Article owned by team: Information Systems and Support (ISS)
EBS Ontrack is a Student Management System (SMS) used for: monitoring, assessment and support to keep learners on track. Registering attendance, processing assessment results, and providing the ability to search learner and curriculum details.
What does EBS mean?
This is a question we get asked a lot!
EBS stands for ‘education business system’. Why? Because it manages the business of education!
I want to:
- Understand the ways to access EBS Ontrack
- Learn how to mark learner attendance registers in EBS
- Enter assessment results into EBS
- Confirm assessments
- Use EBS to 'Refer a Learner' to Student Success for support measures
- Create a note on the 'Learner Details' page
Understand the ways to access EBS Ontrack
To open EBS Ontrack, use one of the following methods:
- Click the ‘ebs ontrack LIVE’ desktop app on your PC or laptop screen. Ontrack will open in a browser.
- Click on the ‘ebs’ button on the Tūhono home page. Ontrack will open in a separate browser.
Note:
This button only works when you are on-Campus on the organisation's network. If you are off-Campus and attempt to access Ontrack via Tūhono, you will notice that the EBS icon is 'greyed out'. To access EBS Ontrack from offsite, see the below RDS access steps.
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Remote Desktop software (RDS) access
The following information will take you through how to access EBS when you are away from the Campus environment.
EBS Ontrack currently resides on our on-premises servers, so if you're working remotely, to open EBS Ontrack you will need to access the software via the Remote Desktop access software (RDS) with the following steps:
(Need additional support on accessing the RDS? - then click here to view our knowledge article on 'How to use the RDS'. Alternatively raise a service ticket with the IT Service Desk here and you will be contacted by one of the IT team to assist you.):
You can find the link to the RDS on Tūhono / tools.
The next series of screen shots show the RemoteApp login process.
- Enter your Username and Password and click on Sign in.
Note:
You may want to save this web address to your favourites on your web browser to help speed up the login process in the future.
- Click on the 'ebs ontrack LIVE' app.
- Select 'Keep' (this may shown on the bottom or top of your screen)
- Next
- Your computer will now begin configuring the remote desktop connection.
Note:
This process can take up to 60 seconds to complete.
- Finally, your EBS Ontrack home page will open in a Google Chrome browser.
Note:
Need additional support on accessing the RDS? - then click here to view our knowledge article on 'How to use the RDS'.
Alternatively raise a service ticket with the IT Service Desk here and you will be contacted by one of the IT team to assist you.
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Learn how to mark learner attendance registers in EBS
The following is a guide on how to mark EBS Attendance Registers.
Note:
Registers will not appear in EBS Ontrack until the first day of the course
Firstly, open EBS Ontrack (see - Understand the ways to access EBS Ontrack):
Once Ontrack has opened your ebsontrack Homepage will be displayed.
- Click ‘Your Unmarked Registers’ on left side of the screen.
The ‘Unmarked Learners Registers for (your name)’ page will show any registers assigned to you at Register Event Level (shown as ‘My Current Registers’ and 'My Older Registers') and also any registers assigned to you at Course Level (shown as ‘Other Programmes' Registers I’m Linked To (but not responsible for)’ ).
- Next, click on the Attendance Register to be marked.
The Mark Register screen appears. Each learner is listed ready for you to enter attendance results. You have choices on how you mark the register. You can either use the drop-down arrow and pick a choice, or alternatively you can either click the 'cross' for Absent or the 'tick' for Present.
PLEASE NOTE:
It is preferred that you don't use the Not Required and Class Cancelled codes, as these will give us false data.
In order for a learner to be marked Present, you need to either use; Present, Online Attended or Late. For a learner to be marked Absent, you need to either use; Explained Absence, Absent or Sick.
- When you have completed all or some of the student register details click FINISH LATER or SUBMIT MARKS.
QUICK TIP !
To save time when marking large registers, you can mark the first student as ‘Present’ then click on the ‘FILL DOWN’ button. This will mark all students Present. You can then go back and adjust those students that may be absent or otherwise.
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The learner's 'Register Details' window
This is on the right hand side of the Mark Register screen. Here you are given a snapshot of some details of the Learner, a photo if available, register information; and an option to add the following:
Learner Notes:
Details that you may want to add to the ebs learner notes. For example: "Learner not well and left 15 minutes after class started."
Register Notes:
Something that you may want to add regarding special conditions on the day of the register. For example: a room change, or a few students were late.
How to edit Attendance Registers
Occasionally there may be a requirement to edit e-register results that have been previously submitted. e.g. a learner was Late rather than Absent.
