manual

answers and instructions for the most common questions and tasks.

 

ampEducator Manual

©2016 ampEducator Inc.

 

Home

Home is the main entry to ampEducator and contains sections which are used throughout the application.

Account Settings

Details

View very basic details on your user account including assigned roles, locations and last login.

Settings

Set your user name, locale, time zone and other preferences for your account. Click on Change Pass to update your password.

2 Factor Authentication

You can add an extra layer of security for your account by enabling 2 factor security. To use it follow the steps below.

  • Download the free Google Authenticator app for your smartphone ( Android or iOS ).
  • Enable 2 Factor Authentication by clicking on the Enabled checkbox.
  • Using the app scan the barcode, enter the validation code and click on Update.
  • When you login you will be prompted for a validation code which the Google Authenticator app will provide.
  • To disable 2 Factor Authentication uncheck the Enabled checkbox.

Calendar Link

ampEducator provides an iCalendar feed containing events you have assigned to you. To access your calendar feed you can use the url found here.

Email Configuration

You can configure your current email account to work with ampEducator. When your email is configured ampEducator will check it for new emails every couple of minutes. When new emails are found they are downloaded and assigned to prospects or students where applicable. Configuring your email will also let you send emails directly from ampEducator.


Announcements

Create and send announcements to any combination of roles and locations.

List

  • You can sort announcements by Announcement Date or Display Until date.
  • You can filter announcements by Location and Audience
  • Pinned announcements will have a icon under the pinned column.
  • Click on to view the announcement.
  • Click on the title or to edit the announcement.
  • Click on to delete the announcement. Once deleted announcements can't be retrieved.
  • Click on to view notification statistics and the send log for this announcement. Only announcements with notifications will have this option.
  • For announcements with email notification the stati can be:
    • COMPLETED  Notification emails have been sent.
    • ERROR  There was a problem sending the notifications - see notification stats.
    • PENDING  Sending has not started yet.
    • SENDING  Notification emails are being sent.
  • If the email notification option wasn't select the status will display NO.
  • For announcements with email notification you will see a percentage number after the status indicating the amount of notifications sent.

Add / Edit Announcement

  • All fields are required.
  • Announcements will be shown until their display date.
  • Pinned announcements will always be displayed.
  • Only selected audience roles in the selected locations will see the announcement.
  • When adding you have the option to send out an email notification. The email notification contains the announcement and is sent to the audience roles in the locations you've selected.
  • You can't send a notification if you don't have the bulk email server configured.

Calendar

View and manage personal, staff, student, course and public events.

View

  • You can switch the calendar view by clicking on the view buttons.
    • M Monthly View
    • W Weekly View
    • D Daily View
  • Click on and to move to the previous / next period.
  • Click on to reload the events for the current period.
  • Click on to filter events.
    • My Calendar View or hide events on your calendar.
    • Staff Calendars Select up to 5 staff members to view their calendar. Each staff member will be assigned a different colour.
    • Course Calendars Select any number of course calendars to display.
    • Public Calendar View or hide public events.
    • Locations Restrict events to the chosen locations.
    • Programs Restrict course events to those in the chosen programs.
    • Completed View or hide completed events.
  • Click on Today to move the calendar to today's date.
  • Click on New to add a new event.
  • Events are automatically colour coded.
  • Completed events appear faded out.
  • To Do events appear at the top of the calendar area.

Add / Edit Event

  • To add an event click on the New button or alternatively click or click / drag on the calendar area.
  • Click on an event to edit it.
  • If an event is completed you will only see details of the event and won't be able to modify it.
  • Associate With Select whether this event is associated with a Prospect or Student. If the event is associated you must choose a prospect or student.
  • Recruiter / Advisor If an event is associated you will see the prospect's recruiter or the student's advisor. Click on Show Availability to see the schedule for that user. Any event you add for a prospect/student will show up on the recruiter/advisor's calendar.
  • Event Type There are several event types.
    • Meeting Set a date, start / end time, resource and invite other attendees.
    • Phone Call Out Schedule or document an outgoing phone call.
    • Phone Call In Schedule or document an incoming phone call.
    • To Do Create a to do item with or without a deadline.
    • Other Create events with are shared with specific roles or are public. Not available when the event is associated.
  • Attendees For 'Meeting' events you can select up to 10 other staff. The event will appear on their calendar.
  • Public Event For 'Other' events you can choose to make the event public. The event will appear on everyone's calendar.
  • Share With For 'Other' events you can choose which roles will see this event.
  • At Locations For 'Other' events you can choose which locations will see this event.
  • Completed / Result For 'To Do' events you can click to complete the event. Other events will let you choose the outcome depending on the event type.
  • Follow Up Event If selected a new event window will open once the current event is saved.

