Data management guidance

Compass + relies on data from your institution’s Management Information System (MIS) to function properly. Your MIS contains data about your learners that Compass+ uses to power learner-level features such as Activities, Groups and the Future Skills Questionnaire (FSQ).

Depending on how your learner data is managed however, Compass+ may not be able to provide some features as expected.

What Compass+ needs to work.

From a data perspective, Compass+ needs: 

• A compatible MIS system
• A working data connection using Groupcall

FYI - We use a digital platform called Xporter to manage the data feed between institutions' Management Information Systems and Compass+. Xporter is managed by our specialist partner Education Brands, most often referred to as Groupcall.

• Agreement with our data scopes, such as the student email scope
• Learner record maintenance:
  - Academic year change updates to learners in time for the start of the academic year
  - End dates for learners when they leave
  - End dates for memberships to groups

When one or more of the above are missing, Compass+ will not work properly.

When all the above are in place, Compass+ should function correctly, but due to the variety of Management Information Systems, individual institution MIS configurations, the available features of the Groupcall connection and the learner and group record data across the thousands of schools and millions of learners covered by the product, there will be some instances where extra support and/or guidance will be necessary.

Please note: where we refer to 'schools' in the tables/graphics below, this also includes special schools, sixths forms, APs and PRUs that have upgraded to Compass+.

The components of Compass+.

These icons represent the 5 key components of Compass+:

Icon	Description	Managed by
	MIS application.	School
	MIS database.  This contains the learner data for your school that is used by the application.	School
	Data connection. This is provided by Groupcall, and it manages the connection and transfer of learner data from your database.	School, Groupcall and CEC
	Compass+ database.  This contains a limited version of your learner data necessary for Compass+ features to work as expected.	CEC
	Compass+.	CEC

These icons represent three states that any of the components can be in:

Icon	Description
	Ok – you can expect this component to be working as normal.
	Error – while this component is working, there are some issues that require attention that will be impacting the overall product.
	Broken – this component is not functioning and will seriously impact using Compass+ as expected.

Using these icons, here is a graphic of what the normal status of your Compass+ product should look like. This indicates that Compass+ should be functioning with all features available:

Common problems related to data.

There are known scenarios where Compass+ will not function correctly when there are issues with one or more of the components.

1. School has not updated their learners to the current academic year.

In this scenario, your MIS application may be functioning as normal. The data connection is working, but the data that it is transferring from your database does not record learners in the right academic year. This means that the Compass+ database does not have accurate data to provide all the features of the application.

Each school runs a process at the end of an academic year to update their learner records to the new academic year. This usually takes place during August and early September. Once this is complete, learners belong to the correct academic year.

Compass+ features impacted in this scenario:

Feature	Description
Adding and editing activities	If your learners are not in the right year, you should not add or edit activities for them until this has been corrected.
Creating and distributing Future Skills Questionnaire (FSQ) invitations	If your learners are not in the right year, you should not invite them to use FSQ, because they will not get the correct questionnaire.
Generating and distributing Learner reports	If your learners are not in the right year, you should not share their Learner report with them because it will not have up to date information.
Adding learners to groups	If your learners are not in the right year, you should not add them to any groups until this has been corrected.

Guidance - what to do if your school has not updated its learners by the current academic year:
How we sync your learner data for each academic year.

2. School does not have a working data connection

In this scenario, you will still be able to use Compass+ but you will see a warning about your connection. There is nothing wrong with your MIS or database, but because the data connection is broken Compass+ is showing old information about your learners.

Compass+ should sync overnight every working day during term time. If this fails, then your learner data gradually becomes out of date and less reliable. Your IT Manager can control this connection through Xporter that they used when they originally connected your MIS to Compass+.

Compass+ features impacted in the scenario:

Feature	Description
Adding and editing activities	If your MIS is not sharing data with Compass+, then editing activity detail might not function correctly because the learners record could be out of date.
Creating and distributing Future Skills Questionnaire (FSQ) invitations	If your MIS is not sharing data with Compass+, then FSQ invitations could be incorrect due to the learners record being out of date.
Generating and distributing Learner reports	If your MIS is not sharing data with Compass+, then Learner reports could be incorrect due to the learners record being out of date.

Guidance - what to do if your school has not updated its learners by the current academic year.
Possible data synchronisation issues between your MIS and Compass+.

3. School has not added end dates for learners or learner groups after they have left.

In this scenario, the data connection is working but some of the learner information is incomplete. Most product features will still work.

Schools need to maintain accurate records to reflect when learners have left otherwise Compass+ will allow you to treat left learners as current learners.

Guidance - what to do if your school has not updated its learners by the current academic year.
How to plan activities for the next academic year.

4. School has not agreed to transfer the learner’s email.

When your IT Manager originally sets up your connection to Compass+, it requires your agreement to allow CEC to transfer learner data such as forename, surname and year group to Compass+. The learner’s email is left optional, but if your IT Manager does not allow it then key features of the product will not work.

Compass+ features impacted in this scenario: 

Feature	Description
Creating and distributing Future Skills Questionnaire (FSQ) invitations	If your MIS is not sharing learner emails with Compass+, then FSQ invitations cannot be sent by email.
Generating and distributing Learner reports	If your MIS is not sharing learner emails with Compass+, then Learner reports cannot be sent by email.

Guidance - what to do if your school has not updated its learners by the current academic year.
How we use your data with the Future Skills Questionnaire.