WOIS News - New features

NEW WOIS Portfolio Features!

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:30:00 -0800

Do you have customized links in your WOIS portfolio system? If so, there is a new way to organize those links! You can now create headings for groups of links (for example College Planning Links, or Financial Aid Links) and organize the appropriate links under each special heading. Headings can also be added to your Culminating Project links in the Culminating Project section.

AND you can choose whether you want your links to continue at the top of the student Portfolio Main Menu, OR if you want your links to be in a separate box on the right side of the Portfolio Main Menu.

Try it -- you will love it! If you look at the options (click on Links in your Portfolio Administration), read the instructions, and still need more help, call us at 1-800-700-WOIS.

We've also added a column on the Detail View Report in the Portfolio Administration that allows you to see the total number of volunteer hours each student has added to the Work and Community Experience section of their Portfolio. If your school requires that students have a certain number of hours -- this allows you to see at a glance if the students are reaching their required community service hours.

Thank you to Puyallup School District and South Bend School District for these great ideas!

Hold on to your hats! There's more to come in the next few months!

New Query Function for Post-High School Plans

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:52:00 -0800

Now WOIS Portfolio administrators can Query the Post-High School Plans and Occupational Goals for students who have entered these details in the Education Planner section of the WOIS Portfolio.

This can be useful if you have a career speaker (let's say a Physical Therapist) coming to the school and you want to know which students have indicated Physical Therapist as an Occupational Goal.

It may also come in handy when you have a college (maybe Washington State University) visiting. You can query the portfolios and get a list of the students who have indicated WSU as a college of interest.

After the query identifies the students who have indicated the selection, the administrator can send a note to each student (via the portfolio) to let them know the visitor will be at the school.

The query only works on entries in the Education Planner section of the WOIS Portfolio.

Generate Reports from Portfolio Admin

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:00:00 -0800

Each section of the Electronic Portfolio has a report associated with it that can be used to print the contents of that section - Assessments and Tests, Career Research, etc. Now, Portfolio administrators and group managers can print batches of reports from the administrative side of the Portfolios. Just select the Portfolios you want to print reports for from any Portfolio "List" page, like the Student List or Detail View, click "Generate reports" at the bottom of the page, and choose the report to generate.

Career Explorer & Electronic Portfolio

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:00:00 -0800

The WOIS Electronic Portfolio has been added as an option for middle schools and junior highs using Career Explorer. Students can save their Career Explorer assessment results, save links to the occupations they explore, and start building their electronic portfolio with student activities, results from other tests, resumes, essays, educational plans – everything that is available in the high school version of the WOIS Electronic Portfolio. Then the Electronic Portfolio can seamlessly follow the student to the high school.

The cost to add the WOIS Electronic Portfolio to your Career Explorer subscription is only $230 for this year. If you are not currently a Career Explorer subscriber, and want Career Explorer and the Electronic Portfolio, the cost is $405 for this year.

To order Career Explorer and/or the WOIS Electronic Portfolio, e-mail Tami Palmer, call 1-800-700-WOIS, or send your purchase order to WOIS, 1415 Harrison Avenue NW, Suite 201, Olympia, WA 98502.

Student Learning Plans

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:00:00 -0800

We've recently added a component to the Electronic Portfolio for creating and storing Student Learning Plans (SLP) in students' portfolios. Based on sample formats from OSPI, you can enter test scores, areas requiring improvement, and responsibilities for improvement for all parties involved - the basic requirements for an SLP. When viewing a student's portfolio administratively, the Student Learning Plan section lets you enter or edit details of the student's Plan. Student can view, but cannot change, their SLP. Also, for schools that have a specific format for their plans, a file upload function is available to upload an SLP in whatever format is appropriate - Word document, PDF file, etc.