Delete Event

  • To delete an event click on the event to open it and then the Delete button at the bottom of the dialog box.
  • Completed events can't be deleted.

Documents

Depending on your institution's plan you can store up to 200GB worth of documents on ampEducator. These can include forms, applications, images and other commonly used documents.

List

  • You can sort documents by Document, Size or Date.
  • You can filter documents by Document Tag.
  • Click on Upload Documents to upload documents.
  • Click on the document name to download the document.
  • Click on to edit properties for the chosen document
  • Click on to delete the chosen document.
  • Use Delete Selected option under 'More Actions' in the toolbar to delete multiple documents.

Upload

  • You can select up to 5 documents to upload.
  • Each document can be up to 10MB in size.
  • You can select a tag to be applied to these documents.
  • You can share documents with other roles (read or read/update) and locations.

Properties

  • Once a document is uploaded you can't update the file but you can edit some of it's properties.
  • You can enter a description for the document.
  • You can update the tag for the document.
  • You can update which other roles (read or read/update) and locations the document should be shared with.

Emails

You can link your existing email account to ampEducator. This will allow you to send and receive emails directly from ampEducator. Prospect and student emails are automatically associated with their profile.

Configuration

Before you can use the email function you must configure you email account under Account Settings.

Incoming Emails

Your email account is checked and updated approximately every 5 minutes.

List

  • By default emails are sorted by Date. However you can sort emails by From / To, Subject and Associate.
  • Use the Inbox, Draft, Sent, Trash and Folder buttons to navigate.
  • Click on the email subject to view or edit the email.
  • Emails with attachments will have a icon.
  • Outgoing emails which have been seen will display OPENED along with a date and time.
  • You can reply to incoming emails by clicking on the icon.
  • You can forward any email by clicking on the icon.
  • More Actions...
    • Use Mark Read and Mark Unread to mark multiple emails as read or unread.
    • Use Move Selected to move emails between folders.
    • Use Trash Selected to move emails to the Trash folder.

New Email

  • Create a new email by clicking on New Email or by replying or forwarding an existing email.
  • You can associate an email with a prospect or student. When associating an email enter the first couple of letters from their name and select them from the list which will appear.
  • To Email and Subject are required fields.
  • You can click on any attachment to download it.
  • You can click on the beside any attachment you would like to remove.
  • In addition to the standard formatting button the editor has several special buttons.
    • Insert an Image by clicking on the icon. Once an image is inserted click on the image to resize and position.
    • Insert a Link by clicking on the icon. You can also select text and click on the link icon to create a link from that text.
    • Insert a Table by clicking on the icon.
    • Upload an Attachment by clicking on the icon and selecting the file from your computer.
    • Attach an Existing Document from the document repository by clicking on the icon and selecting the document from the list. If the email is associated with a prospect or student their documents will be available to attach.
    • Use a Template by clicking on the and selecting a template. Note that this is only available for prospects and students. You must select a prospect or student before the templates will work.
    • Edit HTML by clicking on the icon.
    • Click on Send to send the email. The email will be sent immediately.
    • Click on Save to save the current email for future editing. Saved emails can be found in the Drafts folder.

Moving Emails

  • Select the emails you would like to move and choose Move Selected from the More Actions... menu.
  • Select the folder you would like to move the emails to and click on Move Emails.
  • You can also move emails out of folders by selecting None. This will put the emails back to where they were originally (Inbox, Drafts or Sent).
  • You cannot move emails when they are in the trash.

