Author: Azroy Kandan

New Release – Aug 9, 2021

Azroy Kandan2 Comments

This release is a special 2-week accelerated Sprint for the Orchestra Master Scheduler, covering the main areas:

  • Weekly Schedules (with varying Section Frequency)
  • Tracking Schedule Changes (after Finalization)
  • Managing Bulk Changes to Student Enrollments

Here is a complete list of the latest QuickSchools improvements:

Master Scheduler Improvements

  • New Max Sections for Teacher-Course Configuration (Private Beta)
  • Course-Teacher Importer supports Max Sections (Private Beta)
  • New shortcut for Weekly Bell Schedule (Private Beta)
  • New Days and Frequency Settings for Courses (for Weekly Schedules)
  • New Support for Multi-Day Sections in Step 4 and Step 5 (for Weekly Schedules)
  • Run Step 4 based on Department Filter
  • Update Step 4 Course Details with Frequency, Days and Max Sections for Teachers
  • PDF Schedule for Teachers based on Next Enrollment Period
  • Option to Copy Latest Schedule to QuickSchools
  • Support Tracking Schedule Data for Export
  • Summary Report Support for Copied/Exported Schedule Data
  • Report Creator Support for Copied/Exported Schedule Data
  • Report Creator Support for Students with Conflicts
  • Improvements and Bug Fixes when Configuring Teachers
  • General Improvements to Semester Setup for Orchestra Master Scheduler 

General Improvements

  • Bulk Student Importer supports Reactivating Students (Beta)
  • Bulk Student Importer supports Deletion of Students (Beta)
  • Improve capacity for sending out Section PDF in bulk

Weekly Schedules (Beta)

We have a new capability that allows schools to easily create a weekly bell schedule:

When importing or adding courses, you can specify frequency and days of the week:

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QuickSchools Library App

Azroy Kandan2 Comments

Our recent release for QuickSchools includes two key improvements to the QuickSchools Library App:

Add Book by Scanning ISBN

When adding a new book to your catalog, there’s a new “Scan ISBN” button that allows you to quickly scan the ISBN barcode. 

Look up Book Details by Scanning the ISBN Barcode

QuickSchools will then search the Google library, and pull details for the book, which you can use to create the book record in your QuickSchools Library App:

Book Details retrieved by Scanning the ISBN Barcode

Note that books pulled from Google will also contain an image of the book.

Generate Barcode and Label

When adding a book, you now have the option to generate a Barcode by clicking on the “Generate” button:

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New Release – July 26, 2021

Azroy Kandan2 Comments

We’ve made several improvements to our Orchestra Master Scheduler for this release. But we’ve also included a few general improvements related to Admissions, Report Creator, the Library App, our API (and Zapier), Google Drive Integration, and much more.

Improvements to the Applications module within QuickSchools Admissions

Here are the latest improvements in QuickSchools:

Master Scheduler Improvements

  • Term-Length is now optional when importing Courses. Defaults to Semester-long
  • Limit for Departments are now optional
  • Bug fix when searching for Courses without Departments
  • Bug fixes related to performance improvements when setting Next Enrollment Period
  • Show configured Courses for Teachers in Step 1 “Configure Teachers”
  • Show Min, Max and Target Section Sizes in Step 2 “Course Requests by Course”
  • New Step 4 Filter by Department
  • Miscellaneous Improvements to Step 4 and Step 4 Pagination
  • Rename Block Sections to Teams
  • Bulk Create Lab-Lecture Teams (previously Block Sections) by Period
  • New Step 5 Advanced Filter for Student Conflicts
  • Ability to hide periods without sections in Section Assignments PDF
  • Support separate Course Code and Course Name in Section Assignments PDF
  • Miscellaneous Bug fixes to Section Assignments PDF
  • Option to use “no-reply@quickschools.com” when emailing Section Assignments PDF
  • New Teacher Invitation Emails for Orchestra Only Plan
  • Ability to enable Section Attendance within Orchestra

Improvements related to Admissions

  • Bulk Email Applicants from Template
  • Improve Configuration Area for Inquiry and Application Status Codes
  • Bug Fix Enrollment when student name has apostrophe
  • Framework Improvements to support Portal for Applicants (Alpha)

Other General Improvements

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Online Payments via ACH

Azroy Kandan8 Comments

We recently released a new feature related to the Online Payment modules on June 6 (with improvements on July 6). Schools in the United States that subscribe to QuickSchools can now collect payments from students and payments via ACH Bank Transfer.

