Team Management
This document aims to show quickly how to achieve various tasks using the aPlus+ Team Management solution. This is in addition to the separate product documentation which covers more detail and background information.
Depending on your level of access you may not have access to perform all the tasks covered in this document. Levels of access typically give some users access to create teams and manage other administration tasks such as setting up categories, and other users access to manage information within a team such as team members and team absences.
The majority of this document looks at the most common tasks of managing team members and absences.
Canvas users will need to access the aPlus+ administrator portal directly, to manage teams. See Canvas Admin Topics
Click the Teams > Team Management menu option.
The Team Management start page shows teams organized by category. Because each team is for a period of time only such as for the 2018-2019 year, a date filter at the top of the page allows you to choose the period of time you’d like to see teams for. Click a team name to view the team and manage absences.
Only teams during this date range are shown
When you are viewing a team you can navigate back to the start page by clicking the < arrow in the page heading. When viewing an absence:
Similarly when viewing an absence you can click the team name in the heading to view the team:
On one screen you can see all members and absences for this team.
Depending on your level of access you may not see all the options above.
Start typing the name of the student as in the screen below. A list of matching students will show. Click the student name, then click the Add member button. They will then show in the team member list.
If there are many students with the same name, hover your mouse pointer over each to see the ID and date of birth if available to help you select the correct student.
If you have a list of student IDs or student names click the Add many… button.
First select whether you have student IDs or names and provide your list.
1) Make a Match on selection depending on whether you have a list of IDs or names.
2) Paste a list of student IDs or student names (first last) then click Next
The system will try to find the student’s you have entered.
If a student is found they will be selected for you. Below you can see all students were found.
There may be multiple matches - you will need to select which one to add to the team.
There may be no matches - double check the information you have entered. Student names must match exactly the student information as it appears in Canvas. If you have the information correct, the student may not have loaded into aPlus+ yet. Seek assistance for such missing students.
Once you have made selections click Add selection and those members will appear in the team members list.
Click the trash icon beside a team member to remove them.
About removed members:
- You can add the member back later if you need to
- If you remove a member who is already selected as absent for an absence, they will remain selected as absent
Click the + New extended absence option to create a new absence.
You will be prompted to enter a short title / explanation for this absence.
Enter a concise explanation using as few words as you reasonably can then click Next.
You will then be asked to enter more detail about the absence:
- Select the type of absence from the list of options. This will be shown to faculty as the reason for the absence when they view the student’s attendance records in their course.
- Specify the from and until dates and optionally times.
- If the absence is for one day, the from and until dates should be the same date.
- If the absence is from the start of the day, select ‘all day’ for the from date Otherwise, deselect ‘all day’ and specify the start time.
- If the absence is until the end of the day, select ‘all day’ for the until date. Otherwise, deselect ‘all day’ and specify the end time
- Any course attendance sessions which overlap with the dates and times specified by the absence will be set to absent.
- Enter a short but detailed description of the absence. This will be included as a part of email notifications to faculty about the students who are absent from their courses. This is not the full email which will be sent to faculty, so you don’t need to list students or the dates and times; just describe the reason for the absence in enough detail for faculty to understand the reason students won’t be in their class.
Note that the system will understand that students are absent for any classes which overlap with the date and time selections. For example, for an absence which starts at 10:45am, students would be considered absent from any class which runs from 10am-10:55am, but not from a class which runs 10am-10:40am.
The following are examples of date selections for an absence.
Absent for the entire day of 7 Sep: (full day)
Absent from 11:30am 7 Sep until the end of 7 Sep: (partial day)
Absent from 11:30am 7 Sep until 2:15 pm of 7 Sep: (partial day)
Absent from 2pm 7 Sep through until the end of 10 Sep: (one partial day, 3 full days)
All team members are listed, and those which are selected are part of the absence.
In the screen below four of the 9 students in the team will be absent. Only members of the team can be selected as absent. Select or deselect members as necessary and click the Update button to apply the changes.
Note that the system will remember that you have removed a member from the absence. Later when notifications are sent, the notification will indicate that a member has been removed to ensure faculty are up to date with any changes which may have been made.
When an absence is first created it is Unconfirmed and this is indicated by the circle with a cross through it as you can see below.
It’s unconfirmed so that you can make changes to the members and details of the absence without affecting student’s attendance records.
When you are ready you can confirm the absence by selecting the Confirm option.
This will update student’s attendance records in their courses for the period they are absent for – so faculty can see the student will be absent from their classes.
A confirmed absence is indicated by the Confirmed indicator as shown below.
When you unconfirm existing attendance records will remain as they are but no further changes will be made. You can then make changes to students and re-confirm later.
When you’ve confirmed the absence you will need to notify faculty about their students being absent. Click the Notify tool to view the Notify screen.
Unless you want to make sure all faculty receive an email notification, select the first option to only notify about students who have been added or removed to the absence since the last notification was sent.
On the right of the Notify screen is a preview of the courses, faculty and students who will be included in the notification.
One notification will be sent per faculty member:
- A list of their courses containing students affected
- A list of students in that course affected by the absence.
Cast your eye over the preview information to check this is what you expect and to see which faculty may not have an email address to send to.
Below is an example email which will be sent from the system to one faculty member.
Notice that only a few courses and students are listed – these are the ones which apply to this faculty member. Other faculty affected would receive a similar email with information relevant to them.
You may not have access to create a new team. The + New team is indicated below:
A new team needs to be assigned a category. If the category you need is not available a system administrator can adjust the list of categories available.
The team name should include an indication of the time period it relates to. Notice the team name below includes 2018-2019. Also select a start and finish date for the team – this is the actual period of time the team will exist for. These dates could span an academic year, or just a semester. In the new year or semester you’d create a new team for that new period.
You can optionally select if the team applies to men or women. By default there is no selection here. This selection is for informational purposes only and serves no other purpose.
Because teams relate to a period of time, such as the 18/19 academic year, when time passes and the new year starts, this team won’t show because you will then be looking at teams for the 2019 – 2020 year. There is no need to actually delete a team, unless it’s been entered in error.
