•
By default, Emergency messages require the call recipient to press 2 to confirm
receipt, otherwise the system calls back. You can disable this option.
Do not use Emergency messages in a life or death situation: Dire situations
should be handled directly by a person.
CAUTION:
The Emergency option is available only to users who have permission to send
Emergency messages. If you do not see Emergency, you do not have permission. If you
need this access, please contact your district administrator.
About canned messages
A canned message is an announcement created in a prerecorded voice. Stock messages
come with the SchoolConnects system. In addition, you may have some custom canned
messages created for you. A canned message is recorded in the same voice as
attendance messages, in English only. A canned message allows you to quickly send a
message to any group of people without recording anything.
Canned messages are delivered within the times you specify, but not before 7:30 a.m.
and not later than 9:00 p.m. If other messages are sent to the same household, they are
combined into one telephone call.
Canned messages allow you to assemble a message from rerecorded phrases. When
creating an announcement from a canned message, you choose from the list of Stock
messages available. For some messages, you select values for variables, such as dollar
amounts, dates, and times when you create the message. For some Stock messages, you
use an import file (such as a spreadsheet or text file) that contains a list of students and
their associated dollar amounts (such as outstanding lunch balances).
If you need a canned message that does not yet exist, you can request one from your
Synrevoice representative. It is created for you as part of our service.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
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Call-In Profile Messages
You can call in to SchoolConnects to send messages when you do not have access to a
computer. You may want to send a message in this manner if you need to send an
early-morning message regarding a school closure due to inclement weather. You want
this kind of message to go out before you arrive at the school or district office. Another
example would be if the football coach wants to notify parents that the team will be 45
minutes later arriving home than scheduled.
You can send this type of message provided you have a numeric user ID (so you can
enter the user ID and password from a telephone keypad) and provided that you first
create a profile for the message you want to send.
Calls always start today, at the time specified in the profile.
Call-in profiles
Call-in profiles are used to define the details of an announcement so that you only need
to record the actual message when you call in to the system. The call-in profile defines
the telephone numbers to be called and the hours at which the calls can be sent.
Let us suppose that the Vice Principal has a call-in profile with a contact list of school
staff plus the school Address Book. The Vice Principal can launch a message from
anywhere to both staff and students at the same time. You can also create a call-in
profile for all schools and all staff, one just for all grade 9 students in the district, and so
on. There is no limit to the number of call-in profiles you can create.
A call-in profile must be assigned to at least one user, but it can be assigned to more
than one. Each call-in profile user must have a numeric user ID and numeric password
to launch calls this way. This enables the users to log in from a telephone.
A user ID with permission to launch a call-in message does not require any other
permissions in SchoolConnects. Even if every permission is set to No, the user can
launch calls by calling in. However, to not require separate accounts for using
SchoolConnectsWeb and for launching calls by telephone, you may just want to
provide all users with a single numeric user ID and password.
Call-in profile reference card
For each call-in profile, SchoolConnects automatically generates a reference card that
you can print for the people using the call-in profile to keep in their wallets. The
reference card should include the telephone number to call, the user ID and the profile
ID. The same user account can have multiple call-in profiles. For example, the music
director could have a call-in profile containing all music students, one for senior band,
one for choir, and so on. If one user has several call-in profiles, it is recommended that
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
you combine all instructions for one user into one reference card that includes all
call-in profiles available to that user.
Example: the football coach
1)
Create a call-in profile for the football coach. Select only the contact list called
“Football team”.
2)
When the football team goes to another town on Saturday for a game, the coach
can use a pay telephone, cell phone, or any other telephone to call in to the
system, log in and enter the call-in profile ID, and record a message saying the
team arrived safely. The message is sent immediately, no matter what time of day
or night.
3)
When the team is on the way home, and the coach can reasonably estimate their
arrival time at the school, he can call in again, use the same login and call-in
profile ID, and record another message giving parents the estimated arrival time
so they can be at the school to pick up their kids.
1)
In a district system, create a user account for the superintendent.
2)
Create a call-in profile that includes all schools and all Address Books, using the
Default Announcement Settings, with several days to complete the calls.
3)
Name the call-in profile “All Schools Announcement”
4)
When the superintendent wants to send an announcement to all households in
the district, he or she simply calls in to the system at his or her convenience,
enters the All Schools call-in profile ID, and records the message.
The superintendent
All grade 9 students in the district
1)
Create a call-in profile where all school Address Books in the district are selected,
but select the Grade 9 subset.
2)
Name the call-in profile “All Grade Nines in the District”.
3)
When you need to send a message about something that affects all ninth-grade
students, call in, enter the profile ID and record your message.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
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About Message Expiry
When you create an announcement, you specify a date and time when the message is
to start going out. You also set a date for the message to expire. You either set this
explicitly, or you use the default expiry date from your template.
The expiry date is the date at which the system stops trying to deliver the message. The
expiry date may occur after the system has completed making all calls, it may occur
while the system is still trying to contact people who did not answer their telephones on
the first try, or it may occur after only some of the people have been contacted.
Ideally, the expiry date is set to a value that makes sense for the system you are using: If
you are using SchoolConnects on a hosted service, it may take only a couple of hours
to reach everyone in your school or district. If you are using SchoolConnects on a local
system with only a few telephone lines, it may take multiple days to reach everyone. You
need to consider how many calls you are making and how you are making them when
setting the expiry date for a message.
You also need to consider what makes sense for the expiry date. For example, if you are
sending an early morning message announcing a school closure due to inclement
weather, it usually does not make sense to send the message over 2 or 3 days.
Regardless of the circumstances, if the system is still calling when the expiry date
arrives, it stops calling that message.
When calling over two or more days, the system does not repeat calls to the same
telephone number once the message is delivered to that telephone number.
When a message expires, its status is set to Expired.
RELATED LINKS:
Create an Announcement With Your Own Message
Create an Announcement Using a Canned Message
Choose Recipients from the Address Book
Choose Recipients from a Contact List
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
About Call Times
When you create a message to be delivered by telephone, you specify the call times: The
time to start calling, and the time to stop calling.
Usually, these times are set in the template you are using, and you may not need to
change the times. However, it is important to check what they are, especially if you are
sending out a message on or near a weekend.
There are two sets of call times for a message:
•
Weekday call times
•
Weekend call times
The weekday call times identify the period of time Monday through Friday that you
determine is the optimal time to call parents. This time period varies depending on the
urgency of the message. If this is an announcement, and it is not critical to contact a
person directly (e.g. it is reasonable to leave a message on an answering machine), you
could choose to start calling at noon, and stop calling at 9 p.m. If this is an emergency
notification about a school closure, you may want to start calling at 6:30 a.m. to ensure
everyone gets the message before leaving for school.
If the message delivery dates span both weekdays and weekends, both sets of call times
are used. For example, if you send a message on a Friday morning, and the message is
set to expire four days later, any calls made on the second day are made during the
weekend call times. If those values are not set in the template, it is possible to send a
message very early on a Saturday morning, without really intending to do so.
RELATED LINKS:
Create an Announcement With Your Own Message
Create an Announcement Using a Canned Message
Choose Recipients from the Address Book
Choose Recipients from a Contact List
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
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About Email Times
When you create a message to be delivered by email, you specify the email times: The
time to start sending emails, and the time to stop sending them if they have not all been
sent.
Usually, these times are set in the template you are using, and you may not need to
change the times. Because emails are not as disruptive as telephone calls, it is not as
critical to control when the emails are sent. However, if you are sending emails with
attachments, you need to ensure you allow sufficient time to send them. If you are
sending out a message on or near a weekend, you should review the times allotted for
sending the message.
There are two sets of email times for a message:
•
Weekday email times
•
Weekend email times
The weekday email times identify the period of time Monday through Friday that you
determine is the optimal time to email parents.
The weekend email times identify the period of time Saturday and Sunday that you
determine is the optimal time to email parents on the weekend.
Weekend times do not apply on holidays associated with a long weekend: A
holiday Monday, for example, is viewed by the system as a weekday.
NOTE:
If the message delivery dates span both weekdays and weekends, both sets of email
times are used. For example, if you send a message on a Friday morning, and the
message is set to expire four days later, any emails sent on the second day are sent using
weekend call times.
RELATED LINKS:
Create an Announcement With Your Own Message
Create an Announcement Using a Canned Message
Choose Recipients from the Address Book
Choose Recipients from a Contact List
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
About Message Priority
Message priority determines the order in which messages are delivered.
The following priorities are available:
•
Low
•
Medium
•
High
•
Emergency
Low priority does not mean your message is unimportant. It simply means that other
messages may take priority over this message. This is the default priority for an
Announcement.
Medium priority is seldom used.
High priority is the highest priority available to a user who does not have Emergency
permission. Attendance messages are usually high priority because it is important for
them to be delivered in a single day. A high-priority message preempts a low-priority
message. If multiple messages are combined, generally the higher priority message is
delivered before the lower-priority message.
Emergency priority is the highest priority available on the system. When you create an
Emergency message, the priority is automatically set to Emergency, which cannot be
changed. An emergency-priority message takes over the system until all of the
Emergency calls are made. Emergency-priority calls are not combined with other calls.
If you are using the SchoolConnects hosted service, emergency-priority messages that
cannot complete in half an hour due to high system usage are routed to a separate
overflow system to provide additional calling capacity.
Message templates have a default priority set, which is usually appropriate for the type
of message. For example, an announcement is generally a low-priority message,
whereas an emergency message is generally a high-priority message. It is important to
use the appropriate priority.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
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When to use what priority
Use this priority ...
When ..
Low
• You are sending an announcement
regarding an upcoming event
• You are sending an announcement
regarding an event that is happening
today, and you are sending the message in
the middle of the day when system usage
is normally low (you do not want this
message to potentially compete with a
real emergency)
• You are sending attendance messages
High
• You are sending a message that must be
delivered today, but it can be sent during
regular calling times e.g. early afternoon
Emergency
• You are sending a message that must go
out outside the regular calling times e.g.
before 7:30 a.m.
• You are sending a message that must
preempt any other messages
• Do not use Emergency for a test call
RELATED LINKS:
Create an Announcement With Your Own Message
Create an Announcement Using a Canned Message
Choose Recipients from the Address Book
Choose Recipients from a Contact List
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Contact Lists
Do you have a group of people to whom you want to send messages on a regular basis,
such as the Parent-Teacher Council, football team, or drama club participants?
SchoolConnects helps you create contact lists of these groups to make it easy to send
them messages.
A contact list does not typically store student data if it includes students: It is actually a
list of pointers to the Address Book. This allows you to keep your contact information
in a contact list current, since the data in the Address Book is usually updated
periodically.
When you want to include people in a contact list that do not exist in your Address
Book (for example, you want to include a parent volunteer in a list), you can add that
person manually to the contact list. Be aware, though, that any time their contact
information changes, you must manually edit their information in the contact list.
RELATED LINKS:
Update the Address Book
Create a Contact List
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
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Difference Between the Address Book and a Contact List
It is helpful to understand the difference between the Address Book and a contact list,
so you know when to select each one for sending messages.
Address Book
The Address Book usually contains a list of the student population, and is populated
from a student information system. Most Address Books are organized by grade, and
each student in the Address Book has a unique student ID.
The Address Book is updated periodically. In many cases, it is updated automatically
on a nightly basis. Therefore, all student information is up to date in the Address Book.
The list of students in the Address Book changes as frequently as the Address Book is
updated. Contact information for students may be updated in the student information
system on an ongoing basis. Each time the Address Book is updated, changed student
information is updated, new students are added, and students who have left the school
are removed from the Address Book.
When you want to send a message to the entire student population, or to a subset of the
population, such as the grade 9s, you use the Address Book.
Contact list
A contact list is a fixed, finite list of contacts. A contact list may be a list of students, or
it may be a list of staff, parent volunteers, coaches, bus drivers, and so on. A contact list
may also comprise both students, staff, and parent volunteers.
There are several ways to create contact lists:
22
•
Contact lists can be created by importing data from files or spreadsheets, where
someone has compiled a list of people and their telephone numbers.
•
When all members of the contact list are members of the student population, the
contact list may be created by selecting students from the Address Book. This
contact list consists of pointers to the contact information in the Address Book.
No telephone numbers are actually stored within the contact list itself. This
ensures that the contact information in the contact list is kept up to date.
•
A contact list may be created by entering records manually, one at a time. You
can also use this technique to add individuals to a contact list. However, if the
individual is in the Address Book, it is better to add them to the list using the
Address Book as the source.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
When you want to send multiple messages to a group of people not part of the student
population, or to a sports team or participants in an after-school activity such as this
year’s school play, you use a contact list to do so.
RELATED LINKS:
Update the Address Book
Create a Contact List
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
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The User Manager
You use the User Manager to work with SchoolConnects user accounts. You access the
User Manager by clicking Settings and then clicking Manage User Accounts.
Typically, there are functions that are performed at the district level and functions that
are performed at the school level. For example, in some districts, attendance messages
are handled by the district and all other announcements are handled by individual
schools.
SchoolConnects provides permissions for most system objects and functions. These
permissions determine what functions a user can perform.
User types
There are four types of SchoolConnects user accounts:
•
District administrator—The District administrator has full rights to everything
including System Settings, can create schools and can create users for any school.
•
School administrator—The School administrator has full rights only to his or her
school and can create School users.
•
District user—A District user can send high-priority messages, update the
Address Book, and create contact lists. A District user cannot create other users
or schools.
•
School user—A School user can, by default, send low-priority messages, update
the Address Book, and create contact lists. A School user should have
permissions to import a file, but can be given permission to as many functions as
the School administrator allows.
User properties
User properties include the full name of the user, the user’s password, the type of user
account, the user’s email address if they are to receive reports, and their permissions.
Each user has permissions assigned to them. These permissions determine what
functions the user can perform. Each user type has a default set of permissions
associated with it. However, the defaults can be overridden when the user is created. By
default, a District administrator has permission to everything and a school user has the
least permission.
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
District administrators
When you log in as a District administrator, you have access to certain functions that
are not available to a School administrator or School user. These include the ability to:
•
Create new schools or modify school properties.
•
Create district-level users.
•
Add telephone numbers or student ID numbers to a global Do-Not-Call list.
These telephone numbers are excluded from all calls made, system wide. (School
users can add telephone numbers or student ID numbers to the Do-Not-Call list
for their own school; these telephone numbers are not excluded from calls made
for other schools.)
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About Importing Contact Data from a File
You can import contact data, such as student information exported from your student
information system, staff contact information from a spreadsheet, parent volunteer
information from a text file, and so on. These data can be imported into
SchoolConnects into your Address Book, or as a contact list, or simply as a one-time
import to send a message.
SchoolConnects supports importing data from the following kinds of files:
•
Excel spreadsheets (2003, XP, 2000, 97 or 95)
•
Comma-separated (.csv) files with one record per line
•
Formatted text files
Before contact data can be imported from any file, you need to tell SchoolConnects how
to interpret the file. This is done by creating a file specification. The file specification
maps each position in your import file to a field in the Address Book, or equivalent
fields in a contact list.
