Student Custom Properties

Student records in Accelerus come with a set of fields such as family name, given name, gender, etc. However, some schools wish to store other data about students in Accelerus, either to appear on reports or for analytical purposes.

Some of the additional information that a school might like to record include:

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Ethnicity

•	ESL status

•	Date of birth

•	A series of properties for awards presented annually to students

•	Students' scores on NAPLAN tests

•

Address

•	Whether multiple copies of reports are required because of separated parents

Accelerus allows schools to create customised student properties in order to store such additional data. This is via the Student Custom Properties tab of the School Settings window, which may be accessed through the Tools menu.

Set CustomTab

Schools in the Victorian Government and Catholic sectors who produce AusVELS reports using Quick Setup will have a large number of student custom properties in their database as these are used to hold student prior scores for each semester of the previous year. These properties are created automatically when they import a Student Details XML file into their Accelerus database each semester.

Some of the features of student properties that should be noted include:

•

Each custom property must be linked to a particular academic cycle or exist for the student perpetually. For example, ethnicity would be a perpetual property, whereas a custom property that holds information about a particular award presented to the student is likely to be annual. These properties are stored in a similar way to assessment items. However, they belong to the student and not a subject.

•	Marking schemes are used to record the values for the various custom properties and these need to be set up, containing the valid values of the property, before the custom properties are added.

•

Marking schemes already set up and used for other purposes may be assigned to custom properties, or special ones set up. For example, a list marking scheme may be required for ethnicity that has, as its values, the ethnic backgrounds you wish to record. Other properties may only need a Yes/No marking scheme.

•	Each student's record in Accelerus has a Custom Properties tab in which their data is stored and from where it may be viewed and modified, where a user has appropriate permission to do so.

Set CustomStudentTab

•	Each student property may be restricted so that it does not appear in the student’s record when being viewed by teachers, or in the Student Explorer and other locations where students may be selected, eg when printing reports.

•	Teachers can view but not change the data stored in the unrestricted custom properties.

•	By default, only custom properties that have not been restricted appear in the student's record. However, those with a school level role that allows the administration of students may display the restricted items in the Custom Properties tab, as well as hide them.

Click the Show all custom properties icon to do so, and click the Hide restricted custom properties icon to hide them again.

Set CustomStudentShowIcon

•	You may import the values for the student properties with or without other student data fields using CSV files.

•	Data in student custom properties may be rolled over from cycle to cycle if it is not perpetual but is required across cycles.

To add student custom properties to your database so that you may record additional information about students:

•	Ensure you already have an appropriate marking scheme for each custom property you wish to add.

If you do not, add these via the Marking Scheme Explorer.

•	Go to Tools > School Settings.

•	In the School Settings window, click the Student Custom Properties tab.

•	Ignore the first two columns in the table and, instead, double click in the code field of the first blank row of the table.

Set CustomNewInsert

•	Click the New student property icon.

Set CustomNewIcon

•	In the row for the custom property:

➢	Type in the code that you wish to assign to the custom property.

This may be up to 8 characters in length and use alphanumeric characters or underscores.

➢	Enter a name or description.

This will be displayed in the Custom Properties tab of each student record in order to identify the property.

It is recommended the codes are entered in upper case but the name in proper or sentence case.

➢	Double click in the Marking Scheme cell to display a dropdown arrow and select from the dropdown list of available marking schemes.

Set CustomMarkingScheme

➢	Begin typing the name of the marking scheme to display the options that match in the marking scheme dropdown list.

➢	Using either of the above methods, select the academic cycle category that applies.

Note that this the category is most likely to be Perpetual, ie the value does not change every cycle or year for each student.

Set CustomCycle

•	Continue adding more custom properties in the same way, as required.

•	If you want to restrict any custom properties so that they are only visible to those who have a school role with the appropriate privileges:

➢	Click anywhere in an individual row that you want to restrict.

➢	If more than one row, hold down the Ctrl key or Shift key while clicking to select multiple or contiguous rows, respectively.

➢	Click the Restrict student property icon.

Set CustomRestrictIcon

The selected rows will now have a restriction symbol in their second column, as shown below.

Set CustomRestrictedItems

•	To remove the restriction from any custom properties, select the rows in the same way as in the previous step, but click the Make available icon instead.

•	If you want to change the order of the custom properties, you may do so by:

➢	Clicking anywhere in an individual row that you want to move.

➢	If more than one row, hold down the Ctrl key or Shift key while clicking to select multiple or contiguous rows, respectively.

➢	Click the Move up or Move down icons, as appropriate.

Set CustomMoveDown

Note that where more than one row has been selected, you will only be able to move up until the topmost row selected has reached the top of the table. Likewise, you may only move rows down until the last of those selected reaches the bottom of the table.

•	To delete any custom property rows added in error, select the rows, in the same way as when restricting or moving them, and use the Delete icon in the bottom right corner.

•	Click the Save icon and exit the School Settings window.

Once student custom properties have been set up, values may be assigned to these for students, as required.

They may be added either manually through the student's record, or imported in bulk using a CSV file.

They may also be modified and deleted in the same way.

To assign or change custom property values for a student:

•	Find the student, using either Quick Find or the Student Explorer.

•	Open the student's record.

•	Click the Custom Properties tab in the student's window.

Set CustomStudentCustomPropTab

•	If the custom property you wish to assign or modify is not visible, click the Show all custom properties icon.

Set CustomStudentShowIcon

•	In the particular custom property required:

➢	If it uses a list marking scheme, select the value required from the dropdown list.

➢	Otherwise, type in the value in the custom property for the student.

The toolbar will display the marking scheme's details so that the correct type of data may be entered, eg Comment of up to 100 characters, as shown below.

Set CustomStudentNewValues

•	Continue adding or changing values for custom properties, as required.

•	To delete a custom property value for a particular student, highlight the value in the field and press the Delete key.

•	Click the Save icon to save the student's record.

Student custom property values may be imported into Accelerus using CSV files in the same way as any other student field.

The CSV file containing the student data needs to have a column for each custom property being imported. The heading row must contain either the code or the name of the custom property, as assigned when adding it in the Student Custom Properties tab of the School Settings window.

Because student custom properties are not mandatory fields, it is not necessary to import these in the same file as all of the other student data being imported. You may, instead, use a CSV file to update in bulk any new or updated custom property values.

In this case, you need only include the Student Code field and a column for each of the custom properties you are importing.

Set CustomCSVFile

If a row for a student is missing data in the CSV for any of the custom properties being imported, any data in the database for the particular field will be deleted for the student, ie it will be updated with blank.