Trashing & Deleting Emails

  • Deleting an email is a two step process. You must move the email to the Trash folder from which you can remove permanently.
  • To move emails to the trash, select them from the list and choose Trash Selected from the More Actions... menu.
  • To permanently remove emails click on the Trash folder, select the emails you want to remove and then choose Delete Selected from the More Actions... menu. This will permanently remove the emails.
  • You can Untrash emails by selecting them and then choosing Untrash Selected from the More Actions... menu.
  • Note that trashing or deleting emails which are associated with prospects or students will not remove the emails from their profile.

View Emails

  • For emails which have been received or sent clicking on them will bring up the email viewer.
  • Click on and to navigate through the email list.
  • Click on Reply to reply to the current email.
  • Click on Forward to forward the current email.
  • If the email is not in the trash click on the to trash the email.
  • If the email is already in the trash click on Delete to permanently remove the email.
  • If the email is associated with a prospect or student there will be a PROSPECT or STUDENT label beside their name. Clicking on their name will open up their profile.
  • If there are any attachments listed you can click on them to download them.

Email Folders

You can use email folders to organize and manage your emails.

  • Click on the Folders tab to bring up the folder list.
  • Click on New Folder to add a new folder.
  • Click on the icon to edit an existing folder.
  • Click on the icon to delete an existing folder. When deleting a folder you can move the enclosed emails into another folder or back to their original folder (Inbox, Drafts, Sent).

Groups

Work and manage groups of prospects or students.

List

  • You can sort groups by Group Name, Description or number of Members.
  • You can filter group by Group Type and Location.
  • Click on Add Group to create a new group.
  • Click on to edit an existing group. You can also click on the group name.
  • Click on to duplicate a group.
  • Click on to delete a group.

Add Group

  • Group Type, Group Name and Location Access are required.
  • Use Read Only Access and Read / Update Access to select which roles have access to the group.
  • Click on the Add Group button and your group should appear in the list.

Edit Group

Details

  • You can update the basic details and access for the group here.

Members

  • This is a list of all members belonging to this group.
  • You can sort by ID, Name, Email, Phone or Status.
  • You can filter the list by Status.
  • If you are authorized, clicking on the ID or Name will bring up that member's profile.
  • Click on to remove a member from the group.
  • Click on Add Member to add a new member. Enter at least 3 characters from the member's name and select them from the list. Click on the Add Member button to add them to the group.
  • Click on to export the group member list as a PDF or CSV file.

Email List

  • You can send group emails to all group members by using the email tool.
  • Emails are sorted by date in descending order and no filters are available.
  • Emails can have various stati.
    • PENDING Email is still in draft and has not been sent.
    • SENDING Email are currently being sent.
    • CANCELLED Sending was cancelled by the user.
    • COMPLETED Emails were successfully sent.
    • ERROR There was an error sending the emails.
  • The emails columns include:
    • Sent The number of emails sent / total number to be sent.
    • Sent % The number of emails sent as a percentage of the total number to be sent.
    • Viewed The number of distinct views (i.e. multiple viewings by same person counts as 1).
    • Viewed % The number of distinct views as a percentage of the total number of emails sent.
    • Clicks If your email contains a link this will count the number of times the link has been clicked.
    • Unsub The number of members which have chosen to unsubscribe from receiving group emails.
  • Click on to edit an email. You can also click on the subject.
  • Click on to view a previously sent email.
  • Click on to view a details report on which users viewed, clicked or unsubscribed from the email.
  • Click on to download the send log for a previously sent email.
  • Click on to cancel an email which is currently being sent.
  • Click on to delete an email which has not been sent yet.
  • You can't delete an email once it has been sent.
  • Click on Create New Email to add a new email.

Edit Email

  • The Reply To Email determines where emails will go when a member hits reply. You can choose from the defaults or enter a custom email.
  • You can use the toolbar to format and edit your email.
  • Use to add merge fields which will be replaced by the member's information when the email is sent.
  • Use to upload an attachment.
  • Use to attach a document from the document repository.
  • Use to use a predefined email template.
  • Click on Preview to send a preview of the email to your email account.
  • Click on Send to start the job which will send the email to all members in the group.
  • A copy of the email will be put into the email section of each member.

