Genius SIS. Document number: Version: 3.0 Release Genius Date: 08/11/2011 SIS Overview

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1 Genius SIS Overview Document number: Version: 3.0 Release Genius Date: 08/11/2011 SIS Overview

2 DISCLAIMER This Overview document, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of the license. The information in this manual is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Genius SIS. Genius SIS assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this document or any software that may be provided in association with this document. Except as permitted by such license, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, shared with any third party or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Genius SIS. Information in this document is provided in connection with Genius SIS products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property rights is granted by this document. EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN GENIUS SIS TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE FOR SUCH PRODUCTS, GENIUS SIS ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER, AND GENIUS SIS DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, RELATING TO SALE AND/OR USE OF GENIUS SIS PRODUCTS INCLUDING LIABILITY OR WARRANTIES RELATING TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY PATENT, COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT. The Genius SIS may contain design defects or errors which may cause the product to deviate from published specifications. Copyright Genius SIS 2009

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS DISCLAIMER... 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION OVERVIEW DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION AND DEPLOYMENT... 9

4 1. INTRODUCTION Genius SIS is a web-based student information system designed to make online school operation easier and better. It helps manage the admission process, control the enrollments, provide information to students and guardians, track student progress, communicate with students, run reports and much, much more. Using state-of-the-art technology, Genius SIS is designed to help schools operate in a virtual / online environment, so it specifically addresses unique issues such as flexible / rolling enrollments and pacing, dynamic scheduling and the need for a more comprehensive management oversight. By interfacing with a Learning Content Management System (also known as LCMS, CMS or LMS), which is where the course content and grades reside, Genius SIS eliminates double-entry and provides up-to-date information about student activity, completion and grades in valuable, customizable reports. This document describes the main functionalities and features available in the Genius Student Information System. It should be used as a reference guide by the school staff, including teachers, Administrators, registrars and other staff who might need to access Genius SIS. As Genius SIS is a flexible and customizable application, some of the screenshots and functionalities described in this document may not be exactly what you will see in your particular implementation. However, this guide should provide you with a good overall understanding of what can be done using Genius SIS, and how it can be done. The next sections of this document describe in detail the design and functionalities of Genius SIS. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at support@geniussis.com, or call (954) Genius SIS Overview Page 1

5 OVERVIEW 2. OVERVIEW Genius SIS can be used both by students and by school staff and administration. This chapter gives an overview of the functionalities available in Genius SIS. Admissions Students can create their own account and submit an application to the school, which goes through a customizable acceptance process until it is accepted. Additionally, schools may also create student accounts. Registration Students or the school can select the courses required and desired by the student, and the school staff (or the local school) approves these requests, which become enrollments. Student Portal Students can request courses, track their academic progress, view calendar events and make payments using their portal. Reporting There are more than 30 out-of-the-box reports, including completion reports, and users can create and save new reports using a powerful report builder. Data can be exported to Excel format. Enrollment Management School staff can track the progress of students enrolled in courses and send s to students matching selected criteria using existing templates or after creating new ones. Student Management Genius SIS tracks student information such as personal information, transcript history, communication history, course requests and general ledger data. Rolling Enrollments and Dynamic Pacing Rolling enrollments are fully supported, providing online programs with the flexibility and control they need. Pacing may be defined based on the enrollment duration to track student progress. Genius SIS Overview Page 2

6 OVERVIEW Elegant and Intuitive Interface Through the use of dashboards and user-friendly data screens, Genius SIS offers comprehensive access to information and an easy data visualization interface. Integration with External Systems Staff Management Genius SIS also tracks teacher information, including personal information, utilization levels (to ensure appropriate enrollment numbers), all school-related communications, certifications and performance. Branding and Access Genius SIS can be used by multiple schools or programs under a main entity. Each division may have its own branding and will only have access to their data and their students. Genius SIS can be integrated with Learning Management Systems (LMS), and offers an extensive API that lets external applications access and manipulate the data stored by Genius SIS. Accounting Genius SIS interfaces with external payment services such as Google Checkout and PayPal so that students can make online payments, and different amounts can be charged to different student groups. Asset Tracking Materials can be assigned to sections, so that, upon enrollment, the asset is automatically reserved and shows up in a shipping report. Administration The system administrator can easily setup new users, configure their access, track logs, edit school parameters, edit dynamic lists and much more. Genius SIS Overview Page 3

