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ACE Award Winner Spotlight - Brittany Thomasson
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At the 2015 ACEware Annual Users' Conference two customers were awarded the ACEware Champion Educator (ACE) Award for their innovative and extensive use of Student Manager at their institution.
This month, we highlight award recipient Brittany Thomasson, Senior Program Associate for Auburn University at Montgomery. AUM runs two outreach units using Student Manager: Community Engagement and Training Solutions. To help with branding the units and facilitating other needs, Brittany manages five alternate interfaces for ACEweb. Brittany has worked closely with us at ACEware to get these alternate interfaces working how she needed them to work.
The two outreach units at AUM run approximately 450 programs per year. These programs generate eight to nine thousand registrations.
Brittany was surprised to get the award. When she heard that Mike nominated her, she, "was so excited!" In Brittany's words: "It made me feel very special and appreciated for all the hard work that I have done on our different interfaces with ACEweb." She even found it exciting to present at conference and share about her work to people wanting to hear about it.
Brittany's colleagues are very proud of her and shared in her excitement. They agree with us that she is very deserving of the award. Her family is also proud of her--it was great to see Brittany's husband was with her at conference to witness her getting the award.
Brittany had this to say about the Student Manager and ACEweb features that are the most beneficial to her:
"We love the organization of it, how we can pull data on anything we want from the system. We print certificates, run nametags, rosters, reports of all kinds, etc... We use ACEweb and have five alternate interfaces for online registrations. We have five because we have different program areas that have specific needs. Not all programs need the same information from customers. We love having instructor access to view registrations if we are not in the office."
Brittany related this forecast:
"I foresee us engaging with the community even more within the next five years having our enrollments go up, having more conferences and events. I see our Osher Lifelong Learning Institute growing as well. ACEware is great for organizing and managing all the data of the students/registrations that we have. It is a very secure system and we know our customer's information is safe."
She had some advice for people already using Student Manager and ACEweb: "My advice is to contact your ACEware Technician on a regular basis because it is so helpful. The ACEware/SM help guide is my best friend!! It is also great to watch the webinars and learn, learn, learn the system. The more you learn the system the more you enjoy it. J I love the short-cut keys as well. They help me speed through registrations." Brittany had this advice for people considering ACEware Systems for software: "ACEware Student Manager and ACEweb are wonderful programs that have helped us for many years. Student Manager will organize your students and registrations. You have endless abilities to pull data from the system. You can create classes, have your students enroll online, enter payments, etc.... ACEweb helps us so much because we had over 4,000 online registrations last year. That would be a lot of phone calls if we didn't have online registration. ACEweb is basically a 24-hour employee. Student Manager 8 has a much easier search feature than Student Manager 7. The name and course screens are more organized as well. I highly recommend users merging to the new version of Student Manager." She also had these comments: "I have been working with the ACEware registration system for 8 years. I have grown and learned so much these past few years and I continue to learn new things. Not only do I enjoy working in the registration system, but I also enjoy the ACEware team. I had the pleasure of seeing you all in person at the Users Conference in April and had a wonderful time. I wish that I could see you all more often!" Brittany is also doing a webinar on the way she uses alternate interfaces. It is on June 10th at 1:30 P.M. Central. Click here to sign up for it. Contributed by Matthew J. Olson |
| Phasing Out Support for Student Manager 7.2.A |
The release of SM 8.0 in June 2014 brought a number of exciting new features to you including the popular favorite reports and search routines. During the past year, we've done some patching and speed enhancements. We have added additional features including the much requested screen makeovers! See all the new features in 8.0 in What's New on our Online Reference Guide.
Over the next six months, support for SM 7.2.A will be phased out and, and SM 7.2.A will be retired by the end of the year. What does this mean? In the new calendar year, technical support for 7.2.A will no longer be available.
If you are still running 7.2.A or earlier, grab a calendar, contact your tech, and schedule your upgrade to 8.0 before the December holidays. Together you'll identify the best time in the interest of your program.
Contributed by Sharon Brookshire
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Remove User Files
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From time to time, user files can become corrupt and generate errors. If a user can't log in or is getting errors, you can now remove her/his user records from the Password Maintenance screen in Student Manager. This ability was added in version 8.0.022.
To delete user files:
- Make sure the user is logged out.
- Select Tools >> Password Maintenance.
- Find and select the appropriate User record.
- Click the Remove User Files button.
- Click the OK button on the confirmation box.
- Click the OK/Close button to close the Password Maintenance screen.
Please note that this does not remove the user's preferences file. The next time that user logs in, s/he will be told that it is her/his first time logging in, and Student Manager will shut down. The next time the user signs into Student Manager, it will operate normally.
It may not be all that apparent when to delete user files. Your technician can usually identify this. This tool will help in that you don't have to manually remove the user files when a technician has determined an issue you are having is related to them.
Contributed by Matthew J. Olson
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| Now Available: Student Manager Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Manual |
During the 2014 ACEware Users' Conference several customers expressed a need for a set of standard operating procedures for Student Manager. This document, developed by both customers and ACEware technicians, is the answer to that request. It is intended as a basic outline for your organization to complete and expand as needed, keeping in mind that these procedures will evolve with time and will therefore need periodic review and revision.
Several customers helped draft the original document and we owe them a HUGE thank you! Nicki Toizer at Mt. Airy Learning, Barb Dietz at Southern Methodist University, and Joy Finch at Greenville Technical College contributed their thoughts and ideas, and sometimes their own working manuals to get us started. Should you see them around, offer a high five. It's hard work getting a fledgling idea off the ground!
Most SOP manuals provide intricate step-by-step instructions for completing specific tasks. ACEware has an extensive library of online help topics that do just that. This manual is intended to record preferences and settings, roles and responsibilities, and periodic tasks. Think of this as the set of instructions that you would leave on your desk for your successor, or, alternately, the manual you wish you had received on the first day of your job.
Download the SOP Manual from our website: http://www.aceware.com/docs/sopmanual.docx
Contributed by Cheryl Scott
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| Reminder - Training Available - July 23-24 |
South Carolina State University at Orangeburg will host a two-day Student Manager Intermediate Training. Don't miss this opportunity to refresh and advance your skills in using all the tools available with Student Manager 8.0. Discover tips and tricks to streamline your daily work and learn about the multitude of reports available and how they can be modified to meet your unique reporting needs.
Contributed by Sharon Brookshire |
| Fair Warning |
After maintaining our current pricing structure for software and support for three years, we are announcing a 10% price increase that will be effective January 1, 2016. These changes will be reflected with the renewal of support agreements that expire in calendar year 2016. For your convenience, we will contact the Keeper of the Flame for each school before August 2015 to project the new price of their SMAs that expire in 2016. We hope you find this information helpful as you plan your fiscal year 2017 budgets.
Contributed by Sharon Brookshire
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Thank you from all of us at ACEware Systems!
- Chuck, Sharon, AJ, Bill, Cheryl, Chris, Emily, Jason, Lauri, Lindsey, Matthew, Mike,
Stein, Sunil
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| About Aceware |
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ACEware provides comprehensive registration software designed for non-credit programs.
Our goal is to provide you with the tools you need to run your program.
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| Contact Us |
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Phone
Voice: 800.925.2493
Fax: 785.537.6811
eMail
Mail
ACEware Systems, Inc.
7480 Dyer Road
Manhattan, KS 66502
We would love to hear from you! If you have questions, comments, or suggestions about this newsletter, please contact [email protected]. |
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