Portals 2017 Transition Packet New Platform Goals 1 Integrated Content and Data 1 Configurable Navigation and Screens 1 Additional Portals 1 Responsive Design 2 Transition Timeline and Considerations (2017) 2 Transition Milestones 2 Transition Timeline Options 2 Other Considerations 2 New Feature Highlights 3 News and Content 3 Daily Student Schedule 3 Personal Messages Inbox 3 Directories 3 Files and Links Publishing for Families 3 New and Existing Feature Summary 4 Pricing 5 Refreshed Parent, Student, and Teacher Portals (Included) 5 News Management Module (Extra Cost) 5 Content Portals (Extra Cost) 5 Additional Role-Specific Portals (Extra Cost) 5 Talk to Your Account Manager 5 Best Practices and Other Considerations 6 Portals for All Employees 6 Additional Role-Specific Portals 6 Stand-alone News Portal 6 Future Role-Specific Portals 6 FAQ 6
New Platform Goals For years, parents, teachers, students, and others have accessed their school information via Veracross Portals. We, in turn, have iterated many major and minor upgrades based on the availability of new technology, our own testing, and most importantly, regular feedback from schools. The time has come in our product development cycle to rewrite Portals from the ground up, retaining the aspects on which constituents have come to rely, and building powerful new features, all with an eye to future scalability. Integrated Content and Data A School Information Systems (SIS) should do more than simply track a school's data. It should also be a means for communicating with the people that matter most. Last summer, Veracross released News & Events Portals, a place for schools to create and share content with their most important constituencies. Schools have since expressed the desire to manage news and event content directly in the portals that parents, students, and teachers already use on a regular basis, thereby integrating data and content. Portals 2017 does just this. The new News Management Module is at the heart of Portals 2017. This new platform will provide the tools for news management workflows by leveraging Composer, Veracross' platform for creating rich and responsive HTML content. Channels provide the category structure to share content with the right people. For example, having an Athletics news channel available on the Parent Portal provides an easy way to share upcoming game information with parents. In addition, review tools in Composer provide workflows from content creators to content editors and publishers, ensuring that the content you share with your parents, students, and faculty/staff is reviewed before being made available. Configurable Navigation and Screens Each school is unique, and that is why Veracross Portals 2017 will provide the tools to configure each portal to a degree previously not possible. Menus and other navigation features will be fully configurable. If one school wants directories front and center, they can promote them to the top level of the Portals menu; another school may decide to remove directories from portal navigation entirely. Menu headers, dividers, icons, and custom links to school files and web pages provide an unlimited number of navigation options. Each school will get to create as many portal screens as it wants, organizing content and data in a way that makes the most sense for their organization. For example, a school might create a screen of resources for parents that includes links and files to which they need regular access. A school might also create a screen to organize different types of news content, such as assemblies, art projects, etc. To aid schools in getting started, Veracross will provide a library of layouts, allowing schools to customize their look and feel. Additional Portals The new Portals 2017 platform allows schools to create portals for additional constituencies beyond parents, students, and teachers. Indeed, some schools have already used the previously released News & Events Portals to share news with their board, alumni, and others. Read more below in Additional Role-Specific Portals. 1
In addition, the flexibility of the portal framework allows multiple portals to be created for the same constituency, e.g., more than one Student Portal for different school levels. Read more in Best Practices below to learn about how this flexibility can be utilized. Responsive Design In our increasingly mobile world, Portals 2017 is responsive on mobile devices. Transition Timeline and Considerations (2017) Schools will oversee their own transition timelines to the new Portals, beginning in the summer of 2017 and running through December 2017, at which point the "old" Portals will be decommissioned. All schools will automatically receive the upgraded Parent, Student, and Teacher Portals with functionality similar to current Portals. Several features at the heart of Portals 2017 require the new News Management Module, and we recommend that schools consider purchasing it and integrating it into their transition planning. Transition Milestones March Initial announcement Early May Transition packet and webinar Late May Initial documentation Early June Demo preview Early July New Portals available to Admins for configuration Late July Earliest availability for parents, students, and teachers July - December Schools transition to Portals 2017 December 2017 Old Portals decommissioned Transition Timeline Options Schools can time their transitions according to their needs, and are encouraged to talk with their Account Manager ahead of time to plan the process. It is important to note that only one version of a given portal can be turned on at a given time (unlike the ES2/Axiom transition), so schools should plan for a specific cutover date and time for each portal. A summer implementation allows a school to test and roll out the new Portals separately from the day-to-day pressures of the school year. A fall implementation allows a school to roll out the new Portals to parents when they can meet with them in person during an assembly or another natural check-in point, e.g., when releasing report cards or at parent-teacher conferences. A winter implementation allows a school to take the fall to prepare and then release a bit later in the school year. Other Considerations Schools may also consider a phased roll-out, e.g., implementing the Teacher Portal over the summer, and then the Parent and Student ones when report cards are released. Schools may want to beta test some or all the Portals with small groups of users, e.g., by opening the new Parent Portal only to teachers with children at the school. 2
