Newsletter August 2011

1. Newsletter August 2011 CONTENTS Current processes: Quarterly Attendance Annual Survey Capture Screens Curriculum and Marks Capture Important Processes to be Completed Next Finance Module Update FAQ Support, Training and Contacts Viruses/Security Project Update Teamviewer Authorisations Getting Started on i-SAMS Upgrade version 1.5.5.9 …. 1 …. 2 …. 2 …. 2 …. 2 …. 3 …. 3 …. 3 …. 4 …. 4 …. 5 …. 5 SUPPORT, TRAINING AND CONTACTS We have elected to delay some training to the newer schools in order to better support the existing schools through the critical year-end. • Schools currently on i-SAMS, please feel free to ask for help as required. We would like to know where you are and how we can assist. Some assistance can be given for data capture if there is a need. Please contact us if required. • Schools that have been trained and are awaiting the initial sync down to go live, this has been scheduled and will be done as soon as possible. Please be patient. However, if you would like to move your school to the top of the waiting list and have completed all relevant data on CEMIS and HCLMS, then call the i-SAMS Support Desk and ask to be made a priority. • The Deloitte support staff are no longer with us and alternate arrangements have been made for support. There may have been some disruption while the change-over happened but we trust this will soon improve. In future, please use the support numbers listed below: • Tamsyn Kruse: 021 - 467 2347 / 084 3615727 • Vanessa Saunders: 021 - 467 2348 / 072 200 3445 • Wihan Coetzee: 021 - 467 9354 / 084 652 7773 • Email: support@isamsdev.co.za • CEI Helpdesk : 021 - 900 7123 We would like to take this opportunity to thank the schools for their efforts and for being part of the early adopters. Also, a special thanks to schools who give us feedback. We value the suggestions and positive criticism, but also really appreciate getting positive feedback, since it is easy to forget to do this. Please do log your feedback (both positive and negative) for both training and support on the following URL…. (click on the ‘Customer Support’ link) http://wcedisams.pgwc.gov.za We assure you of our on-going support and commitment to your processes and efforts. • Your current i-SAMS Support Team. From left: • Vanessa Saunders • Wihan Coetzee • Tamsyn Kruse • Please contact: • CeIhelpdesk for network and other technology-related issues

2. PROJECT UPDATE GETTING STARTED ON i-SAMS • The current status of installations of i-SAMS at schools stands at just over 130. To date 227 schools have been trained. • The server installations at most trained schools have been completed. The outstanding installations are mostly as a result of cabling issues or internet connectivity, causing a delay in the completion. The completion of the installations have been scheduled by CeI. If you have any technical issues, please contact the CeI help desk. • The advantage of i-SAMS is that it removes duplication of data and processes. Transactions required for school administration will be available to be drawn for statistics, surveys etc and there should be a lot less rework required. • The schools on i-SAMS do not transact on CEMIS, except for some unique processes. Limited access to CEMIS is available to i-SAMS schools. • The process flow for most transactions are as follows: • Schools operate on i-SAMS for everyday school administration • The sync runs to update the critical transactions to the Provincial i-SAMS server • Integration then brings the i-SAMS and CEMIS systems in line • Once the equipment has been delivered and installed, you have been for training and the initial sync down has been done. • Log onto i-SAMS • Create the users and assign roles under ‘User Access’ • Go to Schools: Enter the start and end times of the school. Click on the Addresses tab – select “Postal” and click “Preferred” on the right hand side then click “Save”. Do the same for the Contact Details. • Check that your classes are correct and the correct learners are in the classes. Ensure there are no “unassigned” classes. • Go to curriculum and link the learners to the subjects / learning areas. • Set-up curriculum so that you can capture term marks, i.e. link educators, classes, groups etc. • Learner attendance must be captured daily/weekly on i-SAMS. • Staff attendance must be captured daily, before 10am. • Sign off on the Quarterly report if you have not already done so. • If you did not complete the Annual Survey on CEMIS, go to the ASS Capture Screens, enter information and click “Save”. • Any learner movement should now be done on i-SAMS. VIRUSES / SECURITY There have been many issues with viruses on the server and networks. Please take the following precautions: • Make sure that your anti-virus software is regularly updated. • Avoid using flash disks in the server unless authorisedby your CeI Service Manager. • Do not work on the server, by default, as ‘sysop’. Rather log in as user ‘i-SAMS’. Only administration should be done on the server using the ‘sysop’ user. TEAMVIEWER AUTHORISATIONS If you have not already done so, please sign the Teamviewerauthorisation form that was emailed to your school by Deloitte. This form gives us permission to access your server remotely, thereby allowing us to give your school required support. Please could you email them to support@isamsdev.co.zaor fax them to 086 549 7278. If you have mislaid your form, a duplicate has been attached to this newsletter for your convenience.