RELATED LINKS:
Create a File Specification
Obtain Recipients from an Import File
Update the Address Book
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Do-Not-Call Lists
A Do-Not-Call list is a list of telephone numbers and students you do not want the
system to call. For example, you may want to add students who are over 18, students
who have been suspended or expelled but the paperwork has not yet gone through so
they still appear to have unauthorized absences, or other students in special
circumstances.
The Do-Not-Call list can also contain telephone numbers of households or businesses
that received calls in error. This prevents SchoolConnects from calling those numbers
again.
There are two types of Do-Not-Call lists:
•
A global list, for the entire district
•
School lists
Global Do-Not-Call list
The global list contains numbers that SchoolConnects should never call, such as 911 or
the operator. It can also contain numbers of households with students in multiple
schools, that do not want to be contacted by any school in the district.
If you specify a student ID in the global list, no telephone calls are made to that
student’s telephone number from any school in the district. To prevent calls about an
individual student, enter the student ID in the school’s Do-Not-Call list.
NOTE:
School’s Do-Not-Call list
A Do-Not-Call list for a school is used to prevent calls regarding individual students, or
to individual households, and should be updated annually.
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Message Suppression
The administrator may not want messages sent on a particular day, perhaps just
because the attendance secretary is away or perhaps because of traumatic events such
as the death of a student, a bomb threat, terrible accident, and so on. A restriction
schedule allows the administrator to quickly specify the dates and types of messages that
they want to suppress.
If attendance messages are sent out automatically, a notification restriction is the
recommended way to stop sending attendance messages on a particular day.
NOTE:
The Restriction schedule allows you to do the following:
•
Stop current or future messages from being sent
•
Specify a start and end date to stop current or future messages from being sent
•
Choose to block just calls, just emails, or both for the duration specified
•
Choose to suppress just Attendance messages, just announcements, just
Emergency messages, or any combination
The system only restricts messages during the period between the Restriction Start Date
and End Date.
Whether you create a restriction schedule before you create a message, or create a
message before creating the restriction schedule, the system restricts the message.
Types of messages that are restricted
When you create a restriction schedule, you select the types of messages to restrict. You
can select one type of message, or multiple types of messages.
28
If you select ...
The behavior is ...
Attendance Message
The system restricts only the Attendance
messages but does not restrict any
announcements or Emergency messages.
Announcement
The system restricts announcements.
Emergency Message
The system restricts only Emergency
messages.
Call Only
The system restricts only telephone calls.
Emails are still sent.
Email Only
The system restricts only emails. Calls are
still sent.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
If you select ...
The behavior is ...
Call and Email
The system restricts both calls and emails.
29
About Cascade Calling
When setting up any message, you can deliver the message to all selected telephone
numbers, or you can cascade the contacts. Cascade calling allows you to try multiple
numbers for a student, but stop calling when the message is delivered to a person, or all
highest priority contacts (priority 01).
Without cascade calling, it is possible to call many numbers per student, and parents
can receive the same message on several different telephones.
With cascade calling, SchoolConnects calls all priority 01 numbers, but stops calling
when all priority 01 contacts have been reached, or the allocated calling time expires,
whichever happens first.
Contact priorities
To use cascade calling most effectively, it is important to understand how contact
priorities work. You can assign priorities from 01 to 99 to all contacts in the Address
Book, where 01 is the highest priority, and 99 is the lowest.
The student household record in the Address Book is always considered priority 01.
This record contains a primary telephone number (home) and up to two secondary
telephone numbers (mobile and alternate).
Each student can have multiple contacts (relatives). Each relative can have up to three
telephone numbers. You can assign priorities to contacts, either individually, record by
record, or globally based on the relative code.
How cascade calling works
When you choose cascade calling, SchoolConnects delivers the message to all contacts
marked with priority 01. In addition, SchoolConnects also attempts to call all selected
numbers marked priority 02 - 99 until it delivers the message to a number. When the
call is delivered to any telephone number, any additional priority 02 - 99 numbers are
marked Cascade Completed. No further attempts are made to contact non-priority 01
numbers. However, SchoolConnects continues to call priority 01 contacts until the
message is delivered to all of them.
A message is considered delivered when ...
When you use cascade calling, you also decide when the message is to be considered
delivered. Delivered can mean delivered to a person or answering machine, or you can
require that the recipient press a key to confirm receipt of the message to confirm that
it was delivered. If you call the student home number and leave a message on the
answering machine, is that sufficient for your purposes? If not, do you want the system
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
to keep calling other numbers until someone actually presses a key to verify that they
received the call?
If the message is not delivered ...
If the message is not considered delivered by the criteria you set, should
SchoolConnects continue trying to call that number?
SchoolConnects first tries all the other numbers for a student. But if SchoolConnects
delivered the message to a machine, you need to decide if you want it to retry the
number if it has not successfully reached a person at the other telephone numbers.
If you do choose to have SchoolConnects retry numbers where nobody pressed a key
to confirm receipt, you must specify the number of times it should try to call and the
number of minutes to wait between retries.
RELATED LINKS:
Create an Announcement With Your Own Message
Create an Announcement Using a Canned Message
Choose Recipients from the Address Book
Choose Recipients from a Contact List
The Cascade Calling Feature
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Using SchoolConnectsWeb
This section contains instructions for most of the procedures you perform periodically
in SchoolConnects.
Contents:
•
Create a School
•
Edit School Properties
•
Change Your Password
•
Add a New User
•
Delete an Existing User Account
•
Create an Announcement With Your Own Message
•
Choose Recipients from the Address Book
•
Choose Recipients from a Contact List
•
Obtain Recipients from an Import File
•
Create an Announcement Using a Canned Message
•
Work with Messages
•
Send a Message Again
•
Create a Reusable Message
•
Reuse a Message
•
Create a Quick Attendance Message
•
Create a Contact List
•
Modify a Contact List
•
Update the Address Book
•
Prevent Calls to a Student or Phone Number
•
Restrict Messaging for a School or District
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33
Create a School
BEFORE STARTING THIS TASK:
You must be logged in to SchoolConnects as a District administrator to perform this
procedure.
STEPS
1.
Ensure all schools are selected. If not, in the Navigation pane, click Change
School. From the list of schools in the work space, select All Schools.
2.
In the Navigation pane, click Settings.
3.
Expand Manage School Properties and click School Properties.
The list of schools appears.
4.
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Click New. The Add School window appears.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
5.
On the General tab, fill in the School Code and School Name fields.
School Code is the building code or location code that appears on any text files
you import into the system. After you create a school, you cannot change the
school code, so be careful to use the correct code.
6.
Ensure you have a recording for Name Message.
You can have this message recorded for you, keeping it in a consistent voice
with the remainder of the message, or you can record your own message,
either in your own voice, or using Text to Speech.
The Name message is used to identify the school that is calling, and is typically
played at the beginning of a message.
7.
Optional: Obtain a recording for Explanation Message.
You can have this message recorded for you, keeping it in a consistent voice
with the remainder of the message, or you can record your own message, in
your own voice, or using Text to Speech.
The Explanation message is sometimes used in attendance messages to allow
each school to have a slightly different message.
8.
In the Email To field, enter the email addresses of school administrators who
are to receive Notification Task reports. You can enter multiple email
addresses separated by a semi-colon.
9.
In the Phone Number field, enter the main school telephone number. This
number may be referred to in telephone and email messages sent to parents.
10.
Click Save.
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Edit School Properties
School properties contain the information about the school that is used in messages,
such as the recording of the school name, and how parents are to provide an
explanation for their child’s absence. The school properties also include the email
address where copies of school reports are sent, and the telephone number to display
for the caller ID when calls go out. These values are typically set by the District
administrator.
STEPS
1.
To modify any information for a school, in the Navigation pane, click Settings.
2.
Hover over Manage School Properties and click School Properties.
The list of schools appears.
3.
Click on the School icon next to the school you want to modify.
The Edit School Properties window appears.
36
4.
You can record a new Name Message or Explanation Message, change the
email addresses configured, or edit the contact information. You cannot
change the school code.
5.
Click Save to save your changes.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Change Your Password
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Settings.
2.
Hover over Manage User Accounts and click Users and Administrators.
The User Manager window for your school appears.
3.
Expand the list of users in the school by clicking the plus (+) sign next to the
school name.
4.
Click on the person icon beside your own user account.
The Edit User Properties window appears.
5.
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In the Password field, type the new password.
37
38
6.
In the Confirm Password field, type the new password again.
7.
Click Save.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Add a New User
If you are a School administrator, you can create a new user account for your school. If
you are a District administrator, you can create a new user account for any school.
STEPS
1.
On the Navigation pane, click Settings.
2.
Hover over Manage User Accounts and click Users and Administrators.
The User Manager window for your school appears.
3.
Click New.
The Create a new user account and assign permissions window appears.
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39
4.
Fill in the user ID, name, and password, and select the user type from the
drop-down list.
School administrators and School users must be assigned to a school.
NOTE:
You can only assign one school per user.
5.
In the Email Address to Send Reports To field, if this user should message
status reports, enter the user’s email address. If the user has the appropriate
permissions, the user automatically receives reports for all messages.
6.
Click the Permissions tab to assign permissions to this user.
You can define the types of objects users can access and change. You can also
choose which types of reports the user should receive.
7.
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Click Save.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Delete an Existing User Account
If you are a School administrator, you can delete users that have been set up for your
school. Be careful not to delete all users.
STEPS
1.
On the Navigation pane, click Settings.
2.
Hover over Manage User Accounts and click Users and Administrators.
The User Manager window for your school appears.
3.
Expand the list of users for the school by clicking the plus (+) sign next to the
school name.
4.
Select the user you want to delete by checking the box next to the user ID.
5.
Click Delete.
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41
Create an Announcement With Your Own Message
When you create an announcement, you have the option to create your own message
for the announcement or to use an existing canned or pre-recorded message. If none of
the canned messages meets your needs, or if you are creating a unique, one-time
message, create your own message.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Send Message.
The Send a Message window appears.
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2.
Click Announcement: Create Your Own Message.
The Create Announcement Wizard begins.
RELATED LINKS:
About Call Times
About Email Times
About Message Expiry
About Message Priority
About Cascade Calling
Step 1: Identify the message
STEPS
1.
Select the school to send the message to.
If you are logged in as a school user, your school is selected automatically.
If you are logged in as a district user, you can select a single school, or you can
select all schools in the district.
NOTE:
If you selected a school to work with before creating this message, that
school is selected for sending this message. If you want to send the message to the
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43
entire district, cancel this wizard, and click Change School to change to all
schools in the district. Then you can start to create the message.
2.
Give the message a meaningful name, especially if you are creating a message
you want to be able to reuse in the future. This helps you select the correct
message or locate the message more easily.
3.
If this message will be delivered only in a language other than your default
language, specify the language.
For example, if if you are creating a Spanish-only message, and your system
default is English, select Spanish. If you want to be able to send this message
in multiple languages, leave the default at Multi-language, but be sure to
record it in both your default language as well as any other languages.
4.
Optional: Create the message as a reusable template by checking Make
message reusable.
5.
If you are logged in as a school user, and your school has its own
announcement template, check Use school announcement template
settings, or the district template is used.
6.
Click Next.
Step 2: Schedule delivery of your message
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
STEPS
1.
Select the type of message you want to send: Call, email, or both call and
email.
To send emails to parents who have email addresses, and only call those
parents who do not have an email address, or vice versa, click More to see
additional options.
2.
Usually, you leave the priority at the default for this type of message.
3.
Select the date you want the message to start going out. The default is the
date selected on the calendar, which is today’s date, unless you previously
selected a different date.
4.
Select the date you want the message to expire if it has not been delivered to
all recipients. In most cases, you can just leave the default date. Make sure you
allow enough time for all of the calls to be made.
5.
If you are calling, specify the time you want the calls to start. Otherwise, skip
to Step 7. If your calls will continue into the weekend, be sure to specify
weekend start times also.
TIP:
If your call is to go out immediately, you may want to allow yourself an extra
15 minutes to double-check your message or to make last-minute changes.
6.
Specify the time you want the calls to stop for the night, even if the calls have
not been completed.
Generally, your template limits calling times to those deemed reasonable for
this type of message.
If the calls have not completed when the stop time arrives, the system starts
calling the next day during the call times specified for that day, if you allowed
additional days for calling.
NOTE:
If you specified multiple days to allow the calls to complete, and it is possible
that calls will continue over the weekend, be sure to specify the weekend calling
times. You do not want to be calling parents early on a weekend morning.
7.
If you are sending emails, specify the time you want the emails to start and
end.
8.
Click Next. If you are calling, the Recording Center appears. If you are not
calling, the Create Message window appears.
Step 3A: Record the message
If this message is not being delivered by telephone, skip this topic.
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45
There are two ways to record the message:
•
Record the message in your own voice: You do this by having the system call you,
and record the message over the telephone.
•
Generate the recording: Write the message in text, and use the Text-to-Speech
feature to convert the text into a recording (available only when Text to Speech
is enabled).
Record a message in your own voice
STEPS
1.
Select the language for your recording.
If you are recording in English, you do not need to do anything.
If you are recording in a language other than English, you must tell the system
what language it is, so it can send the message to the appropriate recipients.
If you are recording the message in Spanish, for example, in the Record
message in drop down, select Spanish.
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2.
Write the text for your message in the text box provided.
This text acts as a script for you to follow when you are recording your
message. It also acts as a reminder of what was recorded for future purposes.
If you are also sending an email, it is the basis of the email content.
3.
When you are ready to record the message, click Record. The Easy Message Make Call window appears.
4.
Enter the information the system requires to call you so you can record your
message.
If you are using a locally-installed system, you may need to enter a 9 to get an
outside line and then the telephone number where you can be reached.
If you are using the SchoolConnects hosted service, you must enter the area
code + the 7-digit number of the telephone at your location.
Do one of the following:
•
If you want the system to call your cell phone, enter the cell phone
number and select Direct connection.
•
If you answer the incoming calls to your building yourself, enter your
building’s main number and select Direct connection.
•
If a human receptionist answers incoming calls to your building, enter
your building’s main number, select Live attendant, and type in the
extension of the telephone beside you.
•
If you have an automated voice mail system in your school, select Auto
attendant and type in the extension of the telephone beside you.
5.
Click Call Me. SchoolConnects calls you at the telephone number you
entered. When it rings, answer the telephone. When someone answers the
telephone, you see a “Connected” message.
6.
When you receive the call, click Verify so SchoolConnects can verify that it
really called you and not somebody else by mistake.
7.
Click Record and record your message after the tone.
8.
When you have finished recording, click Stop to end the recording. Do not
hang up.
Click Play to hear what you just recorded, or Record to re-record your
message. When you are satisfied with your recording, click Hang Up and then
hang up the telephone.
9.
Click Save Text to save a copy of the message text. The recording is saved
automatically.
10.
Click Continue to close this window.
Generate a message using Text to Speech
If your system has the Text-to-Speech feature enabled, you can create your own
messages by writing the text and converting it to a recording.
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47
STEPS
1.
Select the language for your recording.
If you are creating an English recording, you do not need to do anything.
