In June 2020, Microsoft released an updated version of their Power Platform
& Dynamics 365 Education Accelerator with the K-12 extension.
& Dynamics 365 Education Accelerator with the K-12 extension.
K–12, from kindergarten to 12th grade, is an American expression that
indicates the range of years of supported primary and secondary education.
indicates the range of years of supported primary and secondary education.
The Industry Accelerators are solutions that you install on your Power
Platform environment. They extend the Common Data Model with specific
entities, processes, apps, etc. This provides a great head start for companies
and partners implementing Dynamics 365 in those industries.
Platform environment. They extend the Common Data Model with specific
entities, processes, apps, etc. This provides a great head start for companies
and partners implementing Dynamics 365 in those industries.
To read more about the components of the K-12 Accelerator, please refer to my
article
https://www.danikahil.com/2020/06/envisioning-solution-using-k-12.html
article
https://www.danikahil.com/2020/06/envisioning-solution-using-k-12.html
To put the Education Accelerator in the context of a real life scenario, let’s
imagine how we can use it in the following story.
imagine how we can use it in the following story.
The Story:
Emma is the happy mom of 2
beautiful girls, called
Isa and
Jen. Both Isa (11 years old) and Jen (6 years old) attend the local primary state school at Manly in
Sydney, Australia.
Yesterday evening, Emma received an email with Isa’s “Report Card” for Semester 1 attached to the email and available for
consultation.
The “Report Card” for Semester 1 is a summary of Isa’s achievement in
learning areas and/or subjects studied over Semester 1. The report is one of
several strategies used by schools to communicate with parents throughout
the year about children achievements, efforts and behaviours.
Emma is not surprised
to read Isa did
great in Mathematics and English but needs a little more support in
“Physics”. Emma is
surprised that she didn’t get an email about Jen’s “Report Card”. Usually she gets both reports at the same time. When she
still hasn’t received anything a day later, she decides to try to find the
Report Card.
to read Isa did
great in Mathematics and English but needs a little more support in
“Physics”. Emma is
surprised that she didn’t get an email about Jen’s “Report Card”. Usually she gets both reports at the same time. When she
still hasn’t received anything a day later, she decides to try to find the
Report Card.
Now let’s see how Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform including the
Education Accelerator can help Emma resolve her issue.
1. Emma logs in to the
Student & Parent Portal to find out why she didn’t receive
Jen’s “Report Card”.
Communications and information relating to Isa and Jen’s study
are provided under the Student and Parent Portal as well as announcements on
extracurricular activities and events around the School.
While browsing the portal, Emma sees valuable information under the “Coursework” tab:
Grades: Lists all Jen’s courses where grades.
- Homework: All open homework assignments with due dates.
Assessments: Assessments and tests that Jen’s had this year.
Library: All the books that Jen borrowed from the library.
Emma navigates to
the “Activities” tab and sees that the school is now offering a class
on “Figure skating”.
the “Activities” tab and sees that the school is now offering a class
on “Figure skating”.
Jen will be happy 😊
2. Emma consults the
“Knowledge Articles” section to find out why a “Report Card” would be
late.
Unfortunately, she can’t find anything relevant to her problem.
3. Emma starts to chat
with the Virtual Agent.
The Virtual Agent tells her that a “Report Card” can take up to 48hrs to
be sent to parents after it has been approved and released for
publication.
4. The chatbot suggest the creation of a Case for a school staff member to
investigate further if
Emma wishes to do so.
Emma proceeds
with the creation of the Case.
5. A new case is created in Dynamics 365 and it’s assigned to the Portal
Support team.
Tracy, the support agent, sees the new case in her team’s Dashboard and
decides to pick-up the case.
decides to pick-up the case.
6. Tracy starts working on the case and consults
Jen’s Profile in Dynamics
365 to find the “Report Card”.
a. Tracy opens Jen’s student profile to look for more details. Usually, when there is
something that requires attention, the system displays an Alert at the top
of the Student profile page. However, no alert for Jen here.
something that requires attention, the system displays an Alert at the top
of the Student profile page. However, no alert for Jen here.
b. Tracy navigates to “School Enrolments” (Called “Academic Period
Details” in the Accelerator, but in Australia this is usually named a
“School Enrolment”).
Details” in the Accelerator, but in Australia this is usually named a
“School Enrolment”).
c. Tracy finds the latest “Report Card” attached to the “School
Enrolment”. The Report Card is still “Under Review” and not approved by
the “Head of Year”.
d. Tracy checks if all the “Class Enrolments” have grades under
them (“Class Enrolments” are called “Course History” in the Accelerator).
A missing grade will delay the approval of the “Report Card”. Indeed the
“Math I” class is still missing a grade.
them (“Class Enrolments” are called “Course History” in the Accelerator).
A missing grade will delay the approval of the “Report Card”. Indeed the
“Math I” class is still missing a grade.
e. Tracy sees that the “Math I” teacher is her friend Smith. Tracy
writes a brief Microsoft Teams chat to say hi to Smith and asks him when
will the grades for “Math I” be in.
writes a brief Microsoft Teams chat to say hi to Smith and asks him when
will the grades for “Math I” be in.
f. While Tracy is writing her email back to Emma, Smith replies that the grades should be done this morning.
7. Tracy sends an email to
Emma advising that the
“Math I” class is still processing grades and the “Report Card” should
be sent to Emma within
the next 48hrs.
Tracy closes the case as completed.
8. A satisfaction survey is sent to
Emma to get her feedback
about the support she got from Tracy.
9. Insights are available under the Customer Insights App.
Some of the Insights we can measure are:
Resolution time drivers: Topics (Type of Cases) in order of
resolution time over the specified time period:
Volume of cases associated with the topic divided by total cases
Average resolution time: The average resolution time of resolved
cases within the specified time period
Impact: 1 – (Average resolution time not including the current
topic divided by overall average resolution time for all topics)
Agents with longest resolve time: Average time, in minutes, that it
takes each agent in the specified time period to resolve a case.
New cases versus average resolution time: Daily trend in the
specified time period in the number of new support cases and the
average resolution time, in minutes.
Agents handling most escalations: Number of active and resolved
cases for each agent, in order of total cases.
Customer satisfaction breakdown: Breakdown of customer satisfaction
by support channel during the specified time period.
Education Accelerator components within this Story
In the above story, we have combined the Education Accelerator with
other great Apps available within the Power Platform and Dynamics
365.
Let’s examine the Education Accelerator components used in the
story.
Step 1: Emma logs in
to the Student & Parent Portal:
Jen’s courseware
information on the Portal.
Step 6: Tracy starts working on the case and consults
Jen’s Profile in
Dynamics 365.