Culminating Project Files - Feedback & Approval

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0800

We've added new functionality to the Culminating Projects section of the Electronic Portfolio. Now administrators and group managers can leave feedback for students about the files they've uploaded for their culminating projects. You may also document approval status for project components. When logged in administratively to review student's portfolios, there is now a checkbox on the list of files for recording whether that file/component meets standards (is approved), as well as a text field to leave feedback that student will see (but not be able to change) when they go into that section. We've also replaced the "number of files" columns for each project component with a "component approved" column on the Culminating Project Files report in Portfolio Administration.

As always, feel free to give us a call at 1-800-700-WOIS or mail tami@wois.org if you have any questions about the new features.

Portfolio Transfer and Template Portfolios

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0800

Portfolio Transfer: To accompany the Automatic Grade Transfer feature we added recently, you can now transfer multiple portfolios to another WOIS site that has the Electronic Portfolio product by selecting them from any administrative list/report page and clicking Transfer to another site at the bottom of the page. This way, if most of the students from your middle school will go to High School A, but some will go to High Schools B or C, you can set the automatic transfer for High School A and, before the automatic transfer happens in August, manually select the students who will be going to High Schools B and C and transfer them yourselves now.

Template Portfolios: Some WOIS sites have asked for the ability to have required classes show up in the Education Planner. You now have the ability to create a template portfolio. Here you can put in the required classes for each grade level, or pre-load anything else into the portfolio. After creating the template portfolio, set it as a template in the Settings section of the Portfolio Administration. To set the portfolio template, type the User ID of the portfolio into the settings. Whatever you put into the template portfolio will then be copied into all student portfolios created after you set up the template portfolio.

Post Note to Multiple Portfolios

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:00:00 -0800

New functionality for the Portfolio Notes feature we added last month: you can now post a note in any section (or the main menu) of multiple portfolios - or clear existing notes - from any of the administrative list/report pages by selecting the portfolios and clicking Post/clear Notes at the bottom of the page. (The new note will replace any existing note in that portfolio section.)

Multiple Portfolio Groups

Tue, 20 May 2008 08:00:00 -0800

As you may be aware, your site can create Portfolio Groups to organize your users' portfolios. We've now added the ability to assign portfolios to more than one group. When users initially create their portfolios, they select the first group to be assigned. After the portfolio is created, additional groups can be added to or current groups deleted from the Portfolio Profile.

When logged in administratively, you now have multiple options when you select one or more portfolios and click Assign to group: Add group, to add a new group to those already assigned; Replace existing groups, to replace any current group assignments with the new group you've chosen; and Clear groups, to clear all groups assigned. If you're just changing group assignments for one portfolio, that portfolio's current groups are displayed and can be deleted individually by clicking on the group title.

Finally, we've added a Clear all group assignments button to the Portfolio Admin Groups page that you can use to clear the groups from all your portfolios.

Portfolio Notes

Tue, 13 May 2008 08:00:00 -0800

Yes, we've added another new Portfolio feature! This time, it's an electronic version of a "post-it" note that you can place on a user's Portfolio Main Menu, or on the index page for any portfolio section. When you are logged in administratively, or as a group manager, and you go into a students' portfolio, you'll now see a text box for the note at the top of each section for which Portfolio Notes can be entered. To post the note, just enter the text and click Save Changes. When the user enters that section of their portfolio, they'll see the note, along with the date you entered it. They will also see an indicator on their main menu to let them know they have a note in that section.

A new Portfolio Notes report in the Portfolio Administration shows the dates and sections for any notes you've entered in your users' portfolios.

Automatic Grade Transfer

Tue, 06 May 2008 08:00:00 -0800

Every August, students with WOIS Electronic Portfolios are automatically promoted to the next grade. We've now added a feature to the Portfolio Admin Settings page where you can choose a grade to be automatically transferred to another WOIS site when grade promotion takes place. For example, you may choose for the eighth graders in your middle school to promote to your area high school when WOIS does the automatic grade promotion in August.

You will find this features in the Settings section of your Portfolio Administration. If you have questions, please contact Tami at 1-800-700-WOIS or tami@wois.org.