School Information Systems

Implementation Handbook

Secondary and P-12

1SCHOOL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

BCE will deliver an integrated student information and learningmanagement system to all schools during 2010-2011. School portals that allow each schoolto manage and share their content in a consistent and reliableway will also be provided. The current school administration system (Maze) does not meet a broad range of school or BCE requirements and is nearing its end of life. Also, information requirements of a range of authorities and government agencies rely on the provision of timely and accurate information that is best provided from a centralised and common school database. To address these requirements, a suite of products has been chosen. These products currently are:

  • SharePoint – portal management
  • eMinerva – student information management
  • Dynamics AX – financial management
  • Oliver v4 – library/school resource centre management
  • The Timetabler – timetable management (secondaries and P-12 only)

The use of school portals will allow each of our school communities to manage how programs that support teaching and learning will be delivered to its members and will also give school staff flexible ‘anywhere, anytime’ access. This includes such tasks as accessing student information in the classroom, eg., timetable information, medical alerts; accessing library information at home when planning; obtaining contact information about families to call home to discuss a child.

The implementation of the new system will involve a period of transition that is likely to create some disruption to all staff - both teaching and non-teaching - in schools. BCE hopes that the benefits gained by the new products and the new method of delivery will mitigate the interruption to normal routine.

MAIN BENEFITS OF THE NEW SYSTEM

  • All systems/programs will be delivered through the school portal so they are accessible anywhere, anytime over the internet in one, secure location. This will give school staff flexibility in when and where they choose to do tasks associated with their role – various locations at work, or from home.
  • The daily task of roll marking can be done directly into eMinerva—removing the need for delivery of attendance data to office staff. School staff will also have access to data that will enable them tocreate class lists and record data for student awards.
  • Student records will need to be created only once for each student. The record will follow students between schools without needing to be re-entered, creating efficiencies and reducing the likelihood of error.
  • Accurate and timely information is necessary for teachers to make decisions. The integrated systemwill provide access to a variety of student information for teachers. The range of information will be restricted according to a teacher’s role in the school.
  • The benefits of an integrated approach to student information management will result in reduced data entry for teachers as some information can be transferred between applications.
  • A parent SMS notification system for non-attendance and disasters will be available in late 2010.
  • The new integrated system will deliver a consistent ‘look and feel’ for all core BCE systems, in all schools, which will remove an element of uncertainty for staff as they move between BCE schools and will reduce system training needs for staff moving between BCE schools.
  • The new systems cater for ‘split billing’ in instances where school fees are paid by more than one person.
  • Automatic provisioning for all students of a Live@edu email account including document storage.

2Enterprise systems

With some integration existing already, over time these applications will continue to be integrated further to deliver a complete student information and learning management system to all schools in the Brisbane Diocese.

The products are being provided in an enterprise delivery model. An enterprise information system has some particular characteristics that should be understood prior to implementation.

An enterprise system provides a technology platform that enables organisations to integrate and coordinate their business processes. It provides a single system that is central to the organisation and ensures that information can be shared across all functional levels and management hierarchies. An enterprise systemprovides products to the whole organisation from a central location, rather than these products being installed individually, eg., at each school.

An enterprise system is invaluable in eliminating the problem of duplicate, and often mis-matching information, caused by multiple information systems across an organisation. It achieves this by storing key data only once (eg., student record, parent record) and creating a standard data structure. The enterprise system becomes the ‘authoritative source’ of data for the whole organisation, ie., for all schools. This means that the system will be required to deal with large volumes of data to support such a large organisation ("an enterprise") – BCE.

An enterprise system is supported centrally and requires much less intervention at the site level. The support provided is both technical and user support.

ENTERPRISE SYSTEM AT THE SCHOOL LEVEL

An enterprise system will bring about changes in how schools create, use and access information about their students, parents and related people. It also changes the way that applications are delivered to schools.

While some data will remain school specific and only accessible by that school, some data will become accessible by all schools to support the move towards enterprise data management. This common data requires schools to be mindful of data entry guidelines and data standards as all schools administered by BCE will be reliant on the data.

With a centralised deployment model for the range of applications, schools will no longer be required to provide local IT support for these. All support, eg., upgrades, backups, will be BCE’s responsibility. Outages and maintenance information will be supplied to schools through the Customer Service Centre is a similar way to the current model of communication through the BCE Help Desk.

Two of the major differences that will impact schools are:

  1. In eMinerva, all student and parent information will be entered ONCE only across the system – this means that if a student or parent is affiliated with more than one BCE school, data relating to them is only entered and stored ONCE, but accessed by all schools requiring that information.

Thekey implications of this new data structure:

  • Schools do not singularly ‘own’ their own student and parent data; this is now system-wide data
  • Any change made by one school, eg., spelling, contact information, affects all other schools accessing that student/parent record
  • Data stored against a student/parent must adhere to the data standards as required by eMinerva and an individual school cannot customise this data to meet school-specific requests
  1. The enterprise model means that access to the school portal, eMinerva, Dynamics AX and Oliver v4 will be anywhere, anytime. School staff will be able to access these applications from any computer that has access to the Internet, which includes sites outside of the school, eg., training venues, home.

