Index

1. ManageBac School Account Transition
2. Help & Resources
3. Transition Checklist
4. Complete Step-by-Step Guide
   
   1. Step 1. Export local copies to take a picture of your account as is
   2. Step 2. Review Programme Options
   3. Step 3. Manage your School Information Ecosystem
   4. Step 4. Review Account Access & Memberships
   5. Step 5. Configure Class Requirements
   6. Step 6. Add your School's Calendar
   7. Step 7. Update Class Enrolments & Homeroom Assignments
   8. Step 8. Review Permissions & Access Rights
   9. Step 9. Final New Academic Year Go-Live Checks
   10. Step 10: Opening ManageBac to your Community
5. Completed transition

ManageBac School Account Transition

Transitioning Overview

Why do we need to transition our school's ManageBac account? You will need to transition your ManageBac account to configure your academic terms & holidays each year, move students up a grade level, review subject, assessment or curriculum changes you require, add or remove faculty members, maintain historical data and in general, to keep your account tidy.

How can we use this guide for our transition? This guide provides a range of best-practices and resources so your administrative team can transition your school's account with the method that best matches your needs. 

Who should be involved in the Transition?

Who can transition a ManageBac account? You will be need to be a full administrator in order to complete all steps in the transition checklist. 

Who is the best person/people to handle the transition? We would advise either your Tech Director, IB or Programme level coordinators, or a key administrator responsible for your ManageBac account.

Should the transition be completed by one person? Depending on the size of your school and the number of programmes and services you are using, it may make sense to have the entire process completed by 1 admin, or by 1 admin per academic programme. If for example, your DP, MYP and PYP programmes wish to transition at different dates, or perhaps your Junior & High school are on different campuses and have differing needs, steps can be completed separately by different users at different times. 

Do our users need to do anything in the transition, such as transition their own personal account? No, there is no participation required from your wider school community. After a transition is completed, students & parents will have access to their new classes & year groups, and Teachers will find Units, Tasks & Resources available in their resource bank. 

When is the best timing & how long does it take?

How often should we transition? A school account should be transitioned once each academic year.

When is the best time to transition? Either at the completion of your current academic year, at the start of your new academic year, or sometime in-between. A period of least usage would be ideal, so as to not confuse any users who may notice changes to their classes, year groups or permissions.

How long does a transition take? Depending on the size of your school (number of users), integrations (do you need to consider Sync with other services?), services you are using (Attendance, Reports) and the number of programmes (DP, MYP, PYP, Non-IB etc), the time it takes to transition will vary. We generally recommend setting aside a few days prior to classes starting to process the transition steps and review user permissions & class assignments once complete. 

Transitioning Help & Resources

Webinars

View prior webinar recordings or register for upcoming webinars. Transitioning webinars are scheduled every Jun-Sep and Nov-Jan to cater for Northern & Southern hemisphere schedules. 

Workshops

Register for ManageBac Training Academy workshops to participate in live hands-on experiences covering transitioning steps. May's "Data Clean-up & Records Management" & July's "Handling Integrations & Timetables" are recommended sessions, and will feature guest speakers from ManageBac schools as well as the ManageBac Support & Curriculum teams discussing best-practices. 

Support

Please submit a support request for any questions or get in touch with your account manager directly. 

QuickStart Checklist

Transition Checklist

1. Export Local Copies
   A. Generate Reports / B. Export Term Grades / C. Export Attendance / D. Export Unit Plans
2. Review Programme Options
   A. Add Academic Terms / B. Configure Task Category & Grade Scale Defaults / C. Unit Template Modifications / D. Project & Essay Templates
3. Review School Ecosystem
   A. Transition iSAMS / B. Transition OpenApply / C. Consider Other integrations
4. Review Access Requirements
   A. Lock ManageBac / B. Archive Graduated & Transition Existing Students / C. Archive Individual Students / D. Add newly enrolled Students / E. Update Faculty
5. Configure Class Requirements
   A. Review Subjects, Phases & Levels / B. Review Standards & Scope & Sequence / C. Transition or Archive existing Classes / D. Create New Classes 
6. Add your Schools Calendar
   A. Configure Holidays / B. Setup Periods / C. Import Timetables / D. Add Year Group Deadlines
7. Update Class & Homeroom Members
   A. Add Students & Teachers to Classes / B. Assign Students to Advisors / C. Generate Timetables
8. Review Permissions & Access Rights
   A. Grant Staff Permissions / B. Lock Profiles / C. Lock Classes / D. Custom Portfolio rights
9. Final New Academic Year Checks
   A. Review Password Restrictions / B. Add Announcements / C. Set Theme & Home default / D. Add access link on your school public website / E. Import Unit Stream & Lessons
10. Opening to your Community!
    A. Unlock ManageBac / B. Upload Handbooks / C. Send Welcome E-mails / D. Run Introduction Sessions / E. Install Mobile Access

