1.

Issue:

Are we allowed to register our students into MAERS as of yet??

Resolution:

Yes, you can

Status:

Closed

2.

Issue:

If we have a student that is in the MAERS system, under a different district, but is now in our district, how do we update them to be registered under our district?

Resolution:

Please click on the “Enter New MAERS Registration” button at the bottom of the Participant History Screen. This will begin the process to enter a new MAERS Registration within your District. MAERS 2 uses the same process as MAERS 1 but the label on the button has changed from “Enter New MAERS Enrollment” to “Enter New MAERS Registration”.

Status:

Closed

3.

Issue:

I am in the process of entering our 2 lab classes and I am not able to choose more than one instructional area. For example, in one learning lab class there are 3 types of classes, HSC, GED Prep, and ABE. I tried to just enter the class a second time choosing a different instructional area and it would not let me.

Resolution:

Any given Class can have only one instructional area. This is because we have to report by instructional area to the U.S. Dept of Education. If a single Class, Lab, etc applied to more than one instructional area, we would have no way to identify, which participants are in which instructional area.

The only way to do this is two set the Learning Lab up as two separate classes by instructional area. Each Class would have to have a unique name. For example, if the Learning Lab has ABE and GED, then the first Learning Lab would be setup as ABE and the second would be setup as GED. When a participant completes the ABE components, then they are exited from the ABE Class and enrolled into the GED Class. Alternatively, they could be in both Classes at the same time provided their reading scores are sufficient so they can read and understand both the ABE and GED curriculum. Each Class would have to have a unique name.

Status:

Closed

4.

Issue:

The NRS tables are scheduled for my school. There is a selection under “reports” that says check status when I look in that, there is a button that says “Submit”. What is this button? Are the reports scheduled or do they also have to be “Submitted”?

Resolution:

The reports are scheduled. In MAERS 2, you can cancel scheduled reports from the “Check Report Status” page by checking the “Cancel” box and then clicking on the “Submit” button. This will stop your scheduled reports. This option was available in MAERS 1 but the buttons were labeled differently.

Status:

Closed

5.

Issue:

I don’t have the Provider Admin tab on my screen so I can’t setup Instructors, Locations, Courses or Classes.

Resolution:

Creating Instructor, Location, Course and Class records is a Provider Administrator function. You must be logged into the system with your Provider Admin account for the “Provider Admin” menu option to appear. Please be sure you are logged into the system using your Provider Admin account to access this feature

Status:

Closed

6.

Issue:

We have a Learning Lab that provides ABE, GED and HSD Instruction. However, I can select only one Instructional Area when I create my Class. What do we need to do to set this up?

Resolution:

Michigan has to report by Instructional Area to the US Dept. of Education. This is why a Class can only have one Instructional Area selection. If a Class was designated as ABE, GED and HSD Instructional areas, we would have no way to determine which Participants are receiving what services and report correctly.

In MAERS, the Learning Lab has to be setup as three separate Classes – An ABE, GED and HSD Learning lab. A Participant can be enrolled in one or more of the Learning Labs at the same time as permitted by Adult Education policy. Or, the Participant can start in ABE and then Exit ABE and Enroll in GED or HSD.

Status:

Closed

7.

Issue:

What are “Wrap Around Transportation”, “Wrap Around Child Care” and “Wrap Around Other” support services?

Resolution:

These are support services that you would provide to your Participants. If you provide bus tokens, provide transportation, mileage reimbursement or some other form of transportation service, they you would answer “Yes” to the Wrap Around Transportation question.

Status:

Closed

8.

Issue:

We operate a County Jail program. I am setting this up in MAERS as a Location. Do you wan the name of the Sheriff for the contact or do you wan the name of our School Person responsible for the program? Also, do I use the Jail’s address for the Physical address or do I use our School Address?

Resolution:

The Contact should be your School contact. The Physical address should be the address of the Jail. The Mailing Address should be your School’s address.

Status:

Closed

9.

Issue:

Do we set our own Instructor Number for MAERS?

Resolution:

Local Programs determine and enter their own Instructor numbers in MAERS 2. It must be unique for every Instructor. In other words, no two Instructors should have the same Instructor Number. Further, the Instructor Number remains with the Instructor it was assigned too and is not reassigned.

Status:

Closed

10.

Issue:

When we select the “Instructional Area” on the Participant History screen to add a new Registration fro 2011-12, we get an error message that says the webpage cannot be found. We have tried accessing the system in both IE8 and Firefox.

Resolution:

First, to add a new Registration for 2011-12, please click on the “Enter New MAERS Registration” button at the bottom of the Participant History Screen. Second, there was a problem with the system that has now been fixed. When you click on the “Instructional Areas” from the Participant History Screen, you should be navigated to the Registration for that program year instead of getting the “404 Page Not Found” error message. This has been corrected and screen navigation is to the correct Registration for the Program Year selected.

Status:

Closed

11.

Issue:

Some of our Students require follow up but they are not showing up on our Follow Up Selection report. These Students have the “Retain Employment” goal.

Resolution:

These Participants will show upon the 2011-12 Follow Up Selection report. This is a MAERS 2 report, which has not been tested and released yet. As a temporary work around, you can use the MAERS 1 Missing Data Report and look for records that are missing follow up information. You can use the web-browsers FIND utility to help locate Follow up records by searching for the word “Follow-Ups”. The FIND utility is on the EDIT menu.

