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Account Manager Guide

Table of Contents

1. Overview & Checklist ...........................................................................................................2. Set-Up Guide .......................................................................................................................3 A. Background: Who takes the Diagnostic and how long does it take? ................................... B. Background: What Internet browsers are supported? ......................................................... C. Preparation: Planning .......................................................................................................... D. Preparation: Login to the system ......................................................................................... E. Set-up: Verify your school’s background data .................................................................... F. Set-up: Add access codes.................................................................................................... G. Set-up: Explain the purpose of the Diagnostic and distribute the access codes.................. H. Administration: Provide user support ................................................................................... I. Administration: View progress reports .................................................................................3. Troubleshooting Guide .......................................................................................................

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1. Overview & Checklist

Read the Account Manager Set-Up Guide* beginning on page 3.

Watch the Account Manager Training Video* at www.epiconline.org/pub/SD_AMTrainingVideo.mov

Work with your School Liaison to complete the Timeline & Planning Guide sectionof the School Liaison Guide.*

Follow up with your School Liaison to ensure that the Background Data Form hasbeen completed. (Emailed by EPIC staff.)

Follow up with your School Liaison to ensure that the Passive Consent Form* hasbeen sent to parents.

Read the Instructions to Students* for guidance on administering the Diagnosticto students.

(If you are not the person who will actually be administering the Diagnostic tostudents, please share the Instructions with whoever is.)

Consult the Troubleshooting section of the Account Manager Guide* for helpwith any technical problems.

*Available under the Help menu at http://collegeready.epiconline.org.Questions? Contact EPIC staff at schooldiagnostic@epiconline.org or 541.346.6658.

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2. Set-Up GuideThis guide explains how to set up and administer the School Diagnostic. Additional documentation is available under the Help menu, or email schooldiagnostic@epiconline.org if you have any questions.

A. Background: Who takes the Diagnostic and how long does it take?

The following individuals should take the School Diagnostic: 1. Teachers (60–90 minutes) All teachers in core content areas assessed (English/language arts, math, natural science, and social studies) and those with advisories. Note: while teachers of other subject areas may take the Diagnostic if they wish, they may find that many of the questions do not apply to them, and their responses may skew the results. 2. Administrators and Counselors (60 minutes) All administrative and counseling staff who work with students. 3. Students (30–45 minutes) A random sample of students—a minimum of 100 per grade—should participate (or, in smaller schools, all students).

If possible, schedule the Diagnostic administration period to include a staff professional development day, so that busy teachers have time set aside for them to take the Diagnostic.

B. Background: What Internet browsers are supported?The following browsers are supported:

The School Diagnostic works best with Safari and Firefox; they may be downloaded for free:

C. Preparation: Planning

1. Work with your School Liaison to complete the Background Data Form (Excel spreadsheet that was provided by EPIC staff) at least 2 weeks prior to administration. 2. Help the School Liaison complete the Timeline & Planning Guide in order to ensure a smooth administration:

• Safari 4 & 5• Firefox 3• Internet Explorer 7 & 8

• http://www.apple.com/safari/• http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

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3. Ensure the dissemination of the Passive Consent Form (available in both English and Spanish) to parents/guardians. Signed forms from parents/guardians do not need to be returned to EPIC, but should be kept for your records. 4. Complete the Account Manager training experience. The training is available online (www.epiconline.org/pub/SD_AMTrainingVideo.mov) and should be completed prior to administration of the School Diagnostic. 5. Become familiar with the Diagnostic online system by logging in and exploring the features and by consulting the Help section of the tool as needed. (Account Managers are provided login information 2 weeks before the administration window opens.)

• Assist in scheduling teachers, administrators, counselors, and students to take the Diagnostic.

• Ensure that those taking the Diagnostic will have adequate time to do so.• Help your school identify when and in which computer labs students and staff will access

the online Diagnostic.• Ensure that there are an adequate number of computers equipped with supported

browsers.• Work with the School Liaison to establish timelines for administration.

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D. Preparation: Login to the system 1. Go to http://collegeready.epiconline.org/ 2. In the Sign In section, enter your school-issued email address. 3. Enter the password provided to you (via an email from CollegeCareerReady System).

4. Click Sign In. Create a security question and answer, which you will use if you need your password reset. You will then see the CollegeCareerReady portal page.

5. Click Administrative Tools to see a list of tools for Account Managers.

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E. Set-up: Verify your school’s background dataAs noted in the Preparation: Planning section above, your School Liaison should complete theBackground Data Form and return it to EPIC Staff at least 2 weeks prior to administering the School Diagnostic.

Follow the steps below to verify that your school information has been uploaded correctly by staff, or toedit or add any information.

1. On the Administrative Tools page, click Update School Data. You will see the Tell Us About Your School page. 2. Display the data for each section by clicking on the section name in blue text. 3. Verify existing data, making corrections where necessary. Enter data into any blank fields.

4. Click Save when you are finished. If no error messages appear, skip ahead to Step 5.

5. Click Administrative Tools (in the light blue menu bar) to return to the Administrative Tools page.

• If your data entries are not in the requested format, a message will appear in red next to the problem field(s). Alter the format to match. Return to Step 3.

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F. Set-up: Add access codes

You will create at least 2 access codes—1 for students and 1 for teachers and staff—that allow users to create their own accounts. Users will enter their personal information and, if they are faculty or staff,create a password.