7 DESIGN 3. DESIGN In this chapter we ll review some of the underlying concepts used by Genius SIS. Layers Genius SIS is designed to support a multi-layered architecture. Figure 3.1 shows the layer architecture. Figure 3.1 Genius SIS Architecture Under this architecture, one main institution (in this example, the Genius SIS School) could be broken down into multiple Regions. Each Region could be further broken down into multiple Districts, which in turn could be divided into Schools. Students would then be associated with a particular School. This architecture provides an unprecedented level of flexibility to institutions, which can provide permission-based access to users from any level within the organization, providing each user with information granted to them by the administrator. Using the figure above as an example, a user associated with State A would be able to see information about students associated with District A and B, i.e., students associated with Schools A, B and C. However, a user associated with District B would only be able to see students associated with School C, as this is the only school associated with District B. Genius SIS Overview Page 4

8 DESIGN This data compartmentalization is also helpful when generating reports, as users can see enrollment data and performance indicators per school and/or per district. Roles In addition to the Layer concept, Genius SIS also uses the concept or Roles. Each user is associated with a Role, which indicates the privilege level that the user has. Examples of roles are Teacher, Administrator, Counselor, Department Head and Registrar and may be customized by the client. For each role, an access profile is specified. This profile will indicate what information that role has access to or can alter. For instance, a Teacher may not have access to financial data, while the Registrar may be able to see courses, but not create them. The Administrator role has access to all pages and functionalities, and this user can setup additional users and configure their access profile. Genius SIS offers a special role called Guardian. This Parent role is similar to a Student role as far as the information that is displayed. However, a Guardian user can be associated with multiple students and a student can also be associated with multiple guardians. This is useful in situations where one parent has two kids in the school, or when parents must have separate access to the student information. Course Setup Genius SIS provides a flexible architecture to increase scalability and reporting capabilities. Figure 3.2 depicts a sample school setup. Main Departments Math Electives Courses Algebra 1 Geometry Psychology Sections Teacher Galileo Teacher Pascal Teacher Euclides Teacher Euclides Figure 3.2 Sample School Setup Genius SIS Overview Page 5

9 DESIGN On the top level, the school is broken down into departments, or subject areas. These areas are further broken down into courses, which are then broken into sections. Each section may have a different teacher and duration. Courses may also be independently associated with a catalog, which is not shown in figure 3.2. Enrollments Genius SIS supports rolling enrollment. What that means is that students can start their courses anytime. However, schools still have the ability to limit the start dates by specifying the options a student can pick from. So a school can decide whether the student can chose any start date he/she wants, or whether he/she must pick one date from a list of available start dates (or have a single start date). The end date is automatically calculated by Genius SIS based on the selected start date and on the section duration. For instance, if a section is 8 weeks long, and a date of 09/01/2009 is selected as the start date, the end date will be automatically set to 10/26/2009. However, school staff can manually change that end date to whatever they want. So if a student wants to take an 8 week long section in 4 weeks, the teacher or registrar can manually adjust the end date to 09/28/2009, which will automatically update the pacing chart, as described in the next section. Pacing Especially in a rolling enrollment environment, it is very important to keep track of the student progress. As two students in the same section may have started on different dates, and may be in the section for different lengths of time, it would be extremely hard for a teacher to know how many assignments each student should have completed at a particular time. Genius SIS uses the concept of suggested pacing to automatically calculate where in the course the student should be, based on his/her start date. This information is then compared to actual student progress, so that academic progress can be assessed and any needed intervention can be made to ensure a successful course completion. Genius SIS Overview Page 6