Step-by-Step Guide to Transition

Step 1. Export Local Copies

Please note: Data is maintained on your ManageBac account from year-to-year, and there is no size limit to the number of resources you can have on your account.

However, before you transition, it is highly recommended to "take a picture" of your account as it currently is, before you start moving students across programmes, archiving & changing user permissions, or adjusting term dates.

1A. Generate Reports

Firstly, ensure that report cards were generated for recently completed academic term. If you did, and grade updates have not taken place since, you can jump to 1B. If you did not generate, it is recommended to do so now so that you have record of your students classes and results, prior to changing their grade levels and class rosters. See our guides on Generating Report Cards. 

1B. Export Term Grades

• For schools using the ManageBac Reporting module: Excel files of class term gradebooks (including term grade values, rubrics, ATLs and comments) are automatically stored under Reports > Reports History whenever a report set is generated. These will remain on your account indefinitely, providing a quick-access data bank of student progress. Thus as long as you have generated reports recently, and no major grading changes have were made after that point, you may jump to the next step 1C. 
• For schools not using ManageBac for reports: You may wish to export term grades from class gradebooks prior to archiving classes or adjusting class memberships. This can be done via each class via Gradebook > Term Grades > Export to excel. 

1C. Export Attendance

You can export attendance data in bulk via the Attendance Manager > Percentage. 

1. Select the Year
2. Select the Academic Year
3. Select the Academic Term: All
4. Click Export to Excel
5. Save the Export outside of ManageBac
6. Repeat steps 1-5 for each year level.

Navigate to the Reporting tab to export attendance categories:

1. Select the type: Homeroom or Classes
2. Select the Year
3. Select the Academic Year
4. Select the Academic Term: All
5. Click Export to Excel
6. Save the Export outside of ManageBac
7. Repeat steps 1-6 for each year level.

1D. Export Unit Plans

Step 2. Review Programme Options

2A. Add Academic Terms

Set up your new Academic Years for each programme at the school. Navigate to Settings > Academic Terms > Select your Programme > click Add Academic Year.

Set your term start & end dates, ensuring that dates do not overlap. Terms dates are used to group deadlines and grades within each class. It's recommended that these dates are set to be continuous (i.e. they should be inclusive of your school holidays in order to avoid gaps between terms).

Be sure to set up your academic term dates for each academic programme used at the school.

2B. Configure Task Category & Grade Scale Defaults

Administrators can configure task assessment frameworks, task types, categories and grade scales via Settings > Select your Programme > Assessment.

• Adjusting frameworks (such as disabling Criteria assessment) will impact tasks past and present. These can be adjusted when necessary to meet your developing assessment needs.
• Default types, categories and scales set in Settings will only be reflected in classes created AFTER the defaults have been set. (This is to avoid potential loss of data on existing tasks in current classes). Thus, it is recommended to configure defaults at the beginning of the term.

2C. Unit Template Modifications

If you intend to make major changes to your unit templates, it's recommended to do so at the start of the academic year, prior to teachers begining planning on ManageBac. However, you can always refine the templates at any point throughout the year as needed.

To adjust, navigate to Settings > Select your Academic Programme > Curriculum.

Step 3. Review School Ecosystem

If your ManageBac account is integrated with other systems, such as OpenApply, iSAMS, an SIS, with those users originating in those systems, it is recommended to transition them first (ie update the student grade level, archive users) prior to transitioning ManageBac. 

3A. Transition iSAMS

If your ManageBac account is integrated with iSAMS then you must transition iSAMS before moving onto the next step. Please contact iSAMS support for further details on how to transition.

 3B. Transition OpenApply

If your ManageBac account is integrated with OpenApply then you must transition OpenApply before moving onto the next step. Please view the OpenApply transitioning guide. 