The main focus for each school’s responsibility in regards to the enterprise system/model is to ensure that the school’s infrastructure meets the minimum requirements and is maintained to a standard that will guarantee a high standard of internet access both in speed and quality. BCE will work with schools to achieve this standard and ensure that school staff have access to the tools required to assist them in their job.

An enterprise system creates new responsibilities for its users that will be different from those that exist with the current system, and allows for various control mechanisms to take place. It changes how data is entered, managed and accessed at schools and will create changes to processes within schools.

As with any new system, a period of ‘embedding’ needs to occur and this period may involve the development of new business processes that support the system, or the removal of some business process that are no longer needed, or relevant. This change period should be one of communication with key staff members to ensure that the new system is meeting the needs of the school and that the necessary review of current school processes takes place to ensure that these processes are best placed with the new systems.

Throughout this change process, decisions made may not always be right in the first instance. School communities will need to regularly assess and review many aspects of how the new student information systems impacts on how their school operates. Another aspect of the new system is to investigate how the many opportunities brought about by the new system can be incorporated into the running of the school to benefit all in the community who will use its various features in their role.

Managing School and Student Information with Maze

Managing School and Student Information with School Information Systems

3Implementation Overview

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WEEK 1
Day / Maze / eMinerva / Dynamics AX / The Timetabler
School Staff Required / School Staff Required / School Staff Required / School Staff Required
Monday / Onsite support and mentoring
Preparation for student and family data collection and migration:
  • ensure all required data is entered
  • run repair and back-up
  • run reconciliation reports
/ Admin staff – school and student (SAS)
Preparation for finance data collection and migration:
  • pre-conversion checks
  • prepare end-of-month activities
  • prepare for data collection
/ Admin staff - finance
  • Data collection (PM) - student and family data
  • Data collection (PM) - finance data

Tuesday / End-user training – refer training dates schedule for venue / Admin staff – SAS / Prepare duplicate timetable and change subject codes – refer to BCE support for venue / Leadership staff - timetable
Wednesday / End-user training – refer training dates schedule for venue / Admin staff – SAS / Data migration Maze to Dynamics AX
Data migration Maze to eMinerva
Thursday / End-user training – refer training dates schedule for venue / Admin staff – SAS
Friday / System go live
  • Reconciliation activities between Maze and eMinerva
  • Support activities, including data re-entry
/ Admin staff – SAS / Reconciliation activities between Maze and Dynamics AX
WEEK 2
Day / Maze / eMinerva / Dynamics AX / The Timetabler
School Staff Required / School Staff Required / School Staff Required / School Staff Required
Monday / Onsite support and mentoring
  • Data entry and re-entry
  • Primary schools will be required to set up a timetable during this week
/ Admin staff – SAS / Reconciliation activities between Maze and Dynamics AX / Preparation of new timetable:
  • New student and staff codes entered
  • Upload into eMinerva
Refer to BCE support for venue.
Tuesday / Onsite support and mentoring
Data entry and re-entry / Admin staff – SAS / System go live
Confirm reconciliation with school
Onsite support and mentoring / Admin staff - finance / Preparation of new timetable:
  • New student and staff codes entered
  • Upload into eMinerva
Refer to BCE support for venue. / Leadership staff - timetable
Wednesday / Onsite support and mentoring
Data entry and re-entry / Admin staff – SAS / Onsite support and mentoring / Admin staff - finance / Leadership staff - timetable
Thursday / Finance – Roll over financial tables / Admin staff - finance / Onsite support and mentoring
Data entry and re-entry / Admin staff – SAS / Onsite support and mentoring / Admin staff - finance
Friday / Lockdown Maze / Admin staff – school and student / Onsite support and mentoring
Data entry and re-entry / Admin staff – SAS / Onsite support and mentoring / Admin staff – finance

RED – BCE Activity, no school staff requiredBLUE – BCE supported offsite activity, school staff requiredGREEN – BCE supported, onsite activity, school staff required

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4SCHOOL READINESS CHECKLIST

The following checklist is provided by BCE to assist schools to plan for and undertake all necessary activities to implement the new Student Information Systems. Its

This list should be used in conjunction with advice from your designated Implementation Coordinator andImplementation Team members – School and Student, and Finance – assigned to your school.

