Communication

You can communicate with admin, teachers, parents, and students in multiple ways through PlusPortals. Schoolwide information can be shared by posting announcements, notifications, and alerts. You can also communicate with specific individuals by sending emails and messages. E-mails are sent to a user's personal e-mail inbox and their portal inbox while messages are only sent to a user's portal inbox.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• School Announcements, Notifications, and Alerts
• Create an Announcement, Notification, or Alert
• Configure Automated Email Notifications for Parents and Students
• Schedule Automated Attendance Push Notifications
• Send an Attendance Push Notification to Parents
• E-Mails vs. Messages
• Send a Message
• Send an E-Mail
• Create an E-Mail Signature
• E-Mail Event Types
• View E-Mail Statistics
• View E-Mails Sent from PlusPortals
• View Undelivered E-Mails

School Announcements, Notifications, and Alerts

There are three options for mass communication in PlusPortals: announcements, notifications, and alerts. They are accessed by clicking Communication > School Announcements.

What's the Difference Between Announcements, Notifications, and Alerts?

Only announcements appear on the portals' Home page where they are viewable by the public. Notifications and alerts appear in the same panel on the Home page of the portals, with alerts shown in red to indicate their higher importance.

The process for creating an announcement, notification, or alert is almost the same. You can enter the dates for when the message is visible, select which user groups can see it, attach a file, add a link, and choose to send an immediate e-mail notification.

On the Settings tab, you can set the sort order for how announcements, notifications, and alerts display to your users.

Create an Announcement, Notification, or Alert

In addition to e-mails, you can maintain communication with students, parents, and teachers through announcements, notifications, and alerts, which appear on the Home page of the portals.

1. On the navigation bar, click Communication > School Announcements. The Announcements tab opens.

2. Click the tab for the type of message you want to create (Announcements, Notifications, or Alerts).
3. Click Create.
4. Type the Title and Description.
5. Enter the Start Date and End Date for when you want the message to show to users.
6. Do any of the following:
   • Next to Visible To, select the user groups you want to show the message to.
   • Attach a file or add a link.
   • Select the Send E-Mail Notificationcheck box to send an immediate e-mail notice to the selected user groups.

     If you are creating an announcement, you can select the Show on Login Page (Public) check box to show the announcement on the login page. For it to appear, you must select the Use PlusPortals Home Page instead of Login Page check box and the News check box via Miscellaneous > Appearance > PlusPortals Home Page.

7. Click Save.
   

You must enable announcements, notifications, and alerts to show on the Home page of the Teacher, Parent, and Student portals. To do this, click Permissions > Summary and, under Home Page Permissions, select the Notifications and Alerts and School Announcements check boxes. Scroll down and click Save Settings to save your changes.

Configure Automated Email Notifications for Parents and Students

Your school can email automated notifications to students and parents and allow them to choose how frequently they want to receive the notifications. You can also set the weekday the notification is sent based on which preference the students and parents choose (weekly, biweekly, or monthly).

1. On the navigation bar, click Communication > Notifications.
   

2. Under Email Notifications, for Enable automated notification E-Mails to Parents and Students, do one of the following:
   • Click Yes to enable automated notifications and give students and parents permission to change how frequently they want to receive them.
   • Click No to disable automated notifications.
     

3. If students and parents select to receive notifications weekly, in the Weekly Send E-Mail notifications on every drop-down list, select the weekday they receive automated notifications.
   

4. If students and parents select to receive notifications biweekly, in Every Two Weeks Send E-Mail notifications on every other drop-down list, select the weekday students and parents receive automated notifications.
   

5. If students and parents select to receive notifications Monthly, do one of the following:
   • Click Day, and then enter the day of the month the automated notifications are sent.
   • Click The, and then in the drop-down lists, select whether you want monthly notifications to be sent on the first, second, third, fourth, or last day of a given weekday.
     

6. Click Save.

   You can customize the subject and message body of automated notification e-mails by modifying the Automated Notifications template. To edit the template, click Setup > E-Mail Setup, and at the top of the Customize E-Mail Templates page, click Automated Notifications. 

