ACEware Systems Newsletter - Information to Run Your Program

Website Products Demos Events About Stay In Touch Support

September 2015 | Issue #35

ACEware Systems Newsletter - Information to Run Your Program

IN THIS ISSUE

ACEware Employee Spotlight: Jason Allen

Do as I Say, Not as I Do

Counting Registrations That Meet Certain Criteria

2016 Conference Dates Set

What's on Your Mind?

ACEware Staff Changes

Labor Day Closure

ACEware Employee Spotlight: Jason Allen

We thought it would be neat to really show what ACEware Systems is made of: A great staff. This month, we're highlighting Jason Allen.

Jason started working at ACEware 2,599 days ago (just over 7 years). In addition to providing technical support for 47 customers, Jason purchases, provisions, manages, and sets up our third-party collocated dedicated servers . These responsibilities have earned Jason the title of Master and Commander of Technical Support and Hosted Environments.

Before coming to ACEware, Jason held lots and lots of technical support jobs. He's had a lifelong PC hardware and software passion.

Jason has been married to his wife Kristen for 5 years. He has three children: Cameron, 13; Tyler, 9; and Lydia, 4. Jason loves s pending time with his family, whether outdoors or inside watching movies. A couple of weekends ago, he took the whole family to an airshow in Kansas City to see the Blue Angels.

Contributed by Matthew J. Olson and Jason Allen

Do as I Say, Not as I Do

Though we tend to acknowledge from square one that credit and non-credit programs have a myriad of differences, we should also recognize that they have a few things in common. One thing they share is a mission to attract adult learners.

Recently, Ruffalo Noel Levitz, a higher education research firm, released a report titled, "2015 Adult Learner Marketing and Recruitment Practices Benchmark Report". The information was gathered with undergraduate and graduate programs, with a focus on adult learners. The results were intriguing. Face-to-face information sessions ranked among the most successful marketing methods, yet also ranked among the least-used. Print and social media ranked in the five least effective methods of attracting adult learners, but were heavily utilized by the majority of schools. In other words, academia knows what works, but they aren't aligning practices with knowledge. It boggles the mind.

Within Student Manager you have an easy and accurate way of measuring your most and least successful methods of reaching your customer. Simply utilize the Tracking Code on the registration screen (ACEweb can grab this info for you automatically), then run the reports available under Statistics / Course. You could even go to the Tracking Code screen and click on "Show Registration Draw" for an instantaneous count. Couldn't be easier, and we bet you're doing just that. Aren't you? Please say you are.

Want a copy of the full report? Click here.

Contributed by Lauri Thompson

Counting Registrations That Meet Certain Criteria

I recently discovered a function that was previously undocumented. The function, countnameudfs, counts the number of registrations that have certain name UDFs associated with them. But when using it, I found that there was a bug in it, so that is fixed in 8.0.027. Considering that no one brought the bug to my attention before now, I don't think that anyone is using it.

In the case that I needed it for, I counted the number of registrations in a course that had a certain grade and they had a certain number in a numeric name UDF field. I utilized the function in something like: countnameudfs(cocrse,"nudfn1=580106 and val(register.rggrade)>=65"). So the parameters I am passing are the course number in the report and then my criteria as a string. I had to use "register." when referring to a field in the register table. It also assumes that numeric grades are assigned to these registrations.

There are two other functions that are similar to this one. Countreg counts registrations with the criteria just going off of the register table. In my previous example, if I didn't need the nudfn1 requirement, then it could be countreg(cocrse,"val(rggrade)>=65"). Notice that I didn't need the "register." in this function.

Another function is the countname function. This is closer to the countnameudfs function in that is looks at another table for criteria when counting the registrations. Maybe you need to count everyone in a course that is male and has a certain grade. That would look like countname(cocrse,"nmsex='M' and val(register.rggrade)>=65").

With all of these options to count registrations, there should be one that meets your statistical reporting needs. Get with your technician and visit the help guide to find out more about these functions and others that may meet your needs.

Contributed by Matthew J. Olson

2016 Conference Dates Set - Now accepting proposals!

We're excited about hosting the 20th Annua l Conference at home in the Little Apple (Manhattan, KS). Be sure to save the dates of May 18-20, 2016 on your calendar. Preconference workshops will be held on May 17. Bookmark the conference site and visit often.

Your colleagues and the ACEware team want to hear about your experience using Student Manager/ACEweb. The comments we see on evaluations serve as evidence of how important these colleague-to-colleague sessions are. For example, from our 2015 Conference, an attendee shared with us that, "... the first hand experience from other software users was so helpful and gave me confidence to try things for myself at my institution."

We (ACEware and your CE colleagues) make it easy to be a presenter. One presenter from 2015 shared, " I was asked to be a presenter for the 2015 ACEware Users' Conference. I was definitely thrilled and nervous at the same time. Each session was very relaxed and engaging. As I started my presentation my nervousness went away almost instantly. If you are asked to be a presenter go for it!! You have absolutely nothing to worry about. The ACEware team is extremely supportive and you will have a great time!!"

If you still aren't convinced, remember that selected presenters receive a reduced registration rate. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, submit a proposal to present a session at the 2016 ACEware Annual Users' Conference!

Contributed by Sharon Brookshire

What's on Your Mind?

The ACEware webinar series is being planned for the academic year and we'd sure appreciate your ideas. What would you like to see covered in a webinar? Tell us what you want to know more about (as related to CE and ACEware software that is) and there may be a webinar on that topic.

Remember, our webinars are archived. If you had to miss the summer series, you can catch them here.

Contributed by Sharon Brookshire

ACEware Staff Changes

Emily is on a new professional venture. She's now the owner and manager of Second Street Restaurant in Frankfort, KS. Matthew recently tried out the food and service and here's what he had to say: "It was outstanding! The only disappointment was that the restaurant was too busy for me to chat with Emily and her husband."

We wish Emily all the best!

Sharon can help you with any questions about your support agreement or other financial matters. Your emails to [email protected] will reach her.