10 DESIGN Integration In the online learning environment, schools typically use multiple tools and applications to address all their needs. Therefore, Genius SIS interfaces with other applications to exchange information and keep data synchronized. While the exact scope of integration will vary from implementation to implementation, typically Genius SIS may be integrated with the following applications: Learning Management System Learning Management Systems, or LMS, LCMS or CMS, are applications designed to house the actual course content and gradebook, among other communication tools. This is the application that students use in order to access their course, complete assignments and submit work. Examples of LMS are BrainHoney, ecollege, Blackboard, Desire2Learn and Moodle. Typically the integration between Genius SIS and the LMS will work both directions, i.e., Genius SIS will send information to the LMS, and the LMS will send information to Genius SIS. Information sent from Genius SIS to the LMS may include Course and Section information, Account creation or deletion (both for students and teachers) and Enrollment data. Conversely, information sent from the LMS to Genius SIS may include grade information (assignments completed and grades), enrollment status and student activity. Integration with the LMS may also include a Single Sign-on procedure (SSO), where the user logs into one system and is automatically logged into the other system as well. This helps make the navigation between the systems seamless, so that users do not need to re-enter their login and password. Payment Service Schools often need to charge students fees, whether they are enrollment fees, application fees or any school fee. While Genius SIS does not process payments or store credit-card information, it can be used to manage the fees that need to be paid as well as the amounts to be charged. It may also be used to keep a student ledger, which would store any charges and credits made to the student account. Through Genius SIS, students can go to a page where they can select what they want to pay for. The student would then be taken to an external page (such as Google Checkout or PayPal), where they will be able to enter their financial information (such as Credit Card number and expiration) to make the payment. The student ledger can be manually updated, so that payments made in cash or check can also be tracked by Genius SIS. Genius SIS Overview Page 7

11 DESIGN CRM While this capability and its scope will vary from provider to provider, in general, Genius SIS can be programmed to access an external CRM database so that, for instance, whenever a lead submits an application, his/her status can be updated in the CRM to reflect that update. Lead information can also be potentially imported into Genius SIS. Proprietary Systems Genius SIS can also be integrated to proprietary systems, including standalone grade books and lead tracking software. In those cases, Genius SIS s comprehensive Application Programming Interface (API) can be used so that an external application can access and update the information tracked by Genius SIS. Genius SIS Overview Page 8

12 IMPLEMENTATION AND DEPLOYMENT 4. IMPLEMENTATION AND DEPLOYMENT Self-hosting versus hosted solution Genius SIS and its associated database can either be hosted by the institution itself (server license) or by Genius SIS (hosted solution). Either way, the functionalities available are the same, with the main difference being who is responsible for the installation and maintenance of the underlying technology infrastructure. When a school already has an IT infrastructure in place, including servers, redundant power sources and reliable internet connectivity, it may be more cost-effective to have Genius SIS hosted by the school. In other cases, schools may outsource the hosting to Genius SIS. The advantage of the selfhosting model is that the school has greater control over access and security, however this model puts the burden of maintenance (such as backups) and support (such as fixing server hardware issues) on the school s IT team. Regardless of where the application is being hosted, Genius SIS personnel provide robust technical support related to the application itself and will help with the initial application and database setup. Hosting Requirements Genius SIS is built on Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5, so if the school hosts the application it will need to provide a server running Windows OS (2003 or 2008) and IIS (6.0 or later). Genius SIS also uses a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database (which can be scaled back to 2005 with minor modifications). In order to send outbound s from within Genius, the school would also need to provide an SMTP server, which may be an existing one as Genius SIS does not need a dedicated SMTP server. Typically Genius SIS support personnel should be granted access at least to the Genius SIS folder in the server and to the database, so that updates can be deployed and support can be provided. Genius SIS is closed source, so any modifications to the software must be made by Genius personnel. Genius SIS also offers an extensive Application Programming Interface (API) with more than 50 calls the school can use to create users and courses, interact with enrollments and so on. For deployments where a large load is expected (typically tens of thousands of concurrent enrollments), multiple servers can be deployed with a load sharing and balancing architecture. As Genius SIS stores session information on the server, Session Persistence (also called sticky sessions ) must be in place to ensure that, once the user is assigned to a server, he/she will remain with that server until the end of his/her session. This functionality is often provided by the load balancer mechanism itself. Setup Process Once the hosting model is defined and the server is ready, Genius SIS personnel will transfer and install (usually via FTP) all the files and directories needed by the Genius SIS application. A script will be run in the SQL Server to create all the required tables, stored procedures and views. The Genius SIS application will also be configured to use the correct SMTP server. After the initial setup is completed, a system test will be performed to ensure the application is working as expected, and access will be provided to the school users. Typically, one or a few System Administrator accounts would be created in the system, and these Administrators would be able to create accounts for the school users. Genius SIS Overview Page 9

13 Server Specification For a typically deployment, recommended server specs are: Processor: Core 2 Duo processor 2.66 GHz OS: Windows Server 2008 Hard Drives: Dual 120 GB HD with RAID 1 RAM: 4 GB RAM Database: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Genius SIS Overview Page 10