New Feature Highlights News and Content News and content are simply containers for information, and this flexibility means that just about any kind of material can be created and managed using the new News Management Module. Make your Portals true information hubs for everything at your school by creating: School announcements and weekly newsletters Headmaster s blog Rotating carousel of featured articles Athletic and arts highlights Resource pages Daily Student Schedule Veracross comprehensive integrated database makes it possible to view all schedule-related information for every minute of every day (past, present, and future) on a single screen. The Daily Student Schedule is much more than a simple class schedule, bringing together all of the following: Class Schedules, assignments, and lessons Rotation and No school days Transportation Athletic event logistics Group events Personal Messages Inbox View and read all messages sent via distribution lists and Composer in a new full-screen interface, and find messages based on time, sender or channel. Directories Some schools desire a simple directory sorted alphabetically or by grade, but others desire a more segmented and robust approach. Directories realizes the latter in Portals 2017, without making the former onerous to set up. Featuring an all-new design, schools can create multiple configurable directories with customized membership and display preferences. Files and Links Publishing for Families Display files attached to a student in the Parent Portal. 3
New and Existing Feature Summary In addition to significantly enhanced functionality, many features will be familiar to current Portals users. This table highlights features that are staying the same, being upgraded, or entirely new. Key: ü No Change Update «New Feature General Features «Support for Multiple Portals «News and Announcements «Content Management «Directories «Personal Messages Inbox Portal Links ü Personal Calendars ü School & Athletic Calendars ü ical Subscriptions Faculty Features Add Behavior/ Comment Resource Reservations List Time Off Requests Axiom Reports ü Class Lists ü Exam Calendars ü Assignment Planner ü Library ü Class Setup ü Advisor Dashboard ü Find Students/Student Profile ü Add Resource Reservation ü Course Requests Parent/Student Features «Student Daily Schedule Recent Class Updates Student Class List Student Reports and Links Class Assignments Summary ü Assignment Planner Parent Features «Publish Files ü Household Profile Update ü School Policies ü Health Profile and Change Requests ü Invoices ü Parent Teacher Conference Signup ü Student Logistics Request Student Features ü Submit Assignment Dropbox ü Course Requests Classes (LMS) Features ü Class Websites ü Class Roster Lists ü Attendance ü Gradebook ü Notifications (Behavior/Comments) ü Discussions ü Posts and Pages ü Resources and Topics ü Report Card Grades & Comments 4
Pricing All schools will receive the refreshed Parent, Student, and Teacher Portals as part of the general Portals 2017 platform upgrade. The heart of the new system, the News Management Module, will be an extra cost, and schools will now have ability to purchase additional role-specific portals to provide a more tailored experience for their constituents. Refreshed Parent, Student, and Teacher Portals (Included) In upgrading the Parent, Student, and Teacher Portals to Portals 2017, each school will receive the new framework with standard functionality at no additional cost. The features of these new portals are similar to the existing ones. News Management Module (Extra Cost) Most schools will want to purchase the News Management Module to integrate news content directly into their portals alongside the data that parents, students, and teachers are used to finding. The News Management module will come with the ability to: compose articles organize articles using Channels publish articles to Portals using a variety of content organization components review and approve articles integrate with your website s CMS via the Veracross API use one generic content portal (included free) for any purpose The News Management Module only needs to be purchased once, at which point it can be leveraged in all portals used by a school. Schools that purchased a News & Events Portal in 2016 will receive the News Management Module at no additional cost. Content Portals (Extra Cost) Schools may desire to use generic content portals to create portals for groups of people who are not parents, students, or teachers. For instance, a school may want to make a Board Member Portal to have a landing area for board meeting minutes and agendas. Additional Role-Specific Portals (Extra Cost) Some schools may decide to purchase additional role-specific portals to support different constituencies. For example, a school may choose to create a student portal for elementary students that is different than the one for middle or upper school students. This can be accomplished by purchasing an additional Student Portal and using it for the different student level. Talk to Your Account Manager Schools who want to purchase additional role-specific or generic content portals should talk with their Account Manager. 5
