Define District Family and Student portal preferences

District Family and Student portal preferences prevent users with the Family and Student roles from managing their filters, field sets, and sort orders. These preferences also restrict the fields these users have access to in the Quick Charts and Quick Reports wizards.

To set district Family and Student portal preferences:

  1. Log on to the District view.
  2. Select District > Setup > Preferences. The General preferences page appears.
  3. Click the Category drop-down to select Family/Student Portal. The Family/Student portal preferences page appears.
  1. District Family/Student Portal preferences page

  1. Use this table to enter information in the fields. These preferences apply to users with the Family and Student roles:

    Field

    Description

    General

    Disable resource management

    Select this checkbox to:

    • Prevent users from adding, editing, copying, and deleting filters, field sets, and sort orders.
    • Give access to the district filters, field sets, and sort orders, but hide the Manage option on their menus.
    • Restrict the fields these users have access to in the Quick Charts and Quick Reports wizards. In Step 3 of the Quick Chart wizard and Steps 3 and 4 in the Quick Report wizard, users will only be able to select fields they have access to in their default field set.
    Note: By default, this checkbox is deselected. It is recommended to select this checkbox and disable resource management for users with the Family and Student roles to prevent them from accessing data they cannot see directly through a list. An alternative way to restrict field access is to use security tags on specific fields.

    Remove query option

    Select this checkbox to remove the query option from the Options menu.

    Remove Quick Report/Quick Chart

    Select this checkbox to remove the Quick Print Print icon. and Quick Chart icons from the menu bar.

    Enable workflows in Aspen Mobile

    Select this checkbox for the Forms tab to appear in Aspen Mobile. A user can tap Forms to complete and submit forms, such as permission slips, from a mobile device. This is part of a multi-step process to enable forms for mobile devices.

    Aspen Mobile Embedded Mode Within Portal

    Leave this field blank. It will be used in a future release.

    Portal Primary Phone Alias

    In conjunction with the Data Dictionary, this field lets family members enter or edit their phone number in the Family portal mobile view, by placing a phone number field on their Preferences screen. This alias default is portal-phone01, but you can edit it.

    Note: For the phone number field to appear in the Family portal mobile view, the alias must be entered here and in the Data Dictionary, as described below.

    To use this feature:

    1. Go to the Person table in the Data Dictionary.
    2. Select and open the phone field to use, such as Primary phone (District [Root Organization] view, Admin > Data Dictionary > select Person table > Fields > select Primary phone or other phone field).
    3. At the Alias name(s) field, enter this alias value.
    4. At Long name, enter a label for the field, such as Mobile phone.
    5. Save the record, and then reload the Data Dictionary.

    When a family member logs on to the Family portal mobile view, the field appears on their Preferences screen, populated with the phone number on record. If the family member edits the phone number, Aspen updates it on their Details page in the District [Root Organization] and School views.

    Academics

    Show semester averages

    Select this checkbox to display the semester running average for students in the Student and Family portals. Semester running averages calculate based on the assignment grades within each of the terms inside of it, not on the average for each term.

    Note: Only school years with an even number of grading terms can use semester running averages.

    Aspen uses the column header Semester # for semester running averages. For example, Semester 1 is the column header for the running average for S1.

    Show overall cumulative averages

    Select this checkbox to show the overall cumulative average for students in the Family and Student portals. The overall cumulative average includes all grades and scores entered by the teacher since the beginning of the class, regardless of term. Aspen calculates the overall cumulative average using the average mode specified in the teacher's Gradebook. Aspen uses the heading Cumulative for overall cumulative averages in the Family and Student portals.

    Grades calculation for standards

    Select one of the following average modes to use for the Student and Family portals:

    • Trend: The Power Law Trend equation appears. This formula references each score you enter for a student, and predicts the next score a student would receive if evaluated for that standard again.
    • Average: The standard arithmetic mean (or average) equation appears. This formula is the average of all the scores entered for a standard; sum of scores divided by number of scores.

    For more information on standards-based grading modes, see "Using the Standards-Based Gradebook as a Teacher" in the Staff View and Teacher Gradebook user guide.

    Show cumulative standard summary

    Select this checkbox to show a cumulative standard summary, instead of a term-based standard summary, on the Academics page.

    Allow curriculum maps in portalSelect this checkbox to turn on the Show in Portal checkbox in the Staff view, Gradebook tab, Curriculum Map side-tab. When this and the Show in Portal checkbox are selected for a course, the curriculum map (if there is one) for that course appears on the Academics tab, Curriculum Map side-tab in both the Family and Student portals.

    Display only letter grades in the portal

    When this preference is enabled, a letter grade (without numeric values) will appear for all scores and averages in the Family and Student portals, in both desktop and mobile Aspen.
    Note: For a letter grade to appear in the portals, a grade scale must be attached to the transcript definition (District [Root Organization] view, Grades > Transcript Definition > Columns). The grade scale must have a letter in the Code field and a corresponding number in the Value field (District [Root Organization] view, Grades > Grade Scales > Grades). When enabled, this preference overrides the Entry mode selected for an assignment in the teacher's Gradebook.
    Hide academics tab in MobileSelect this checkbox to hide the Academics tab and its details from Aspen Mobile users. Instead, a message will direct students and families to the desktop version of Aspen for assignment and attendance information.

    This field is disabled by default.

    Contact Verification

    Contact Verification workflow

    Leave this field blank. It will be used in a future release.

    Require student-contact verification

    Select this checkbox if you want to verify a contact's relationship to a student before giving them access to information in the Family portal.

    When you enable this field, a message appears.

    Click Yes if you want Aspen to automatically verify the student-contact relationship for contacts who already have portal access – those users will not see any difference when they log on to the Family portal. If you click No, contacts must enter the first name and date of birth of their student(s) the next time they log on to the Family portal, or they cannot view any student information. Users can verify the student-contact relationship in the desktop or mobile version of Aspen. They only do this once for each student they are associated with.

    The Contact access verified field (District [Root Organization], Intermediate Organization, and School views, Student > Contact > Details) displays Y if the contact-student relationship is verified, and N if it is not.

    This field is disabled by default.

    Academics

    Term performance display mode

    This preference determines what appears on the Classes page (Academics tab) in the portals and on the Classes screen in the New Portal for mobile devices. Term Average is the default; or select Cumulative Average.

    Note: To display the student's cumulative average, the School Grade preference Overall cumulative average must be enabled. In addition, the teacher's Gradebook preference Cumulative average must be enabled so the cumulative average appears in the Gradebook.

    Average summary display mode in detail

    This preference determines what appears in the Average Summary grid on the class details page in the portals (Academics > Details). Display category average by term is the default; or select Display category cumulative average.

    Allow adjusted value indicator in portal views

    Enable this preference for the Indicates adjusted value icon  to appear next to the Posted grade in the Student and Family portals (Academics > Details > Average Summary section and on the Grades widget on the homepage) and in the Staff view (Staff view, Student > Academics > Details > Average Summary section).

    The icon indicates that the posted grade displayed in the Student and Family portals does not match the Gradebook-calculated average in the teacher's Gradebook. These values might be different if the teacher marked some assignments as private, or manually adjusted the quarter grade average in the Gradebook. When the user hovers over the icon, the message "Indicates adjusted value" appears.

    This field is disabled by default. If the district (root organization) enables this preference, it also appears in the Family/Student portal preferences in the School view, for the school administrator to enable or not.

  1. Click Save.