Administrator Guide: Getting ready to use B Squared software in your school

There are several things a Super Administrator needs to do when getting ready to use B Squared’s Connecting Steps assessment software or Evisense evidence management software in your school:

Set up users

Set up students

Set up groups (optional)

Apply your system settings

Manage your frameworks

Options for schools using Connecting Steps

Options for schools using Evisense

Users

The Super Administrator account has already been set up for your school. You will need to add your other users. All users who are assigned senior leader roles have administrative access to our software. Super Administrators can also invite other users to be Administrators to share responsibility for administrating the software at your school.

User limits

The maximum number of users you can add is dependent on the software you are using. You assign access to different software when you create users, it can also be modified at any time on the Users Screen. Different users can be given access to different software:

• MyBSquared - All Administrators have access to MyBSquared. There are a number of user roles that are given the Administrator role, including senior leader user roles. You can create users that only have access to MyBSquared to help with administration tasks.
• Connecting Steps - The number of users that can access Connecting Steps will depend on the number of students you have purchased Connecting Steps for. If you click on the cog in the top right of MyBSquared and click on Licence, it will tell you how many Connecting Steps user licences you have and how many you have used.
• Evisense - Evisense has unlimited user accounts, this enables all staff to use Evisense and build a holistic view of a student's time in your setting.
• Analytics - Analytics has unlimited users, a user does not need access to Connecting Steps or Evisense to use Analytics.

Add Users

Watch the 2-minute video: https://support.bsquared.co.uk/docs/how-to-add-and-remove-users-in-my-bsquared/

How to add a new user: https://support.bsquared.cloud/article/544-adding-a-new-user

There are various user roles available. To edit these, see below for How to set roles.

Students

Import students

Watch the 3-minute video: https://support.bsquared.co.uk/docs/how-to-import-students-into-my-bsquared/

Before you can import students, you will first need to create a report from your MIS. The report will need to be in a .CSV format and contain at least these 5 mandatory fields:

• First Name 
• Last Name
• Date of Birth 
• Sex
• Registration Group 

How to Import Students from your MIS: https://support.bsquared.cloud/article/560-importing-from-mis-systems-sims-cmis-arbor-integris-etc

Add Students Manually

How to add students manually: https://support.bsquared.cloud/article/554-adding-students

Additional student options for Evisense

There are several additional options linked to Evisense:

• Child is Protected - Protected students are students whose posts should not be seen by other people (posts they are tagged in). This can be due to children being on the child protection register, they could be a child in care, or it could be parental preference. This is off by default, but turning this on prevents other parents/guardians from seeing posts with them in.
• Appears in Evisense - You may use different B Squared software for different students. If you want to use Evisense with a student, this must be turned on.
• Access to Evisense - This setting is for giving this student the ability to log in and use Evisense. This is only available if student access is enabled. To give access to a student, you must have added a valid email address.
• Account is Suspended - If you have given a student access to Evisense, but you wish to temporarily remove access, you can suspend their account. Set this to on and the student will not be able to log in to Evisense.

Groups (optional)

There are four different types of groups:

• Registration Groups - These are your typical groups you would use in settings where pupils stay in the same group. In primary schools, the registration groups will be your classes. In secondary settings, registration groups would be your tutor groups. A student can only be in one registration group at a time. Students automatically move to the next registration group (if set) at the start of the school year.
• Teaching Groups - These groups are for separate groups you teach. This could be due to streaming, intervention groups etc. There are no limits on the number of teaching groups or how many teaching groups a student can be in.
• Data Groups - These groups are for looking at data for groups of students. They cannot be used in Evisense. These are generally when you want to look at a group of students you do not teach together but want to look at their data together. The main cohorts schools use to look at data are set up automatically as System Groups and the information for these can be imported from your MIS.
• Messaging Groups - These are groups you use within Evisense to send notifications to a group of students. They do not appear in Connecting Steps. An example of a messaging group might be the school council, sports teams or any group of students who do an activity together you want to send messages to in Evisense. You can change the group type between Teaching, Data and Messaging groups. This is useful if you change how you use a group or if you previously selected the wrong group type.

A default group has already been set up for you. You can use the default group or set up multiple groups to meet your school’s needs.

How to add a group: https://support.bsquared.cloud/article/574-adding-a-new-group

Apply your system settings

There are some important system settings within the software that you need to set for your school.

How to set roles

To manage the different roles used within the organisation

1. Log into MyBSquared - https://uk.bsquared.cloud/.
2. In MyBSquared navigate to Options.
3. Select required roles to be enabled using the Slider.