Schedule Automated Attendance Push Notifications

You can send parents automated push notifications for their student's absences and tardies and set the weekday and time the notification is sent.

Important: To receive push notifications, parents must download the ParentPlus app and register their account.

Note: To schedule automated attendance push notifications, the main administrator account ("plusportaladmin") must enable push notifications and parents must be permitted to receive push notifications for attendance events.

1. On the navigation bar, click Communication > Notifications.
   
2. Under Attendance Push Notifications, select the Schedule Attendance Notifications check box.
3. Select the check box for each day you want to send attendance notifications.
4. Click  and select the time you want to send attendance notifications.
5. Click Save.
   

Send an Attendance Push Notification to Parents

You can send a push notification to parents' mobile devices to inform them of their student's absences and tardies.

To receive push notifications, parents must download the ParentPlus app and register their account.

To send an attendance push notification, the main administrator account ("plusportaladmin") must enable push notifications and parents must be permitted to receive push notifications for attendance events. 

1. On the navigation bar, click Communication > Notifications.
   

2. Under Attendance Push Notifications, click Send Attendance Notifications Now.

Parents only receive one alert for each attendance event. When you click Send Attendance Notifications Now more than once in a day, the notification system only contacts parents who haven't received a notification. However, if an attendance event changes (for example, from absent to tardy) parents who received the absent notification receive the updated tardy notification.

E-Mails vs. Messages

You can communicate with admin, teacher, student, parent, and group users through e-mails and messages. E-mails are sent to a user's personal e-mail inbox and their portal inbox while messages are only sent to a user's portal inbox.

To access e-mails and messages, on the navigation bar, click Communication > E-Mails & Messages.

Portal E-Mail

Your portal subscription comes with unlimited cloud-based e-mail. Because a portal e-mail is delivered to a user’s personal e-mail inbox and portal inbox, it is less likely to be missed. Notification icons indicate to users that they have new or unread messages.

As a general guideline, administrators can e-mail anyone in the school, teachers can e-mail their students and their students' parents, parents can e-mail their children's teachers and all administrators, and students can e-mail their teachers and all administrators. There are exceptions, such as e-mailing via a group. Group members and their parents can be given permission to e-mail users they normally can't. For instance, student group members can be given permission to e-mail other student group members.

Messages

Messages are similar to e-mails but are designed for communicating within the portals. Therefore, users have to retrieve their messages in the portal. Messages are useful for communicating with users who don’t have an e-mail account. For example, a teacher can send a message to a class of students who do not have an e-mail account but do log in to the portal with a username.

Administrators can only broadcast a general message, but teachers, students, and parents have a message editor, allowing them to format the text and add hyperlinks, tables, and images to the message.

Send a Message

Messages are sent and received in PlusPortals, making them accessible to all users regardless of whether or not they have an e-mail.

To send a message, follow these steps:

1. On the navigation bar, click Communication > E-Mails and Messages.
2. Click the Messages tab.
3. Click New Message.
   
4. Type a Title.
5. In Description, type your message.
6. Click Add Recipients.
   
7. In the Select Recipients dialog box, do any of the tasks described in the table below:
   

   Task	Action
   Add admin users to the recipients list.	Click Admin Users. Select the admin users you want to add to the recipients list, and then click Next.
   Add teachers to the recipients list.	Click Teachers. Do one of the following: Click Individual Teachers, and select the teachers you want to email. Click  By Grade Level, and select the teachers you want to email by the grade they teach. Click By Course, and select the teachers you want to email by the course they teach. Click By Section/Class, and select the teachers you want to email by the section/class they teach. Click By Student. Select the grade of the student whose teachers you want to email, and then select the student. Click Next.
   Add students and parents to the recipients list.	Click Students and Parents. Do one of the following: Click By Grade Level. Select the student's grade, and then select the student. Click By Teacher. Select the student's teacher, and then select the student. Click By Section/Class, and select the students you want to message by their section/class. At the bottom of the Select Recipients dialog box next to Send Message To, select the check box for who you want to message (students and/or parents). Click Next.
   Add a group to the recipients list.	Click Groups. In the Select Group drop-down list, select the group you want. Under Select recipients, select the recipients you want, and then click Next. Tip: Repeat steps 6 and 7 to add multiple user groups to the recipients list. If you select the Individuals check box, another Select Recipients dialog box appears. Select the users you want to add to the recipients list, and then click Next.