If you are creating a recording in a language other than English, you must tell
the system what language it is, so it can send the message to the appropriate
recipients.
If you are creating a Spanish recording, for example, in the Record message
in drop down, select Spanish.
2.
Write the text for your message in the text box provided. This is the text that
will be used to create the message.
3.
Do one of the following:
•
If you are recording in a language other than English and need to select
a non-English voice, or if you want to change the speed or volume
settings for your recording, hover your mouse over Generate Recording
From Text, then click Review Settings First.
•
Select the voice you want from the Voice Selection drop down.
IMPORTANT: Ensure the voice you select supports the language you require
for your recording. For example, if you are creating a Spanish recording, you
must select a Spanish voice.
Optional: Adjust volume and speed settings if required.
TIP: Usually, you adjust these settings only after you listen to your recording
at least once.
Click Generate Recording.
If you do not need to change any of the recording options, hover your
mouse over Generate Recording From Text, then click Generate
Recording.
An audio version of the message is created, and the message text is saved.
4.
Listen to your message in one of the following ways:
•
If your computer has speakers, you can preview the recording directly
by checking Use speaker to play back, and clicking Play.
•
5.
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If your computer does not have speakers, you can listen to the recording
over the telephone by having the system call you. Click Play, connect to
the system as usual, and listen to the message. When you have listened
to the message, hang up.
Click Continue to close the Recording Center window.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Step 3B: Create the email contents
STEPS
1.
If you are calling, and have not yet recorded the message, click Record
Message.
2.
If you are calling, and need to change the recorded message, click Modify
Message.
3.
If you are sending emails, enter the email subject in the Subject field.
Otherwise, click Next and continue in the wizard.
If you are sending both calls and emails, and you entered the message text in
the Recording Center, the message text is automatically copied to the email
contents for you.
4.
Ensure the email contents are complete. If you are sending student-specific
information in the email, use email substitution tags as required.
5.
Optional: To include an attachment, click Add, then Browse to the file you
want to include. Double-click on the file, or select it and click Open. When you
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49
have attached the file, click Upload. You can now see the attachment has
been added. To add more attachments, repeat this process.
NOTE:
Email attachments are limited to certain file types, such as PDF. There are
also limits to the size of the email. Do not exceed 2MB or some parents may not be
able to receive the email.
6.
When you are happy with the message, click Next.
Step 4: Specify who to send the message to
You can send messages to the entire student population from the SchoolConnects
Address Book, or to part of the student population, such as a particular grade. You can
send a message to one or more contact lists, or to both the student population and a
contact list such as Staff. You can send a message to everyone whose student ID appears
in a file, referred to as an import file. Which of these options you choose depends on
your needs.
STEPS
1.
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In Choose recipients from, specify where your list of message recipients
comes from. If you want to send the message to the student population, select
the Address Book. If you want to send the message to your staff, most likely
you will use a contact list for staff. (Some schools include a grade for staff in
their Address Book.) If you want to send the message to students who have
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
not yet paid for a class trip, most likely you will use an import file, which
contains the amount outstanding for each student.
•
If you want to send the message to the student population, select
Address Book.
2.
•
If you want to send the message to your staff, most likely you need to
select Contact list.
•
If you want to send the message to students who owe money for a class
trip, and include the amount owing, select Import file.
•
If you want to send the message to all Grade 3 students and teachers,
most likely you need to select Address Book and contact list. The
student names come from the Address Book and the staff from a
contact list.
Choose the recipients you want to contact from the appropriate source:
•
If you chose Import file as the source for your list of recipients, skip to the
next step.
•
If you chose the Address Book as a source for your list of recipients, in
the Select recipients box, click Address Book, and specify the criteria to
select your recipients.
•
If you chose Contact list as a source for your list of recipients, in the
Select recipients box, click Contact List, and specify the criteria to select
your recipients.
3.
Optional: If you want to call multiple contacts for each student, to ensure
delivery of the message, under Optional Settings, click Cascade calling. Then,
in the box that appears, select the delivery options, and number of retries.
4.
Optional: If you need to call relative numbers or student secondary numbers,
click Additional contact options, and check the desired options.
5.
Click Next.
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Step 5: Review the Summary
The Summary page is usually the last page that you see when creating a new message.
This page provides a last opportunity for you to review the details of your message
before it is created.
The left-most column contains check marks for steps that are complete, and Xs for
steps that may not be complete.
The summary may continue beyond what you can see. Use the scroll bar to view
all of the information.
NOTE:
STEPS
1.
Scan the left-most column of the Summary page, looking for any items that do
not have check marks.
NOTE:
An X does not necessarily mean a problem. For example, if you are sending
your message via email, but do not have an attachment to include, you see a red
X next to Email Attachment. Provided you did not intend to include an
attachment, this is not a problem.
2.
Review the call and email times to be sure they are what you want.
NOTE: Be sure to check both weekday and weekend times if your call spans both.
For example, if you are sending a message on a Friday that may not complete
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before Saturday, be sure your calling times are not too early for the weekend
settings.
3.
Review the phone number source and email source to ensure they are correct.
4.
If you chose recipients from the Address Book, you can see the criteria used to
select the students. You can also see how many students were selected.
Quickly review the numbers. If they do not look reasonable, double-check
your selections.
5.
If you chose recipients from contact lists, you can see the contact lists selected.
Review the list and ensure it is correct.
6.
If you need to make changes, either click Previous to return to the correct
step, or click the step number at the top of the page. When you are satisfied
with your message, click Finish.
If you selected to import recipients in an import file, the next window you see
takes you through the process of specifying your import file.
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53
Choose Recipients from the Address Book
You can send messages to the entire student population or a subset of the student
population using the Address Book. Because the Address Book often contains
information about students such as their grade, teacher, home room, and so on, you
can send messages by grade, teacher, home room, and so on.
RELATED LINKS:
About Call Times
About Email Times
About Message Expiry
About Message Priority
About Cascade Calling
Select the entire Address Book
STEPS
1.
If you see a list of schools, select the school or schools you want to send the
message to. If you are logged in as a district user, you can select multiple
schools or All Schools to send the message to the entire district. If you are
logged in as a school user, your school is selected for you.
2.
Click Continue. All students in the selected schools are selected to receive the
message.
Select all members of a grade
STEPS
1.
If you see a list of schools, select the school or schools you want to send the
message to. If you are logged in as a district user, you can select multiple
schools or All Schools to send the message to the entire district. If you are
logged in as a school user, your school is selected for you.
2.
Click Select Subset or Individuals. The Select individual contacts window
appears.
3.
Leave the default at Select a subset by Grade, Home Room or other
category and check the grade or grades you want to send the message to.
NOTE: Although you can select multiple categories, do so with caution. Selecting
multiple categories means that only the students included in all of the categories
are selected. Sometimes selecting multiple categories may result in no students
being selected.
If you selected multiple schools, all students in the selected grades in the
selected schools receive the message.
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4.
Click Continue.
All students in the grade or other category you checked are selected to receive
the message.
Select individuals
STEPS
1.
If you see a list of schools, select the school or schools you want to send the
message to. If you are logged in as a district user, you can select multiple
schools or All Schools to send the message to the entire district. If you are
logged in as a school user, your school is selected for you.
2.
Check Select Subset or Individuals. The Select individual contacts window
appears.
3.
Choose Select individuals.
4.
Use the List By, Sort By, or Search By fields to select the criteria to locate and
display the students you want to send the message to.
5.
Click Show Results to display the students based on the specified criteria.
6.
Check the box to the left of each student you want to send the message to.
7.
Repeat steps 4 through 6 until you have selected all of the students you want
to send the message to.
8.
Click Continue.
The students you checked are selected to receive the message.
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Choose Recipients from a Contact List
You can create a contact list for a group of people you need to contact more than once
a year. The contacts in a contact list may be students, or they may be non-students, or
a combination. For example, you could have a contact list that includes all students in
the school play, plus the staff involved with the play, and the parent volunteers.
You can choose multiple contact lists when sending a message. You can also choose a
subset of a contact list, such as all of the Grade 9s in the school play. You can also choose
a subset of multiple contact lists, such as all of the Grade 10 students that play on all
sports teams.
RELATED LINKS:
About Call Times
About Email Times
About Message Expiry
About Message Priority
About Cascade Calling
Select an entire contact list
STEPS
1.
Select (check) the contact list you want to call.
To see the list of contacts you have selected, you can click View Selected.
2.
Click Continue.
Select a subset grouping from a contact list
STEPS
1.
Select (check) the contact lists you want to subset.
2.
Check Select Subset or Individuals.
3.
If you are selecting contacts by a group such as Grade, check Select
individuals by Grade, Home Room or other category.
4.
Select (check) the group you want to send the message to.
To view the list of contacts selected, click View Selected.
5.
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Click Continue.
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Select individuals from a contact list
STEPS
1.
Check the contact lists you want to subset.
2.
Check Select Subset or Individuals.
3.
Leave the default at Select individuals.
4.
If you are selecting from multiple contact lists, select the contact lists you want
to work with.
5.
Use the List By or Search By fields to specify the criteria to display the
contacts in such a way that you can locate those people you want to contact.
For example, if you know the people you want to contact are all in a particular
grade, leave the defaults and locate these people by grade. If you are going to
locate these people by name, use the Search By field, and type all or part of
the person’s name.
6.
Click Show Results.
The contacts matching the criteria are listed.
7.
Check the contacts you want to send the message to.
8.
Repeat from step 5 until you have completed selecting the contacts. Then
click Continue.
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Obtain Recipients from an Import File
You can send a message to recipients defined in an import file. When using an import
file, all records define recipients: You cannot send a message to a subset of an import
file.
The import file can contain a list of people and their telephone numbers and/or email
addresses. It can only contain one telephone number and one email address per person.
The import file can also contain a list of student IDs, and you can let SchoolConnects
look up the contact information in the Address Book.
When you specify to use an import file to send a message, you see the following
window:
STEPS
1.
Click Browse to go to the location on your computer or network where the file
containing the import data is located, and double-click on your import file.
2.
If you already have a file specification for this import file, click Finish. If you do
not have a file specification for this import file, you need to create a file
specification.
RELATED LINKS:
About Importing Contact Data from a File
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Create an Announcement Using a Canned Message
When you create an announcement, you have the option to create your own message
for the announcement or to use an existing canned or pre-recorded message. These
canned messages have been prepared with pre-recorded sound bytes, ready to be used.
There are many of these canned messages to choose from.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Send Message.
The Send a Message window appears.
2.
Click Announcement: Use a Canned Message.
The Create Announcement Wizard begins.
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RELATED LINKS:
About Call Times
About Email Times
About Message Expiry
About Message Priority
About Cascade Calling
Identify the message
STEPS
1.
Select the school to send the message to.
If you are logged in as a school user, your school is selected automatically.
If you are logged in as a district user, you can select a single school, or you can
select all schools in the district.
NOTE:
If you selected a school to work with before creating this message, that
school is selected for sending this message. If you want to send the message to the
entire district, cancel this wizard, and click Change School to change to all
schools in the district. Then you can start to create the message.
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2.
In the Select Message field, select the message you want to send.
3.
Click Next.
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Schedule delivery of your message
STEPS
1.
Select the type of message you want to send: Call, email, or both call and
email.
To send emails to parents who have email addresses, and only call those
parents who do not have an email address, or vice versa, click More to see
additional options.
2.
Usually, you leave the priority at the default for this type of message.
3.
Select the date you want the message to start going out. The default is the
date selected on the calendar, which is today’s date, unless you previously
selected a different date.
4.
Select the date you want the message to expire if it has not been delivered to
all recipients. In most cases, you can just leave the default date. Make sure you
allow enough time for all of the calls to be made.
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5.
If you are calling, specify the time you want the calls to start. Otherwise, skip
to Step 7. If your calls will continue into the weekend, be sure to specify
weekend start times also.
TIP:
If your call is to go out immediately, you may want to allow yourself an extra
15 minutes to double-check your message or to make last-minute changes.
6.
Specify the time you want the calls to stop for the night, even if the calls have
not been completed.
Generally, your template limits calling times to those deemed reasonable for
this type of message.
If the calls have not completed when the stop time arrives, the system starts
calling the next day during the call times specified for that day, if you allowed
additional days for calling.
NOTE:
If you specified multiple days to allow the calls to complete, and it is possible
that calls will continue over the weekend, be sure to specify the weekend calling
times. You do not want to be calling parents early on a weekend morning.
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7.
If you are sending emails, specify the time you want the emails to start and
end.
8.
Click Next. The Create Message window appears.
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Create the email contents (if applicable)
STEPS
1.
If you are sending emails, and no email text is provided for you, enter the email
subject in the Subject field.
2.
Ensure the email contents are complete. If you are sending student-specific
information in the email, use email substitution tags as required.
3.
Optional: To include an attachment, click Add, then Browse to the file you
want to include. Double-click on the file, or select it and click Open. When you
have attached the file, click Upload. You can now see the attachment has
been added. To add more attachments, repeat this process.
NOTE:
Email attachments are limited to certain file types, such as PDF. There are
also limits to the size of the email. Do not exceed 2MB or some parents may not be
able to receive the email.
4.
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If custom information fields are displayed at the bottom of the window, select
the options you want for your message. In the example above, the user can
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choose the tone of the message. In this case, the message says “please
encourage the student to return ...“
5.
When you are happy with the message, click Next.
Specify who to send the message to
You can send messages to the entire student population from the SchoolConnects
Address Book, or to part of the student population, such as a particular grade. You can
send a message to one or more contact lists, or to both the student population and a
contact list such as Staff. You can send a message to everyone whose student ID appears
in a file, referred to as an import file. Which of these options you choose depends on
your needs.
STEPS
1.
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In Choose recipients from, specify where your list of message recipients
comes from. If you want to send the message to the student population, select
the Address Book. If you want to send the message to your staff, most likely
you will use a contact list for staff. (Some schools include a grade for staff in
their Address Book.) If you want to send the message to students who have
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not yet paid for a class trip, most likely you will use an import file, which
contains the amount outstanding for each student.
•
If you want to send the message to the student population, select
Address Book.
2.
•
If you want to send the message to your staff, most likely you need to
select Contact list.
•
If you want to send the message to students who owe money for a class
trip, and include the amount owing, select Import file.
•
If you want to send the message to all Grade 3 students and teachers,
most likely you need to select Address Book and contact list. The
student names come from the Address Book and the staff from a
contact list.
Choose the recipients you want to contact from the appropriate source:
•
If you chose Import file as the source for your list of recipients, skip to the
next step.
•
If you chose the Address Book as a source for your list of recipients, in
the Select recipients box, click Address Book, and specify the criteria to
select your recipients.
•
If you chose Contact list as a source for your list of recipients, in the
Select recipients box, click Contact List, and specify the criteria to select
your recipients.
3.
Optional: If you want to call multiple contacts for each student, to ensure
delivery of the message, under Optional Settings, click Cascade calling. Then,
in the box that appears, select the delivery options, and number of retries.
4.
Optional: If you need to call relative numbers or student secondary numbers,
click Additional contact options, and check the desired options.
5.
Click Next.
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Step 5: Review the Summary
The Summary page is usually the last page that you see when creating a new message.