Home

Depending on your role you may see one or more of the items listed below.

Today's Agenda

Contains a list of your events which have been scheduled for today or To Do items which don't have any specific due date.

Email Inbox

If you have your email configured to work with ampEducator you will see the latest emails from your inbox.

Announcements

General and course announcements which have been shared with your.

Courses

Faculty and students will see a list of currently active courses.


Institution Account

Details

Here you'll find contact information for your institution along with some preferences. You can edit them as needed.

  • All communication regarding your account will be sent to the contact and email you set here, they are required.
  • You can customize the PURL used by staff and students to access your ampEducator by changing the value below. Short simple PURLS work best.
  • PURLs can't contain any spaces, can't be longer than 15 characters and must use only letters (i.e. a-z). PURLs are not case sensitive.
  • You can customize the look of ampEducator by setting the main colour.
  • You can point your own custom domain (e.g. studentdb.exampleschool.com) to ampEducator by adding the custom domain here and adding a CNAME record to your DNS. The CNAME Content should be {purl}.ampeducator.com where {purl} is the PURL you've chosen for your institution.

Status

Your institution can have two possible stati.

  • ACTIVE - This is the most common status and means there are no issues or problems with your account.
  • PENDING DISABLE - If you have an outstanding balance or don't have a credit card setup you might see this status. Along with the status you will see what needs to be done to fix the issue and the deadline to do so. The system will automatically disable institutions once the deadline has passed.

Monthly Plan

Each institution must select a monthly plan and keep a valid credit on file for monthly billing. Your institution will be invoiced and your credit card charged on the 1st of each month.

  • To add or update a monthly plan, select it from the choices and enter your credit card details. If successfull, you will receive a notification by email. Your card will not be charged.
  • Your first payment will be taken on the 1st of the following month. Any changes you make will be effective immediately.
  • If your card is declined you will have one week to pay the monthly fee and update your credit card. After one week your account will be automatically disabled.
  • To cancel an account please email support@ampeducator.com.
  • Your data is always yours and in case of cancellation your database can be sent to you in either CSV or SQL format.

Invoices

Here you will find a copy of all invoices for your institution. These invoices include monthly plan fees and invoices for other work like reports or custom development.

  • The balance for your institution will be listed above the invoices.
  • Click on beside the invoice to download a PDF version.
  • Click on beside the invoice to view it and make a payment.
  • When making a payment you can pay with the credit card we have on file for you or enter details for a new credit card.
  • You will receive a receipt for your payment by email.
  • You can download receipts for previous payments by viewing the invoice and clicking on the button beside the payment.

Locations

You can manage the various locations of your institution here.

  • You must maintain at least one active location.
  • Click on Add New Location to create a new location. Only the location name is required.
  • Click on to edit the details for the chosen location.
  • Click on to delete the chosen location.
  • Deleted location they won't be appear on this list but they will be maintained in the system because of associations (e.g. prospects, students, courses etc.). There is no way to undelete a location once it's been deleted.

Bulk Email

ampEducator has the ability to send bulk emails to both prospects and students. These can be direct messages as part of a group mailing or notifications for different types of announcements. There are two ways to configure the bulk email.

  1. Built In Emailer
    • The built in emailer uses ampEducator email servers to send your emails.
    • Your monthly plan determines how many emails you can send per month.
    • To use the built in emailer check off Use ampEducator.
    • Indicate where you would like the emails to appear to originate from by entering values for Email From Name and Email Address.
    • When users reply their email will be send to the Reply To Email you enter.
    • Click on Update Bulk Email and you will be ready to send out bulk emails.

  2. Separate SMTP Account
    • If you don't want to use ampEducator's built in bulk emailer you can use your own.
    • Uncheck Use ampEducator and enter the details for your SMTP account.
    • You must also enter Email From Name, Email Address and Reply To Email. However depending on your specific mail server the mail server might choose to override or ignore these values.
    • Click on Update Bulk Email. The application will test to make sure your settings are working after which you will be ready to send out bulk emails.
    • Please note that we can't track bounced emails with this option.

