Frequently Asked Questions

A. If they have left your school or have completed the SACE or NTCET, please transfer them out. This will make them immediately available to other schools.

Q. How do I transfer in a student from another school?

A. Use the Student Search screen to find the student. HINT: Remember to choose Search from Other Schools. When the student details are displayed on the View Student (Registered Elsewhere) screen, and you are sure you have located the correct student, click Request to Transfer In.

Q. How do I maintain completed student information when they return to do further study?

A. Enrol them in a SACE class. This will make them active again so you can now maintain the details of the student.

Q. What do I do if I find a student duplicated within Schools Online?

A. Send a fax to the 'Assessment Officer: Enrolments and Results' on (08) 8372 7509. The fax needs to contain the following details:

· the Registration numbers of the students;

· the Name of the duplicated students;

· Date of Birth.

SACE Class

Q. How do I delete stage 1 and 2 classes from the database?

A. Follow these steps:

1. Select SACE Classes from the main menu

2. Choose List SACE Classes from the SACE menu

3. Indicate the group of classes you want to view on the SACE Class Search screen and click View.

4. Select the class you want to delete and click its Class Code to open the class.

5. If there are students in the class, delete them. When the class is empty the Delete Class button will appear. Click it to remove the class from the database.

Q. How do I delete a group of unwanted classes from the database in one operation?

A. Follow these steps:

1. Select SACE Classes from the main menu

2. Choose Update SACE Class Teacher Information from the SACE Classes menu.

3. Select the classes you want to delete and click Delete Selected to remove the classes in one operation.

Q. When a student from my school studies one or more subjects at another school, who is responsible for entering the enrolment?

A. In Schools Online the teaching school is responsible for entering enrolments for all students they are teaching.

Q. How do I change the assessment school for a class in a Stage 2 subject?

A. Follow these steps:

1. Select SACE Classes from the main menu

2. Choose List SACE Classes from the SACE menu

3. Indicate the group of classes you want to view on the SACE Class Search screen and click View.

4. Select the class you want and click its Class Code to open the class.

5. Click on Edit SACE Class.

6. Select the Assessment School from the school drop down list.

7. Click the Save button to save the change made.

Q. I have imported grades for my Stage 1 students but no results are displayed and the enrolment status has not changed from ‘E’ (Enrolled) to ‘C’ (Completed).

A. This is because the cut-off date for this semester has not yet been reached. You can change results for students as many times as you need until the cut-off date has been reached. At that time the results are taken on at SACE Board of South Australia and become fixed. The enrolment status will become ‘C’ (Completed) and a grade will be displayed.

VET

Q. I have got a Competency that doesn't exist in Schools Online. What should I do?

A. If the VET competency is missing from the list please forward the details to the SACE Board of South Australia (Assessment Operations), quoting the title, code, qualification, Registered Training Organisation (RTO) and hours. Once the information has been verified, the SACE Board of South Australia will update the list of available competencies.

Reports

Q. Can I view reports on the screen?

A. Yes. All reports will be displayed on the screen in PDF (Portable Document Format). You can save or print them if you wish once they have been displayed.

Q. Why can't I see any reports displayed?

A. The report may be active but minimised. Check the icons at the bottom of your screen. Your browser may automatically block pop-up windows from all sites. More information on allowing popup for various toolbars / browsers can be found in the help topic Allowing pop-ups from particular web sites within the Resources book.

Data Exchange

Q. What data can I import into Schools Online from another administrative system?

A. You can import all or part of your data from another system into Schools Online. It is important that you should import the data in the following order:

· Students

· Teachers

· Classes

· SACE Enrolments

· VET Enrolments

· CEA Data

Northern Territory schools should import the data in the following order:

· Candidates

· Teachers

· Class Structure

· Enrolments

· VET Results

· VET Qualifications

Q. How do I deal with errors in the imported data?

A. If there are errors in the imported data more information on the error messages with imported files can be found in the Data import overview section of the help.

Q. How do I resolve errors with my data from EDSAS / SAMS being incorrect?

A. Follow these steps:

1. Check the Schools Online Import Error Report and resolve the error in the administrative system based on Diagnosis and the Cure.