This feature is in BETA: If you would want this enabled for your school, please contact our Support Team.

Configuring the App

To enable this feature, go to the “Settings” page, and enable the setting under the “School Fees Tracking” module:

configure the online payment in quickschools

There are separate settings for Credit Card vs. ACH Bank Transfer. And you can decide whether to absorb the transaction fee, or to charge a convenience fee to the payer.

Student Paying Online

Once you’ve connected your account to Stripe, Student make payments directly from their Student Portal:

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New Release – July 6, 2021

Azroy Kandan2 Comments

Several minor improvements for this release, plus a few general improvements to our Master Scheduler. Here are the latest improvements in QuickSchools:

Master Scheduler Improvements

  • Support Alternate Bell Schedule in PDF Section Assignments
  • Mass Email PDF Section Assignments
  • Improve how teachers without departments are displayed in Step 4
  • Improve general performance for large data sets
    • Option to Paginate Step 4
    • Freeze Left Pane for Step 5
    • Optimize Summary Reports
  • New Importer to link Teachers to Courses for Enrollment Period
  • Course Requests Importer supports Course Alternates
  • Improvements to Orchestra Subscription Plan
  • Cosmetic Improvements to Constraints screens
  • Expand Data Dictionary for Summary Reports

Improvements related to Beta Features

Other General Improvements

  • Simplify disconnect from Google Classroom
  • Miscellaneous API Improvements to support integration via Zapier
  • Bug fix when taking for attendance for multiple Subjects in the same period
  • Bug fix for Section Attendance Pie Chart on Student record
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes in Admissions module
  • Miscellaneous server performance improvements

Student ID Card

We’re really excited to announce our new capability to print/generate Student ID Cards. Student Cards will leverage our existing PDF templating engine, allowing ID cards to be customizable by school. 

Sample Student ID Card generated in QuickSchools (Beta)

You will have options to hide areas of the Student ID, but any further customizations would need to be done by our support staff.

Admissions Module Features

Azroy Kandan8 Comments

Now that summer is here, schools can use this time to increase enrollment by tracking inquiries and applications on QuickSchools. 

The Applications module in QuickSchools

Here are few key features of the Admissions module has to offer:

Embedded Forms for your website

Allow visitors to your website to submit an inquiry or an application online. Embedded forms are fully customizable to fit your brand. Receive an email notification when a form is submitted. Then follow-up quickly and easily via customizable Email Templates.

Track Conversion from Inquiries to Applications

Easily convert inquiries to applications, and then applications to student enrollment, without having to re-enter any information. Fully digitize your online admissions flow.

Customize / Personalize emails based on Scenario

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New Release – June 16, 2021

Azroy Kandan2 Comments

Several minor improvements for this release, plus a few general improvements to our Master Scheduler. Here are the latest improvements in QuickSchools:

Online Payments modules for Students and Parents supports ACH via Stripe

Master Scheduler Improvements

  • Schedule PDF after Step 5
  • Freeze Panes for Steps 3 and 4
  • Advanced Search in Step 5 to search for students with unfulfilled course requests
  • Performance Improvements for large data sets
  • Improved support for Summary Reports
  • Bug fixes related to deletion of courses
  • Remove option for “Distributed Courses” from Step 5 scheduling algorithm

Improvements to Canvas Integration

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Fee Tracking / Online Payments Webinar

Azroy KandanLeave a comment

Thanks to everyone who attended the QuickSchools webinar today on Fee Tracking and Online Payments. It was a rather long webinar at 45 minutes, but I think it was helpful to people:

Fee Tracking and Online Forms Webinar for QuickSchools

If you missed the webinar, or would like a copy of the recording, please fill in the survey, and let us know. Our team will send you a link to the recording once it’s available. However, if you’d like a copy of the presentation, we have that here for download:

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