 3C. Other Integrations

If you have an SIS/MIS integrated with ManageBac, then it is generally recommended to transition/update grade levels in your SIS/MIS prior to transitioning ManageBac.

For any further advice on integrations & data management specifically, please consider a consultation from the Faria Schools Technology team which you can book here. 

Step 4. Review Account Access

A. Lock Access to ManageBac for Students & Parents

You may wish to lock ManageBac for students and parents to be able to complete the remaining transition steps.

This is possible via Settings > Security & Permissions. Here, tick the box "Prevent access to ManageBac for students and parents till" and set the unlock date. Be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Here, tick the box "Prevent access to ManageBac for students and parents till" and set the unlock date. Be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

If access has been prevented, students and parents will see a message indicating that their account has been temporarily locked in preparation for the next academic year. The unlock date will be indicated as to when they will be able to log back in (see above). 

4B. Archive Graduating Year Group & Move Students up a Grade Level

When handling Student grade level updates, it is recommended to transition from your top-most grade level, working your way down to your lowest grade level, to avoid mixing and matching students.

Thus, you may wish to begin by archiving your graduating year group first. If you are still looking to permit say your DP2's to access their ManageBac account, you can skip archiving the year group at this stage. 

I. Transition IB DP, CP & MYP Year Groups

Navigate to Year Groups > See all Year Groups > Transition Years Groups.

Transition the year groups for each programme, starting with the highest programme (e.g. IB Diploma). Archive the graduating year groups who are leaving the school and move lower year groups up a year level.

1. Select the programme
2. Archive the graduating year group
3. Move lower year groups up a grade level
4. Customise the Year Group name (optional)
5. Click Save Changes to transition.

Note: only archive graduating year groups who are not returning. MYP year groups moving into Diploma (e.g. MYP5 to DP1) should be moved up a year level via Middle Years (see below):

Important Note:

The above steps to transition year groups will move the entire year group up a grade level, along with students & year group resources (i.e. messages, files, events & deadlines posted to the year group calendar). If you wish to only move students up a grade level, while keeping resources in the same grade level as they were in the previous year, please see guidance in III. Transition other Programme year groups below. 
Archived year groups can be found via Year Groups > Archived Year Groups and these contain all Service Learning & Project-based Learning data of archived students:

II. Transition IB PYP Year Groups

Create the new Year Group in the academic programme above PYP (e.g. IB MYP) via Year Groups > See all Year Groups > Add New Year Group:

Next, move the graduating PYP students into the newly created MYP year group via Settings > School Directory > Memberships. On this page you can also move the remaining PYP students up a year level (see below).

To do this, select students by grade level from the 'Available Students' column on the left, move students to the correct year group on the right. You can move students into multiple year groups at once, click Confirm Assignments to confirm.

III. Transition all other Programme year groups

Students in all other academic programmes can be moved up a grade level via Settings > School Directory > Memberships.

This page shows two columns: 'Available Students' (on the left) is where you can select students by grade level or Homeroom advisor. 'Manage your Students' (on the right) is where you can add or remove students from Year Groups, Classes or Groups.

To move students up a year level here, first  In the screenshot below, for example, here students are being moved up from IGCSE Year 10 into Diploma Year 1.

4C. Archive Individual Students not Returning

Archive any remaining students who are not returning via Settings > School Directory. Search for the student and click the arrow down icon to archive.

4D. Add Newly Enrolled Students 

If your school has OpenApply-ManageBac Sync enabled, skip this step as new students will sync from OpenApply to ManageBac, while students marked as withdrawn will be archived on ManageBac. 

Create student accounts for incoming new students. See our tutorials on how to add students via Bulk Import or Individually:

• Add users via Bulk Import
• Add users individually

4E. Update Faculty

You will likely have faculty changes just as you have student changes. You can manage these via Settings > School Directory. 

• Archive Teachers/Admins via the down arrow. Please note, archiving a faculty member does not archive all of their associated records, such as Classes, Units, Tasks etc. These will still be accessible to other faculty members unless manually archived/deleted
• Promote any Teachers/Advisors to Admins as necessary, such as for any teachers progressing to Subject Heads or programme level coordinators
• Add Teachers either individually or in bulk, just as we saw for students. Please see this guide. 

Step 5. Configure Class Requirements

5A. Review Subjects, Phases & Levels

Via Subjects, you can enable your subjects as well as add any additional/customised subjects that your school may offer. Add New Subject Group allows you to create a subject category where multiple subjects can be added under. For example Subject Group = Science, Subjects = Biology, Chemistry, Physics. 