   Repeat steps 6 and 7 to add multiple user groups to the recipients list.

8. To send a push notification to parents' mobile devices along with the portal message, select the Include Push Notificationcheck box.

   Parents will receive push notifications if they download the ParentPlus app and register their account.

   You will only see the Include Push Notification check box if push notifications are enabled, and parents are permitted to receive push notifications for new messages.

9. Click Send.
   

Send an E-Mail

A portal e-mail is delivered to a user’s personal e-mail inbox and their portal inbox.

To send an e-mail, follow these steps:

1. On the navigation bar, click Communication > E-Mails and Messages.
2. Click New E-Mail.
3. Next to To, click Add Recipients.
   

   For privacy reasons, recipients of the e-mail are not visible to each other.

4. In the Select Recipients dialog box, do any of the tasks described in the table below.:
   

   Task	Action
   Add admin users to the recipients list.	Click Admin Users. Select the admin users you want to add to the recipients list, and then click Next.
   Add teachers to the recipients list.	Click Teachers. Do one of the following: Click Individual Teachers and select the teachers you want to email. Click By Grade Level, and select the teachers you want to email by the grade they teach. Click By Course and select the teachers you want to email by the course they teach. Click By Section/Class, and select the teachers you want to email by the section/class they teach. Click By Student. Select the grade of the student whose teachers you want to email, and then select the student. Click Next.
   Add students and parents to the recipients list.	Click Students and Parents. Do one of the following: Click By Grade Level. Select the student's grade, and then select the student. Click By Teacher. Select the student's teacher, and then select the student. Click By Section/Class and select the students you want to message by their section/class. At the bottom of the Select Recipients dialog box next to Send Message To, select the check box for who you want to message (students and/or parents). Click Next.
   Add a group to the recipients list.	Click Groups. In the Select Group drop-down list, select the group you want. Under Select recipients, select the recipients you want, and then click Next. Repeat steps 6 and 7 to add multiple user groups to the recipients list. If you select the Individuals check box, another Select Recipients dialog box appears. Select the users you want to add to the recipients list, and then click Next.

5. In the next Select Recipients dialog box, verify the recipients, and then click OK.

   If you select users who don't have an e-mail address, PlusPortals notifies you before you click OK.

   Repeat steps 3-5 to add multiple user groups to the recipients list.

6. Next to Cc and Bcc, click Add Recipients, and then repeat steps 4 and 5.
7. Next to Subject, type the subject of the e-mail.
   
   • To attach a file, click Attach File From next to Attachments, and locate the file on your computer.

     The file size limit is 10 MB.

8. Type the content of your e-mail in the text editor.
9. To send a push notification to parents' mobile devices along with the email, select the Include Push Notificationcheck box.

   Parents will receive push notifications if they download the ParentPlus app and register their account.

   You will only see the Include Push Notification check box if push notifications are enabled and parents are permitted to receive push notifications for new messages. 

10. Do one of the following:
    • Click Sendto deliver the e-mail.

      A record of the e-mail is saved to the Sent Items folder.

    • Click Save to save a draft of the e-mail for later editing.

Create an E-Mail Signature

You can create an e-mail signature to personalize your outgoing mail. Once created, your signature appears in the text editor whenever you draft a new e-mail.

To create an e-mail signature, follow these steps:

1. On the navigation bar, click Communication > E-Mails and Messages.
2. Click New E-Mail.
3. At the bottom of the New E-Mail page, click E-Mail Signature.
4. Type your signature in the E-Mail Signature text editor, format your signature using the options in the text editor, and then click Save.

