How to Enter New Contacts into RISC
Entering a new contact into RISC is a very simple process. The first step is to enter the student's name.
These instructions refer to schools using a Student Database that has been
exported from the school's admin system and imported into RISC.
Start with an blank RISC form (use the Clear Form button).
In the Student Name field, type in enough of the student's name to make it unique
(REMEMBER, Student names are in the form 'HARRIS Maureen').
For example, type HARR then click the Find button (or
just hit the Enter key). If the desired name does not appear (perhaps HARRAD John is
displayed), click the Right Arrow button (> beside the
Student Name) until the correct student name is displayed.
NOTE that the basic contact information for that student is automatically displayed
at the top of the form. If a message 'Record Not Found - Please
Re-enter' is displayed, the form will be cleared and you can retry your search for the student. If it still cannot be found, just type in the
first letter of the surname and click Find. Then use the Right Arrow button
(>) to go through all of the available student names starting with that letter. If the name still cannot be found, it may be necessary to refresh data from your school administration student database.
Once the desired student has been found, continue to the next data-entry
field.
The RISC Quick History:
New to RISC v8
is a great tool that will assist teachers and school administrators to
better understand situations of individual student contact by providing
a "quick history" for the student that has just been selected. RISC
quickly gathers all of the information it knows about each student and
displays a subset to the right of the main RISC window. It should
be noted that only the latest 25 entries are displayed in the Quick
History. You can get brief details of each of the contacts listed by
rolling the mouse pointer over the Type column. The Contact Description
field on the form will change to display the actual description from the
record being pointed to. To see the complete contact record from
any entry in the Quick History, just double-click the contact number
displayed.
Selecting a Contact Category:
NOTE: The RISC System Administrator may have renamed the next three fields in the system configuration process.
With the desired student, contact name, phone number and grade already
selected, choose the appropriate
Category from the pull down pick list.
Selecting a Contact Type:
Click the down arrow on the right side of the Type field and click on the desired Contact Type.
Selecting an
Action Type:
Click the down arrow on the right side of the Action Type field and click on the desired
Action Type.
Selecting a Teacher (a school staff member):
Choose the interviewing
Teacher's name from the pull-down list.
Selecting a Contact Status:
Click the down arrow on the right side of the Status field and click on the desired Contact Status.
Highlighting a Contact Descriptor (smiley):
There are three
grey "smiley faces" which are used to describe the contact being
entered. The Happy face means a "positive" incident, the Sad face
means "negative" and the "middle" face means not applicable.
Simply click on the appropriate smiley face. If you select the
wrong one accidentally, simply click the correct one. The face
highlights in yellow to show it is selected.
Entering a Description of the Contact:
Click anywhere in the Contact Description box and type in the description of the contact.
NOTE: You cannot use the Enter key in the Description field as it has been disabled. Just keep typing and your words will wrap at the end of each line automatically.
A maximum of 420 characters (including spaces) can be typed into the description field. Once you have reached the maximum, your workstation will 'beep' with every additional keystroke. Use the backspace key to remove characters until the beeping stops. While it is possible to type in more than 420 characters, no more than 420 will be saved into the database.
For more space, use the Report button to attach a student contact
report.
You can click the right-mouse button on this field to select a code, phrase or sentence from the
Shortcuts Lookup. A date can also be selected from a pop-up calendar in the Shortcuts screen and transferred to the Description field. The date will be shown in
Windows Long Date format.
Entering the Contact Action:
Click anywhere in the Contact Action box and type in the result of the contact.
NOTE: You cannot use the Enter key in the Action field as it has been disabled. Just keep typing and your words will wrap at the end of each line automatically.
A maximum of 600 characters (including spaces) can be typed into the action field. Once you have reached the maximum, your workstation will 'beep' with every additional keystroke. Use the backspace key to remove characters until the beeping stops. While it is possible to type in more than 600 characters, no more than 600 will be saved into the database.
For more space, use the Report button to attach a student contact
report.
You can click the right-mouse button on this field to select a code, phrase or sentence from the
Shortcuts Lookup. A date can also be selected from a pop-up calendar in the Shortcuts screen and transferred to the Description field. The date will be shown in Windows Long Date format.
Marking the Contact as "Confidential":
Any contact can be marked confidential by simply clicking the 'Confidential' check box so a tick or cross appears in it. Once saved, the contact record will only be viewable by users that know the Confidentiality Password. See
the RISC Confidentiality page for more details.
Saving the Contact Record:
When you have entered the contact as desired, click the Save button. A
contact number will be allocated and displayed in the contact number box. The
entry date and time will also be entered and saved. If you need to edit further after
saving, you must use the Save Updated Form button rather than
Save. Doing this will update the 'As At' date and time. If the saved date is
incorrect, it can be changed using the Date button.
Once you have Saved a contact record, that contact will be registered in the contact database with a contact number. As soon as a new contact is saved, a detailed
Contact Report can be attached to the contact. See the Contact Reports Module for further instructions on this powerful feature.
Entering Subsequent Records:
After you have saved a record and are ready to add more, click the Clear Form button
once. The Student Name details will be cleared. If the next contact is similar to the last one, just
Find the new student name. Otherwise, click Clear Form again. All fields except Teacher name will be cleared
(this is so you don't have to select the Teacher name again). If a
different Teacher name is to be used, click Clear Form once more. The cursor will be at the Student name field and you can repeat the data entry process as described above.
Deleting a Contact Record:
NOTE: You cannot delete contact records once they have been saved and allocated a contact number. If you have saved a contact that you do not wish to have, you can call up the unwanted contact record and by editing all of the fields, change it into another valid contact -
thereby removing the unwanted contact from the database.
Alternatively, you can wipe ALL fields, type in DELETED CONTACT for the Student name and
Save the Updated Form. From then on, it will be ignored. But note
that you cannot physically remove a contact number once it has been saved.
The reason for this is because RISC is a
database of student records like any other.
The Register of
Individual Student Contact (RISC) is developed & distributed
by Marillion Designs.
Copyright © 1995-2008 Marillion Designs. All rights reserved.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
Other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