Add New Subject enables you to add any customised subjects you wish. 
After selecting/adding subjects, make sure to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. Note: You will only be able to create classes in those subjects which are enabled on your account.

IB PYP Subject Strands

For IB PYP, via Subject click Edit, specify the subject strands, whether they are configured by phases or years, and each phase or year level they should be enabled for.

IB MYP Subject Levels

IB DP Subject Options & Levels

Navigate to Settings > IB Diploma > Subjects > Options & Levels, to specify the options (e.g. ab initio) and levels (e.g. SL) for your subjects.

Note: If your school offers the IB Diploma in more than one working language, you can also specify the languages for individual subjects.

Click into Extended Essay Subjects to enable the EE subjects that your students can select via their Extended Essay worksheets.

Curriculum First (US, UK, Non-IB)

Via Options & Levels, specify the options (e.g. Core) and levels (e.g. Extended) for your subjects.

5B. Review Standards & Scope & Sequence

You can adjust the standards (and Scope & Sequence in IB PYP) configured on your at any time of the year, however during your transition is often a good time to consider this, especially if you are considering a major rework for the new academic year.

You can directly import sets of standards from the Faria database (featuring more than 600 standards sets) or request a custom import via Settings > Select a Programme > Curriculum > Standards. For further details, see Adding Standards as an Administrator

5C. Transition or Archive existing Classes

Option 1: Archive & recreate classes from scratch

This option can be used to bulk archive classes and recreate classes from scratch.

Scenarios where you may wish to bulk archive all classes and start from fresh:

• If you want to have a clean slate every year.
• If you do not want messages, files or student rosters to be the same next year, and you already have a list of new classes you wish to add from another student information system.
• If you wish to change the subjects or number of classes offered.

Navigate to Classes > See all classes > Manage Classes:

1. Select the academic programme
2. Archive individual classes or select the Archive checkbox at the top to archive all.
3. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page to process.

Repeat steps 1-3 with the next academic programme.

After archiving classes, new classes will need to be created via Classes > Show all Classes > Import Classes. See our tutorial here on creating classes via Bulk Import:

• Create Classes via Bulk Import
  
  

Option 2: Archive and duplicate classes into next grade

This option archives existing classes to preserve historical data, and creates a new version of each class one grade level higher. This option is best used for Non-DP and Non-IGCSE classes that will continue with the same students next year.

Example: A two-year High School Biology class may choose to duplicate messages, files, and class settings from Year 1 to Year 2. Archiving and duplicating into the next grade will archive all Year 1 class data and create a new class of the same subject a grade level higher, with the option to carry over messages, files & students from the Year 1 to Year 2 class.

First archive the highest level classes of the programme via Classes > See all Classes > Manage Classes.

1. Select your programme
2. Filter for the highest year level
3. Archive all
4. Save Changes
   
   

Next, transition lower level classes by navigating to Classes > See all Classes > Transition Classes:

1. Select the programme
2. Select Archive & duplicate into next grade
3. Confirm the Start and End Academic Terms for the newly created classes. DP classes can span up to two years, while all other classes can only span up to one.
4. Add a unique Class ID for each class (this is strongly recommended as it will allow you to later bulk assign students to classes)
5. Tick the Messages checkboxes if you would like to re-use the messages from the current class in the newly created class.
6. Tick the Files checkboxes if you would like to re-use the files from the current class in the newly created class.
7. Tick the Students checkboxes to use the same student roster from the current classes.
8. If the teacher assigned will be different in the new class, select a new teacher from the Teacher dropdown.

Repeat these steps for each subject within the programme.

Option 3: Archive and duplicate classes into existing grade

This option archives your existing classes to preserve historical data, and creates a new version of each class in the same grade level. This is the quickest way to copy this year's classes into next year and is best used for programmes where the classes offered in each year level are roughly the same every year.

Example: If last year's MYP Design Grade 9 classes are offered again in Grade 9 next year, archiving and duplicating the class will allow you to archive the old class & create a copy keeping the messages, files and class settings the same.

In this option, you do not have to create any new classes if you are happy with your current class structure, since all selected classes will be duplicated into their existing grade levels.

Navigate to Classes > See all Classes > Transition Classes.