3. ANNUAL SURVEY CAPTURE SCREENS 2011 Please note that in the new release there are new capture screens under ‘ASS Capture’. Please go to each screen and input the data requested and click ‘Save’. The Finance and Educator Surveys should be completed on CEMIS. CURRENT PROCESSES: QUARTERLY ATTENDANCE • Please note that if you have not completed your quarterly attendance return on CEMIS, then please follow the steps below: • Click on Learners • Select Quarterly Attendance • Select the "Add” button • Select the Year and Term. Click Save. • Highlight the year and the information will populate on the right hand side of the screen. Please check the numbers and make sure they are correct. • At the bottom of the screen is a Total Days ’55’ and another block where you can indicate how many of those days were non teaching days. It will calculate the total number of days. For example, if you had 2 non-teaching days for the term, then put 2 in the middle block, click Save and the total block on the right hand side would then reflect the correct amount of teaching days namely 53. • This must be completed by 15 September. UPGRADE VERSION 1.5.5.9 • The upgrade to 1.5.5.9 is almost complete. The exception is schools where Teamviewer is not running or the internet is down. If you do not yet have the new release, please contact the i-SAMS help desk for assistance. • Some enhancementsin this release are: • Report Cards:  Term Comments - Ability to capture comments per term per learner which will appear on the reports cards. Note that this comment is NOT per subject. The subjects appear with their marks for information only. •    New report card formats have been added. •    New parameter called 'Use Template‘ has been added to Report Cards. If this is selected, no header will appear, enabling you to print reports directly onto your school’s letterhead. • Reports: Learners & Parent reports have a new parameter called 'Learner Status' to only show learners with selected status. • Additional Details: School Name: Enter your 'friendly/ self-specified' school name which will appear on the login to i-SAMS as well as on all the reports cards • Annual Survey: New capture screens have been added. • Year planner: A major upgrade has been undertaken to make it easier to use and better looking. Non-teaching days and the calendar are now combined. • Curriculum: Automatic re-calculation of term marks when weightings or maximum marks are modified.