This page provides a last opportunity for you to review the details of your message
before it is created.
The left-most column contains check marks for steps that are complete, and Xs for
steps that may not be complete.
The summary may continue beyond what you can see. Use the scroll bar to view
all of the information.
NOTE:
STEPS
1.
Scan the left-most column of the Summary page, looking for any items that do
not have check marks.
NOTE:
An X does not necessarily mean a problem. For example, if you are sending
your message via email, but do not have an attachment to include, you see a red
X next to Email Attachment. Provided you did not intend to include an
attachment, this is not a problem.
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2.
Review the call and email times to be sure they are what you want.
NOTE: Be sure to check both weekday and weekend times if your call spans both.
For example, if you are sending a message on a Friday that may not complete
before Saturday, be sure your calling times are not too early for the weekend
settings.
3.
Review the phone number source and email source to ensure they are correct.
4.
If you chose recipients from the Address Book, you can see the criteria used to
select the students. You can also see how many students were selected.
Quickly review the numbers. If they do not look reasonable, double-check
your selections.
5.
If you chose recipients from contact lists, you can see the contact lists selected.
Review the list and ensure it is correct.
6.
If you need to make changes, either click Previous to return to the correct
step, or click the step number at the top of the page. When you are satisfied
with your message, click Finish.
If you selected to import recipients in an import file, the next window you see
takes you through the process of specifying your import file.
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Work with Messages
You can see the messages you created when you view a list of messages. You can view
All Messages to see all types of messages, or view messages by a particular type. For
these examples, we viewed announcements. Messages are separated into their
respective schools.
Suspend a message
STEPS
1.
To suspend a message, select (check) the message, then click Suspend.
If you later change your mind, and want the calls to be made after all, select
the message and click Resume.
View the recipients for a message
STEPS
1.
Click on the Notepad icon
beside the message.
The Select Call Information to View window appears.
2.
Select the view options and click View List.
The list of recipients is displayed.
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Add more recipients to a message
You can add more recipients to a message that has not expired.
STEPS
1.
Select the message and click Add Recipients.
2.
The Announcement Wizard steps you through the process of adding
recipients, including selecting the school, if applicable, selecting where the
student data should come from and the process of selecting the additional
recipients.
3.
When you have completed the process, click Finish. The additional recipients
are added to the message.
Listen to a sample call
Sample call is a feature that sends a call out to you right away, allowing you to hear
exactly how a message will sound when it goes out to the telephone numbers in your
list.
STEPS
1.
Click on the Notepad icon
beside the message.
The Select Call Information to View window appears.
2.
Click View List.
You see all of the telephone numbers to be called.
3.
Click on the Notepad icon beside one of the telephone numbers.
You now see the Edit Call Properties window.
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4.
Click the Sample # tab so that you see the window below:
5.
In the Call Type field, specify the type of call this sample call to you will be.
Choose from the following:
6.
•
Direct Connection if the number to call is a direct number, such as a cell
phone
•
Live Attendant if a person will answer the call and then transfer the call
to your extension
•
Auto Attendant if an automated attendant will answer the call and
then transfer the call to your extension
In the Phone # field, enter the telephone number where you can be reached.
NOTE:
Sample Call uses the dialing rules that are configured, so even if the call
is long distance, you normally do not need to type a 1.
7.
In the Extension field, if you chose Live Attendant or Auto Attendant, enter
the extension number.
8.
Optional: In the Channel field, if you are testing outbound calls on different
channels, you can enter a channel number. Otherwise, leave it blank.
9.
Click Sample Call.
The system should call the number you indicated within one or two minutes.
Send a sample email
BEFORE STARTING THIS TASK:
You can only send a sample email for active messages that are to send emails.
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You can send a sample email to yourself to see exactly how the message appears to its
recipients.
STEPS
1.
Click on the Notepad icon
beside the message.
The Select Call Information to View window appears.
2.
Click View List.
The list of recipients is displayed.
3.
Select the email you want to sample (check the box next to the record).
4.
In the Sample email address field, enter your email address (or the address
you want the sample sent to).
5.
Click Sample Email.
This does not send an email to the person selected, but any tags used in the
email message are used in the sample email. The email is sent to the address
you specified in a few minutes.
View the progress of a message
STEPS
1.
Click on the Notepad icon
beside the message.
The Select Call Information to View window appears. You see a summary of
the message and you can choose how to view the details. An example is
shown below:
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Note that the items available to view depend on what information you use in
the message. This example is both call and email.
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2.
Choose what information you want to view, and click View List.
You now see the list of recipients displayed by their current status. You can
view this any time during the calling period and afterward for a quick
snapshot of the message’s progress.
Listen to call responses
BEFORE STARTING THIS TASK:
This feature is relevant only in districts where the Call Response feature is in use. If the
absence message template allows a call recipient to record a message explaining an
absence, this is how the attendance secretary hears those recordings.
STEPS
1.
Click on the Dialog Cloud icon
beside the message.
The Edit Call Responses window appears.
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2.
Select the Responses tab.
3.
Click on the Record icon. The Recording Center appears. Have the system call
you so you can listen to the message.
4.
Click Play to play the message. In the white box, you can type a very short
summary of the response—just two or three words at the most. If it is a long
and important message, you may want to write it down on paper or type it in
a Notepad or Word document for your records, or enter it directly into your
student information system. Click Stop and Play as required until you are
finished listening to the message.
5.
Do not click Hang Up. Click Save Text.
The Edit Responses window reappears. The information you typed is
displayed in the Explanation field.
6.
Click Save.
7.
You can then click on the next black triangle to hear information for the next
student. If you did not hang up the telephone, you do not need to go through
the calling process again: You are still connected to the system.
NOTE:
If you put the system on hold for more than 30 seconds or do not do
anything for more than 30 seconds, the system hangs up on you.
Reactivate a message
If a message has expired but not all of the people in the list were called, you can
reactivate the message by changing the expiry date. SchoolConnects attempts to call the
remaining people in the list. When you extend or reactivate a message, SchoolConnects
does not call people who were already reached. Calls with the status Busy, No Answer,
or Hangup are called again. Calls with the status Delivered - Verified, Delivered Machine, Delivered - Unverified, or Tri-tone Ignored are not called again.
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STEPS
1.
In the list of messages, click on the Clock icon next to the message you want
to change.
The Announcement Settings window appears.
2.
Click on the Calendar icon beside the Expiry Date and choose a new expiry
date.
3.
Click Save.
Change message settings
You can change message settings such as delivery date, call times, confirmation
settings, or you can re-record your message.
STEPS
1.
In the list of messages, click on the Clock icon next to the message you want
to change.
The Announcement Settings window appears. You can modify any settings
such as the start date and end date, the call or email times, the email message
or the recording. Simply click on the appropriate tab and make your changes.
2.
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Make any desired changes and click Save.
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Send a Message Again
You can send an announcement or emergency message again if you see it in the list of
announcements or emergency messages. You cannot send a message again when
viewing All Messages.
If you have messages that you know you are going to need to send multiple times, it is
recommended that you create those as reusable messages.
You can do the following with an announcement or emergency message:
•
Send the same message again to the same recipients—You may want to send the
same message monthly, such as a pizza day announcement.
•
Send a new message to the same recipients—You may want to send a new
message regarding a meeting date and time to the Parent Council.
Send the same message again to the same recipients
You can send an announcement again without having to re-record the message.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Announcement or Emergency as applicable, to
view the list of messages.
2.
Select (check) the announcement or Emergency message you want to resend,
and click Send Again.
The following window appears:
3.
Same message is the default, so just click Next.
4.
Specify the date and time to send the message and click Finish.
The new message appears in the list of messages.
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Send a new message to the same recipients
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Announcement or Emergency as applicable, to
view the list of messages.
2.
Select (check) the announcement or Emergency message you want to resend,
and click Send Again.
The following window appears:
3.
Select New Message and click Next.
The Recording Center appears.
4.
Record your message and click Continue.
5.
Specify the date and time to send the message and click Finish.
The new message appears in the list of messages.
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Create a Reusable Message
You can create a message that you can use multiple times. This feature makes it easy for
you to create commonly-used announcement or Emergency messages and reuse them
whenever you need them. They appear in a list of reusable messages and templates
when you choose to reuse a message.
STEPS
1.
Create a new announcement or Emergency message.
2.
In Step 1 of the wizard, under Optional Settings, check Make message
reusable.
3.
Continue creating the message as usual, including the date and times for the
first time you want the message to be sent. When your message is created, it
appears in the list of messages.
View the reusable message
You can view the reusable messages you created by looking at the list of message
templates for that type of message.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Settings, then select Manage Message
Templates in the work space.
2.
Click Announcement Templates (or Emergency Templates). The list of
announcements sent appears, sorted by date, newest at the top.
Those messages created as reusable have a Y displayed in the Reusable
column. Those without a Y are regular, single-use messages. If you want to
make a message reusable you can do so. See "Make a message reusable".
For instructions on reusing the message, see "Reuse a Message".
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Make a message reusable
You can make an announcement or Emergency message reusable even if it was not
created as a reusable message.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Settings, then select Manage Message
Templates in the work space.
2.
Click Announcement Templates (or Emergency Templates). The list of
announcements sent appears, sorted by date, newest at the top.
3.
Locate the message you want to make reusable and click on the NotePad icon
next to it.
The Edit Message Template window appears.
4.
On the General tab, check Reusable Message and click Save.
The next time you use Reuse Message to create an announcement, this
message appears in the list of messages to choose from.
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Reuse a Message
You can reuse an announcement or an Emergency message, provided that it is a
reusable message. (To reuse a message that was not created as a reusable message, see
"Send a Message Again" or see Make a message reusable.)
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Send Message.
2.
Click Announcement: Reuse Message or Emergency: Reuse Message..
3.
Select the school, if applicable.
If you are logged on as a school user, your school is selected for you.
4.
In the Select Message drop-down list, select the message you want to reuse.
TIP: If the message you want to reuse is not in the list, it was probably not created
as a reusable message.
5.
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Continue creating the message. You can change the recipients, or any of the
delivery options. You cannot change the recorded message itself.
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Create a Quick Attendance Message
BEFORE STARTING THIS TASK:
Before you can use Quick Attendance, you must have one or more attendance message
templates set up, and a file specification for your import data.
See "Create an Attendance Message Template" for instructions on creating an
attendance message template, and Create a File Specification for instructions on
creating a file specification.
In some districts, attendance messages are handled centrally via an automated process.
In this case, the school user need not do anything except enter attendance data in the
student information system.
On other districts, the school user may need to generate the absence report each day
from the student information system and upload the file into SchoolConnects. You
may send attendance messages once a day, or you may send them multiple times a day.
You want an easy way to send out attendance messages with the least amount of effort.
The Quick Attendance wizard provides you with a quick way to create these messages
when you must do it manually.
STEPS
1.
Generate the daily absence file in your student information system.
2.
Save the file to a predictable location. (Choose a location where you can
always look for the latest file.)
3.
Log in to SchoolConnectsWeb with the login provided to you by your IT
department.
4.
In the right-hand pane, click Quick Attendance Message.
The Create Quick Attendance Message window appears.
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5.
If applicable, select the school.
6.
Browse to the import file containing the absence data.
7.
Specify the start and end times for the calls (and emails, if applicable), or just
take the defaults.
8.
Click Finish. The message is created.
If you import an absence file two or more times a day ...
You may want to call regarding absences both in the morning and in the afternoon, or
even after every period of the day.
If you upload a file multiple times per day, but the information for a student does not
change, only one telephone call is made for that student.
For example, say that Joe Jones was marked absent in period 1. You upload a file
immediately after period 1 and SchoolConnects begins calling at 9:15 a.m. Joe’s house
is called and a message is delivered saying he was absent in period 1.
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After period 2, you generate a new absence file and upload it. Joe Jones is in this file
because he was marked absent in period 1, and the new file still shows him with an
absence in period 1. Joe’s house is not called again because the information for Joe is
the same as before.
It turns out that Joe, although he did show up for period 2, was absent period 3. You
generate another absence file after period 3 and upload it to SchoolConnects. This time,
another call goes out to Joe’s household saying that he was marked absent in periods 1
and 3.
At the end of the day, you generate a final file and do a final upload. Joe did not miss
any other classes, so no other calls go to his home.
If your absence file does not include any information about periods, blocks, or other
time periods, then the information for a given student does not change throughout the
day. If Joe is marked absent in the morning and you upload a file at 9 a.m., his
household is called at 9 a.m. If he continues to be absent throughout the day and you
upload another file at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and so on, no further calls go to
Joe’s house.
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Create a Contact List
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Manage Contacts.
2.
In the right-hand pane, click Contact Lists.
The Contact List window appears. You see any existing contact lists for your
school. The lists are organized by user.
3.
Click New.
The Create Contact List window appears.
4.
In the Contact List Name field, enter a name for your contact list.
The owner of the list is the user name you logged in as.
5.
If you are logged in as a district user, select the name of the school to which
this list applies.
6.
Click Next.
The Import Source window appears.
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7.
8.
Specify where your contact information is to come from.
•
If the information is contained in a file, select Import from file and skip
to step 17.
•
If all of the contacts exist in the Address Book, select Import from
Address Book and go to step 8.
•
If you want to add contacts not in the Address Book, you need to add
them from an import file, or manually, one at a time. To add them
manually, select Add one contact manually and skip to step 15.
If you selected the Address Book as your source, click Next.
The Add Contacts window appears.
9.
Click Address Book.
The Select Recipients from Address Book window appears.
10.
Click Select Subset or Individuals to view a list of students to choose from.
The following window appears.
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11.
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In the Choose a method for selecting your recipients box, specify how you will
build your list:
•
If you plan to include an entire category of students, such as a grade or
language, leave the default at Select subset by Grade, Home Room, or
other category. Then select the category containing the students you want
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to include. You can click Continue to complete the selection, or click View
Selected to verify your list, and then click Continue.
•
12.
If you need to select students individually, choose Select individuals.
The following window appears.
Use the List By or Search By fields to locate the students you want to include
by specifying the criteria and clicking Show Results.
You see the list of students that match the criteria.
If you leave the defaults, the students are listed by grade and sorted
alphabetically by name, as shown.
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13.
Select (check) the students you want to include in your contact list.
TIP: You can check names, then change the list or search criteria and check more
names, repeating this process until you have selected everyone you want.
At any time, you can click View Selected to see the people in your list so far.
14.
Click Continue when you have finished selecting people for your contact list,
and then click Finish to complete the process.
15.
If you chose to manually add contacts one at a time, click Next.
The following window appears.
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16.
Enter the name, telephone number and/or email address, and any other
information required for your first contact, and click Finish.
When you refresh the list of contact lists, the new contact list appears. Add the
remainder of the contacts to the list. For instructions on adding contacts to a
contact list, see Manually add contacts to a contact list.
17.
If you selected an import file as your source, and no file specification exists for
your import file, click File Specification and create the file specification for
your import file. For instructions on creating a file specification, seeCreate a
File Specification.
18.
Click Next.
The Add Contacts window appears.
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19.
