This page is part of the 800 system and lets you enter and manage students for the selected boating course. As part of that management you may post grades. If a grade of 80 or above is posted, an ED26, record of course completion, is created and is stored at HQ and on the webserver when the "Save" button is clicked. Note: Grade is not enterable until the course has begun. A related process will automatically create the required ED27, courses taught, records.
If you take one thing away from looking at this page it has to be this: When you are done adding or changing student data you must click on the button or all input will be lost.
Security allows a squadron SEO, ASEO, Chlbb, Course Contact, or Cdr to enter students for their squadron. It also allows DEOs and ADEOs to enter students for any squadron in their distict.
This application executes on your computer, not on the USPS webserver. Until you click on the Save button, none of the data you have modified will be saved. DO NOT close your browser window until you have saved your data or any changes made will be lost. If you do this by accident see data recovery below.
The page consists of three sections: The Squadron Account section, the details display and entry section, and the list of students section.
Account Secton: The account section contains information about your squadron and about this course.
At the bottom of the Account Section is a check box labled "Minimum Input". This checkbox controls the edits performed on Student data. If you need to record information such as hair color, etc. leave the box unchecked. However if you do not need to record this information in order to print wallet cards you may check this box. Doing so will limit required information to name, address, and sex. It also requires entry of either date of birth or an indication of whether the student is a minor less than 18 years of age. The box may be checked and onchecked as needed.
Following that field is a check box labeled "Auto Caps Off". Auto Capitalization is an entry aid which will make the first letter of a word a capital and the rest of the letters lower case. Sometimes you will need to override the aid. In that case check the box and the conversions are not performed. Note however that student records are used to create membership records. IF YOU ENTER A NAME IN ALL CAPS IT WILL APPEAR THAT WAY ON THE MEMBERSHIP RECORD!
Detailed Display: The detailed display has two parts, a data entry/update area and a set of action keys. The entry area has two type of fields, text entry fields and checkboxes. Text entry fields are the fields into which you type the student's information. The checkboxes behave differently than normal checkboxes. Within a give row only one can be checked and the application unchecks any other checked within the same row. It is strongly recommended that you read the Web forms "tips" which can be reached be either the proceeding link or by the link on the entry form. You can fill in and add information for a student by using regular data entry keys, the tab key and the space bar without haveing to use your mouse or arrow keys.
Obscure Fields. There are several obscure fields you can enter. "Optout" if checked prevents the student from receiving information from our "participating partners" after successful course completion. "BOAT HP" is boat horsepower and is required by some states as part of the information for licensing. "Description" is a modifier to "Learned" and is used by public relations to determine the specifics about where the student learned about the course.
Status Indicators: For students who were entered previously, a magenta status indicator appears between the certificate number and grade field. An "E" indicates that the student was entered using this form. A "R" indicates it was entered by the student using the online registration form. A "C" or "X" indicates that the student record has been closed and the student has passed and has been enrolled as a member or a USPS University member. Additional status information is displayed before the "Validation" field. A "G" indicates they were entered via this general enrollment page. The date entered is displayed after the "Validation" field and if an ED26 has been generated for the student the date generated is displayed.
Action Keys: The action keys are as follows: "Add" this adds the student described in the data entry area to the student list. The next several fields make use of the "#" field in which you enter the number corresponding to one of the listed students. The "NCOPY" button copies the information from the list entry into the details section without first name, mi, physical characteristics or grade. This is designed to allow easy entry of a spouse or family member. The "CCopy" button copies only the city, state and zip information from the specified list entry and is designed to aid in entry of students in the same city. The "Show" button is designed to display all the data for a list entry. Use this to check your information before clicking on "Save". The "Update" button is used in conjunction with the "Show" button. When you "Show" an entry and need to change the displayed information make the changes and click on "Update". The "Delete" button deletes the list item shown in the "#" field. Finally the "Clear" button clears all the fields in the display area. Note: The Add, and Delete buttons are disabled for a student once an ED26 has been generated. The Update button is disabled for students in "C" or "X" status.
Entering Grades. Grades can not be entered before the course has started. To enter a grade during a new student add simply type in a value between 0 and 100. To enter a grade for an existing student, "Show" the student's detailed information, enter the grade and click on "Update". Once an ED26 has been issued for the student, the grade cannot be modified. Note: If a grade of less than 80 is entered, no ED26 is generated and the grade field my subsequently be changed to a passing grade at which time an ED26 will be created.
Related to entering grade is the "State Exam" field. This field defauts to the state in which the course is taught. In unusual circumstances a student may be given an examination for a different state. This field may be used to indicate the exam given. This field is used to automatically reporting course completions to the indicated state.
Save: Below the action keys is the "Save" button which passes the list of students to a process which enters the data into the student database, and, for those with a posted grade of 80 or above generates and stores an ED26 course completion. Note: If you do not save your work before leaving the page, all updates will be lost. If you do this by accident, see data recovery below.
List Area: The student list area displays a list of all students on the student database, entered in this session, or imported in this session. This list will expand as more students are entered. Detailed information for a list item will be shown in the details area when the list item number is entered in the "#" field and the "Show" button is clicked. Note: There is a bug in Internet Explorer which requires a user to click on "Clear" before any information is displayed in the List Area.
When you have finished building or modifying the list, click on "Save" to save your changes in the student database, and where you have posted a grade of 80 or above to create the ED26 records.
Back: Below the list area is the "Back" button. Use this with caution, if you go to a previous page and do not return to this page, all modified data will be lost. If you do this by accident, see data recovery below.
Students under 18 years of age: Students under the age of 18 are considered minors. Therefore, approval in writing is required to authorize post course or seminar contact of minors for purposes of USPS membership and/or participation on USPS Partner benefits. Approval by parent / guardian is required. Approval is signified by parent / guardian signature on the area provided on the ED46 registration form.
You may view the ED46 form by clicking HERE.
When an under 18 student is registered the OptOut option is set to "Y". This will block student information from being passed to USPS membership and USPS Partners. You may remove the block by updating the record but this should only be done after receiving parent / guardian permission.
Note: OptOut appears on the membership displays as "Receive Benefits Announcements". The meaning is reversed. When OptOut is set to "Y" Receive Benefits Announcements is "N" and when OptOut is set to "N" Receive Benefits Announcements is "Y".
Data Recovery
In the event that you do not save student data which has been modified, all is not lost. Whenever you add, update, or delete student data the programs saves all the data to a temporary file on your computer. That file is removed whenever you do a save. If you terminate a session in which you modified data but did not save, the next time you open this program you will see an alert which says "Recovery Data Exists for this course". You will also see a button which says "Recover". Clicking on that button will restore the student data to the state it was in before you last closed the session.
Things to know about recovery.
A Helpful Data Entry Tips
Pressing the "Enter" key has the same action as clicking on the "Add" button. A data entry short cut to use instead of tabbing to get to the next required field is to press "Enter". For instance, if you have entered minimal data and you still have to enter the grade, press "Enter" and a alert will appear telling you that grade is required, press "Enter" again and the alert goes away, type in the grade, press "Enter" again and the student is added.
When your view is focused on a checkbox, pressing the space bar is the same as clicking on the box. In addition, on this page, when you click on any checkbox in a group, all other checkboxes in the group are cleared and you are tabbed to the next data entry field or the next checkbox group.
On this page, the "Ctrl" (Command on a MAC) will automatically position you on the "Grade" field.
On this page, the up arrow and down arrow keys will increment or decrement the number in the "#" field which is used in conjunction with the action buttons.
Any comments may be addressed to Dan Bartell at danb@usps.org