At Eduspire Solutions we are always making improvements. We take feedback from educators and administrators all over the country in order to develop new features and make upgrades to existing software functionality. Here’s a look at some of the upcoming developments you can expect to see soon within e-hallpass.
Recurring Appointment Pass (APT)
The APT Pass module (for admin, staff and teachers) will soon provide the ability to set up recurring APT passes at daily, weekly or monthly intervals. The screenshot below shows the new “Repeat?” field and drop-down options. Depending on which option is selected, additional fields will need to be completed to indicate the days of the week and end dates.
Both single and recurring appointments will be visible in two tabs: Next 7 Days and Beyond 7 Days, allowing for management of the week at hand or planning ahead. There will be an ability to modify/edit/delete events in a series, with confirmation prompts as an added layer of protection against accidental deletion. Students will also be able to see any recurring appointments with which they are involved on their screens as well.
Updates to Existing Appointment Pass Functionality
- Admins currently have the ability to edit any teacher, staff and student Appointment Passes. By default, the system will allow all “Admin” users within the school to edit other users’ Appointment Passes. If this is not desired, an Admin can turn this setting “off” on the Modules List screen shown below. (Please note that when a selection is made/changed on this screen, it will automatically be saved).
- It will soon be possible to edit one student’s Appointment Pass, even if it was originally set up as part of a multi-student Appointment Pass.
- System warning of duplicate Appointment Pass: When an appointment pass is created within 15 minutes of another APT pass for the same student, the system will provide a warning message. (Please see examples shown below.) It is also important to note the following:
- Admins, Staff and Teachers can choose to continue and create the APT pass.
- If the APT pass is created and then edited, the warning message does not reappear.
- Students will NOT be able to create the APT pass request after this warning message appears.
The Admin, Staff and Teacher message looks like this:
The Student message (if a school has enabled Student Initiated Appointment Passes) looks like this:
- There are new options and buttons for the teacher/staff/admin to confirm or cancel APT passes in which they are involved.
- Instead of having a “Deny” button, there is now a“Cancel” button.
- “Cancel” or “Confirm” are the only options.
- Now under notes, next to cancel, it will show who cancelled the pass.
- If the school is using student initiated APT passes (sAPT), the receiving teacher will have a “Confirm”or “Cancel”button.
- The “From” party will have “Acknowledge” or “Cancel”options.
- If the “From” party cancels the sAPT, there will bea pop-up for the teacher to enter a reason for cancelling the appointment pass.
- Appointment Passes for archived users will be canceled. If a user is archived – the APT pass gets cancelled. The system is checking overnight for archived users and then cancelling the future APT pass(es) related to that user.
- When recurring APT passes that are scheduled out for an extended period of time get canceled, only the current 7 days will initially be canceled. The additional instances will get canceled on a rolling basis or an adult can go into the system “Beyond 7 Days” tab and delete, if desired.
Student EHP Interface Updates
The following change has been made to the EHP student interface:
Student Appointment Pass (sAPT)
There is a new module available in EHP that will allow students to initiate an Appointment Pass to an Admin, Teacher, Staff member or a specific location. In order to utilize this, an EHP school Admin will need to turn this on. Prior to enabling this, we strongly suggest that you communicate to your staff and students regarding these new features. Please see the information below for more details on our digital hall pass.
Important Information for Admins: In order to activate the Student Appointment Pass (sAPT) module, go to the “Modules List” menu on theControl Panel and access the following screen:
When an Admin selects one or more of the options that specify to whom or what location students can request an appointment pass, this is automatically updated/saved and will activate the student APT pass functionality. It is highly recommended to communicate with staff and students regarding these new features prior to activating.
Additional options, selections, and settings are available and will be detailed in system prompts.
Setting Locations for Student Appointment Pass Requests
When a school would like students to be able to make an APT pass to a location, such as the Nurse, Main Office, etc., an Admin will need to check the box next to “Locations” on the Appointment Pass Settings screen, as shown below:
The Admin will also need to go to the Rooms List and select YES for any location to which they want students to make APT pass requests:
Important Information for Students:
As soon as an Admin activates this module, students will see an additional option on their Create Pass screen: “Request Appointment Pass 5 Available.” Students will be allowed to create up to 5 appointment pass requests at any given time. Student APT requests can only be made up to 30 days in advance. Students begin an appointment pass request the same way they start other pass requests – by indicating the “Departing From” and “Destination” information on the Create Pass screen as shown below:
Students will be prompted to enter the details of their pass request and will receive a confirmation message if the request was successfully received. Please see the Teacher/Staff and Student instructions for more details about the new Student APT Pass procedures.
As always, be sure to request your free demo or contact your Eduspire Solutions Project Manager with any questions.