Browse to the import file and select it.
20.
Click Finish.
RESULT:
Your contact list is now ready to use in announcements. If the contacts were selected
from the Address Book, the telephone number and other contact information is
retrieved from the Address Book when a message is sent, so your contact information
is always current. If you created the contacts manually, or loaded their telephone
numbers from an import file, you must manually update them when necessary.
RELATED LINKS:
The Address Book
Difference Between the Address Book and a Contact List
Contact Lists
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Modify a Contact List
If you created a contact list by selecting people from the Address Book, the telephone
number and other contact information is automatically updated. If you created the
records manually, you must manually update the information. If you created the
contact list from an import file, you may want to import an updated list periodically.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Manage Contacts.
2.
In the right-hand pane, click Contact Lists.
The Contact List window appears. You see any existing contact lists for your
school. The lists are organized by user.
3.
Click on the person icon next to the contact list you want to change.
All records in the contact list are displayed.
4.
Locate the record you want to change. You can use the search function to
locate a specific record, or you can change the way the date is presented and
sorted, to help you find a record.
TIP: Whenever you change the way you view or sort the contact list, you must
click Go for the change to take effect.
5.
Click the person icon next to the contact you want to modify, and make the
required changes.
6.
Click Save when you have completed making your changes.
Manually add contacts to a contact list
STEPS
1.
Next to the contact list you want to add contacts to, click the person icon. The
details for that contact list appear.
2.
Click New to add a new contact.
3.
Enter the contact information and click Save.
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Add to a contact list from the Address Book
STEPS
1.
Next to the contact list you want to add contacts to, click the person icon.
The details for that contact list appear.
2.
Click Address Book to add contacts from the Address Book.
3.
Select (check) the contacts you want to add and click Finish.
Add to a contact list from an import file
STEPS
1.
Next to the contact list you want to add contacts to, click the person icon.
The details for that contact list appear.
2.
Click File to import new contacts from a file.
The Create Contact List from File window appears.
3.
Browse to the import file.
4.
Optional: If you want to replace all contacts in the current list with the new list,
select Clear Contacts before import.
5.
Click Import.
Delete a record from the contact list
STEPS
1.
Next to the contact list you want to delete the contact from, click the person
icon.
The details for that contact list appear.
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2.
Select (check) the contact you want to delete.
3.
Click Delete and confirm that you want to delete the record.
Change the telephone number for a contact
STEPS
1.
Next to the contact list you want to change, click the person icon.
The details for that contact list appear.
2.
Locate the contact in the list and click the person icon for the contact whose
number you want to change.
The Edit Contact Properties window appears. Change the information as
required, then click Save.
If the Use Address Book option is set to Yes, you cannot save manual
changes to the telephone number in the contact list. This number is read from the
Address Book. The number can only be changed in the Address Book.
NOTE:
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Update the Address Book
In many districts, the Address Book is updated automatically from the student
information system. Therefore, you should understand that any manual changes you
make to the Address Book may be overwritten at the next automatic update.
In other districts, the Address Book is updated manually by importing data from a file
that has been extracted from the student information system.
RELATED LINKS:
The Address Book
Difference Between the Address Book and a Contact List
Contact Lists
About Importing Contact Data from a File
Import a new Address Book
If your Address Book is not updated automatically, you may be required to update it
periodically throughout the school year and prior to each new school year.
Before you can import a new Address Book from a file, you must first have a file
specification for your import file. If you do not have an existing file specification, see
Create a File Specification for instructions on creating one.
NOTE:
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Manage Contacts.
2.
In the right-hand pane, click Address Book.
The Address Book window appears.
3.
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If applicable, select the school.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
4.
Click Import.
The Create Address Book from File window appears.
5.
If you only want to import student household contact data (no relative
contact information), leave the default at Import student personal
information. If you want to import relative contact data from the same file,
check Import other student contact information.
6.
If you want to remove any existing students from the Address Book before
importing, check Remove existing Address Book students who are not in
the import file.
NOTE:
Do not clear the Address Book before importing, unless directed to do so by
Synrevoice Technical Support.
7.
Click Browse and browse to the import file containing your new Address Book
data.
8.
Click Import.
The new student data is loaded into the Address Book. This may take several
minutes, depending on the size of the Address Book.
Search for a student in the Address Book
You can search for a student by name, ID, telephone number, home room, and so on.
STEPS
1.
Ensure you are viewing all grades.
2.
In the Search By field, select the appropriate search type—Use the default
Name, or select other search types from the drop-down list.
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3.
In the Enter Search Text field, type in the relevant search criteria. If you are
searching by name, type in the student name, or part of the name.
4.
Click Find. The first matching item is displayed. If this is not the right record,
click Next until you find the correct student.
Manually add a student to the Address Book
You can manually add a student to the Address Book. However, if this information is
usually propagated by importing a file from your student information system, any
student information you enter here, such as telephone numbers or addresses should be
considered temporary. It may be overwritten or deleted the next time you import your
student information. If these students are not actually in your student information
system and the Address Book is updated automatically, these “fake” students are
removed from the Address Book each time it is automatically updated.
You may want to manually add a student if you have a new student in your school and
it will be some time before the student information is imported from your student
information system.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Manage Contacts.
2.
In the right-hand pane, click Address Book.
The Address Book window appears.
3.
If applicable, select the school.
4.
Click New.
The Add Student window appears.
96
5.
On the General tab, specify the Name and the Student ID.
6.
Specify any additional information you want on this tab.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
7.
Click the Primary tab and specify a primary telephone number for the
student.
8.
On the Primary and Secondary tabs, specify any additional information you
need for this student.
9.
Click Save to add this student record to the Address Book.
Delete a student from the Address Book
You can manually delete a student from the Address Book. However, if the student
information is usually propagated by importing a file from your student information
system, it is unnecessary to delete students from the Address Book in this way. When
the Address Book is updated automatically, students no longer listed in the update are
deleted automatically.
You may want to manually delete a student if the student moved to a new school and
you want to stop calling them (you could also add them to the Do-Not-Call list), and it
will be some time before the student information is imported from your student
information system.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Manage Contacts.
2.
In the right-hand pane, click Address Book.
The Address Book window appears.
3.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Locate and select the student (check the box next to the student in the list),
then click Delete.
97
Prevent Calls to a Student or Phone Number
You can prevent calls going out to a particular student, or you can prevent calls from
going out to a telephone number. In both cases, you use the Do-Not-Call list.
When you add a particular student ID to the Do-Not-Call list, any messages to that
student are not called or emailed. This does not prevent calls from going to that
telephone number for another student in the household. When you add a telephone
number to the Do-Not-Call list, any telephone messages to that telephone number are
not called. Therefore, if you want to stop calls to a student, add the student to the
Do-Not-Call list. If you want to stop calls to a phone number, add the telephone
number to the Do-Not-Call list.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Manage Contacts.
2.
In the right-hand pane, click Do-Not-Call List.
The Do-Not-Call List window appears.
3.
Click New.
The following window appears.
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4.
In the Phone field, enter the telephone number in exactly the same format as
it appears in the Address Book, or in the Student ID field, enter the student ID.
SchoolConnects uses the information you enter in this window to match to a
student record in the Address Book. The match must be exact for all fields
entered.
If you enter both a student ID and a telephone number, the match occurs only
for the student with that ID at that telephone number.
5.
In the Type of Message drop-down list, select the type of messages this
applies to. You can choose to block only Attendance, only Announcement
and Emergency messages, or all.
6.
In the Comment field, enter a brief comment as a reminder why this student
or number is being added to the Do-Not-Call list.
RESULT:
If you enter just the telephone number, the household is not called for your school
(students in the same household in another school can still be called).
If you enter just the student ID, all messages regarding that student (both call and
email) are blocked. However, other students in the same household can still be called.
If you enter both the telephone number and the student ID, all messages regarding that
student (both calls and emails) are blocked, but other students in the same household
can still be called.
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Delete a record from the Do-Not-Call list
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Manage Contacts.
2.
In the right-hand pane, click Do-Not-Call List.
The Do-Not-Call List window appears.
3.
100
Select the student or telephone record by checking the box next to it and click
Delete.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Restrict Messaging for a School or District
District users can restrict messages at the District level, for any or all schools. School
users can create restrictions only for their own school. They can also see whether a
restriction has been set up by the District.
Message restriction does not affect Emergency calls made through the
Rapidconnects feature.
NOTE:
STEPS
1.
Log in to SchoolConnects as a user who has permission to restrict messaging.
2.
In the Navigation pane, click Settings.
3.
Under Suspend Messaging, click Restriction Schedule.
The Notification Restriction Schedule window appears.
4.
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Select the District Restriction tab if you are creating a restriction for a district.
Otherwise, select the School Restriction tab.
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5.
Click the Calendar icon next to the Restriction Start Date input field and
select a start date in the calendar pop-up window. Repeat for Restriction End
Date.
6.
In the Reason field, enter an explanation.
7.
In the Restrict field, choose the type of messages you want to restrict.
NOTE: If you choose Calls Only, emails still go out but telephone calls do not. If
you choose Calls and Emails, neither emails nor telephone calls go out.
8.
In the Do Not Deliver field, choose one or more message types to restrict by
checking their corresponding check boxes. Check one or more choices from
Attendance, Announcements, and Emergency Messages.
9.
If this is a district restriction, in the No Delivery Schools field, choose ALL
Schools to restrict the entire district, or Select Schools to specify one or more
schools to be restricted.
If you select only some schools from the list, the restriction applies only to
messages in the selected schools.
10.
Click Save.
Change the restriction schedule
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Settings.
2.
Under Suspend Messaging, click Restriction Schedule.
The Notification Restriction Schedule window appears.
3.
Click on the tab with the restriction you want to change: Either School
Restriction or District Restriction.
The current restriction schedule is displayed.
4.
Edit the fields as appropriate and click Save to save the new restriction
schedule.
Cancel the current restriction schedule
BEFORE STARTING THIS TASK:
You must be a District or School administrator to cancel the current restriction
schedule.
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STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Settings.
2.
Under Suspend Messaging, click Restriction Schedule.
The Notification Restriction Schedule window appears.
3.
Click Clear.
RESULT:
If a message was already in existence when the restriction was created, it is already
suspended; clearing the restriction does not resume the message. The status remains
the same after the restriction schedule for this task is cleared or the Start Date or End
Date is changed.
In this case, you must manually resume the message if you want the calls
and emails to go out.
IMPORTANT:
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SchoolConnects Templates
Before you can create an attendance message, you must first have an attendance
message template. A SchoolConnects template contains the structure of the message
and the default calling and emailing options. The template typically defines calling and
emailing times, message priority, file specifications when importing contacts from a
file, cascade calling options, and so on. Attendance and canned message templates also
define the message that is sent. A call-in profile defines who is called, and the recorded
message can be recorded at the last minute.
You only need to create a template once, and then it can be used over and over again to
create messages.
Contents:
•
Create an Attendance Message Template
•
Attendance Message Defaults
•
Create a Canned Message Template
•
Canned Message Defaults
•
Create a File Specification
•
Set Up a Call-In Profile
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105
Create an Attendance Message Template
Use this procedure to create a new absence, tardy, or absence and tardy message
template.
You can create more than one attendance message template. This is necessary if you
want to send out one absence message first thing in the morning, but a different
message in the evening.
In a District, you can choose whether to create one template for each school or use the
same template for all schools. You can have one template for the high schools, which
use period attendance, and a second template for the middle schools, which use daily
attendance. Ask your Synrevoice Technical Support representative for advice.
At any time throughout this procedure, instead of clicking Next, you can click
Finish, provided that the default options meet your needs. For a list of defaults, see
Attendance Message Defaults. Also, if you know what tab you want to change, you can
click the tab, make your changes, and then click Finish.
NOTE:
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Settings.
2.
Hover over Manage Message Templates, and click Attendance Templates.
The list of Attendance message templates appears.
3.
Click New.
The Create Attendance Message Template window appears.
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
4.
Give your template a meaningful name.
5.
On the School tab, do the following:
a
If this template is to apply only to a single school, select the school.
b
If you do not want the school name to be played before the message is
delivered, uncheck For calls, play school name before delivering the
message.
NOTE:
Throughout this procedure, you can always see the message that will
be delivered as it is displayed in the Preview Message frame at the bottom.
The message changes depending on the options you select.
c
6.
7.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Click Next.
On the Type of Message tab, do the following:
a
Select the type of messages to be sent using this template. Absence is
the default.
b
Click Next.
On the Student tab, do the following:
a
Specify how you want to identify the student in the message. Grade and
student’s first name are the defaults.
b
Click Next.
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8.
9.
On the Attendance tab, do the following:
a
Specify the type of attendance messages to send. Period attendance is
the default, with a period length of 1.
b
If you chose period attendance, specify the number of characters used
to identify the period: 1 or 2.
c
Click Next.
Do one of the following, depending on the type of attendance:
•
If you chose Period attendance, on the Period tab, specify the list of
periods at which time you want the message to say the student was
absent all day, rather than having to list every period.
•
Do this by typing the list in the input field next to the Add button, and
then click Add.
If you chose Morning, afternoon, or full day absence, on the Day tab,
specify the absence codes that represent morning, afternoon, and all
day.
If you do not have morning, afternoon, and all day codes in your import
file, click Previous, and select Play a generic message instead.
10.
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Click Next.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
11.
On the Explanation tab, select one or more methods you want to use for
requesting an explanation, and click Next.
12.
On the Delivery tab, do the following:
13.
a
Specify whether this message is for calls only, calls and emails, and so
on.
b
If you want this message to be sent with a priority less than High, change
the priority.
c
Click Next.
Do each of the following as applicable:
•
If you chose Call as a delivery method, on the Call tab, specify the times
at which you want the calls to be made.
•
If you chose Email as a delivery method, on the Email tab, specify the
times you want the email to be sent, and create the email contents.
14.
Click Next.
15.
On the Cascade tab, specify if you want to call all contacts or to cascade
contacts (cycle through a list of contacts until a person or answering machine
is reached), and click Next.
16.
On the Confirmation tab, specify any desired confirmation options, and click
Next.
17.
On the Import tab, specify whether to remove duplicate records from the list
to call, and click Next.
18.
Optional: On the Sample tab, you can listen to the message that will be sent.
To listen to the message, do the following:
a
Check Listen to a sample message.
b
Enter a telephone number where you can be reached.
c
Fill in the remaining fields with test data.
When the template is created, a message is also created to make the
sample call to you.
19.
Click Finish.
The template is created. Before you can use this template, it must have a file
specification that tells SchoolConnects how to read your attendance data. For
instructions on creating a file specification, see "Create a File Specification".
RELATED LINKS:
Attendance Message Defaults
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109
Attendance Message Defaults
The defaults used in the Attendance Message templates are as follows:
Template name:
Attendance Message
Template properties
•
All schools
•
Play school name message before delivering message
•
Absence message
•
Grade and student’s first name
•
Period attendance where the period number is 1 character in length
•
Request a written note to explain the absence
•
Calls only
•
Priority is high
•
Call weekdays between 4 and 9 p.m., call weekends between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m.