Firstly, locate the previously ‘Marked Register’ that requires editing by:
Opening EBS Ontrack, using one of the methods shown in 'Understand the ways to access EBS Ontrack'
- Scroll down the Home Page and click on ‘My Programmes/Courses’ to see the courses that you are assigned to and then click on the course code that has the E-register that needs to be changed.
The Programme/Course Details screen will then appear. From here scroll down to and open the e-Registers window. Choose and click on the Register Code that represents the register you want to change.
- After clicking on the register you want to edit, the Register Details screen appears. To make changes to this register, click on ‘Edit Attendance’.
Next the original 'Mark Register' screen will appear with the previously entered attendance results. From here scroll to the bottom of this screen and select select the 'Edit Register' button.
The register is now ready for you to edit the original register mark/s as required. Go to the attendance status drop down, select the new status and then click on Submit Marks. In the below shown example, we are changing the leaner's original mark from Absent to Present. If required you can make multiple changes to other learners if required.
Congratulations! You have edited an Attendance Register
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Enter assessment results into EBS Ontrack
EBS Ontrack is used to enter assessment results into EBS our Student Management System (SMS). Assessment results are entered by lecturers or admin and then usually 'Confirmed' by an assessment committee, administrator or Lead tutor. See later in this article on how to Confirm assessment results
Firstly, open EBS Ontrack (see - Understand the ways to access EBS Ontrack):
Once Ontrack has opened, your ebsontrack Homepage will be displayed.
- Scroll down the Homepage to locate 'My Outstanding Assessments’ , then click on the link to open your outstanding assessments.
The window opens and lists the assessments you are required to mark. If the work 'Mark' appears in blue to the right of the assessment, the assessment is ready for marking. If you do not see the assessment that you want to 'Mark' contact your school administrator.
Locate the assessment you want to enter results into, and in the Action column click 'Mark'.
The Mark Assessment Results screen appears.
Each Learner is listed ready for you to enter the assessment mark.
Click into the first Result box to enter marks. The Learner's Assessment Details window appears to the right.
Click into the Result column, enter the assessment result. Note that the assessment marking parameters are pre-determined. for example it could be pre-determined to be ' Pass/Fail', a 'percentage' or a mark 'out of '
Continue entering results for each learner.
- Once all results have been entered. Click on Save Results and your entries will be saved and processed ready to be Confirmed by the person with this authority.
Notes:
- You can either part mark or mark all of your learners. If you press 'Save Results' part way through the marking, when you return to this screen the un-marked results will be there for you to process. This allows you to process marking in your own time and as/when best suits you.
- If you have a student that has been granted an extension or a Re-sit, either enter a zero or leave their result blank. This process will be explained later in this document.
- The 'Grant Extension' button currently doesn't work so best to avoid this for now.
- Again you have the option of using Fill Down when the marking parameters are a two-option mark such as Pass/Fail.
How to amend Unsubmitted Assessments
Ontrack is used to enter results into the SMS.(Student Management System). Assessment results are entered by lecturers and then usually 'Confirmed' by an assessment committee or Lead tutor.
Often there is a need to amend the entered results before they are presented to the Assessment Committee or 'Released' by the School Administrator.
The following is a guide on how to amend Unsubmitted Assessments
Firstly, open EBS Ontrack (see - Understand the ways to access EBS Ontrack):
- Once Ontrack has opened your EBS Ontrack Homepage will be displayed.
- Scroll down to 'My Programmes/Courses' and select the course that you need to amend the results for and click on it to open it..
Note:
If you can't find the course on your list, then you can use the Curriculum (Course/ Programme) search tab
The Programme or Course Details page opens, showing lots of information. The bit we are interested in is at the bottom of the page.
Scroll down until you get to the Assessments panel. Note that you will see on the course you are wanting to amend, the number of Marked, Confirmed and Total Students.
Click on the Assessment you need to amend the results on and click Confirm
Note:
Don't panic - you're not Confirming the results!
The Confirm Assessment Results window opens, and you should see results at an Open or Checked status.
- Open = submitted, ready for confirmation
- Checked = submitted, ready for confirmation, contributes to Course Outcome result
- Released = submitted and released – not all staff have this level of access
When you originally submitted your assessment results, the status was changed from Pending to Open. Now in order to change these results (in the Confirm Assessment Results screen) changing the status from Open to Pending will allow those results to be amended (back in the Mark Assessment screen).
So go to the learner you want to change and change the status back to Pending then click on Save Results.
That’s it! You should now be able to see the learner's result back in the Mark column on the Course Details page, as well as on Your Homepage.
When you mark those results, you can choose to amend the existing result (which increments the attempt column) or use the Resit functionality if they have already had an assessment result entered.
