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Jan 20, 2010
... this week brought some new changes to ampEducator and here is a quick update in the latest issue of news & alerts
1) Student ID
The automatic Student ID has been replaced with an editable 'Assigned Student ID' - this was to give institutions more flexibility is assigning students id which matched previous numbering systems.
When you add a Student you will be asked what option you would like to use. The Student ID can be auto generated based on your configuration settings or you can just click 'Auto' next to the Student ID to have the system use a sequential number or a random one again depending on selection settings in the configuration section.
For existing Students you can click 'Change' and as long as the data you enter is not already taken (the system will perform a check) you will be able to use it.
Ensure that you take a moment to view and setup the new Student ID tab in the Configuration section.
Note: The pre/post id fields have been removed from Program Templates in lieu of the editable 'Assigned Student ID' feature.
2) Student Configuration
As mentioned above - a new configuration tab for Student ID was added to allow institutions to customize the auto generated Student ID. Along with the option of making the ID whatever you like - several options for appending pre/post text to the ID have been included. These will allow you to generate an ID based on the current date or birthday of the Student by using the following:
Year Long - yyyy
Year Short - yy
Month Long - mmm
Month Short - mm
Birth Year Long - YYYY
Birth Year Short - YY
Birth Month Long - MMM
Birth Month Short - MM
3) Prospect Email Notification
The prospect notification email was updated to include all fields submitted. Those of you who take advantage of this option will have already noticed this change but we wanted to officially mention it in this weeks news & alerts.
Jan 12, 2010
... yet another busy week of rapid development here has resulted in more new features for all our users to take advantage of with ampEducator!
1) ampStudents --> ampEducator
Just a FYI - You may or may not have noticed this, but we are now forwarding the ampStudents portal to the main ampEducator portal. This will not effect users and was done to streamline the application.
2) Live Support
You now have the option of clicking on Live Support on the upper right hand side of the application. If a member of our support team is available and not currently helping another client - you will be taken to a direct chat link with them - if support is busy - you will be prompted to send an email to our existing trouble ticket system. Check it out the next time you need some help or have a question!
3) Status Blog
From time to time you may notice an issue with ampEducator - to confirm what the overall status of the application is you can now visit the Status Blog which is a direct notification system on our website from the development team. This helps you to identify where your issue may be related to a recent update or not. Check it out at status.amperea.com.
4) Migration to RackSpace
We have recently completed a total migration to new servers at Rackspace. While we were using Rackspace before on a testing/temporary basis - we are now fully functional. The new servers take advantage of cloud computing and will allow us to handle the growing number of institutions using the software from around the world without decreasing performance - in fact you should notice a considerable improvement in response times already!
5) Updating Grades for COMPLETED Courses
We had a number of clients request the ability to update grades in courses that had been issued Completed status in rare cases that mistakes were made. There is the ability to override completed courses when editing student grades. When you view the student grades under Courses->Student Grades->View Grades (for an individual student only) if the course is completed and grades are locked then there is an 'Edit Grades' button. clicking on it enabled the grades and once you save the grades are locked again.
6) Generate a Schedule for Students
We updated the ability for users to print calendar based schedules for Students - this option is under Students > Courses > Generate Schedule. Check it out!
7) Custom Domains
We now offer custom domains. Under Institutions->Preferences, We have added a 'Custom Domains' tab. Here you need to indicate which domains will be pointing to ampeducator and then add the appropriate CNAME records with the DNS - the content for the CNAME record is just 'yourPURL.ampeducator.com' and is listed in that tab. Any questions on this - please feel free to email us at support@amperea.com
Coming Up Next!
1) separate bulk email settings
2) sms support
3) 'Announcements' module - you'll be able to associate announcements by Course, Group, Students, Staff, Educators, and All.
4) 'Announcements' under courses
5) 'Announcements' under groups
6) Dynamic Announcements in Dashboard
7) and Much More...!
We've got a lot more work to do and more requests to fill - we appreciate all your support and patience while we continue to work towards creating the very best, most affordable school administration software for you - our valued partners!
The Amperea Software Inc. Team
Jan 04, 2010
... Happy New Year! Here is a list of the latest changes that were adopted into the software for this week... more to come soon...
1) Email
Email has changed in ampEducator for the better! We have removed the built in mail server which means that email addresses like user@purl.ampeducator.com will be phased out in the next 30 days (don't worry - if you had an existing email account all email will be forwarded until the end of January 2010 allowing you to phase out this email with your contacts). Now email in ampEducator works like any other third party email software. In order to send and receive emails from ampEducator you will need to log in and setup mail settings under "My Account'. Setup your email account today and check it out!
2) User Permissions for Reports
You can now specify report permissions - this is done under Reports->Edit Report. There is a tab called 'Permissions' which controls the user types that will have access to read, read/generate and read/generate/modify the reports. The admins will always have access to all reports and only admins can delete generated reports. This allows you to limit sensitive financial or other management reports to only those users that should see them.
3) OpenID Implementation
The implementation for Google OpenID is now live. To enable the Google sign in for a student you will need to add their Google email under Students->Other->Google Open ID Email. You will also notice that there is a google icon which will take users to Google where they can sign in. Once signed in they will automatically be redirected to ampEducator. Educators, staff and admin users also have the option under their respective user accounts.
We designed it so that it's easy to add other specific OpenID providers so we will be adding other providers as needed (i.e. Yahoo, Facebook etc..)
We've got lot's more work to do and more requests to fill - we appreciate all your support and patience while we continue to work towards creating the very best, most affordable school administration software for you - our valued partners!
The Amperea Software Inc. Team