1. Select the programme
2. Select Archive and duplicate into existing grade
3. Select the subject
4. Select the classes you wish to transition
5. Confirm the Start and End Academic Terms for the newly created classes.
6. Add a unique Class ID for each class (this is strongly recommended as it will allow you to later bulk assign students to classes)
7. Tick the Messages check-box if you wish to copy the messages into next year's class.
8. Tick the Files checkboxes if you wish to copy the files into next year's class.

Repeat these steps for each subject via the Subject dropdown 

Option 4: Transition classes to the next year (for 2-year classes)

This option is for two-year classes, where class rosters remain the same from year 1 to year 2, which is often the case for Diploma & IGCSE Year 1 classes transitioning into Year 2.

Example: If DP English Language & Literature is a two-year course, the class should not be archived after the first year. Use 'Transition Classes to the Next Year' to move classes up a year level, ensuring all student work & class data stays with the class as it moves.

Instructions:

1. Archive previous Year-2 classes
2. Export previous Year-1 classes to CSV template & Save
3. Transition Year-1 classes to Year-2
4. Create new Year 1 classes using the Excel export

I. Archive Previous Year-2 Classes  

Step 6. Add your Schools Calendar

Class Attendance timetables can be set up manually (class-by-class) or via bulk import.

Note that class timetables do not need to be set up for programmes where you are only tracking Homeroom Attendance. For example, if you are taking class attendance in your secondary school, but homeroom attendance only in primary school, you can skip this step for primary school. 

Manually

To set up class attendance timetables manually, navigate to each class Attendance tab. Select the Days, Periods & enter a class location. Click Save Changes and repeat for all classes.

Bulk import

Bulk import is the fastest method to set up class timetables and can be done via Classes > See all Classes > Import Timetable.

1. Download our CSV template
2. Add required fields to the template: Class ID, Rotation Day Number & Period Number (Room location is optional).
   • ManageBac does not support direct integration with any third party timetabling systems. If your school uses another timetabling system with an export to XLS or CSV function, it's best to match the class IDs on ManageBac with your timetabling system. This will make it easier to export data from your timetabling system and add it to our CSV timetable template, using class ID as the common unique identifier across both systems.
   • Rotation days & periods for each programme are set via your Settings > Attendance.
   • If your programme runs on a 5-day (weekday) cycle, then Monday is rotation day 1, Tuesday is rotation day 2, and so on.
3. Save the file as CSV format, upload and click Next.

If you need any assistance with any of the above imports or have any questions about the best transition options for your school, please email us at support@managebac.com and we will be happy to help.

6D. Add Year Group Deadlines

The IB Deadlines repository allows admins to add recommended Year Group-wide IB deadlines to student calendars. To do so, admins can navigate to Year Group > Calendar > Import Example Deadlines:

The repository contains default IB deadlines and these can be filtered by Category and Exam Years. You can select a deadline via the checkbox and select Add Resources to import the deadline. You can also click Add New Deadline in the right-hand menu to create a new, custom deadline, which will be stored within the IB Deadline repository. We will cover this in greater depth later in the tutorial. 

Step 7. Update Class & Homeroom Members

7A. Adding Students to Classes

Add Students Manually

Navigate to each class individually and add students via the Members tab (see below)

Students are organised by the year level & programme of their year group (see below).  It's possible to add students from multiple year levels & programmes to the class if needed.

Add Students in Bulk

Navigate to Classes > See all Classes > click Bulk Assign Students

Download our CSV template, completing the CSV with the required fields to assign students to classes:

• Student ID or Email
• Class ID

Save the file as CSV format and upload. Then choose to either Bulk assign, adding students to existing rosters, or Bulk assign and remove, replacing any existing class rosters.

When transitioning to the next year, the most common option is to Bulk assign as you are adding students to newly created classes for the new year.

7B. Assign Homeroom Advisors to Students

Assign Homeroom Advisors to students via Year Groups > See all Year Groups > Bulk Assign Students.

This step is necessary if Homeroom advisors for students have changed from last year to this year, or if there are students who are not yet assigned to a Homeroom Advisor.

Download our CSV template and complete with the required fields to assign students to Homeroom Advisors:

• Student ID or E-mail
• Homeroom Advisor E-mail

Save the file as CSV format and upload by clicking Bulk assign. This will bulk assign Homeroom Advisors to students, allowing them to easily keep track of their students via the Homeroom tab. See here for further guidance.