ACTIVITY / SUPPORTING INFORMATION/ DOCUMENTATION
Maze
Data adheres to Maze Data Standards / Link to Data Standards
Data prepared for conversion / See 5.1 Maze Data Cleaning Tasks
Pre-migration data cleaning tasks
Finance data cleansing
Outcomes of LinCS readiness meeting have been addressed:
School infrastructure
Staff machines
Application add-ons installed
All staff briefed about:
Activities surrounding implementation / High level implementation activities timeline
Changes to current work practices to accommodate the functionality of the new system / What is an Enterprise System?
What are the School Information Systems?
SIS – Planning for Change
‘SIS presentation for staff’ PPT
New responsibilities of staff with new systems
Time constraints on office staff during systems’ implementation
Changes to management of school data through changed reports available
Portals
Teaching staff briefed about:
New attendance marking processes / Plan for discussion at one or more staff meetings
Accessing school and student data on-line / What are the School Information Systems?
SIS – Planning for Change
Communication with relevant community groups regarding the new system and expected changes to routine school activities
Parents
Parish
School groups – eg., PS&F / Introduction to School Information Systems – PPT for the community
Training has been organised for:
Finance staff – Dynamics AX, SharePoint
Office staff – eMinerva, SharePoint
Administration/Leadership Team – eMinerva, SharePoint
Teaching staff – eMinerva, SharePoint
Other school staff – eMinerva, SharePoint / Training plan template for school
Arrangements have been made to allow office staff to check and enter required data into eMinerva in week 2 of implementation:
Location has been arranged
Any relief staff required have been arranged
Funding from BCE has been applied for

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School Finance Dates / Venue / School & Student Admin Dates / Portal Dates / Venue
1- 4 March 2010 / O'Shea Centre / 20-22 April 2010 / 23 April 2010 / Sippy Downs Primary
22-25 March 2010 / O'Shea Centre / 1-3 June 2010 / 4 June 2010 / BCEC North Lakes
19- 22 April 2010 / O'Shea Centre / 15-17 June 2010 / 18 June 2010 / BCEC North Lakes
BCEC Springwood
10-13 May 2010 / O'Shea Centre / 13-15 July 2010 / 16 July 2010 / BCEC Springwood
24-27 May 2010 / O'Shea Centre / 27-29 July 2010 / 30 July 2010 / BCEC Springwood
31 May-3June 2010 / O'Shea Centre / 10, 12, 13 August 2010 / BCEC North Lakes
21-24 June 2010 / O'Shea Centre / 24-26 August 2010 / 27 August 2010 / BCEC North Lakes
5-8 July 2010 / O'Shea Centre / 7- 9 September 2010 / 10 September 2010 / BCEC North Lakes
12-15 July 2010 / O'Shea Centre / 5- 7 October 2010 / 8 October 2010 / BCEC North Lakes
26-29 July 2010 / O'Shea Centre / 19-21 October 2010 / 22 October 2010 / O’Shea Centre (TBC)
BCEC Springwood
2-5 August 2010 / O’Shea Centre / 2-4 November 2010 / 5 November 2010 / BCEC Springwood
16-19 August 2010 / O'Shea Centre / 16-18 November 2010 / 19 November 2010 / BCEC Springwood
6-9 September 2010 / O'Shea Centre
11-14 October 2010 / O'Shea Centre
1-4 November 2010 / O'Shea Centre
22-25 November 2010 / O'Shea Centre

4Schedule of Training Dates

5eMinerva Permission Group DEFINITIONS

TEACHER

This user group will enable the user to view student details, mark attendance and to create activities.

System Default Allocation: Teachers

PASTORAL

This user group will enable the user to view, edit and create welfare records.

Needs to be allocated at school level to Pastoral Coordinators, Guidance Officers

TIMETABLER

This user group will be responsible for setting up the year calendar, classes and timetables.

Needs to be allocated at school level to a person responsible for timetabling other than the School Administration team (SENIORMGMT and LEADERSHIP groups)

SENIORMGMT

This user group will be responsible for all eMinerva functions except finance and user administration.

System Default Allocation: Deputy Principals and Assistant Principals

LEADERSHIP

This user group will be responsible for all eMinerva functions.

System Default Allocation: Principals, Heads of Campus and Business Managers

ADMINSTUDENT

This user group will be responsible for student data, enrolments, attendance and activity management.

System Default Allocation: Secretary, Enrolment Secretary, Admin Officer

ADMINFINANCE

This user group will be responsible for all the finance functions in eMinerva.

System Default Allocation: Finance Secretary

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6MANAGING INFORMATION– PLANNING FOR CHANGE

The implementation of the new School Information Systems will bring about a number of changes at your school. Planning for this change will help staff across the school prepare for and work through the changes to how they capture, access, and use school and student information.

COLLECTING AND ENTERING INFORMATION

Unlike Maze, eMinerva operates a single database for all BCE schools. This means that data entered for a student, parent or related person may be accessed by more than one school. This could happen in the case of a student who is enrolled at more than one campus, or parents who may have children enrolled at primary and secondary schools. The new way of storing this important data means that those entering it need to ensure they follow any guidelines established by BCE in how this data is stored.

For classroom teachers, a significant change will be their access to electronic roll marking in the classroom. eMinerva allows for electronic entry of student attendance and offers many features to ensure this important daily task is managed in a way that provides useful information to schools and flexibility in how and where the attendance data is entered. Each school will need to develop new processes around attendance recording in regards to who is responsible for the different type of attendance data that can be entered.