You can also create your e-mail signature by clicking Edit Profile on the page header and then clicking E-Mail Signature.

E-Mail Event Types

The events displayed on the Statistics tab of the E-Mail Analytics page represent the status of e-mails.

There are five types of events:

• Delivered: the number of e-mails received by users
• Opens: the number of e-mails opened by users. The number of Opens can exceed Delivered e-mails when users open e-mails more than once, or when they open e-mails that were delivered before the date range.
• Clicks: the number of link clicks within e-mails
• Bounces: the number of e-mails that were not delivered to a user. The Bounces statistic includes Dropped e-mails and Deferred e-mails until they are delivered. Dropped e-mails are e-mails that can't be sent to the intended recipient, and Deferred e-mails are e-mails that can be sent but can't be received. When an e-mail is Deferred, PlusPortals tries to send it again. E-mails can be Dropped if the address is invalid. They can be Deferred if the intended recipient's mailbox is full.
• Spam Reports: the number of e-mails that users marked as spam

View E-Mail Statistics

You can view the general status of e-mails sent from PlusPortals for a selected date range. With this information, you can observe how users interact with your school's e-mails.

To view the status of e-mails, follow these steps:

1. On the navigation bar, click Miscellaneous > E-Mail Analytics. The Statistics tab opens.
2. Under Events, select the check boxes for the events you want to view.
3. Under Date Range, click to set the Start Date and End Date, or leave the default dates. The default date range is the beginning of the month to the current date.
4. Under the graph, set the x-axis interval by selecting Days, Weeks, or Months.

E-Mail Analytics data represents information received from users' external e-mail service providers. This data does not include information from PlusPortals' internal e-mail, so actions performed by recipients within PlusPortals are not reflected on the Statistics tab, the Activity Feed tab, or the Suppressions tab.

View E-Mails Sent from PlusPortals

You can view the e-mails sent from PlusPortals during a selected date range, the intended recipients of the e-mail, and the status of each e-mail.

To view the e-mails sent from PlusPortals, follow these steps:

1. On the navigation bar, click Miscellaneous > E-Mail Analytics.
2. Click Activity Feed.
3. Do any of the following:
   • Under Search by, click E-Mail Subject or Recipient, and then type a search term.
   • Under Date Range, click and set the Start Date and End Date, or leave the default dates. The default date range is the beginning of the month to the current date.
   • Next to Subject, Date, or Sender, click to filter the results.

To access more information regarding the recipients of an e-mail, follow these steps:

1. Next to the e-mail, click  . The E-Mail Statistics dialog box appears, listing the recipients of the e-mail.

2. Do any of the following:
   • In Search by E-Mail Address, type an e-mail address.
   • Next to Event Type, E-Mail Address, or Date, click to filter the results. Event Type refers to the status of the e-mail, such as Delivered, Opened, Clicked, Bounced or Dropped.

3. For Dropped e-mails, place your pointer over to display the reason the e-mail wasn't delivered to the e-mail address.
   Note: When an e-mail is Deferred, PlusPortals tries to send it again.

View Undelivered E-Mails

You can view all undelivered e-mails for a selected date range, the intended recipients of the e-mails, and the reasons they weren't delivered.

To view undelivered e-mails, follow these steps:

1. On the navigation bar, click Miscellaneous > E-Mail Analytics.
2. Click Suppressions.
3. On the Suppressionstab, do any of the following:
   • Under Search by E-Mail Address, type an e-mail address.
   • Under Date Range, click and set the Start Date and End Date, or leave the default dates. The default date range is the beginning of the month to the current date.

• Next to Event Type, E-Mail Address, Date, or Event Summary, click  to filter the results.
• Point to to display e-mail details, such as the Subject and the Sender.

To remove a bounced e-mail, please e-mail us at [email protected]. A historical record of this bounce still appears after the bounced address is removed.