•
No confirmation is required
•
Call all contacts, no cascade calling
•
Remove duplicates by phone number
•
Use phone numbers only from the selected source
RELATED LINKS:
Create an Attendance Message Template
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Create a Canned Message Template
Use this procedure to create a new canned message template, which is very useful when
you want to record a message once and send out the same message each week, twice a
year, or however often is required. A popular example is Saturday School, in which each
week, you send a message home to notify parents that their child must attend Saturday
School that week.
At any time throughout this procedure, instead of clicking Next, you can click
Finish, provided that the default options meet your needs. For a list of defaults, see
Canned Message Defaults. Also, if you know what tab you need to change, you can click
on the tab, make your changes, and then click Finish.
NOTE:
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Settings.
2.
Hover over Manage Message Templates, and click Canned Message
Templates.
The list of canned message templates appears.
Note that the list of templates includes Stock message templates, which you
cannot edit or delete.
3.
Click New.
The Create Canned Message Template window appears.
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111
4.
Give your template a meaningful name.
5.
On the School tab, do the following:
a
If applicable, select the school, if this template is to apply to a single
school.
b
If you do not want the school name to be played before the message is
delivered, uncheck For calls, play school name before delivering the
message.
NOTE:
Throughout this procedure, you can always see the message that will
be delivered as it is displayed in the Preview Message frame at the bottom.
The message changes depending on the options you select.
c
112
Click Next.
6.
On the Language tab, select the language in which the message will be
recorded. If you require multiple languages, leave the default at
Multilanguage.
7.
Click Next.
8.
On the Recording tab, click Record Message, and record your message.
9.
When you have finished your recording, click Next.
10.
On the Student tab, if your message requires information about the student
in it, specify the information you want to include, and click Next.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
11.
12.
On the Delivery tab, do the following:
a
Specify whether this message is for calls only, calls and emails, and so
on.
b
If you want this message to be sent with a priority greater than Low,
change the priority.
c
Click Next.
Do each of the following as applicable:
•
If you chose Call as a delivery method, on the Call tab, specify the times
at which you want the calls to be made.
•
If you chose Email as a delivery method, on the Email tab, specify the
times you want the email to be sent, and create the email contents.
13.
Click Next.
14.
On the Cascade tab, specify if you want to call all contacts or to cascade
contacts (cycle through a list of contacts until a person or answering machine
is reached), and click Next.
15.
On the Confirmation tab, specify any desired confirmation options, and click
Next.
16.
On the Import tab, specify whether to remove duplicate records from the list
to call, and click Next.
17.
Optional: On the Sample tab, you can listen to the message that will be sent.
To listen to the message, do the following:
a
Check Listen to a sample message.
b
Enter a telephone number where you can be reached.
c
Fill in the remaining fields with test data.
When the template is created, a message is also created to make the
sample call to you.
18.
Click Finish.
The template is created. When you use this template, you specify the
recipients.
RELATED LINKS:
Canned Message Defaults
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113
Canned Message Defaults
The defaults used in the Canned Message templates are as follows:
Template name:
Canned Message
Template properties
•
All schools
•
Play school name message before delivering message
•
Multiple languages
•
Include no student-specific information, such as grade or student name
•
Calls only
•
Priority is low
•
Call weekdays between 4 and 9 p.m., call weekends between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m.
•
No confirmation is required
•
Call all contacts, no cascade calling
•
Remove duplicates by phone number
•
Use phone numbers only from the selected source
RELATED LINKS:
Create a Canned Message Template
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Create a File Specification
SchoolConnects requires a file specification for any file used to import data into the
system. The file specification tells SchoolConnects how to read your file. If your data is
always in the same format regardless of the import file or type of data, you can use the
same file specification for all import files.
STEPS
1.
When you click the File Specification button from anywhere in
SchoolConnects, you launch the File Specification wizard.
2.
Specify the type of import file.
If the file is an Excel spreadsheet, select Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, XP or 2003,
or Microsoft Excel 95, as appropriate.
If the file is a comma-separated file, where each person is listed on a new line,
select CSV text file (one record per line).
If the file is a formatted text file, select Formatted text file.
3.
If you have not already done so, browse to locate the import file.
If the import file is already identified, a link to the file appears below the
Browse button.
4.
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Click Next.
115
5.
6.
If the file type is Excel or .csv, skip this step. If the file is a formatted text file, the
following window appears:
a
In the Record Definition box, select the applicable option to specify
how a record is defined within the file.
b
If you chose End of record character(s), you must define which
character is used to identify the end of each record. Click Choose to
specify the character. Select the character from the list, click Add to add
it to the definition, and then click Close.
c
If fields in the record are separated by separation characters (such as
commas), in the Field Separator box, click Choose to specify the
character. Select the character from the list, click Add to add it to the
definition, and then click Close.
d
Click Next.
If the file contains a heading record, select the heading record, and click Skip
Record(s).
This prevents the heading information from being loaded as data.
7.
Select a record in the file to use as a sample record for specifying the fields to
SchoolConnects, and click Sample Record.
8.
Click Next.
The following window appears, showing the SchoolConnects fields on the
left, and the fields in your file on the right.
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9.
Select a data field in the import file on the right by clicking on the field. That
field is highlighted in the import file and all fields are highlighted in the list of
SchoolConnects fields.
10.
Click on the corresponding SchoolConnects field in the left-hand column.
11.
Continue mapping the fields until each field in the import file is mapped to a
SchoolConnects field.
12.
If you are creating a file specification for an Address Book and you want to
import relative contact data from your import file, click the Relative tab and
map any applicable fields on that tab.
13.
When you have finished mapping all necessary fields, click Next
The following window appears.
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117
14.
If you want to ensure you do not have duplicate entries, select the method
that works best for the type of data you are importing.
15.
Click Finish.
RELATED LINKS:
About Importing Contact Data from a File
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Set Up a Call-In Profile
You can launch announcements and Emergency messages by calling in to the system,
provided you have the following:
•
A numeric user ID (so you can enter it over a telephone)
•
A numeric password (so you can enter it over a telephone)
•
A call-in profile for the message you want to send
Use this procedure to create the call-in profile and print the instructions you use to
launch a message using this call-in profile.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Settings.
2.
Hover over Manage Message Templates and click Call-In Profile Setup.
The list of call-in profiles appears.
3.
Click New.
4.
Optional: Customers who subscribe to the Rapidconnects service see the
Create Profile window, and can select which service makes the calls: the local
server or Rapidconnects. Select the service, and click Next. If you are not a
subscriber to Rapidconnects, you do not see this window.
The Enter Profile Settings window appears.
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5.
Do the following:
a
Select the school.
b
Give the profile a descriptive name. Avoid using names such as Profile 1
and Profile 2. Use names such as Emergency Call to All Staff and Students.
c
Ensure that the profile has a unique ID.
You can use the Profile ID that is automatically generated or create your
own (it must be between 3 and 15 digits). Profile ID must be all numeric.
You can use this ID to identify the profile you want when you call in to
launch the message, or you can record the profile name and use that to
select the profile when you call in.
d
Record a descriptive name for the profile.
The name should be as descriptive as possible so that it can be used to
select the right profile over the telephone. For example, Emergency
Priority Call to All Staff and Students, or Girls’ Basketball Team sent any time
of day or night, or Announcement to Grade 9 Students, sent between 4 p.m.
and 9 p.m..
120
e
You can designate a maximum length for messages recorded for this
profile, or leave it at unlimited.
f
Click Next. The Specify the message template to use window appears.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
6.
Do one of the following:
•
Choose a template from the list, and click Next.
•
IMPORTANT: Do not select any of the templates whose names include
"Default Settings" in them, such as Emergency Default Settings or
Announcement Default Settings.
Click Create a new template.
The window expands as shown:
Give the template a meaningful name.
Specify the number of days to allow the calls to complete.
The priority must be Emergency if you want the calls to go out before
7:30 a.m. Otherwise, choose the appropriate priority.
Although the interface gives you a weekday and weekend start and end
time, make the weekday and weekend start times the same.
(Rapidconnects does not use the end times.)
7.
Click Next.
8.
Specify whether to call all contacts or to use cascade calling, and click Next.
If you select Cascade Contacts, you then need to specify what constitutes
Delivered, and click Next again.
9.
Specify how you want duplicate telephone numbers tor student IDs to be
handled, and click Next.
10.
Select the kind of numbers you want to call (primary, secondary, relative), and
click Next.
The If using contact list window appears.
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11.
If you want this profile to call everyone in a particular contact list, check
Include the following Contact List(s) and select (check) the lists to be bound
to the profile.
You can select as many lists as required.
12.
Click Next.
The If using Address Book window appears.
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13.
If applicable, select the school or schools to include, and then students you
want to include.
14.
Select the students to include in the call list:
•
To select all students in the selected schools, leave the default at Select
All Students.
15.
•
To select all students in a group, such as all Grade 9 students, choose
Select Students Using Basic Criteria, and select the group or groups to
call.
•
To select students using other criteria, choose Select Students using
Advanced Criteria, and use an SQL query to generate a list of students.
Click Next.
The Assign to User Account window appears.
16.
Assign one or more users to the profile as follows:
a
Assign a user to the profile by checking the box to the left of the user ID.
b
Optional: Assign Administrator privileges to one or more users by
checking Administrator for that user.
If you do not assign Administrator privileges to any users, all users who
can access the profile can administer it.
c
Optional: Specify that approval is required for a user to launch calls
using this profile by checking Approval Required for the user.
Only the users you select have access to the profile and can use it to launch
messages. Others cannot see it or use it.
NOTE:
You must have a user account that has a numeric user ID and a numeric
password to be able to continue from this point.
17.
Click Next.
You can now view a summary of the call-in profile you created.
NOTE: Any settings can be changed except the choice of Local Voice Server or
Rapidconnects.
18.
Click Finish.
You see a confirmation message that the new profile was created successfully.
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19.
Click Close.
You see a list of call-in profiles, with your newly-created profile highlighted in
the list.
CAUTION: You can change your profile settings. However, you must be aware that
changing the Messages tab also changes the template you based the profile on, and
any other profiles based on the same template.
20.
To print the instructions to launch a call using this profile, do the following:
a
Edit the call-in profile by clicking the Notepad icon beside the new
profile:
b
Click the Users tab.
The list of users appears.
c
The instructions to launch a call differ for each user. Next to your user ID,
click the Printer icon to see your personal instructions.
The instructions pop up. For example:
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Print these instructions to keep them handy in your wallet or purse.
TIP: You can copy and paste the instructions for each of your profiles into a single
set of instructions in a Notepad or Word document. Be sure you include the profile
number and a description in your document. Then print the document and carry
it with you: You can then access any of your profiles remotely.
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126
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
SchoolConnects Reports
SchoolConnects has numerous built-in Crystal reports available. All reports can be
generated and emailed for viewing, or they can be viewed online. Users can generate
notification reports at any time to follow the progress of an ongoing message or to view
a previous message. Reports are sent as attachments by email to the email addresses
configured in the school properties window for each school and to other individuals.
System administrators can also create scheduled tasks to email reports to various
people automatically.
Contents:
•
Available SchoolConnects Reports
•
Status Used in Reports
•
PIN Responses Used in Reports
•
Viewing Reports
•
Request a Notification Task Report
•
Request an Export Call Responses Report
•
Request a Call-In Profile Report
•
Request a Report of Call-In Messages
•
Schedule a Recurring Report
•
Retrieve Message History
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Available SchoolConnects Reports
This section describes the reports available to you and when you might use them.
Use the report
named ...
128
To ...
This report can be used ...
Task Summary
See a summary of the total
number of attendance or
announcement calls sent for
each school.
By a District administrator to track
each school’s use on a daily basis,
and to ensure that all schools are
using the system as expected.
Notification Task
See detailed status of calls
made for a particular
message. This is the most
commonly-requested report.
As an early warning for telephone
line problems, or as proof of
contact to parents.
Call Attempts By
Channel
See how many calls each voice
channel made during the
selected date range.
For troubleshooting a telephone
line problem.
Call Attempts By
Hour
See how many call attempts
were made in each hour
during the selected date
range.
For troubleshooting a telephone
line problem.
Call Attempts By
Date
See how many call attempts
were made each day during
the selected date range, and
the status of the attempts
(Busy, No Answer, and so on).
For troubleshooting a telephone
line problem.
Template
See a list of templates
(Attendance, Announcement,
Canned Message) in the
system. You see the properties
(time settings, priority, and
call attempts) for each
template.
To see a summary of the templates
defined.
Do Not Call
See the telephone numbers
and student IDs that are on
the Do-Not-Call list. You also
see the type of notifications,
and the comment field.
To obtain a copy of all records in
the Do-Not-Call list. This is useful
for backup purposes.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Use the report
named ...
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
To ...
This report can be used ...
Notification History
See the history of messages
for a particular ID, name, or
telephone number during the
selected date range. You see a
detailed list of every call made
that meets the selected
criteria, and the status of each
call.
To find individual history, rather
than school-wide history.
Do Not Call History
See the history of when a
record in the Do-Not-Call list
was filtered from calls. You
see the data sorted by student
ID, the name of the student,
the phone number, and the
dates that the number
appeared on a message, but
was not called.
To see when a telephone number
or ID was added to the
Do-Not-Call list.
User
See a list of users on your
system. You see the name of
the user, the school, their user
ID, and a list of their
permissions.
To obtain a copy of all users. This
is useful for backup purposes.
School
See a list of schools, and the
properties of each school.
To verify whether all schools in
your district have messages
recorded or email addresses
entered for reports.
Call Accounting
See a spreadsheet view of all
calls for your school or
district. You see the total call
time for each school, and see
what user created each
message. You can sort this
report by any column.
To track system usage by school or
user.
Export Call
Response
Retrieve the responses from a
survey or from messages that
allow the recipient to respond
with a menu option.
To retrieve survey responses.
This is the only way to
retrieve them.
NOTE:
129
Status Used in Reports
If you see this status ...
130
It means ...
Delivered - Verified
SchoolConnects delivered the message and the person
who answered pressed a key in response to the message.
Delivered - Unverified
SchoolConnects delivered the message and the person
who answered did not press any keys in response to the
message.
Delivered - Machine
SchoolConnects delivered the message to an answering
machine.
Busy
SchoolConnects called but received a busy signal.
No Answer
SchoolConnects called by there was no answer after 6
rings.
Carrier Rejected
On an analog line, this means that SchoolConnects called
but received an Operator-intercept tone indicating a
problem with the telephone number. On a digital line or
on a SchoolConnects hosted system, this means that
SchoolConnects called but received a code from the
telephone carrier indicating that the call could not be
delivered.
Bad Connection
SchoolConnects could not get a dial tone on the outgoing
line.
Hangup
SchoolConnects called but the line was disconnected
(hung up) before SchoolConnects could deliver the
message.
Modem Detected
SchoolConnects detected a modem answering the call.
Fax Detected
SchoolConnects detected a fax answering the call.
Filtered
The call was not made because either the telephone
number or Student ID is in the Do-Not-Call list.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
PIN Responses Used in Reports
The following is an explanation of the status you see when a PIN is required to hear the
message.