2. There may be an issue with the other administrative system and you will need to contact the relevant Service desk/Support for those systems.

Q. Can I import data from an administrative system other that EDSAS or SAMS?

A. Data can only be imported into Schools Online if it is in the correct order and in the correct format.

The import format for each type of file is published in the online help. You can view the file formats for SA and NT from the Data Exchange section.

· If your administrative system produces data files in an incorrect format, you can make changes in Excel and save the file in CSV (Comma Separated Values) format before importing. If you attempt this, make sure:

· all columns containing data with leading zeros are formatted to text

· all date of birth entries are shown in one of the acceptable birth date formats.

More information on the using Microsoft Excel to edit import files can be found in the Data Exchange section of the help.

School & Teacher

Q. Do I need to do a rollover?

· If you import all your data including students, teachers, classes, SACE enrolments and VET enrolments from another administrative system such as EDSAS or SAMS, you do not need to carry out a rollover in Schools Online.

· If you do not import all your data from another system then you must do a rollover.

Q. Where can I see and edit the list of teachers?

A. Select Home > School > Teacher List from the menu to open the Teacher List screen. More information on the maintaining teachers can be found in the school section of the help.

Q. How can I add a new teacher to the list?

A. Select Home > School > Teacher List from the menu to open the Teacher List screen. To add a new teacher click on the Add New Teacher button. More information on adding a new teacher can be found in the school section of the help.

Q. How do I change a teacher code for a teacher?

A. Follow these steps:

1. Remove the teacher from all classes.

a) From the Teacher List screen, click on the View SACE Classes hyperlink. The Teacher Details screen is displayed with the list of the teacher’s current SACE classes.

b) If the teacher has no classes assigned to them a checkbox is displayed at the beginning of their entry. Proceed to step 2.

c) For each of the classes, click on the Class Code hyperlink. The SACE Class Summary screen is displayed.

d) Click on the Edit SACE Class hyperlink. The Edit SACE Class Information screen opens.

e) Use the Teacher drop down list or Create New Teacher hyperlink to assign the class to another teacher temporarily.

f) Return to step 1.a).

2. Once the teacher has no classes you can delete them from the Teachers List.

a) From the Teacher List screen, click the Delete Teacher link on the right of the teacher’s details.

3. Create the teacher again with the new code.

4. If classes were temporarily assigned to another teacher, re-assign those classes to the newly created teacher.

User

Q. How do I change my user settings?

A. Select Home > User > User Settings from the menu to open the User Settings screen. More information on the User settings can be found in the users section of the help.

Q. How do I change my password?

A. Select Home > User > Password Change from the menu. More information on the changing your password can be found in the users section of the help.

Q. Why must I have a password?

A. Your password is very important in Schools Online.

· When you use this system, you will be viewing SACE Board of South Australia's database. This database contains present and past information about many thousands of students, so for security and confidentiality reasons we must be sure that only authorised people have access.

· Your password identifies you to the system and everything you do in Schools Online is logged. This can help us identify any problems you may be having. It can also help us identify any changes to the data made by someone who is using your password without authority.

· So for security of the data and to protect the rights of the students listed on the database, you are asked to create a password that is difficult for someone else to copy, and to change your password often. If you think that someone else may have used you password, please contact the SACE Board of South Australia Service Desk immediately on (08) 8372 7412.

Q. Why should I avoid using the back key?

Use of the Back key can cause data corruption and should be avoided. If you need to go back a few pages you should use the bread crumbs at the top of the page. Bread crumbs appear at the top of each page. Your will see them appearing something like this ...

FAQ 1 Schools Online Breadcrumbs

Click on any link between two chevron ( ‘>’ ) characters to return to that page.

General

Q. What do I do if I have missed a Schools Online cut-off?

A. You will be required to contact the Enrolment Officer in Assessment Operations immediately. See the Contact Us page for the telephone number.

Q. How can I make Schools Online run more efficiently?

Within Schools Online there are a few strategies you can adopt:

· Increase the Number of search items on a page in your User Settings to 50 or more instead of the default 12.

· Limit the number of entries in a report by choosing a smaller group of students or classes.

Should you have any ideas for improving the efficiency in Schools Online, please email the SACE Board of South Australia Service Desk with those comments / ideas.