API

ampEducator gives developers access to a REST style API allowing them to access a large subset of it's features.

  • Check off API Enabled to enable the api.
  • Click on Generate New Key to update the api key.
  • For more information on the API you can view the reference guide here.

DB Read Access

Every institution has read only access to their database. This access can be used to mine and use the data in ways ampEducator doesn't provide.

  • The read only database is mySql.
  • The database is replicated from the primary database so allow a couple of minutes for changes to propogate.
  • To enable the read only access check off Enabled and enter a username, password and a list of allowed IPs putting each IP on a separate line. Click Update and your access will be added.
  • Uncheck Enabled to remove your users and access.
  • The database host can be accessed at 173.203.222.31.
  • You can access the database using a mySql front end such as:
  • Only 'SELECT' statements are available.
  • Schemas for tables can and do change. We will do our best to inform you of those changes ahead of time.

Reports

Custom reports designed specifically for your institution can be found here.

Add New Report

To add a new custom report for your institution please contact us at support@ampeducator.com. If possible please include:

  • A brief description of the report and its intended use.
  • A sample of the report if a previous version was available.
  • A list of columns you would like to see.
  • A list of filters which you would like applied to the report (e.g. From Date, To Date)
  • How you would like the report data ordered.

Generate & View Report

  • Click on the beside the report you would like to generate.
  • If required, fill in any parameters required for the report.
  • The job status will change to RUNNING. Once the job is completed the status will change to COMPLETED.
  • Click on to download the report as a PDF file.
  • Click on to download the report as a CSV file.
  • If there are any problems the status will change to ERROR. Click on to download a log of any possible issues.

Schedule Report

Reports can be scheduled and emailed to users automatically. Reports are generated around 6:00AM GMT on the scheduled day.

  • Click on beside the report you want to schedule.
  • Select the schedule type you want. You can schedule reports to run daily, on spefic weekdays or once a month.
  • For a Weekly schedule you must select one or more weekdays.
  • For a Monthly schedule you must select the day of the month to run the report on. Because months have variable end dates you must enter a value between 1-28.
  • Click on Email Results to email the report to users when it is run. You must select the initial user.
  • You can select a second user as well as enter a list of emails (comma separated) to send a copy to.
  • The email will contain both the PDF and CSV version of the report as attachments.

Staff

Manage details of staff and faculty for your institution.

Reset Staff Password

  • Click on the for the staff member whose password needs to be reset.
  • A new password will be generated and emailed to the staff member.
  • The password reset will not work if no email has been set for the staff member.
  • You can manually update password by editing the staff profile

Generate ID Cards

  • Generating id cards is a two step process.
  • First you must select the staff members you want to print cards for by checking the checkbox beside them and selecting Tag Selected for ID under the More menu. Tagged staff will have a displayed beside them.
  • Once you have selected all the staff members click on Print Tagged IDs under the More menu. This will generate a PDF document for you to save and print.
  • Use Untag IDs under the More menu to untag all staff.
  • The ID card can be customized under configuration.

Delete Staff

  • You can delete staff by clicking on the beside the staff member of by selecting them using the checkbox and using Delete Selected under the More menu.

Add New Staff

  • Click on Add New Staff to add a new staff member.
  • Name, User Name, Password and Confirm Password are all required fields.
  • You can select multiple roles and location access.

Import Staff

  • Click on Import Staff under the Menu menu. This will show you list of past imports.
  • Click on Import Staff.
  • To import staff data into ampEducator you must create a CSV (comma separated text file) using the table found on the import page as a guide.
  • There is a maximum size of 10MB per import file.
  • The first row of the CSV file should contain the name of the field for that column.
  • The staff member's location, role and first name is required.
  • You can test your data by clicking on the Test Import button. This will import the data and show you any problems but will not save it. Click on Import to import the staff data.
  • You can view details of the import by clicking on on the staff import list page.
  • Delete the staff import log by clicking on beside the import. Note that this will not delete or undo the import.

Edit Staff

  • Click on beside the staff member you want to edit.

