March 2013 News
Welcome to the March 2013 edition of the Engineerica newsletter. In this issue we have the results from the "iPad mini - Customer Case Study" contest, a report on the first ever Accudemia Orlando Training Session, a last call for the Orlando March AccuTrack Training,
and more! Here is an index of the topics:
- "iPad mini - Customer Case Study" Results!
- A Successful Accudemia Orlando Training Session
- Last Call for the March Orlando AccuTrack Training!
- Take advantage of User Voice
- Tech Tip: Adding a Video to Your Home Page
"iPad mini - Customer Case Study" Results!
We were overwhelmed by the great response for this contest with over 40 great submissions. Judging the submissions was a hard task given the excellent quality of these submissions. Cetin Basoz, our lead developer, commented that he "was giving everyone a 10"! Six judges scored each entry in these areas: creative usage, storytelling, media use, and effort. The scores from the 6 judges were combined to get the results.
A big thank you goes out to all of the participants. It is exciting to learn how each of these colleges uses the software differently. Some of the uses are very creative! For example, one college uses AccuTrack to track the distribution of caps and gowns for graduating seniors. Another uses the software to schedule and track over 50 seminars held throughout the semester. It is also interesting to see a sample report from one college showing over 273,000 visits logged with AccuSQL in just one semester!
And now for our top 3 selections! Drum roll please...
1st Place: Borough of Manhattan Community College
2nd Place: Southeastern Community College
3rd Place: Harding University
Other institutions that should receive honorable mentions include: Pulaski Technical College, Fort Lewis College, Edison State College, Del Mar College, Rochester College, St. Louis Community College, and Pasco-Hernando Community College as they finished in our "top ten" selection.
The top 3 selections get to choose from gifts that include the Apple iPad mini and popular e-readers. The top 4 to 10 will get a cool flash drive, Engineerica branded gifts, and 50 Engineerica dollars that they can use towards a future purchase from Engineerica. All other participants will be receiving an assortment of branded Engineerica gifts. If you were among those who participated, then expect an email message soon with more information.
Once again we would like to thank this year's participants. By giving us insights on how you use these products you gave us a better understanding of the impact they make. For the full list of submissions, click here.
A Successful Accudemia Orlando Training Session
I would like to start by thanking the participants in the first ever Accudemia Orlando training session! It was a pleasure to meet all of you and learn how your centers are using the software. It is always great to see that the software can be configured in so many different ways to help manage your centers and institutions.
We had five different speakers covering a range of topics. Our special guest, Diego Jancic, flew in from Chicago to participate. Diego presented sessions on data import and single sign-on and answered the attendees' questions during a Q&A session. Other speakers included Nick Armstrong, Chadd Blodgett, Mary Oberhelman, and Mon Nasser.
Comments received show that participants thought the training was valuable and would recommend it to others. Here’s the photo from the training session and it looks like all smiles here!
Missed the training? You can still get a glimpse of what was presented by checking out this webpage with the training material and resources. Simply visit this webpage: http://www.newsite.engineerica.com/workshops/accudemia-feb-2013
-Nick Armstrong, Support Representative
Last Call for the AccuTrack / AccuSQL Orlando Training!
If you would like the opportunity to meet with and learn in person from AccuTrack experts, then check out our Orlando training class on Thursday & Friday March 21st-22nd. The session is conducted over two days and discusses everything from beginner to advanced topics. The session is 'hands-on' for maximum benefit. The Orlando training sessions are also a good place for meeting other AccuTrack users to exchange ideas and form friendships with your colleagues. As a bonus you get to enjoy the City Beautiful with its world-famous attractions. Training is complimentary for Platinum Plus subscribers. For the details and to reserve your seat, click here.
Utilize UserVoice to let the programmers know what you want!
Did you know? The best way to submit your software improvement ideas and suggestions for features is the UserVoice feedback site? Developers check this site when working on future releases to figure out what users want. This is why it's very important to send your feedback via UserVoice and not via e-mail, phone, or other methods.
We set up the UserVoice feedback site to manage the great volume of ideas and suggestions sent to us by users. Not only can you submit your ideas, but you can also read others' ideas and vote on the ones you like. There are actually two UserVoice sites:
1) Accudemia UserVoice: Find this here: accudemia.uservoice.com
2) AccuTrack / AccuSQL UserVoice: Find this here: accu.uservoice.com
Your feedback is very important to us so make sure to utilize the above sites. Here is how it works:
1. Each system admin can add requests and/or vote on existing requests.
2. You can give each request 1 to 3 votes to reflect its importance.
3. Each user is limited to 10 votes, so make sure to use your votes on your most important requests.
4. Requests with more votes have higher implementation priority.
Watch a video to see how Uservoice works by clicking here.
Again, the UserVoice site is the only place our developers check when adding features, so it’s imperative to use this site to send in important feature requests. Suggestions sent to support via email or mentioned verbally will not be considered.
-Nick Armstrong, Support Representative
Tech Tip: Add a Video to your Accudemia Home Page
This tip was explained during our Orlando training session and we thought to share it with you here. Do you want to explain something about Accudemia or your center to your students? For example, maybe you have been getting frequent questions on how to schedule appointments. Accudemia offers you two places for showing these instructions. One place is on the log-in screen of your sign-in stations. The second is the “My Homepage” section that students see once they have logged into Accudemia.
Even better: instead of just adding text, show the students by including a video! It is easier than you think. Just record a short video and upload it to YouTube. Once there, you can share it by clicking on “Share” link below the video on YouTube. Click “Embed” which gives you the HTML code you need to include the video on your Accudemia site. Here is a screenshot of this:
Now copy the HTML code by highlighting all of it and hitting Ctrl-C on your keyboard. In Accudemia, go to your Control Panel, click Announcements, and select College Level or the Center you want the video to appear. Then click the source button and paste the HTML code into that section.
Click “Save Changes” and load “My homepage” to view your new custom video instructions!
If you do not have a video recorded and want a test video you can use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbxreJGFJuM
-Nick Armstrong, Support Representative