Online applications

[sarah-gatica-lara]

Hi Everyone in Admissions!

We are exploring the possibility of an online application process that will eventually feed information received directly into our data base. However to date, on legal advice and following best practice, we have ensured our hard copy forms bear the signatures of both parents. In the digital world this isn’t quite so straight forward, therefore, I would be grateful for feedback on how other schools handle the issue of online applications and signatures/ID authentication. If you have solved this problem, or submitted an application form online for your own child, or have had recent legal advice regarding this and are happy to share, that would be fantastic.

Thank you in anticipation.

Sarah Gatica-Lara
Admissions Registrar
Christ Church Grammar School, Perth

[Di Lawrence]

Hi Sarah
Just wondering if you received any responses to your question. We are hoping to move to online applications though it won’t talk to our particular database.
regards
Di Lawrence

[sarah-gatica-lara]

Hi Di – unfortunately not!

Kind regards

Sarah

[Belinda Stoneham]

Hello all,
We are launching a new website this term and I have worked to develop an online enquiry and application form. Happy to chat offline about the process.
Belinda, Wenona

[Shelley Medhurst]

Hi Sarah and Belinda

I’m also interested in setting up an online application form – initially using an expression of interest which we can pull data from in Excel and then, if required, it can auto-populate the full application form. I’d be interested to continue this discussion with you if you can help in this area.
Please contact me smedhurst@smc.tas.edu.au

Kind regards,
Shelley Medhurst
St Mary’s College, Hobart

[Glenda McDonald]

Hi All

This is an issue of great interest to me. We use Synergetic so any easier ways to enter data and applications would be much appreciated. I would love to participate in conversations along those lines.

Kind regards

Glenda McDonald

Mentone Girls’ Grammar

[Glenda McDonald]

Hi All

I had a look at the Synergetic online application form yesterday. It looks very promising but the issue of 2 parent signatures at the point of application is an interesting one. It may be that the Business regulations we currently get families to sign remains paper based. Reducing the volume of data entry is a great motivator for looking at online applications.

Kind regards

Glenda McDonald

[Sarah Onions]

Hi All
We are currently looking at ParentPaperwork – https://www.parentpaperwork.com/ very impressed with their applications for Parent Consent forms for excursions as well. It also has a screen with analysis of who has received your email, who has opened it and who has actioned it.
They also have a separate facility for enrolment forms.
It comes with a facility for parents to sign the online form if you need or to check a box depending on your requirements.
For Enrolment forms parents can self serve on your application form and create their own password which means they can come back to a form and complete it. They can also upload documents as you require eg birth certificate, report, medical details.
I am having a more indepth look next week.
It will sync with your database or you can print off or view as an excel.
Hope this helps.
Sarah

[Kim Rooke]

Hi Sarah!Thanks for this..
I will have a look as it sounds like something we are interested in too :-)
Kind regards
Kim Rooke
Oxford Falls Grammar

[Jane Tepper]

Hi All
We are currently looking at OpenApply for an online system that has the signatures but will also move the data across to our system once the enrolment becomes a current student.

Has anybody else tried this? We are also looking at ParentPaperwork as we use it in other areas of the school.

Regards

Jane Tepper
Oakleigh Grammar

[Di Lawrence]

Hello Jane
Can you tell me what system you are using for Enrolments at the moment. I believe you have Sentral at Oakhill in some areas?
Di Lawrence

[Jane Tepper]

Hello Di

We are currently using SAS throughout the whole school including Enrolments. It does have it’s uses but coming from Synergetic I find it a little clunky at times. It will be interesting to see how OpenApply works when we trial it next term.

Jane Tepper

[Sophie]

Hi Jane
I’d be interested to hear how the OpenApply is working for you?

kind regards
Sophie

[Ruth Luckner]

Hi All

We are also looking for an online application and enrollment process. We are a residential College and also need to be able to take roll call, track attendance and know where a student is at any given time. We have an Adult Education program that offers online study, which requires a different enrolment process. There are lots of things out there but it would be great to find one product that covers everything from online forms to student tracking. I’ve done some investigating on Reach Boarding software, Boardingware and Sentral. Can anyone provide any comment on these products.

Thanks
Ruth
Tocal College, Paterson

[Sally Hicks]

Hi folks. Woodleigh School is currently investigating online applications through DigiStorm. We use TASS, so integration into our database is a key factor. A general conversation on the subject at the Educate Plus Vic/Tas Chapter conference earlier this week indicated that there is still much data tweaking required to online applications to maintain formatting protocols. I suspect that this may be a common problem with many programs. I’ll report back as the investigation process progresses.
Sally Hicks
Woodleigh School, Vic

[Sophie]

Hello Sally

We’ve had online applications for 2+ years through Digistorm. The application form is a pretty ‘chunky’ document (messy looking), but it currently serves its purpose, which is for interstate and overseas families to enrol when our office is closed. Can’t wait for the integration into TASS to happen, as that will reduce the amount of data entry carried out currently.

kind regards
Sophie

[Jane Tepper]

Hi Sophie

OpenApply is a great base to start but I have to admit I ran out of time at the end and couldn’t get all the data uploaded.

We have Parent Paperwork available which we use for other areas of the school and I think it may work better for us to move across to this.

We still require 2 signatures on all applications if there are two parents and as much as we want to reduce both paperwork and data entry we still like both completed to have as online and hard copy.
What are you currently using? If you don’t have access to Parent Paperwork then I would try OpenApply as it has some excellent features.

regards

Jane

[Sally Hicks]

Hi Sophie,
Thanks for your feedback. I had a preliminary training session with Chris Lang, our Account Manager from Digistorm, on Monday. Digistorm is now integrated with TASS and he said that a lot of their digital clients are on TASS. Might be worth you touching base with them for an update. We’re not live with our online applications yet. Still working through some of the last minute tweaks. I’m hopeful that it will be a positive experience.
Thanks again.
Sally – Woodleigh School

[Sophie]

Hi Sally
We are still unable to integrate with TASS, which is quite frustrating now as most of our enrolments come through online. How did your roll out go?

Thanks
Sophie

[Sally Hicks]

Hi Sophie,
We are still yet to roll out our online application process. We were held up majorly with our bank coordinating online payments. In the meantime, the Digistorm program has (allegedly) been improved, so we’re about to start getting more serious about the transition again. All things in good time! Stay tuned.
All the best,
Sally – Woodleigh School

[Andrea Splatt]

Hi All,
I am only one year into my role as registrar and know nothing else other than what we have here at Terrace (Bris)… we use TASS and also use Digistorm for online applications. TASS and Digistorm are now talking to each other much more than what they were and the transferring of info from d/s to TASS is much easier. We have also (for the first time) used the interview module of d/s quite successfully (after some tweaking by d/s). Our next step is to use d/s for the submission of all application and enrolment documents but this will take some time to change but d/s seem to be on board in wanting to help us achieve this. With regards signatures on documents and contracts… we currently still do the hard copy version but have done some preliminary investigation into a program called Docusign. I know some legal firms that use it so I suspect that it would be appropriate for the signing of enrolment documents. I know there is another EREA school in Brisbane whose enrolment process from beginning to end is all online using TASS and D/s. I have had preliminary discussions with them when I first started but need to find time to pay them another visit. Regards Andrea

[Julia Glass]

Hi all,

We have online applications available on the IGS website (https://www.igssyd.nsw.edu.au/enrolment/apply), however the information does not feed directly to our database at this stage.

I’d be happy to chat via email to anyone who would like to know more.

Best wishes,

Julia
juliag@igssyd.nsw.edu.au

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