1. Click Create Access Codes on the Administrative Tools home page.

2. You should now see the User Access Codes table. Click Generate Access Code at the bottom left of the table.

3. You should see the User Access Code page. To create a code for teachers and staff, enter a name (e.g., Teachers and Staff) that will remind you who will be using this code.

4. Select School Diagnostic for application type.

5. Select Non-Student User for user type.

6. Click Save Access Code in the upper right corner. You will return to the User Access Codes table and see your code.7. Repeat Steps 2–6 to create an access code for students,

selecting Student User for user type.

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G. Set-up: Explain the purpose of the Diagnostic and distribute the accesscodes 1. Explain to teachers and staff the purpose and timeline of the School Diagnostic.

• Show the School Diagnostic Intro Video or provide the URL: www.epiconline.org/pub/SDIntroVideo.mov

• Provide a copy of the School Diagnostic Brochure (available in PDF format in the Help menu)

• Provide the URL to the School Diagnostic: http://collegeready.epiconline.org

2. Provide the “Teachers and Staff” access code to teachers and staff who will be taking the Diagnostic. 3. Provide the “Students” access code to the staff administering the Diagnostic to students.

H. Administration: Provide user supportDuring the 3–week administration window, you will:

• support students and staff taking the Diagnostic.• make sure they can log in (see the Troubleshooting Guide on page 10 for help).• direct teachers who are administering the Diagnostic to students to read the

Instructions To Students (available on the Help menu).• answer questions.• monitor user progress to ensure that your school completes the Diagnostic during your

designated window. (See the View Progress Reports section on page 9.)

For assistance, please email schooldiagnostic@epiconline.org (8:00 am–4:30 pm PT) or call Customer Service at 1.877.274.3570 (5:00 am–5:00 pm PT).

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I. Administration: View progress reports

1. To view a progress report, go to the Administrative Tools page and click on School

Diagnostic: View Progress. A new page will appear, showing the progress of each user group. 2. To monitor the progress of an individual user, click on the name of the user group to which the person belongs—administrator, counselor, student, or teacher—in the Roles section. 3. For students, click on their grade level to view individual student progress. 4. You will see the User Progress table that shows individual users within your selected group and their overall progress on the Diagnostic. 5. You can export your progress table at any time, using the Download Excel Spreadsheet button at the top of the page. 6. When you have finished viewing the progress reports, return to the home page by clicking

Administrative Tools in the light blue menu bar.

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3. Troubleshooting Guide Q. A user cannot log into their account. Why?A. There are a few reasons why users may not be able to log into their accounts:

• A user may have forgotten their password (for non-student users). The user should click Forgot Password? on the Login page, answer the security question, and have a new password emailed to them. If that does not work, the account manager can change the password by clicking on View/Manage Users on the Administrative Tools page.

• A user may have closed the browser without properly signing out first. If the user has closed the browser without first signing out, wait for 1 minute to sign back into the system. (The user needs to click on Sign Out in the upper right-hand corner of the screen before exiting the Diagnostic.)

• A user may already be logged in on another computer. If users are logged into the system on one computer, they will not be able to sign into the system on a second computer. They will need to go back to the first computer to continue their work, or wait 10 minutes (until the session on the first computer times out) to log into the second computer.

• A user may have tried unsuccessfully too many times to log in. If users forget their password and enter an incorrect password into the system more than 20 times, they will be locked out of the Diagnostic for 30 minutes. Account managers may unlock the account without waiting 30 minutes by clicking on View/Manage Users on the Administrative Tools page.

• My “account cannot be found.” If the user is faculty or staff, they should try resetting their password by clicking Forgot Password? on the login page. If that does not work, the account manager can change the

password by clicking on View/Manage Users on the Administrative Tools page.

If the user is a student, they should enter their full legal name and all of the requested information in the correct format. If that does not work, the account manager can review/edit the account by clicking on View/Manage Users on the Administrative Tools page. • A user may have an incompatible browser. See page 3 of the Account Manager Guide, “Background: What Internet browsers are supported?”

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• The system is down for maintenance. System downtime is posted on the login page.

Q. As an account manager, how do I create an account when “there is already an account” at my school with the same data?

A. No school or district can have two accounts with an identical email address or student ID—even if one of the accounts is disabled.

A disabled account is not deleted; it is recategorized to prevent any data it collects from being included in reports. (Account managers cannot delete accounts.) Account managers will receive this error message if they disable an account containing incorrect information and try to replace it with a new account using the same identifying information. If a user’s account contains an error, edit the original account. Do not disable the account and attempt to create a new one.

Q. What does this error message mean?

A. There are several error messages given in the system:• Complete section message. The user must answer all questions in a section before progressing on to the next section. This message allows the user to review the incomplete items.

• Timeout message.

After 10 minutes of inactivity, the user’s session will time out. The user will need to click Return

to Home and log into the system again.Q. I...lost power / lost my Internet connection / closed my browser windowaccidentally...while using the Diagnostic. What do I do?

A. Responses, except the single last page being worked on, will be saved.

Users will need to wait 1 minute to sign back into the system. Because the user did not sign out, thesystem acts as if the user is still viewing the Diagnostic and will not allow the user to sign in again until the first session has timed out.

(If the Internet connection resumes quickly, the user may be able to pick up where they left off without having to sign back in.)