If the call recipient ...
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
The report shows the status as ...
Enters the PIN
Delivered - Verified
Presses #
Hangup, not completed
Hangs up
Hangup, not completed
Does nothing
Hangup, not completed
131
Viewing Reports
There are two ways to view a report: Have it emailed to one or more recipients, or view
the report online. When you view a list of messages, you can click on the Report icon
next to any message to see a report for that message. When you click on the Report icon,
a window appears where you select how you want to receive your report: Via email or
view it online.
Email a report
You can send yourself or others a report.
STEPS
1.
On the Navigation pane, select Reports.
2.
Click Custom Report.
The Request a Notification Task Report window appears.
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3.
On the Select Report tab, in Report Name, select the type of report you want
to send out.
4.
If applicable, select the school.
5.
In Type of Message, select the type of message you want to report on.
6.
In Task Start Date, specify the start date of the time period for which you
want a report.
7.
In Task End Date, specify the end date of the time period for which you want
a report.
8.
In Report Date Format, select the date format to use for the report.
9.
Specify any other applicable options on this tab, and then click the Email
Report tab.
The Email Report window appears.
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134
10.
Select the appropriate options, such as whether to send a copy of the report
to the person who created the message.
11.
If you are sending a district report, specify the district settings. Otherwise,
specify the school settings. Specify who to send the email to, and who should
be copied.
12.
Click Email Report.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
View a report online
STEPS
1.
On the Navigation pane, select Reports.
2.
Click Custom Report.
The Request a Notification Task Report window appears.
3.
On the Select Report tab, in Report Name, select the type of report you want
to send out.
4.
If applicable, select the school.
5.
In Type of Message, select the type of message you want to report on.
6.
In Task Start Date, specify the start date of the time period for which you
want a report.
7.
In Task End Date, specify the end date of the time period for which you want
a report.
8.
In Report Date Format, select the date format to use for the report.
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135
9.
Specify any other applicable options and then click the Online Report tab.
The Online Report window appears.
10.
Click Get Report.
When the report is generated, you see a link to that report. Click the link to
view the report. This opens a new tab in your browser. You can keep the report
open and return to the previous window by clicking the SchoolConnects tab
at the top. Clicking on the Report tab returns you to the report. To close the
report, locate the tab at the top with the name of the report on it and click the
small red X.
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Request a Notification Task Report
The Notification Task Report is the most commonly requested report. It provides a
detailed status of all calls made for a particular message.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Reports.
2.
Click Custom Report.
3.
For Report Name, select Notification Task (the default).
4.
For Report Output Format, leave the default at PDF for best results.
5.
Optional: Check Profile Messages Only if you only want to include messages
launched via telephone.
6.
For School, District users may select all schools or individual schools. Select
multiple schools by pressing Ctrl while selecting each of the desired schools.
If you select ALL, you can only select District-level templates in the Message
Template option below.
7.
For Type of Message, choose the type of message you want to report on.
8.
For Message Template, select a specific template or choose ALL.
9.
For Simplified Report, specify Yes if you want to see the simplified version of
the report, or No if you want to see the report organized by status.
10.
If you specified No for Simplified Report, for Report Information, specify the
delivery method to report on.
11.
For Report Data, select what pieces of information to display in the report.
NOTE: In an Attendance report, only two columns of data can be shown even if
more were selected. In an Attendance & Emergency report, only three columns of
data can be shown.
12.
For Sort By, the default is to sort records by student ID within each category.
You can change to sort by student name or phone number. If you chose
Simplified Report, you cannot sort by phone number.
13.
For Call Recipient’s Name, choose Student Name or Student & Relative
Name. If you want the name of the actual recipient for each number displayed,
select Student & Relative Name.
14.
For Task Start Date and Task End Date, select the date range for the report.
15.
For Display Duplicate Not Contacted Information, select Yes if you want to
see duplicate numbers that were not called. In cases where there are a lot of
students that have siblings attending the same school or district, those
duplicates are not telephoned, and you can remove the duplicates from the
report. To remove this information from the report, select No.
16.
For Report Date Format, select the date format you prefer for the report.
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137
17.
If you want the report emailed, do the following:
a
Click the Email Report tab and fill in the email information.
b
For Send District and School Report, use the default Yes. This emails a
copy of the report to each of the email addresses specified in District
Properties and School Properties.
c
For Send Report To Task Creator, select Yes if you want to ensure that
the person who created the message receives a copy of the report. The
default is No, which means that reports are emailed to the email
addresses specified in the School Properties.
d
In the Reply To field, enter a dummy email account.
For example, name@domain.com
18.
e
Enter the email address and contents in either the District Settings or
School Settings.
f
Click Email Report.
If you want to view the report online, click the Online Report tab, and click
Get Report.
When the report is available, a link appears and you can click the link to view
the report.
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SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Request an Export Call Responses Report
If you sent out a survey or any message, such as an attendance message, where the call
recipient can provide input (menu selections, recordings, and so on), you use the
Export Call Responses Report to find out the results.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Reports.
2.
Click Custom Report.
The Request a Notification Task Report window appears.
3.
In the Report Name drop-down list, select Export Call Responses.
The following window appears:
4.
In the Export Output Format field, select the format for the output file.
Choose from Fixed Field Length, COMMA, or CSV (comma-separated).
5.
In the Include Column Titles field, check the box if you want column titles
displayed in the report.
6.
In the Notification Type field, select Attendance or Announcement &
Emergency.
7.
In the Message Template field, choose the message to retrieve responses for.
8.
Specify the start and end dates for the message.
9.
If you want to view the report online, click Online Report, then Get Report.
Otherwise, skip to the next step.
10.
Click the Email Report tab to have the report emailed to you.
The following window appears:
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139
11.
In the Send District and School Report, select Yes if you want both District
and School reports sent.
If the call response report is for a district message, under District Settings,
specify Yes for Email District Report, and enter a district email address in the
To field.
If the call response report is for a school message, under School Settings,
specify Yes for Email School Report, and enter an email address in the To
field.
12.
140
Click Email Report.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Request a Call-In Profile Report
This report lists the parameters of each call-in profile.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Reports.
2.
Click Custom Report.
3.
For Report Name, select Template.
4.
For Report Output Format, leave the default at PDF for best results.
5.
Check Profile Messages Only.
6.
Select All Schools or select a single school as appropriate.
7.
In the Profile Template drop-down list, select the template for which you
want a report, or select ALL to see a report on all call-in profiles.
8.
Select the date format.
9.
Click the Email Report tab.
10.
Enter the email information required to send the report, and click Email
Report.
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141
Request a Report of Call-In Messages
You can generate a report for any call-in profile messages (launched by calling in to
SchoolConnects). Because multiple messages can be associated with a single call-in
profile, it is possible to generate a single report for all messages generated for a single
profile.
STEPS
142
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Reports.
2.
Click Custom Report.
3.
For Report Name, select Notification Task (the default).
4.
For Report Output Format, leave the default at PDF for best results.
5.
Check Profile Messages Only.
6.
Select All Schools or select a single school as appropriate.
7.
In the Profile Template drop-down list, select the template for which you
want a report, or select ALL to see a report on all call-in profiles.
8.
For Report Data, choose the relevant report data.
9.
For Sort By and Display By, choose how you want the report to look.
10.
For Call Recipient’s Name, choose Student Name or Student & Relative
Name. If you want the name of the actual recipient for each number displayed,
select Student & Relative Name.
11.
For Task Start Date and Task End Date, select the date range for the report.
12.
For Display Duplicate Not Contacted Information, select Yes if you want to
see duplicate numbers that were not called. In cases where there are a lot of
students that have siblings attending the same school or district, those
duplicates are not telephoned, and you can remove the duplicates from the
report. To remove this information from the report, select No.
13.
For Report Date Format, select the date format you prefer for the report.
14.
Click the Email Report tab.
15.
Enter the email information required to send the report, and click Email
Report.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Schedule a Recurring Report
This topic is only applicable on a local web server machine: It does not apply to sites
uses SchoolConnectsWeb on a hosted machine.
You can use the Email Report option to create a configuration file that you can use to
schedule a recurring report. You select the report options you want and specify to email
the report. You then use the Windows Scheduled Tasks function to schedule the task,
as described below.
You must be able to log in to the computer hosting the Web Server to create a scheduled
task.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Reports.
2.
Click Custom Report.
3.
Specify your report options.
4.
Click the Email Report tab.
5.
Click Email Report.
The configuration file is generated and saved to the web server machine. The
file has a long name specifying the district, the date and time it was created,
the school (if applicable), and the user name of the person who created it.
6.
Connect to the Web Server machine and locate the configuration file in the
following directory:
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\schoolconnects\uploadedfiles\reports
7.
Copy the file to a less crowded location on the Web Server machine, typically:
svschool\bin\reports
8.
Rename the file to something meaningful, such as abs_reports.txt
9.
Still on the Web Server machine, click Start > Run.
10.
Type tasks and press Enter.
11.
Double-click Add Scheduled Task to launch the Add Scheduled Task wizard.
12.
Click Next.
13.
Browse to svschool\bin\reportemailer.exe.
Typically, it is in C:\Program Files.
14.
Follow the instructions in the wizard, choosing the days and time that you
want the scheduled task to run (typically evenings, after 9 p.m. Monday to
Friday for absence, or evenings after 10 p.m., 7 days a week for
announcements).
15.
Check Open Advanced Properties for this task when I click Finish.
16.
Click Finish.
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143
17.
On the Task tab, the Run command contains the following:
"C:\Program Files\svschool\bin\reportemailer.exe"
18.
After the second quote, append the path to the configuration file. For
example:
...exe" C:\Program~1\svschool\bin\reports\abs_reports.txt
Ensure you leave a space after the second quote.
NOTE:
You cannot enclose the second path in quotes, and you must use the short
file name for C:\Program Files (C:Progra~1). The reportemailer.exe
program does not accept quotation marks around the path to the configuration
file, and it does not accept a path with spaces.
19.
144
Save your task.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Retrieve Message History
If you want to see a history of calls for a particular student, telephone number, or email
address, you use the Message History report. You select a date range for the data you
want and all related messages are displayed online.
STEPS
1.
In the Navigation pane, click Reports.
2.
Click Message History Report.
The Request Message History window appears.
3.
In the Type of Message field, select the type of calls you want to retrieve
history for.
4.
Use the fields provided to select a particular student to see the history of
messages for that student. Enter values in one or more of these fields to
narrow the scope:
•
For Student ID, you can enter part or the entire student ID to retrieve
message history for a particular student.
•
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
For Student Name, you can enter the student’s last name or the first
few letters of the last name. You can enter partial information but keep
in mind that the system looks for a match based on the characters from
left to right. Because student names often appear in the system as last
145
name, first name, if you enter just the student’s first name, it does not
find a match.
•
For Phone Number, you can enter the student’s telephone number
beginning with the area code and then the exchange.
•
If you are retrieving email history, for Email Address, enter the email
address.
5.
Select a date range to search by clicking the calendar next to Message Start
Date and choosing a start date. Then click the calendar next to Message End
Date to choose the end of your date range. SchoolConnects always defaults
to the current date for both start and end dates.
6.
Select Yes for Call History to receive telephone call history, and Yes for Email
History for a history of emails sent.
7.
Click Get History.
In the following example, we entered the name Jones and the date range April 1st to
April 9th:
After clicking Get History, we receive the following result:
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The ID and full name of the student are returned. If there are multiple matching
students (for example, multiple students in the school with the last name Jones), you
see all of the records for one match followed by all of the records for the next match,
and so on. This report displays all attempts made by SchoolConnects.
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SchoolConnects Reference
This section contains additional information about various topics. It contains
descriptions of some of the SchoolConnects features you can use.
Contents:
•
Address Book Fields and What They Mean
•
What the Message Icons Mean
•
Use School Announcement Settings Option
•
User Permissions
•
The Cascade Calling Feature
•
The Telemarketer Zapper
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149
Address Book Fields and What They Mean
Primary Student (Household) Contact Data
Name
150
Description
Name
The name of the student.
ID
The unique identifier for this student within the school’s
student information system.
Home Room
The name or room number for the student’s home room,
usually where they start their day. (Some districts traditionally
use this field for bus route.)
Language
The primary language spoken in the student’s home or place of
residence.
Teacher
The name of the student’s home room teacher.
Custom Info 1
If used, a field available for use however the school or district
prefers. A common example is bus route.
Custom Info 2
If used, a field available for use however the school or district
prefers. A common example is bus route.
PIN
If applicable, the number that must be entered before telephone
messages regarding this student can be played.
Special Requirement
Indicates if a PIN is required to listen to messages regarding
this student. When set to Yes, a value must be entered in the
PIN field.
Zapper
Indicates that this telephone number is known to have a device
enabled that sends an Out-of-Service tone, which is used to
discourage telemarketers. These devices have not been sold in
several years.
Home Phone
The primary home telephone number for this student and
usually, the primary home number to contact regarding this
student. Note that it is possible for this to be a cell phone
number, if a parent does not have a land line.
Home Email
The primary home email address, occasionally for the student,
but more frequently for the primary parental contact for the
student.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Name
Description
Mobile Phone
The mobile (cell) telephone number, occasionally for the
student, but more frequently for the primary parental contact
for the student.
Pager
This field is no longer used for notifications.
Alternate Phone
An alternative telephone number to be called, usually if a
message cannot be delivered to the home telephone number.
Frequently, this is the parent’s work telephone number.
Alternate Phone
Extension
If applicable, the extension number to be requested when
contacting the alternate telephone number.
Alternate Email Address
An alternative email address for emailing messages about the
student. This may be the primary parental contact’s work email
address, or it may be the email address of an alternative parental
contact.
Address
The student’s street address at home. For example, house
number and street name, or building number, street name, and
apartment number.
City
The city in which the student lives.
Province/State
The province or state in which the student resides.
Postal Code/Zip
The postal code or zip code for the location at which the
student resides.
Relative Contact Data
Name
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Description
Student ID
This is not an input field. This is the unique identifier for the
student this relative contact data is associated with.
Name
This is not an input field. This is the name of the student this
relative contact date is associated with.
Contact Name
The name of the relative this record applies to.
Relationship
The relationship of this relative to the student. For example,
Grandmother, or Babysitter.
151
Name
Description
PIN
If Special Requirement is Yes in the student primary record,
this is the number that must be entered before telephone
messages regarding this student can be played.
Zapper
Indicates that this telephone number is known to have a device
enabled that sends an Out-of-Service tone, which is used to
discourage telemarketers. These devices have not been sold in
several years.
Home Phone
The home telephone number for this relative.
Home Email
The home email address for this relative.
Mobile Phone
The mobile (cell) telephone number for this relative.
Pager
This field is no longer used for notifications.
Alternate Phone
An alternative telephone number to be called to contact this
relative, usually if a message cannot be delivered to the home
telephone number. Frequently, this is the relative’s work
telephone number.
Alternate Phone
Extension
If applicable, the extension number to be requested when
contacting the alternate telephone number.
Alternate Email Address
An alternative email address for emailing messages to this
relative. This may be the relative’s work email address.