Once completed, click on Save Results
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Confirm Assessments
The second stage of the assessment process in EBS is for the assessment marks to be confirmed as correct. There are four statuses that reflect where the assessment is in the process.
Pending the assessment has yet to be marked
Open a mark has been entered against the assessment
Checked an assessment with this status is confirmed, but will not appear on Kāpehu (Student Hub) for the learner to view. When all assessments within a course have the status Checked, EBS will calculate the overall course grade.
Released the assessment mark is now viewable in Kāpehu (Student Hub) and will be used by EBS to calculate the course grade.
The role of the confirmer is to change the status of each student assessment.
To get started confirming results, firstly open EBS Ontrack (see - Understand the ways to access EBS Ontrack):
- Once Ontrack has opened your EBS Ontrack Homepage will be displayed.
- Scroll down the homepage and click on My Outstanding Assessments
The window opens and lists the assessments you are required to mark or confirm. If the word Mark appears in blue to the right of the assessment, the assessment is ready for marking. If you do not see the assessment that you want to mark contact your school administrator.
Information is displayed about the assessments. There are two Action headings at right-hand side of the screen. Actions are Mark and Confirm depending on your ebs permissions. You may see both against an assessment.
Note:
if you don't see Confirm that means that you don't have confirming rights. If you believe you should have confirming rights then please contact your school administrator to discuss this)
Click Confirm (if this appears) beside the assessment you are wanting to confirm results.
The Confirm Assessment Results screen appears.
Each learner is listed ready for you to confirm that the assessment mark is correct.
Click into the first learner. The learner's Assessment Details window appears to the right. There is one option that you MAY need to complete on this window. If a lecturer has entered Mitigating Circumstances against an assessment, you will need to accept or reject this change by choosing one of the options.
Next, click into the Status column, choose one of the options listed: Pending, Checked or Released (as described above).
Note:
If you require the lecturer to re-consider the assessment mark, set the status to Pending. The assessment mark will then appear for the lecturer to re-mark and re-submit in the assessment Mark view.
- Continue changing the status for each learner.
- If the status is to be the same for all assessments you may use the FILL DOWN option. To use this click into the first learner, change the status, and then click FILL DOWN. The chosen option will be copied to all students. This is a great way to save time. As an example, if you FILL DOWN all results to show as Released, you can go back up and edit the ones that need to be another status.
When you have completed reviewing all learner assessments click Save Results.
Use EBS to Refer a Learner to Student Success for support measures
Using the Online Referral System
Otago Polytechnic's Student Success team provide a thorough wrap-around service for our learners when required. The EBS Learner Referral system was developed by ISS as a way for teaching staff and administrators to refer a learner to Student Success without having to use email. This provides an easy and straight-forward way to support our learners in a transparent way.
When a learner requires support, the organisation identifies the learner to be At Risk.
Student Success's At Risk support categories are:
- Academic Support
- Attendance / Participation
- Career Support
- Disability / Accessibility
- Financial Situation / Stress
- Pastoral Care Needed
- Study Support
- Wellbeing
- Withdrawals
To initiate a Learner Referral what do I do first?
- Open and log into Ontrack https://ebsontrack.op.ac.nz
Note:
Your screen may differ from the screen shown above
Next look for the learner in question. You can do this either by using the Learner search function on Your Homepage. Alternatively you can navigate to the Your Learners page to locate the learner in question.
- If you have used the Learner search option from the Homepage, you will be taken to the Learner Details page, from here you navigate to Refer Learner.
If you searched via Your Learners, locate the Learner in question and click on Refer
- Next the Refer Learner page opens. This page shows previous Learner Concern Referrals (note these details are a brief summary. The full referral details are confidentially held with Student Success). Below you will find the Refer Learner section.
To begin the Learner Referral, select the At Risk Category that best suits from the dropdown list.
Continue to fill in the form as shown below. Leaving the Notification Required field as Yes will ensure that you receive an email notification once the concern has been addressed. Lastly click on Add At Risk Record to complete your referral.
Student Success will now pick up the referral, and work with the learner – keeping you advised every step of the way.
Create a note on the 'Learner Details' page
EBS Ontrack provides the ability for users to record notes about learners. These can be categorised as; Person Notes, Course Notes, Financial Notes, School Admin Notes and Attendance Notes.
The following process demonstrates how to log notes on a learner's profile.
- Open the learner's profile page and navigate down the page to the 'Notes' section.
- Open the 'Notes' section. If the learner has previous Notes entries these will show as shown below.
- To create a learner note, click on 'Create A Note'
- Next select the category for the learners notes as shown below and then enter the required notes on your learner. These notes should be a brief summary.
- Lastly, once you have entered the learner note - click on 'SAVE NOTE'
Contact: Information Systems and Support through case creation.
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