Note: Roles have different access rights to the system. Certain roles do have alternative names. To select the alternative, click on the down arrow and choose the required name. Once a role has been allocated to a user, it cannot be switched off and will appear greyed out on this screen!

How to set key dates

1. Log into MyBSquared - https://uk.bsquared.cloud/.
2. In MyBSquared navigate to Options.
3. Click ‘Add new Key Date’.
4. Select the date required.
5. Press Save.

Note: There can be a maximum of 12 key dates.

Manage Frameworks

Watch this overview video: https://support.bsquared.cloud/article/601-managing-frameworks-books-and-structures

Schools using Connecting Steps must set their frameworks before using the software. Applying frameworks to specific age ranges and setting default frameworks for your school will help you in the future when analysing students’ progress. It will make managing your data and managing reporting easier, as students will automatically transition seamlessly from one framework to the next when they reach the appropriate age throughout their journey at school.

Step 1

Apply frameworks to specific ages: https://support.bsquared.cloud/article/581-applying-frameworks-to-specific-age-ranges

Step 2

Set up your default frameworks: https://support.bsquared.cloud/article/580-setting-up-your-default-frameworks

Step 3

Set individual frameworks (optional): https://support.bsquared.cloud/article/581-applying-frameworks-to-specific-age-ranges

Step 4

Apply additional frameworks to all or specific students (optional): https://support.bsquared.cloud/article/568-applying-additional-frameworks-to-all-or-specific-students

Step 5

Manage books and structures: https://support.bsquared.cloud/article/579-managing-books-and-structures

Please do watch the video and follow the instructions in the guide. You can contact our Support Team with any questions on support@bsquared.co.uk or 01252 870133 (Option 2 for support).

Options for schools using Connecting Steps

Best Fit

The best fit is the percentage students must reach in a level before it becomes automatically completed. This gives the students some leeway within the level. The best fit is set for the whole school and cannot be set for individuals or groups.

To set the Best Fit

1. Log into MyBSquared - https://uk.bsquared.cloud/.
2. In MyBSquared navigate to Connecting Steps Options.
3. Under Best Fit Percentage click on the dropdown option.
4. Select the percentage your school would like (80 - 85% is average).
5. Press Save.

Levels of Achievement

You need to decide which levels of achievement you wish to use in your school and set them up. This video explains how to set the levels of achievement for Connecting Steps. https://support.bsquared.cloud/article/602-how-to-set-the-levels-of-achievement

Some frameworks can have different achievements set, enabling schools to use more achievement levels with more complex students. You can view the various achievement types applicable to each framework in the Options for Connecting Steps screen. You can make changes to an achievement type description for a particular framework as well as enabling or disabling achievement types.

To manage achievement types for your frameworks

1. Log into MyBSquared - https://uk.bsquared.cloud/.
2. Navigate to Connecting Steps Options.
3. Click the drop down list labelled Choose Framework and the available achievement types for your chosen framework will appear.
4. Click the slider button next to the achievement type. Green to enable it, red to disable it.
5. You can also edit the description of an achievement type using the pencil icon in the Edit Description column.

Options for schools using Evisense

Evisense is an enormously powerful, flexible tool to enable schools to capture and share evidence and communicate with parents. To enable schools to customise Evisense to meet their needs, there is a wide range of options available. By default, the system has been setup with the typical settings schools would want to use when starting to use Evisense. Parent/guardian access is turned off, as is student access. Several options are set to restrict access/features for security purposes, this includes device restriction for the Evisense app and preventing device gallery access from the app for school users.

Some schools who start using Evisense will already be using Connecting Steps. This means they will be familiar with a number of features and can get up and running with Evisense extremely quickly. It is important all schools, both existing Connecting Steps users and new users, understand all the features within Evisense and the implications. Turning on features such as school users being able to access the school gallery, turning off device restriction or enabling parent/guardian access should require the school to review their Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for using Evisense.

Setting up Evisense with all the different settings are split into three areas.

• Features and settings that are common to all B Squared software are contained within MyBSquared, the B Squared admin portal. This is where all students, groups, users, assessment content and other common settings are managed. This is also where the device restriction/access is controlled for school users of Evisense.
• Settings that are unique to Evisense are contained within the School Preferences in Evisense. This is where you control privacy, post settings, notification rules and more. This is accessible to all Administrators and impacts all users.
• Each user can customise their Evisense experience, some of the settings will be limited by the school, others are about what they see when they open Evisense and how they receive their notifications.