4. CURRICULUM AND MARKS CAPTURE • How to capture Term Marks : • Select ‘Curriculum’ • Link the subjects: Select ‘School Selection’. Select the Grade. The subjects will appear on the right hand side and you should then link them to the grade. Now select each subject/ learning area individually and select ‘Update’ at the bottom of the screen. Indicate whether you will be capturing Codes, Marks or Percentages for that specific learning area. • Assign subjects to learners: Go to ‘Maintain Learner Subjects’. Select a learner and link subjects either to the learner, class or grade depending if all the learners in the grade will be doing the same subjects. • Assign subjects to Educators: Go to ‘Educator Subjects’ where you will assign educators to a subject • Capture marks: Click ‘Learner Assessment Terms’ and capture the term marks for the different learning areas. • How to capture Task Marks : • Link the subjects: Select ‘School Selection’. Select the Grade. The subjects will appear on the right hand side and you should then link them to the grade. Now select each subject/ learning area individually and select ‘Update’ at the bottom of the screen. Indicate whether you will be capturing Codes, Marks or Percentages for that specific learning area. • Assign subjects to learners: Go to ‘Maintain Learner Subjects’. Select a learner and link subjects either to the learner, class or grade depending if all the learners in the grade will be doing the same subjects. • Assign subjects to Educators: Go to ‘Educator Subjects’ where you will assign educators to a subject • Capture tasks and weightings: Select ‘School Assessments’ and capture your task descriptions and weightings. • Capture task maximum marks: Select ‘Educator Assessments’ and capture the maximum marks per task. • Capture marks: Select ‘Learner Assessment Tasks’. Capture your marks per subject per task. • We encourage all new schools to capture Term Marks so that you can print your reports and so that they can be used for the grade 3/6/9 systemic testing. • For those schools who have already captured Task marks please continue to do so for the next two terms. Special arrangements for support have been made for these schools so please contact us if this is required. IMPORTANT PROCESSES TO BE COMPLETED NEXT • Quarterly Attendance: make sure you have completed it for terms 1 & 2, either on CEMIS or on i-SAMS, depending when our school became an i-SAMS school. • Annual Survey – Finance: Complete on CEMIS • Annual Survey - Educator Details: Complete on CEMIS • Annual Survey: Other Capture screens: Complete on i-SAMS • Systemic Testing: Capture term 2 marks so long in preparation • Please log your feedback for both training and support on the following URL • http://wcedisams.pgwc.gov.za

5. FINANCE MODULE UPDATE We are happy to report that the development of the Finance Module of i-SAMS is progressing well. The User Acceptance testing is scheduled to start on 26 September and we believe that the system will be ready and part of a release early in November. Training for the schools who have already had training on i-SAMS is scheduled for 24 October – 11 November 2011. If you wish to begin working on the system, it is suggested that the new financial year (January 2012) be started on the new system. There will be facility to migrate balances for the General Ledger and Debtors from SASAMS to i-SAMS. And for schools who use other packages, there will be a standard Excel format from which data can be migrated. In preparation for moving systems, the old financial year would need to be closed on your current systems. If you have not been using a system, ensure that all parents are captured on the current i-SAMS system since they are used for the debtors. If you do use a system, ensure that you have the parents captured and that these can be linked to learners with a relationship-type (e.g. father). The parents against which the balances are held, will be deemed to have the ‘financial responsibility’. It would be appreciated you would inform the support staff when you intend going live on the Finance Module, so that appropriate levels of support can be put in place. You may either call them or email them and the contact details are on page 1 of this newsletter. FAQ • Systemic Testing: Where must this be done - on CEMIS or i-SAMS? • In preparation for the register to be completed for systemic Grades 3, 6 and 9 testing, please ensure that the marks of Term 2 are captured on i-SAMS under Curriculum Term Marks. The register to be printed for October will be provided during September and the only additional requirement will be to capture the years in phase. This screen will be made available on i-SAMS during September. Once the years in phase are captured, i-SAMS would be able to continue calculating it from year to year. • If you have already captured the marks and years on CEMIS, an arrangement will be made to use this data. • Educator Details: Where must this be done - on CEMIS or i-SAMS? • The Educator and Finance pages should immediately be done on CEMIS. The Educators from i-SAMS have been taken across and merged with last year’s Annual Survey information, so that if your Educators are up to date on i-SAMS there should be less work involved. You will still need to request the Educators to make them visible and confirm they are active. This should be completed as soon as possible, since the due date is already past. • Attendance - Quarterly Reports • The quarterly attendance sign-off should be done on i-SAMS for terms 1 & 2 if you have not already done so on either i-SAMS or CEMIS. You will be able to go back to term 1. • Where can I find my Educator Leave (Leave Summary) • You will find it under Reports, under Staff. • Training for Schools to become i-SAMS schools • Since there have many many new schools recently added to i-SAMS, and the year-end processes are almost upon us, it was decided to delay this training in order to better support the existing i-SAMS schools. By delaying the training, we will also be better able to service and assist the new schools as soon as they have been trained. We will inform you as soon as this has been stabilised and we have firm dates for training to continue.