We currently use FAWeb7 and are looking for input from others who use this. Can you tell us what problems you are having or what you like about it. Can you compare it to any other programs you have used? All input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Lisa Hoffmeier Graland Country Day School

I don't have anything I can compare it to, but we use it pretty fully at Norman Howard School in Rochester. For the first few years of Registrar's Office use, we just entered Grades and Comments at the 5-week period. When we upgraded to EE7, we decided to use it for Class Attendance and GradeBook. I'll admit that I was apprehensive about the reception I would get when I told them they had to keep it up-to-date. We don't have 100% compliance on Class Attendance entry, but the staff took to Gradebook like a fish to water. As one teacher explained when I commented on how surprised I was to see people using it: "You freed them from the calculator!" All our problems have been user error: someone sets a default of 10 for a quiz, accidentally uses the Quiz category for a test, gives a student a 91 (out of 10!?), and suddenly their totals are skewed. Every time in the past 1.5 years that a teacher has said there was something wrong with the calculations in FAWEB, it has turned out to be a typo on their part. [i]--- Edited at 1/12/2007 11:18:18 AM by Tim Shaw[/i]

Tim, Thanks so much for great input! We are having a bit of pushback from faculty who do not want to enter comments directly into FA7. We used to say that they could copy and paste from Word but had to turn off formatting. Well, lets just say, that didn't work well. So we ended up with crazy font sizes on report cards. How does your staff enter their comments? Lisa

There's a feature--I don't recall where, but tech support could tell you--where you pick the font and size for Comments. I would expect this to override pasted text. I'm pretty sure it does, because I have a faculty member who uses a Mac (we're largely Windows here), who writes her comments at her leisure in Word on her Mac, then copies/pastes into the Comment field. She actually advises this for her colleagues, for 3 reasons: 1) You can write your comments anywhere (if you have a laptop) and don't need to be logged into FAWEB. (I don't provide access from home.) 2) You have a larger field to write in. 3) The word processor's spelling checker is faster. (Or at least it was in version 6.) Typoes are the biggest problem with Comments; Admins proofread and hand the draft reports back and give teachers until the end of the day to make corrections. Another bonus to using FAWEB for Comments: we insist on two pieces of mandatory information--Level of Support Needed & Effort Level--for which I have created a table in the default comments area. They click on the binoculars icon in the Comment window, click 2 boxes (one for each level), and save themselves from typing/pasting those lines again and again. If we had inconsistent fonts/sizes, the Admins would first ask me to fix it. If I said I couldn't fix it and it's because people insist on NOT using the program, they would mandate the use of the program for Comments, simply because the need for a consistent and professional look outweighs the teachers' comfort/convenience. If teachers (or any employees) based what they were willing to do on comfort and convenience, who among us would still have jobs?

You set up the fort type and size for comments under Business Rules.

Our teacher copy and paste from Word. You can set a default for font and size in EE configuration for when you post from FAWeb. The only formatting that has caused a problem is ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, etc.). When teachers use ordinal numbers in Word and copy and paste to FAWeb, it changes all succeeding text to superscript. So we just tell teachers to write out those numbers in their comments (first, second, etc.).

In config.,academic years, open your current academic year, limit grade comment to numeric. Then go to config., registar setup, default comments, add general comments. Now when teachers in faweb want to add a comment , they just click on a number. This takes care of spelling errors, font issues, improper comments, etc. With 1200 students there is no way of checking freeform comments.

I am a little late in joining this discussion but FAWeb is actually one of the better working parts of EE7. I echo a previous comment that when faculty have come to me with FAWeb problems it has always been an error in their set-up, not a fault of the program. The HELP menu is pretty good but my people don't seem to want to use it - I guess it is easier to bug me. As far as compliance is concerned, that is an administrative issue. Our faculty simply do not have a choice as we post grades from FAWeb - there is no manual entering of grades (we have 915 students taking 8 courses, which works out to over 7000 individual grades for a report card, 28,000 individual grades for a progress report). Posting from FAWeb is very easy and has worked perfectly (except when a teacher has screwed up, at which point I go into their gradebook, fix the error, and change their password to something with 30 incomprehensible characters!) Personally, I was glad to see a number of schools post because I sometimes feel as if we are the only school using EE7. Anthony Celentano Director of Academic Computing ServicesPope John XXIII High SchoolSparta NJ 07856973-729-6125 x253 Director of Academic Computing Services Pope John XXIII High School Sparta NJ 07871

A couple of years ago we switched from a networked version of GradeQuick, Rediker's Admin Plus, and Edline. Our faculty was quite familiar with these since we used themfor a number of years. The decision by the headmaster, business office, myself, and principals was made to switch to EE, FAWeb, and NetClassroom so that we wouldn't have so many different databases to keep up with. It took us a year to plan for the $$$, upgrade the servers, and plan for the switch The transition was very smooth since we had years of experience with FE. As expected, our teachers screamed, hollered, and complained about it. Since the decision came from the top down, that all stopped within a couple of months. This was expected. They were told very firmly that this is what we were using so they needed to learn it. I had to go through months of teachers complaining that GradeQuick and Edline would do this or that and FAWeb wouldn't. We made it through that also by listening to their complaints and documenting them in meetings. Now that the teachers have been through the transition process it runs very smoothly and I rarely hear complaints. I agree with a previous post that the majority of my problems with FAWeb are teachers setting something up wrong. I try to make my instructions as precise and concise as possible but some have trouble with this. It is usually the same ones. We are in the process of setting up "specialists" within each department to help those teachers who have basic problems with FAWeb. This gets the basic question load off of me. As the administrator of FAWeb, I would like more control over what the teachers can and can't do in setup. If I set it up for them, I don't have to issue as many instructions for them and there is less chance of improper setup. I continue to open cases with BB and they do respond with changes or workarounds. Our parents absolutely love NetClassroom. Our students absolutely dislike NetClassroom. This is to be expected since it holds them accountable. We just put 4th and 5th grade on FAWeb this semester and they think it is wonderful. We also made a decision to go paperless on Jan 1, 2006. We no longer print progress reports, report cards, or schedules unless absolutely necessary. One of the big positives about EE, FAWeb, and NC, is the support. I don't have many problems where the software is "broken", I just have problems where I can't figure something out. The support folks are patient and very knowledgable and my call time is usually less than 5 minutes. I had a very difficult time getting support on the previous products we use.

Wow! You have all been a great help to me. It is so important to have the opportunity for comparisson. I am a huge Blackbaud fan but new to the school. We are also working through some network gremlins which are causing us a bit of technical difficulties. I just wish there was a little bit of patience applied so we can work out the kinks instead of jumping to another software. That is where all of your input comes in. I am passing along your information "anonymously" of course. So keep it coming and thanks again!

We have lots of teachers who write their comments in Word and paste them in FAWeb. We had trouble with the superscripts last year and had to manually retype the superscripted text in Education Edge to correct them, but since I have trained my teachers and distributed the instructions, we aren't having problems now. If you'd like to have a copy of my instructions just email me. [Email Removed] Beth Teahan Computer Application Maintenance and Training Officer Saint Stephen's Episcopal School Bradenton, FL 34203 [i]--- Edited at 1/19/2007 8:09:51 AM by Beth Teahan[/i]