Infinite Campus Questions Answered

Thank you to all of the people who continue to provide comments here on the district blog. We have seen some very interesting negative and positive responses so far.

Today I want to address some commonly-themed questions/concerns/issues with Infinite Campus.

The following questions and answers come from the collected comments, e-mails, phone calls, and other correspondence we've received:

• How do I get an account?
  Where do I get an activation key?
  How do I change my password?
  What do I do if I lost my password?
  These are all bunched together because they have the same answer: contact your student's home campus. Most of these types of issues can be resolved by speaking with the school receptionists.
  
  
• Why can't we see lesson plans in Infinite Campus?
  We were aware when we purchased Infinite Campus that it did not have the "lesson plan" feature. Some campuses are using the newsletter function for teachers to post their lesson plans, but so far this is a campus choice. The Instructional Technology team provided and will continue to provide training on using the newsletter feature for those campuses interested in providing lesson plans. Please note: Parents can see upcoming assignments by clicking on their Infinite Campus calendar. (See parent portal screenshots page #3)
  
  
• Will teachers ever be able to send mass email reminders to parents and/or students?
  We didn't have that feature activated, but it is now activated. Teachers will be trained on how to use the Messenger feature soon.
  
  
• Why are students no longer able to set up their own accounts to access their grades?
  Again, this is a feature that hasn't been activated yet. After we get parents logged in and settled into the system then the student portal will follow.
  
  
• How is Infinite Campus better than eSembler at meeting our needs?
  It give teachers and parents much more student information than eSembler. It's one large information system with multiple modules to help many departments.
  
  
• It seems that MISD has taken a step back rather than forward with this new system.
  Actually we've taken a great step forward. People need to remember that this isn't just a gradebook that we're implementing. Some people think that because that's the only part they see, when actually the gradebook is only a tiny piece of the big system. Please also remember that this is our implementation year. It took a couple of years to get everything activated and working correctly in eSembler.

(Photo credit: jbelluch)