Custom District Data Tools [Edcite Schools Feature]

Custom District Data Tools [Edcite Schools Feature]

This feature is available as part of our premium platform, Edcite Schools. To learn more about Edcite Schools, click here.

New Tools!
New data collection tools are now available for Edcite Schools users that want to capture additional student data, beyond what is directly captured from student work on Edcite.  The goal for these tools is to allow administrators to more easily collect and combine data from a variety of sources, including student work on Edcite, to generate custom reports for different stakeholders.  
 
The collected data is made available as standard data to be used with our new data warehouse, Edcite DataHub, or any other data analytics product, to generate custom reports.  Edcite will enable a variety of rubrics and templates for data collection, and each of these can be assigned to classes and groups. The responsible teachers get access to Edcite pages to populate the necessary data for each student.  One such tool is now available on Edcite, with others to follow shortly.

Custom Data Collection Templates 
The first such tool is a custom data collection template defined by district admins that can be assigned to classes and/or groups in the district roster.  Teachers of these classes and groups populate the custom data, which is then immediately available to admins on Edcite, and can be easily exported to wherever they need it.
 
The data is gathered from teachers on Edcite pages with formats specified by district admins.  On their main District Data Collection page on Edcite, teachers see the list of assigned classes and  groups that require the data.  Teachers populate the data and can then view and export reports on their data.   
 
The tools are designed for student data collection from sources external to Edcite, including:  
  1. Data on offline or external assessments
  2. Behavioral or other observed student data
  3. Needs or other relevant student data


Administrator Usage 
Administrators can access the data collection tools from the Edcite Administrator Reports page.  Go to Reports, and click on Custom District Data under the Special column of links.


 
The main admin custom data collection page has two sections:
  1. The bottom section shows the templates or rubrics that have been set up for the district.  Initially there will be no templates or rubrics.
  2. The top section shows the assigned Data Sets, i.e. the templates or rubrics assigned to classes and groups.  Each data set has a label that gathers the assigned data in one data set.


 
Creating Templates 
Click on Create in the bottom section of the page.  This opens a dialog to select the type of template or rubric you'd like to create.  Only custom data collection templates are supported for now, so click Create for custom data collection templates.  
 


Name the new template so the name makes clear what it is used for.
 
Then add columns based on the data you want to collect for each student.  For each column you will enter a column header title, and choose from one of the following column data types:
  1. Number: Specify the max value of the number
  2. String: specify the max length of the string
  3. Choice: Set the list of choices
  4. Checkbox: Add an optional label for the checkbox
Here is an example:


Once you have specified the columns, save the template.

Template Assignment to Classes and/or Groups 
To assign to classes and/or groups, select a particular template, and click Assign.
 


Specify a Data Set Label that determines how the gathered data across classes and/or groups will be combined.  For example, you can label data "Semester 1 Results" for one set of assignments, and "Semester 1 Results" for a second round of collecting the same data.  This keeps them organized in separate data sets.


 
Reports Access 
The main admin Custom Data Collection page shows the number of students for whom data has been entered by teachers.  This is shown in the Data column of the Data Set.


 
Click on a Data Set to access the report.
 
On the report page, use CSV download to export the data for use elsewhere.



Teacher Usage 
Teachers can access the data collection page from the Edcite Schools Teacher Reports page.  Go to Teacher Reports, and click on Custom District Data under the Special column.
 
The Teacher District Data Collection page shows each assigned template assigned to each class in a table. Teachers see the data sets in separate rows for each class or group assigned.

  
 
Populating Data for Classes or Groups 
Click on the Data Set label for a row corresponding to the class or group for which you wish to populate the data.  This opens a page with a table to enter data for each student in the class or group.


 
Enter data into the table cells as appropriate.  If numbers have a max value, entries above the max will be ignored.  If strings have a max length, anything beyond that is ignored.
 
Data is saved automatically on the server as you leave text fields, or select or check other columns.  
 
Viewing Reports 
Reports can be viewed from the main Data Collections page, or from the data entry page for a given class or group assignment.
 
To view reports from the main data collections page, select a row and click reports.  On the report page, use CSV download to export the data as CSV.


 
To view reports from the data entry page for a given class or group assignment, click on the Reports button.