Introduction to the Professional Development Center Overview Materials Navigation Troubleshooting Professional Development Center Materials Skyward Software Tips and Tricks General Simulation Tips Feedback
Overview Welcome to the Skyward Professional Development Center Courses! You will find this document at the beginning of each course. It is required to read this before you start your first course but only as needed for each subsequent course. Once you have logged into the Professional Development Center you will have access to the Courses in which you will be learning. The majority of the courses will have 3 different components: Guides, Simulations, and Recordings. At the end of the course, there will be a quiz (or quizzes) to test your knowledge. As you go through the materials in the Professional Development Center, it is highly recommended that you are logged in to a test database environment so that you can follow along and complete the tasks that are covered in the materials. We ve provided you with a few troubleshooting techniques, as well as Tips and Tricks while working through the Professional Development Center Courses to best learn the Skyward material. Also in this document, you will find an area that provides you with who to contact with any questions, concerns, or feedback. Be sure to sign up for a Skyward Forum account as this is one area you will have the ability to ask questions and post comments. You can sign up by going to forum.skyward.com. The Skyward Professional Development Center Courses are tested in the following browsers: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Some browsers do require the QuickTime plugin in order to view the Recordings. Also, you will need to have Adobe Reader (or other PDF viewer) to view the Guides.
Materials Guides consist of written documentation that provide detail on each option within the Software for that portion of the training. You may wish to print these Guides to keep for your own documentation to refer back to when necessary. The Guides will be labeled with the PDF icon. Simulations provide you with the ability to work through a real-life situation, like adding in a Student to the software or adding an Invoice, for example. The simulations will walk you through these situations with directions and will instantly provide you with feedback to ensure you are following the proper procedure. Note: While the Simulations are meant to mimic the Skyward Software, there are some features that will appear different in the Simulations versus the Software. For example, when entering a Name Key into a text entry field in the Simulations, it will prompt you to enter the entire Name Key (smithjoh000). In the Skyward Software, as soon as you begin typing the Name Key, a drop down menu will appear for you to select the Student s name. This is true of any code field in the Software. The Simulations will be labeled with the Skyward computer icon. Recordings offer detailed information on certain elements of the software. There will typically be an overview recording to acclimate you with the course you are beginning as well as a few other recordings to supplement the course. The Recordings are labeled with the clap board icon and list the expected length of the recording. A quiz, or multiple quizzes, will be offered in the courses. There will be a variation of questions to test your knowledge on what you ve learned throughout the course. The quizzes are labeled with the paper and orange check mark. You must attain a score of 100% on the quiz in order to receive the certificate of completion. If you do not receive a 100% when you complete the quiz, you will have the opportunity to retake the quiz until you ve attained 100%.
After you ve completed each item in the course, you will need to check the box next to each item to mark it as complete. This is used to track your progress in the course. Navigation It is important to follow the course in the order in which it is laid out, starting at the top of the course list. Complete the reading (Guide) prior to reviewing the Simulation or Recording (if available) before moving on to the next Guide. Make sure to watch the Overview recording prior to beginning the course materials. There are several means of navigating through the Courses. Within any screen in the Professional Development Center, you can click at the top of the screen in the Navigation bar to go back to the Home screen or to the specific Course you are currently in. You also have a navigational pane on the left side of the screen that will take you back to the home page or to any of the Guides within the course you are currently in. Simulations and Recordings will not appear in this pane; you must return to the Course screen to access these materials.
Troubleshooting Professional Development Center Courses Skyward Software Professional Development Center Courses If you are opening a Guide within the Professional Development Center and it doesn t expand to the full screen, select the Refresh button within your browser to correct the issue.
We advise you to post any general questions you have regarding the material that was covered in the courses within the Professional Development Center to the appropriate module area of the Skyward Forum. Examples of these questions include: Is there a difference if I add a new student from the Student Profile versus the Student Browse? Can Attendance be modified from Entry by Date, Entry by Student and the Student Profile? You can access a login to the Skyward Forum by navigating to forum.skyward.com and selecting the Register button in the upper right hand corner. If you are experiencing issues that are directly related to the Courses please send these issues to us via email at trainingstudent@skyward.com for Student related courses and to trainingfinance@skyward.com for Business related courses. Examples of these issues include: Guides, Simulations, and/or Recordings do not open properly or links do not work. Simulations are not carrying on to the next step. There is no sound when viewing the recordings. If you or your co-workers have trouble logging into the Professional Development Center, please use the Forgotten Login/Password link on the main screen. If you are still unable to login after using the Forgotten Login/Password link, please send an email to trainingstudent@skyward.com or trainingfinance@skyward.com. Skyward Software If you are experiencing a Software related issue in your database or have a specific question regarding your district s data, please submit a Service Call to your designated Skyward Customer Support. If you do not have the ability to submit a service call, contact your district administrator. Examples of when to submit a Skyward Service Call: We are printing the Day Summary report in Attendance and a student that was absent on that day is not pulling on the report. Why? A parent in our district is not seeing one of her children when she logs into Family Access. What could be causing this? The teachers in one of our entities are unable to take Attendance today. I ve checked the Calendar dates and they are correct so I m not sure what could be causing the issue. What is causing this?
Tips and Tricks General Simulation General The courses will include materials on how to run Utilities in Skyward. It is very important that these utilities are NOT run in your Live Data as it can cause many issues and/or irreversible changes. It is important to note that while going through the Courses, you may see fields or values within the materials (Recordings, Guides and Simulations) that are state specific. Many fields differ from state to state so you may/may not see fields within your software that you see within the documentation. You may also have limited Security Access to areas of the Software. If you feel you need different Security Access to the Software, contact your district Skyward Administrator. While we recommend that the courses be completed on a desktop or laptop computer, all materials are accessible through most mobile devices. Simulations Simulations are meant to mimic the software. While the majority of the simulations are exactly like the software, some features (i.e., entering a name key, typing in codes, etc.) will appear slightly different within the simulations than the live Software. Most of the Text Entry fields in the Simulations will prompt you to select the Enter key on the keyboard after you ve entered the correct text in the field. In the Skyward Software, you will generally use the Tab key on the keyboard to move out of that field. The Tab key does not function properly in the Simulations so the Enter key is used. While typing in a Text Entry field, should you need a hint, press the Enter key on the keyboard to prompt the Error message for a hint. There is a navigational progress bar at the top of the screen that allows you to go back to a previous screen but does not, however, allow you to go forward. You can skip the opening Skyward animation by clicking anywhere on the screen to begin the Simulation.
If you are using Safari on a Mac computer and the Enter button on the keyboard does not advance you to the next slide, click out of the browser (i.e. on your desktop) and then click back into the browser. Press Enter and the simulation will proceed. Feedback There is a feedback link at the end of each course that will allow you to leave comments regarding the course material. Although this is an optional form, we strongly recommend that you complete this portion of the course to assist us in continually improving our material.