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Exam Timetables?


ADT

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Working in an exam factory....  cough...  erm school i was thinking of a way to giving both parents/students access to exams timetable via Frog!!!  Unfortunately it seams Frog as yet doesnt pull this kind of thing in!!

 

How do you currently give parents/pupils access to exam timetables???

And how useful would it be if Frog could display an exam timetable?

 

@gbligh@pconkie

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On 15/10/2018 at 20:19, ADT said:

That would be my hope @Graham Quince @SteveH

I have spoken to the MIS / SIMS Oracle here, and the problem is that exam timetable data is a bolt-on module in SIMS (or at least it used to be) and not a part of core SIMS - and there is no facility for us to be able to extract this data. We simply don't have access to it.

That's my understanding of things anyhow.

We have spoken to Capita about this in the past and their response was to "hold on - something is coming"

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1 minute ago, gbligh said:

There used to be a bit on Frog3 where there was a way round it - https://kb.froginfra.net/index.php/Exam_Timetables_-_Frogweb

Can we replicate this in Learn in any way?

We don't have FrogWeb in FrogLearn, but it may be possible to create a widget that can read data from an uploaded file (or even a file that exists on your internal network) and then render it out. Without seeing the format that SIMS exports this data in I can't be any more specific than that unfortunately!

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2 hours ago, adamw said:

I have spoken to the MIS / SIMS Oracle here, and the problem is that exam timetable data is a bolt-on module in SIMS (or at least it used to be) and not a part of core SIMS - and there is no facility for us to be able to extract this data. We simply don't have access to it.

That's my understanding of things anyhow.

We have spoken to Capita about this in the past and their response was to "hold on - something is coming"

By Oracle you mean Craig...... lots of used to be’s......  capita saying something’s coming.... huge some of money to get better access to SIMs etc....... but if others are doing it and charging less then how come you can’t??? 

https://www.tascsoftware.co.uk/software-titles/insight/insight-parental-engagement-features/

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On 18/10/2018 at 17:12, adamw said:

We don't have FrogWeb in FrogLearn, but it may be possible to create a widget that can read data from an uploaded file (or even a file that exists on your internal network) and then render it out. Without seeing the format that SIMS exports this data in I can't be any more specific than that unfortunately!

I'd be happy to send you anything you need to test this? I can send over an example exam timetable in the format it comes out from SIMS?

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It would be interesting to know the percentage of Frog customers who are Secondary/High schools.........

who may or may not use SIMs........... 

who wouldn't want an easy way to display exam timetables in Frog to students/parents?????????????

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On 24/10/2018 at 16:43, gbligh said:

I'd be happy to send you anything you need to test this? I can send over an example exam timetable in the format it comes out from SIMS?

Hi, 

Sorry for the late reply, I was on annual leave last week :)

Feel free to send anything over and I'll have a look. Can't promise anything will come of it, but I don't mind having a peek and seeing what we're up against. Just a note though, due to GDPR - could you make sure that anything you send me has been anonymised first? That way we don't run into any data protection issues.

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16 minutes ago, adamw said:

Hi, 

Sorry for the late reply, I was on annual leave last week :)

Feel free to send anything over and I'll have a look. Can't promise anything will come of it, but I don't mind having a peek and seeing what we're up against. Just a note though, due to GDPR - could you make sure that anything you send me has been anonymised first? That way we don't run into any data protection issues.

No worries hope you had some good time off :)

I'll get something out of SIMS for you and send it over - anonymised of course :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Have you had any initial thoughts @adamw....  it just seams crazy that Frog cant do this...  when your competitors can..... when all secondary schools.... have to give students exam timetables....  so if it was electronic and on Frog...  means they cant lose it!! :P

 

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1 hour ago, ADT said:

Have you had any initial thoughts @adamw....  it just seams crazy that Frog cant do this...  when your competitors can..... when all secondary schools.... have to give students exam timetables....  so if it was electronic and on Frog...  means they cant lose it!! :P

 

I've raised this internally again here so that everyone is aware that this is something that people have been asking for. We've been in contact with Capita and they are still planning on surfacing this information via SIMS reports (which our existing extractor will be able to access) but they have no ETA on when that will be available.

Another option put forward was to have these exam timetables as PDF's that exist in SIMS as linked documents. If they all went into a new category, then we could show this information via the SIMS linked document widget.

As I mentioned, I've raised this here at the highest levels so they are aware that this is a requested feature, and I'll keep you up to date with any further information on this.

In the meantime, I'm happy to look at any alternatives for displaying this information, such as taking an exported file from SIMS and rendering it out. 

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45 minutes ago, adamw said:

I've raised this internally again here so that everyone is aware that this is something that people have been asking for. We've been in contact with Capita and they are still planning on surfacing this information via SIMS reports (which our existing extractor will be able to access) but they have no ETA on when that will be available.

Another option put forward was to have these exam timetables as PDF's that exist in SIMS as linked documents. If they all went into a new category, then we could show this information via the SIMS linked document widget.

As I mentioned, I've raised this here at the highest levels so they are aware that this is a requested feature, and I'll keep you up to date with any further information on this.

In the meantime, I'm happy to look at any alternatives for displaying this information, such as taking an exported file from SIMS and rendering it out. 

Hi Adam...

Good man....  its always good to know our voices are heard......  from time to time ;)!!!

Blinking Capita with there teasing........  sort it out!! 

When you say PDF's in SIMs......  will this mean lots of extra work for our exam staff???  I don't think they would be to happy with that!! @gbligh did you do this with Frog 3?

Its a hot topic here at the moment which could stop us moving from Insight to FrogParent.

 

Thanks!!

 

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1 minute ago, ADT said:

When you say PDF's in SIMs......  will this mean lots of extra work for our exam staff??? 

Honestly I don't know how this works in SIMS - it could be as simple as pushing a button, or it could be a nightmare! It might be part of the SIMS exam timetable stuff to allow you to do that. Best people to speak to about that would be your SIMS tech support contact.

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1 minute ago, adamw said:

Honestly I don't know how this works in SIMS - it could be as simple as pushing a button, or it could be a nightmare! It might be part of the SIMS exam timetable stuff to allow you to do that. Best people to speak to about that would be your SIMS tech support contact.

Last thing i want to do is pester our Exams Team...............  if this is a pie in the sky idea!! :P  Hopefully someone on here might know!! 

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 minutes ago, ADT said:

While you cant spill the beans on the big reveal....  have you worked anymore on this??? @adamw

I've been rammed with work for the upcoming release I'm afraid :p However, I am still in need of an export file from SIMS (anonymised) from someone so I can have a play around in Frog-Code with it. 

I'm not sure how easy that is to get a hold of though! 

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5 minutes ago, gbligh said:

I have just asked our exams manager to send me a blank timetable so you can see what it looks like. I'll send it over when done. Can I PM you on here @adamw???

Come on....  i thought you would have been all over this.... :P

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 minute ago, ADT said:

So for Christmas my girls have asked Santa for Frog to be able to display exam timetables.............  my girls are 3 & 4.....  you don't want them to think Santa isn't real.... spoiling the magic of Christmas for them at such a young age.................... No pressure boys.... 9_9

@adamw @savillecj @Graham Quince

Santa hasn't delivered me the export from SIMS yet... :(

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Just now, adamw said:

Santa hasn't delivered me the export from SIMS yet... :(

Well he managed to give your competitors the ability........  maybe you need to leave out more mince pies etc!!! :P

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