7C. Generate Timetables

Timetables will be visible to students, parents and teachers on ManageBac automatically after students and teachres have been assigned to their classes. However, you may wish to further provide generated PDFs for them, such as in print in any opening day event. 

Generate PDF Timetables for students via Classes > See all Classes > Classes Manager > Generate Timetables.

This will create a ZIP file stored on the right-hand side. You can download and share PDFs with Students via email or message.
The ZIP will be organised according to Grade Level and Student Name.

Alternatively, Students can directly find their own live or PDF timetable when logged in to ManageBac.

 

Step 8: Review Permissions & Access Rights

8A. Grant Staff Permissions

Teacher permissions can be customised via the Teachers & Advisors tab. Here, you can set default permissions for all teachers or individual teacher permissions. 

Default Permissions: We recommend making default permissions more restrictive so that account set-up permissions are only given to a few teachers/admins. The above screenshot outlines the recommended default permissions levels.

Set Teacher Permission Levels in Bulk or Individually

Individual Permissions

Here you can customise individual teachers' access permissions:

• Attendance Manager: Provides access to edit all attendance data across the entire account.
• Import Users: Provides access to import new users (students, teachers, parents).
• Class Management: 
  'Full access' provides access to set up classes in bulk, across all programmes, including adding, archiving, locking and assigning users to them.
  'Add New Class' provides access to create classes and will exclude all the other Admin options.
• Activity Groups:'Full Access will provide users with all options located in the right navigational menu of the Groups Roster, including bulk assign advisors, lock groups, add new group, bulk archive groups etc. 'Add New Group' will only allow users to create groups and will exclude all the other Admin options. 'None' will not allow teachers to access any Admin permissions relating to Groups.
• Reports: 
  'Full access' provides access to edit grades across the entire account and generate report cards.
  'Proofing and Review' provides access to the Proofing & Review page where users can view and edit term grades. Also, allows teachers to view student reports via the Student Profile > Reports page.
• Student Directory:
  'Full Access' provides access to create, edit, archive and delete student profiles across the entire account. It also provides full access to student worksheets in the Year Groups. 
  'Read-only' provides access to student profiles and read-only access to the student list in School Directory.
• Engagement Analytics: 'Full Access' allows teachers to view all student engagement across the school. 'Class Members and Homeroom' allows teachers to view student engagement for only students assigned to their homerooms and classes. 
• Academics: Provides access to academic programme settings, via Settings > Academics.

8B. Lock User Profiles

Lock or Unlock Student and Parent Profiles via Settings > Permissions, Security & Privacy. This will restrict Students and/or Parents from changing all fields in their profile, such as Name, Email and Avatar. Please note, users will still be able to change their password to log-in. 

If you have ManageBac integrated with a source of data such as MIS/SIS, it is highly recommended to lock profiles, so as to not accidentally override synced data. 

8C. Lock Classes

Class memberships can be locked for students, teachers, none or full (both students and teachers). If you have bulk assigned users to classes, and do not wish for them to change, you may wish to consider locking classes. If you prefer to allow users to find their class allotments on their own, unlock classes. 

When a class is locked:

• A user in the class will be unable to leave it
• A user not in the class will be unable to join it

Lock Classes in Bulk via Classes > See all classes > Lock Classes

Under the relevant tab, for Full (both Teachers & Students), Teachers or Students, you can select individual classes, all classes or no classes (to bulk unlock). 

First select how you would like to Lock memberships, by Full, Teachers only or Students only. Then select the Classes individually or with Select All. After selecting classes, Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Please note, if a class is Locked for Teachers ( Teachers only or Full), the member teachers of the class would not be able to access the Edit Class Settings page of that respective class.

8D. Custom Portfolio Rights

Students & Parents can be given access permissions to contribute the student's portfolio, and develop further engagement with the student's learning journey. These permission settings are controlled via Settings > Select Academic Programme > Portfolio > Access & Permissions. 

Students

Students can access and add to their Portfolio via the left-hand menu > Portfolio. Students are only able to view content from their own portfolios.

1. Ability to post on their Timeline. Set and complete Goals, as well as add Reflections.
2. Ability to upload and edit their Portfolio submissions (Photos, Files, Video, Website)
   
3. Ability to add likes and comments to Timeline items. 

Parents

Parents can access and engage with their children's portfolio via the left-hand menu > Portfolio. Parents are only able to view content from their own children's portfolios. 