Address
The relative’s street address at home. For example, house
number and street name, or building number, street name, and
apartment number.
City
The city in which the relative lives.
Province/State
The province or state in which the relative resides.
Postal Code/Zip
The postal code or zip code for the location at which the
relative resides.
Address Book Buttons
Import
The Import button is used to import a new Address Book from an import file,
replacing the contents of the current Address Book. Typically, this is used to
import student records from the student information system.
This procedure should be performed by experienced users of
SchoolConnects, or under the guidance of Synrevoice Technical Support.
CAUTION:
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Clear
The Clear button is used to erase the entire contents of the Address Book.
This procedure should be performed by experienced users of
SchoolConnects, or under the guidance of Synrevoice Technical Support.
CAUTION:
Contact Seq
This button is used for Cascade Calling. You click Contact Seq to specify the
order in which to contact relatives and to specify telephone number types. You
can assign global priorities for different relative codes. You can also set the order
in which each type of telephone number should be called.
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153
What the Message Icons Mean
When you click the
...
154
Which looks
like this ...
The following happens ...
Select a Message
check box
The message is selected. If you want to delete or
cancel the message, check the box and click the
appropriate button.
Edit Task Settings
icon
You see the Settings window for that type of
message. You can change the expiry date of the
message, the times for it to call, the priority or
delivery method, the number of attempts, the
language, the PIN requirements, and so on.
Edit Call Details
icon
You see the Call Details window. Here you can select
what information you want to view. Click OK to
display the details of the message, organized by
student.
Real-Time Report
icon
You can request a report that you can view as a PDF
online, or you can receive the report via email.
Either option allows you to save a copy of the report
as a PDF file.
Email Activity icon
You can view logs that show whether emails are
being sent for a message or whether there is a
problem preventing the emails from going out.
Voice Server
Activity icon
You see logs indicating whether a message is Active
(calls are being processed), or whether there is
something preventing calls from going out, such as
it is outside the call time for this message, or the
message is not recorded.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Use School Announcement Settings Option
There are two sources of announcement settings: One is at the school level and the
other is at the district level. In most systems, the default settings are set only at the
district level. They enable you to send your messages out at the correct times and to
import text files properly. If you check the Use School Announcement Settings option
when creating a message, and there are no default settings configured for your school,
you may not have all the features that you want for your announcement.
There are situations where it is appropriate to check this box, such as if your school has
a particular file structure that is different from what the other schools use.
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155
User Permissions
User permissions determine what kinds of SchoolConnects objects a user can access or
modify.
Permission
156
Description
Highest Priority
Specifies the maximum priority this user can set for a message. For
example, if you set the permission to Medium, this user can specify
Low or Medium priority for a message, but not High or Emergency.
Create Message
Template
If set to Yes, the user can create new message templates for
Attendance and Canned messages.
Edit Message
Template
If set to Yes, the user can modify message templates.
Delete Message
Template
If set to Yes, the user can delete message templates.
Create Message
If set to Yes, the user can create messages.
Edit Message
If set to Yes, the user can change messages.
Delete Message
If set to Yes, the user can delete messages.
Create User Account
If set to Yes, the user can create new user accounts. If set to No, the
user can only change their own password.
Modify User
Account
If set to Yes, the user can modify user accounts. If set to No, the user
can only change their own password.
Delete User Account
If set to Yes, the user can delete user accounts. If set to No, the user
can only change their own password.
Create, Edit and
Delete Contact List
If set to Yes, the user can create, modify, and delete contact lists. If
set to No, the user can see and use contact lists, but cannot create or
change them.
Do-Not-Call List
If set to Yes, the user can add to or modify the Do-Not-Call list.
Record Message
If set to No, the user cannot create announcements with their own
message. The user can still send out attendance messages and can
still create announcements from canned messages,
Edit System Settings
If set to Yes, the user can modify system settings.
Add, Edit and
Delete Relationship
Code
If set to Yes, the user can modify relationship codes.
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Permission
SchoolConnects Web Users’ Guide
Description
Update Address
Book
If set to No, the user cannot modify the contents of the Address
Book.
Call-In Profile Setup
If set to Yes, the user can set up a profile to be able to send a message
from a telephone.
Create and Edit
Restriction Schedule
If set to Yes, the user can restrict times when messages can be sent,
or remove an existing restriction.
Receive Attendance
Reports
If set to Yes, the user can receive attendance reports via email,
provided their email address is specified as a recipient.
Receive
Announcement
Reports
If set to Yes, the user can receive announcement reports via email,
provided their email address is specified as a recipient.
Receive Emergency
Reports
If set to Yes, the user can receive Emergency reports via email,
provided their email address is specified as a recipient.
Access Student
Personal
Information
If set to No, the user cannot view any student contact information or
receive reports that include student contact information.
Submit to
Rapidconnects
Processing
Applicable only if you have a subscription to Rapidconnects. If set to
Yes, the user can use special features to expedite certain types of
calls. If set to No, this user cannot launch calls to Rapidconnects.
Override Before and
After Call Times
If set to Yes, the user can send calls outside of the allowed calling
times.
157
The Cascade Calling Feature
When setting up any message, you can deliver the message to all contacts, meaning all
telephone numbers selected for calling, or you can cascade contacts. In the past,
messages were delivered to all contacts imported. Because it is possible to import many
telephone numbers per student, often parents received the same message on several
different telephones.
Cascade Calling calls all priority 01 numbers, but stops calling additional numbers
when the message is delivered successfully.
Contact priorities
To use Cascade Calling most effectively, it is important to understand how contact
priorities work. You can assign priorities 01-99 to all contacts in the Address Book,
where 01 is the highest priority, and 99 is the lowest.
•
The student (household) record in the Address Book is always considered
Priority 01. This record contains a primary telephone number (usually Home)
and up to two secondary numbers (Mobile and Alternate).
•
Each student record can also be linked to multiple contacts. Each of these
contacts may also have up to three telephone numbers. You can assign priorities
to contacts, either individually, record by record, or globally based on the
relationship code. To assign priorities globally by relationship code, from the
Address Book window, click Contact Seq.
•
You can also assign the order in which to attempt each type of telephone number:
Home, Mobile, or Alternate. To assign an order to telephone number types, from
the Address Book window, click Contact Seq, then select the Phone Sequence
tab.
How cascade calling works
When you choose cascade calling, SchoolConnects delivers the message to all contacts
marked with Priority 01. In addition, SchoolConnects also attempts to call all selected
telephone numbers marked with Priority 02-99 until it delivers the message to either a
Priority 02-99 number or to a Priority 01 number.
When a call is delivered to any telephone number, all of the additional non-Priority 01
numbers associated with the same student are labeled as Cascade Completed. No
further attempts are made to call non-priority 01 numbers. However, SchoolConnects
continues to attempt Priority 01 contacts until the message is delivered to all of them.
Note that one contact in the Address Book may have up to three telephone numbers.
When SchoolConnects delivers the message to any one of the numbers belonging to a
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Priority 01 contact, the remaining telephone numbers for that contact are marked
Cascade Completed and no further attempts are made.
For example, if Mother is a Priority 01 contact and she has a home telephone, a mobile
telephone, and a work telephone, and SchoolConnects delivers the message to the
mobile phone, no attempt is made to call Mother’s home or work numbers. If Father is
also a Priority 01 contact and also has a home telephone, mobile phone, and work
telephone, even though the message has been delivered to Mother’s mobile phone,
SchoolConnects still attempts to call Father’s three numbers until the message is
delivered to one of them.
The student (household) record in the Address Book is always considered Priority 01.
This cannot be changed. If only the student Primary and Secondary telephone numbers
are imported, SchoolConnects attempts all three numbers until the message is
delivered to one of them. Then it marks the other telephone numbers for that student
as Cascade Completed and makes no further attempts.
If only contacts are selected for import and no contact is defined as Priority 01, then as
soon as the message is delivered to any one of the telephone numbers available, no
further attempts are made to any of the other telephone numbers for that student.
RELATED LINKS:
About Cascade Calling
Cascade calling sequence
If Student Primary and Secondary telephone numbers and all relative telephone
numbers are selected for calling:
1)
The first call attempt is made to the first call sequence telephone number for each
student in the Address Book. If Call Sequence is not defined, the home phone
number is attempted first. The mobile or alternate telephone numbers are
attempted only if the message is not delivered to the home telephone number.
2)
Next attempted is the first call sequence telephone number available for the first
contact labeled Priority 01.
3)
Then the second or third call sequence telephone numbers available for the first
priority 01 contact are attempted. If priority 01 contacts have no secondary
numbers, SchoolConnects starts calling the first call sequence telephone
numbers for the next priority 01 contact.
4)
If and when all telephone numbers for all priority 01 contacts have been
attempted but not delivered, SchoolConnects begins calling the next-highest
priority telephone numbers in the defined Call Sequence order.
5)
In each round, SchoolConnects attempts the highest priority number that was
not yet attempted or has had the fewest attempts.
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159
The Telemarketer Zapper
People can buy devices to connect to their home telephones that block calls from
automated dialing systems, such as the predictive dialers used by telemarketers. These
are very simple devices that emit a tone when any call comes in. The tone sounds like
the beginning of the tri-tone that precedes a message saying the number you are dialing
is out of service, or that you dialed the number incorrectly.
Automated dialing systems hang up when they hear this tone and the family at home
never even hears the telephone ring. This works wonderfully to prevent receiving
unwanted calls from telemarketers.
When SchoolConnects hears this zapper tone, it continues to deliver the message. If
there really is a telemarketer zapper device involved, a person may actually receive the
call. If this person presses a key to confirm receipt, SchoolConnects reports the call as
Delivered - Verified. However, if nobody presses a key, the call is reported as Tri-Tone
Ignored. You should verify and correct all telephone numbers reported as Tri-tone
ignored.
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A
Address Book
choosing recipients from 58
description of 11
difference from contact list 26
field descriptions 154
household information 12
icons
description of 11
importing new 98
manually add student to 100
manually delete a student from 101
relative contact data 13
relative fields description 155
searching for a student in 99
select a grade 58
selecting individuals 59
sending to everybody 58
student record 12
updating 98
announcements
adding recipients to 73
changing settings 79
creating
from canned message 63
your own message 46
creating reusable 82
emergency 16
expiry of 20
listening to sample call 73
overview 14, 16
reactivating 78
reusing 84
sending again 80
sending again to same recipients 80
sending new to same recipients 81
sending sample emails 74
stopping 72
suspending 72
to all grade 9s 58
to all students 58
to entire contact list 60
to individuals 59, 61
to list from import file 62
to subset of contact list 60
types of 16
viewing list of recipients 72
viewing progress of 75
SchoolConnectsWeb Users’ Guide
ways to create 16
when delivered 16
attendance messages
creating template 110
description of 15
listening to responses 77
shortcut 85
stopping automated 32
template defaults 114
C
call responses
listening to 77
call-in messages
overview of 18
Call-In Messages report
obtaining 146
Call-In Profile report
obtaining 145
call-in profiles
example 19
overview of 18
reference card 18
setting up 123
calling lists
changing 95
creating 88, 95, 98, 100, 101, 102, 104
calling times
for messages 21
calls
restricting 105
canned message templates
creating 115
canned messages
creating an announcement 63
overview of 17
template defaults 118
when delivered 17
cascade calling feature
description of 162
Change School
description of 7
contact lists
changing 95
choosing recipients from 60
creating 88, 95, 98, 100, 101, 102, 104
difference from Address Book 26
overview of 25
selecting a subset 60
165
selecting entire list 60
selecting individuals 61
contacts
choosing from Address Book 58
importing from file
overview 30
D
district administrator
description 28
permissions 29
district user
description 28
Do-Not-Call lists
overview of 31
E
email times
overview 22
emails
sending sample 74
Emergency messages
combined with other messages 16
overview of 16
preempting other messages 16
reusing 84
when delivered 16
explanation message
description of 9
Export Call Responses report
obtaining 143
M
message expiry
overview of 20
message history report 149
message restriction
types 32
messages
about stopping 32
absence 15
adding recipients to 73
attendance 15
attendance template defaults 114
calling times 21
cancelling 72
canned 17
changing settings 79
creating attendance template 110
creating reusable 82
default period absence
message text 15
email times 22
expiry of 20
icon description 158
late 15
launched by telephone 18
listening to call responses 77
listening to sample call 73
reactivating 78
restricting 105
restrictions of 32
reusing 84
sending again 80
sending again to same recipients 80
sending new to same recipients 81
sending sample emails 74
stopping 72
suppression of 32
suspending 72
tardy 15
types of 14
types that can be restricted 32
viewing list of recipients 72
viewing progress of 75
working with existing 72
F
file specifications
creating 119
files
defining import files 119
supported file types 30
G
global Do-Not-Call lists 31
H
Home
description of 7
I
icons
description of 158
import files
defining fields in 119
mapping fields in 119
sending to list 62
supported file types 30
166
N
name message
description of 9
Navigation pane
SchoolConnectsWeb Users’ Guide
description of 7
Need Help option
description of 8
Notification Task report
obtaining 141
O
online reports
obtaining 139
P
passwords
changing 41
permissions
description of 160
phone numbers
preventing calls to 102
PIN
status reports 135
profiles
creating 123
overview of 18
Q
Quick Attendance
using 85
R
recipients
viewing list of 72
relative contact data
description of 155
relative contact information 13
reports
call history 149
call-in messages 146
call-in profile 145
description of 132
email history 149
emailing 136
export call responses 143
list of available 132
message history 149
notification task 141
obtaining via email 136
scheduling recurring 147
status used in 134
viewing 136
viewing online 139
when PIN is required 135
Reports option
description of 8
SchoolConnectsWeb Users’ Guide
restriction schedules
canceling 106
changing 106
creating 105
reusable announcements
creating 82
S
sample calls
listening to 73
overview 73
sample emails
sending 74
school administrator
description 28
school announcement settings
description of 159
school code
description of 9
school Do-Not-Call lists
overview of 31
school name recording
changing 40
school properties 9
editing 40
school user
description 28
SchoolConnects
web interface 6
SchoolConnects window
description 6
schools
code 9
creating 38
description of 9
explanation message 9
name message 9
properties 9
Send Message
description of 7
Settings option
description of 8
status
used in reports 134
viewing 75
student contact data
description of 154
student contact information 12
student contacts
167
editing 13
student data
importing to Address Book 98
student information system
importing to Address Book 98
student properties
description of 12
students
locating in Address Book 99
manually add to Address Book 100
manually delete from Address Book 101
preventing calls to 102
surveys
listening to call response 77
W
web interface
description of 6
weekday call times 21
weekday email times 22
weekend call times 21
weekend email times 22
Z
zapper
description of 164
T
tasks
adding recipients to 73
viewing recipients 72
working with 72
telemarketer zapper
description of 164
telephone numbers
preventing calls to 102
templates
canned message defaults 118
creating attendance 110
creating canned message 115
U
user accounts
changing passwords 41
creating 43
deleting 45
overview of 28
types of 28
User Manager
overview of 28
user permissions
description of 160
user properties
overview of 28
users
adding new 43
deleting 45
permissions 160
V
View Messages options
description of 7
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