Willing to share experience?

[kcain]

Good morning,

My name is Katie Cain, the Director of Instructional Technology at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta, Georgia. Our school is in the early stages of transitioning to Unified Classroom. For a few years, we have been using PowerSchool SIS and PowerSchool Learning separately.

We've been researching UC for quite some time now. We are interested in talking with other schools who have adopted UC, hoping to gain insights on best practices and potential pitfalls as we transition our faculty, students, and families to UC.

We would be so grateful if we could set up a 20-30 minute Skype or Google Hangout call with a few schools who are willing to share their experience. If this is something that interests you, please feel free to respond here or reach out to me directly at kcain@mountvernonschool.org.

Thank you,

Katie

[jamiem7]

Thank you for your post in the Community!  It appears you are seeking responses from PowerSchool users. Please let us know if you would like further assistance from PowerSchool!

[chamada]

Hi Katie,

I've just messaged you on Twitter, but I'll reply here too with more detail!

We are in the process of setting up a fully functioning trial of UC, running in parallel with existing systems for the next 6 - 10 weeks so we can make a decision regarding a full-on move. I'd love to chat about where you guys are and what you have discovered, both good and not so good, on your journey, especially as it relates to standards-based grading. This is the one non-negotiable in our trial: whatever we move to must support our vision and implentation of SBGR rather than requiring us to change our philosophy to fit within the abilities of the tool.

Cheers,

Clint Hamada

PK-12 Educational Technology Coordinator

International School of Beijing

[kcain]

Hi Clint,

Thank you so much for reaching out. I DM'ed you on Twitter too. Perhaps we can find a time to connect next week?

Thanks,

Katie

[econleyshannon]

We have been using Unified Classroom all year-  Let me know what feedback you would like.   Our tech team has struggled finding other districts using PowerSchool successfully with no issues.  We are often running into glitches and stumbling blocks.

[jamiem7]

Thank you for your response!  

There was an update with Unified Classroom this weekend that should have made improvements to the Unified Classroom product for Teachers.  I have listed some of the updates below.

• Users can now view PDF files directly within the Unified Classroom.
• Unified Classroom improves the way student handout files are stored in Google Drive.
• Students and teachers can view and edit certain Google files that they upload to assignments from Google Drive directly within Unified Classroom.

• Google users now have a more thorough integration with Google Drive, including:

  • Access to Team Drives
  • Display of Google Drive by folder structure
• Teachers are prompted to adjust or keep updated standard scores when they selected to auto-calculate.
•  Notifications for a Class Page are being sent when the page was updated.

If your district has any questions or would like to speak with PowerSchool regarding Unified Classroom, I recommend having the PowerSchool Admin reach out to PowerSchool.  PowerSchool is happy to discuss and work through any questions the district may have.  We want to ensure all users are able to use PowerSchool products with utmost efficiency.  

[chamada]

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for the updates.

Considering PowerSchool's recent (January 2018) partnership with Microsoft, can we expect similar functionality with OneDrive, SharePoint Online Groups, and Microsoft Online documents too? Or does similar functionality already exist?

As a school in China, we are an Microsoft Office 365 school and do not have access to Google Docs and other Google services.

Thanks!

Clint Hamada

[jamiem7]

Yes, PowerSchool plans to have the handout and edit/annotate functionality available for O365 users for back to school 2019

[kcain]

Hi @econleyshannon

Yes, we are eager to hear about the user experience with Unified Classroom. Essentially, we are trying to determine if we should also make the move to UC next year, or continue using PowerSchool SIS plus PowerSchool Learning class pages as separate sites.

I'd be interested to hear why your school chose to upgrade to Unified Classroom and any user experience (the wins, the areas for improvement, etc) that might help us make an informed decision.

If this interests you, please feel free to message me through this support community.

Thank you,

Katie

[loridwyre]

Katie,

We are going through the same process.  I attended PSU Orlando this past February and attended UC classes.  I was impressed by the changes.  We attempted to move forward with this product last summer but there were many issues and performance was terrible.

Has your school made any decisions?  I believe we will make the change this summer.