Details

  • Update and manage this staff member's personal details and contact information.
  • Click on Update Details to save the changes.
  • Click on the staff photo to update it.
  • Making a staff Not Active will also disabled their user account.

User

  • You can update the user account associated with the staff member here.
  • You can give staff access to data in multiple locations by selecting the locations under Location Access.
  • You can assign staff multiple roles by selecting the roles under Roles.
    • Admin – Has full access to all parts of the application and all staff, prospects, students, courses and programs without any restrictions.
    • Finance – Read only access to finance and student accounts. Access to financial reports and analytics.
    • Front Office – Read only access to prospects, students, courses and programs.
    • Instructor – Access to courses which they've been assigned to and read only access to students. Only users with the Faculty role can be assigned as educators in courses.
    • Location Admin – Has full access to all parts of the application for locations they've been assigned with the exception of Institution Account.
    • Recruiter – Has full access to prospects they've been assigned. Only users with the Recruiter role can be assigned as Recruiters.
    • Recruiter Manager – Has full access to all prospects as well as prospect and recruiter analytics and reports.
    • Registrar – Has full access to students, courses, programs as well as analytics and reports.
    • Student Advisor – Has full access to students they've been assigned and read access to courses and programs.

Notes

  • To add a staff note click on New Note enter your new note and then click on Add Note.
  • Edit an existing note by clicking on beside the note. Make any required changes and click on Update Note.
  • Delete an existing note by clicking on beside the note you want to remove.

Documents

  • To add a new staff document click on Upload Document(s), select up to 5 files then click on Upload.
  • Files can be of any type but there is a 10MB per file limit.
  • Download an existing document by clicking on its name.
  • Delete an existing document by clicking on beside the document you want to delete.

Hours

If your institution uses the built in hour clock for ampEducator you can view and manage staff hours.

  • The hours list shows the total hours for a given day. To see details for that day click on .
  • Use the list filters to show hours between specific dates.
  • To add hours click on Add Hours. Enter the date, sign in and sign out times. Click on Add Hours to add the new hours.
  • To delete all sign ins / outs for a given day, click on beside the day you want to remove.
  • To delete a specific sign in / out, click on the beside the sign in / out you want to remove.
  • To edit a specific sign in / out, click on the beside the sign in / out you want to edit. Edit the details and click on Update Hours.
  • To generate a staff hour report first select the dates you want the report for or leave blank to show all hours. Click on Export Data under the menu. Select the columns and type of report you want.

Support Request

Fill out and send this form in order to request support.

  • Click on the icon it the top right hand corner.
  • Select a priority for your issue and describe it in detail.
  • Submit your support request. You will receive a confirmation email from our automated support system.
  • We will respond within 4 fours but usually much quicker.
  • Alternatively you can contact us at support@ampeducator.com.

Templates

Template can be used for commonly created documents and emails. These templates can include, text, images, links and most other things you would find in a regular document. You can also use merge fields to automatically merge data from prospects and students.

List Template

  • You can sort the list by Title and Description.
  • You can filter the list by Type and Location.
  • Click on the icon or Titleto edit a template.
  • Click on the icon to generate a PDF version of a template.
  • Click on the icon to receive a preview of a template by email.
  • Click on the icon to delete a template.

Add Template

  • Click on the New Template button.
  • Fill out the details. The Type, Size, Title and Location Access are required fields.
  • If you've chose a custom size you must also enter a Custom Width and Custom Height.
  • Size and PDF Template are only used when generating PDF letters. They will be ignored when you are using the template for emails.
  • Click on the Add button.
  • You can edit the template once you've created it.

Edit Template

  • Click on the or Titleto edit the template.
  • You can update the template details, access and location.
  • Size, Title and Location Access are required field.
  • Size and PDF Template are only used when generating PDF letters. They will be ignored when you are using the template for emails.
  • Use the editor to create / update your template. The editor allows you to format text, insert images, insert table, insert links and even modify the HTML directly.
  • Use the merge fields to include placeholders which are replaced with real information when a letter/email is generated.
  • Click on Save to save the template.
  • Click on Preview PDF to download a PDF preview of the template.
  • Click on Preview Email to receive an email copy of the template. This will be sent to your user email account.