TECH TALK SESSION
In our last post recapping our Tech Talk segment with Senior Support Specialist Nick Armstrong, we discussed the questions you should ask if a student is having trouble signing into an in-person sign-in station with Accudemia, whether they are arriving as a walk-in or appointment. For the second part of that segment, Nick went over troubleshooting for virtual or iAccu-based sign-ins. If your center uses either method to track students, then you’ll definitely want to read this post!
Virtual Sign-ins
Being able to keep track of students virtually is of paramount importance in our current world. With Accudemia, the process is usually smooth and easy, but if you or your students encounter any difficulties, you’ll want to gather the answers to these questions to see if you can find the issue yourself, or before you contact support:
- Does the tutor have a Connect Link or Zoom Integration set up in Accudemia? The tutor or support staff member the student is set to meet with may have a unique link for anyone who wants to meet with them, but that link needs to be listed in Accudemia for their session to connect and be counted. Check Administration > User Accounts and go to the tutor’s account to make sure they have a Connect Link listed.
- Has the tutor connected to Zoom Integration properly? Even if you see a link in the tutor’s profile, in rare cases, it may not be connecting to where you want it to. Remember that to use the Zoom integration, every staff member must have access to a professional or educational account, NOT a free account. If you and your tutors don’t have access to a paid Zoom account, you won’t be able to use the Zoom Integration feature, but you can use Connect Links with another type of connection platform, such as Google Meet.
- Are the virtual links not recording the session? Sometimes, you may not discover there’s an issue until after the session is over. In this particular case, you know a session took place virtually, but there is no log-in Accudemia, or the student received a no-show notification even though they did meet with their tutor. After making sure the Connect Link is set up, make sure that the student received and clicked on the correct link.
Go to Control Panel > Email Templates and ensure that the Appointment Confirmation and Appointment Reminder emails are using the tag #Appointment_JoinLink# and not #Tutor_ConnectLink#. The latter tag bypasses Accudemia and sends them directly to the meeting.
Using the right tag and making sure students are clicking on the right link in their email should solve the issue, but if it doesn’t, contact Support so we can troubleshoot further. - Are certain services not providing a meeting link? This issue occurs if a student makes an appointment that is meant to take place virtually, but they are not issued a Join Link via email. In this case, the most likely issue is that the Service they chose is not set to be virtual, and so it won’t generate a Join Link when an appointment is made. Go to Administration > Centers and Classrooms to make sure the Services that should take place virtually are set to “Online,” and that their names make it clear to students which Services are virtual and which are in-person. Once this is corrected, the virtual Services should start providing links when appointments are made for them.
iAccu Appointment Sign-ins
iAccu is an app developed by Engineerica which allows Accudemia managers to track students using an iPhone or iPad. It’s especially useful for signing in large numbers of students at once, such as during an event, though it can also replace a normal staff-facing center kiosk. Ask these questions to troubleshoot any issues with iAccu:
- Can you not log into iAccu? If you can’t log into iAccu, obviously you’re going to have trouble recording student visits! Check first if you’re able to log into Accudemia using Safari, the Apple device’s browser. If you can log in online, then you should be able to log into the app as well. Make sure you have a strong WiFi connection, and if you do and you’ve tried the app again, connect Support.
- Is the screen frozen or did you lose the passcode to the admin screen? If either of these are roadblocks, try killing the app and restarting it. You can also try restarting the device itself. As a last resort, you can try uninstalling and reinstalling the app, but keep in mind you’ll have to reconfigure all the settings again. If you are considering uninstalling and have any swipes from using iAccu that have not synced to Accudemia, contact Support, who can help you make sure you don’t lose data.
- Are swipes missing in Accudemia? One great feature of iAccu is that it can be used even if the device is offline. When the device connects to the internet again, it will sync all entered swipes into your Accudemia account. But if you check your account and see that swipes that should be there are missing, use the Sync with Accudemia option and check your WiFi connection. Then restart your device. The swipes are stored locally, so these steps will not erase them.
- Are students selecting something they shouldn’t be able to? If you see a swipe from iAccu that says a student selected something they shouldn’t have been able to, such as a Service or Course that the event you’re tracking isn’t for, the issue is most likely with how the device is configured. Remember that while you can have multiple devices using iAccu at the same time, each one needs to be configured separately, so if you need the station to be locked to a certain location, Service, course, or staff member, all the devices need to be set up the same way.
If you’ve followed the above suggestions and are still experiencing issues, or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to let us know. We hope to see you at next week’s Accudemia Weekly Session!
Join us next time!
Engineerica Systems is pleased to present our Tech Tip segment recap for the Accudemia session on 11/2/2021. Held Tuesdays at 1 pm EST (weekly during the academic year, and monthly during the summer), Accudemia clients can join a session to learn about a quick, useful topic from one of our Support Specialists. Each week, we’ll follow up Tech Tip Tuesday with a blog recapping that week’s topic. Check the page about our Monthy Accudemia Session to find out more about our next session and for more ideas about helping our students achieve success!