Best Practices and Other Considerations The new Portals 2017 opens all sorts of new possibilities. This section highlights different ways schools can start to think about leveraging the flexibility of this new platform. Portals for All Employees It is not recommended to include staff in the Teacher Portal. To that end, schools are encouraged to use the generic portal (included with the News Management Module) for employees, providing a place separate from the Teacher Portal (that focuses on class data) where staff and faculty can get their news, HR information, resources, and other important content. Additional Role-Specific Portals Schools might desire to configure multiple role-specific portals to tailor content to specific subsets of different roles. In general, it is recommended to avoid requiring people to have to visit multiple portals. With that in mind: Multiple student portals can be supported, since students are not members of multiple grades. For instance, a school might want to have a different portal for lower and middle/upper school. It is not recommended to have more than one Parent Portal, which would potentially require parents with more than one child to visit different portals. Separate Teacher Portals for lower and upper schools could be configured because teachers are most likely not members of both upper and lower school. Stand-alone News Portal While it is recommended to integrate news directly into role-specific portals, some schools may want a stand-alone News & Events Portals. With the News Management Module and a generic content portal, a school can maintain a stand-alone portal. Future Role-Specific Portals Parent, Student, and Teacher Portals will be rolled out to schools in this first iteration of Portals 2017 according to the timeline previously outlined. We plan to build upon the initial launch of these three portals with additional role-specific portals in the coming months and years. Among those being considered are portals for alumni, volunteer solicitors, future parents and students, as well as summer program parent and students. Portals for donors and athletic coaches involve unique engineering challenges and will be considered later. FAQ Do current Veracross schools need to migrate to new Parent, Student, and Teacher Portal before the start of school? No. Schools have until December 2017 to migrate to the new Portals. Can newly implementing schools use the current Parent, Student, and Teacher Portals? No. Schools implementing this spring or summer must wait for the new Portals in July 2017. 6
Will my school have to configure the new Parent, Student, or Teacher Portal from scratch? No. There will be default versions of each portal to provide each transitioning school with a fully functioning portal. Will my school need to purchase anything to use the new Portals? No. If a school already has the Parent/Student and/or Teacher Portals, it will be upgraded to the new platform free. We recommend adding the News Management Module, allowing full integration of news and events in the Portals. How will new Portals integrate with Composer? The Composer interface will be used to build content screens within the new Portals. For instance, a school might use composer to build a single page with information on after school programs. Emails written and sent via Composer will also be able to be posted as content in new Portals, in addition to being sent as an email. Lastly, a Composer email may point back to an article posted in one of the portals. Note that users would need to log in, since each portal is available to specific constituents. How much time will need to be spent this summer on setting up each portal? The time it will take will largely be determined by how much each school wants to deviate from the standard portal setup. If an organization decides they want to write content, change navigation, create new pages etc., a significant time investment will be required. However, other schools may choose to largely leave the portals as is, and a much smaller investment of time can be made. If my school does not purchase the new News Management Module, will the new Portals be a bad experience for parents? While we believe that parents, students, and faculty will get a lot of value out of having news content shared directly in their portal, they will not have a sub-par experience using the portals without them. They will have all the same features as current portals do, and the design will still be beautiful. Will LMS features be upgraded this summer? No, though we will be doing so in the future. Will these upgraded portals impact the Admissions and Online Re-Enrollment Portal? No, though our goal is to fold all portals into the new framework eventually. What is the earliest we can launch the new Portals for parents, students, and faculty? New Portal functionality will be made available to schools in early July. As soon as a school finishes its portal setup, they can technically launch for parents, students, and/or faculty. Because we believe that schools will need time to set up, test, and deploy the new portals, we recommend launching them toward the end of July. How many portals can I have? Can I have 5, 6, or 7 portals? We are excited that your school potentially has so many uses for portals! There is no limit to the number of portals a school can purchase. Talk with your account manager about adding additional content and role-specific portals. If my school has already created content in a News & Events Portal, will we need to re-create that content when new Portals are launched? Veracross will assist schools transitioning from existing News & Events Portals. Content will be not need to be re-created. 7