1. Ability to leave comments and likes on the Timeline.
2. View only permissions without the ability to edit content or set Goals and post Reflection to the Timeline.

 

Step 9. Final New Academic Year Checks

9A. Review Password Restrictions

For security purposes, the default password requirements ask users to create strong passwords. These requirements can be relaxed, however, for students and/or parents if necessary.

Please note that if you choose to allow weak password requirements, security risks will be higher and we do not recommend this.

Via Settings > Security & Permissions

Navigate to Settings > Security & Permission to relax password requirements for students and/or parents. Weak passwords require a minimum of 6 characters.

9B. Add Welcome Announcements

To make a nice greeting for your users, we recommend to add Year Group and Class overview announcements. These act like pinned notes, and will be highlighted to Students & Parents when they access the page. Add a greeting, link to important resources or add a personal touch!

• Add Year Group via the Year Group > Overview > Edit Year Group Settings.
• Add to a Class via the Class > Overview > Edit Class Settings.

9C. Add a link to your ManageBac account on your school's website

To make finding your school's ManageBac account easy, we recommend to add a link or button from your schools public website, to direct Students, Parents & Teachers to your specific schools ManageBac website. This will require the support of your school's Website Manager.

Note, if users get lost, they can also use the Find My School link and enter their ManageBac email address. 

9D. Have Teachers review their Unit Stream, Lesson & Resources

Teachers may also want to have the streams and lesson plans from previous year's unit planners available in their new classes. This can be done by the teachers/authors of each unit.

Note: Resources added to each unit under the Unit Planner's 'Stream & Resource' tab will stay with the unit when it's carried over into the next academic year. However, the stream (i.e. the order in which those resources appear) and any lesson plans are set on a class-by-class basis.

In your new class, click into the unit's Stream & Resource tab and click Import from ResourceBank.

Next, via the My School tab, select which unit you wish to import resources from:

Next, select the Lesson Experiences (i.e. lesson plans) that you wish to import resources from. Note that while unit plans may share across multiple classes, the lesson plans are different from class to class - this means you can choose which class you wish to import Lesson Experiences from (see below):

And finally, choose which resources you wish to import from the selected lesson experience. You can select All or select resources individually. Click or .

Step 10. Opening to your Community!

10A. Unlock ManageBac

Don't forget to remove the restriction for Students & Parents, if you added it in step 4A. 

10B. Upload Handbooks

10C. Send Welcome Emails

Re-sending to all users who have not yet logged in

Via Settings > School Directory, select Send welcome e-mails.

Choose the user type you would like to send the welcome emails to from the dropdown menu.  If you select students, you can also specify a Year Group. After you confirm your selection, the welcome e-mails will be sent out.

10D. Run Intro Sessions

We suggest planning for ManageBac intro days (or nights) sometime during the start of your academic year. This can ensure all users know how your school plans to use ManageBac, what expectations there are for what will be found in ManageBac or any other systems your school is using, and how to navigate the platform.

You can find short video intros or detailed webinars for Students & Parents in the resource library, or if you need an example Intro evening agenda, just get in contact with ManageBac Support. 

10E. Install the Mobile App

ManageBac features mobile apps for both Apple iOS and Android. Please download them from the relevant mobile stores. We recommend including this in an announcement for your school, so Students, Parents & Teachers can all ManageBac on the go!

You've completed your transition!

Congratulations!

Don't worry if you skipped some of the steps above, they are not all mandatory, and can be completed at different times of the year. As long as you have completed the essential steps, your account should be in a great condition. 

Account Review

If you wish to have your account manager review your school's account, please navigate to Settings > Services Manager, where you will find your account manager details on the right-hand side. Reach out to them with the email title "Account Transition Review" and they will be in touch shortly, to confirm the status of your account and any best-practice advice. 

Transition Questions

If you have questions on any of the steps in this guide, feel free to submit a support request to the ManageBac Support team. 

New User Training Options

Administrators can book in 1-1 trainings on handling your ManageBac account, or arrange for group teacher training sessions to become familiar with ManageBac. Training sessions are free and available to book within 24hr notice. 

Join a Training Academy

For those looking to progress to a Certified Educator or interest in being a Community Ambassador, we recommend joining a ManageBac Training Academy, which serves as an entry point to these new initiatives in 2022.