Status:

Testing report and will release it once tested.

12.

Issue:

We are working on our new MAERS 2.0 report and have a question on the Staffing Count page. Where it says Administrator/Supervisor does that include the Program Director? The description seems to refer to state staff but there is no section to report the Director.

Resolution:

Directors are Administrators for this report.

Status:

Closed

13.

Issue:

Using the “Flex Schedule” on the Class Setup screen, it will not let me enter 3.5 hours per week?

Resolution:

Programmers have set up Flex Schedule hours to now accept decimals.

Status:

Closed

14.

Issue:

Why is it that an ABE student can not have Obtain HS credits and/or Obtain HS Diploma as long term goals? Most ABE students select this goal as we are talking it is the main goal they are working towards. Then, I went into MAERS tonight and was not able to enter those goals for ABE participants. Is this something that will be changed in the system or do we not allow participants to select those goals?

Resolution:

Goal selection is a progression or one step after the other process. First, the Participant is in ABE. Maybe it takes them one, two or more years to complete ABE. Next, they move into HSD. Again, it may take one, two or more years to complete the HSD. In year one, their primary short-term goal can be Obtain HSD Credits and the long term goal is to Obtain a HSD. Maybe this would be the case for year two as well. In year three, you offer the classes the Participant needs and they have the time to attend all classes needed to finish their HSD instruction. At this point, the primary short-term goal becomes Obtain HSD.

The goals should align with the instructional areas of the Participant. The short-term / long-term goals are used if it is expected that they will be in the instructional area for more than one year. Also, you can change instructional areas and goals on the Registration during the program year.

Status:

Closed

15.

Issue:

A student has been pre-tested and the scores indicate enrollment in a GED Prep class. The Student has not taken a GED test previously. You must specify the # of Actual GED Tests Previously Passed. Since the student has not taken a GED test yet, what do we do?

Resolution:

The ‘# of Actual GED Tests Previously Passed’ does require data entry. If the participant has never taken a GED test, entering zero (0) would satisfy this requirement.

Status:

Closed

16.

Issue:

The Form No’s do not appear in the dropdown lists when entering a score into Work Keys and selecting Form F or G,

Resolution:

Reported to programmers and the dropdown lists have been created for Form F and G.

Status:

Tested and fix confirmed. Closed

17.

Issue:

An error is coming up stating the Location Name must be unique to the provider and there already exists another location with this same name.

Resolution:

If this is the same building location, then it only needs to be entered in once. When in the Class Setup screen, the locations entered will appear in a dropdown list. So if the same location is used for several classes, it only needs to be entered into MAERS one time.

Status:

Closed

18.

Issue:

The Instructors, Locations, and Courses entered are not showing in the Class Search Results.

Resolution:

You need to scroll to the bottom of this screen and click on the “Add Class” button. This will navigate to the Class Setup screen where you should be able to select the Instructors, Locations, and Courses within a dropdown list.

Status:

Closed

19.

Issue:

I scheduled several MAERS reports and now I can’t find them.

Resolution:

The reports should be in “Retrieve New” in the Reports menu. Once reviewed, the reports move to the “Retrieve Old” tab in the Reports menu.

Status:

Closed

20.

Issue:

Our classes are 5.5 hours long however this includes breaks and a lunch. This makes the class instructional time 5 hours. What times do I show on the class schedule?

Resolution:

The class schedule does not allow for break/lunch times to be entered. You would put in the class start time and the class end time. For example: Start time is 9:00am and end time is 2:35pm though there is a 30 minute lunch and a 5 minute break within these start and end times.

Status:

Closed

21.

Issue:

Trying to enter follow-up for a participant who has Retain/Improve Employment due 10/1/11 - 12/31/11. We are not allowed to enter, unable to reach after 4 attempts. Why?

Resolution:

The follow up for this participant for Retain or Improve Employment Data runs between 10/1/2011 and 12/31/2011. Therefore, you have the quarter after to follow up on this question if you can't reach him. Once 01/01/2012 comes, and if you still haven't been able to contact him, then the Suggestions and Status fields will open for you to answer the question of Unable to Contact Participant after four attempts. If you have been able to reach him between 10/1/2011 and 12/31/2011, then you could answer the Retain or Improve Employment Data questions accurately.

Status:

Closed

22.

Issue:

How does one logout of MAERS?

Resolution:

There is not a logoff function for MAERS. You simply close your browser by hitting the X in the upper right hand corner.

Status:

Closed

23.

Issue:

When I was checking on student information already in MAERS, I didn't see an obvious way to finish the transaction and move on to the next student. Am I supposed to hit "cancel"?

Resolution:

If you are just viewing the information and not making any updates or changes, then you can click on the Cancel button to go to the Participant’s History screen then click on the New Search button at the bottom of the screen to look up another participant. Or you can simple go back to the Participant tab at the top of the page and select Registration from the dropdown list to look up another participant.

Status:

Closed

24.

Issue:

Is there a "save" function, or does saving occur as I click from screen to screen?

Resolution:

The Submit or Update buttons will “save” any data entry or updated entries. Going from tab to tab will keep the information among the tabs but before leaving the Class Setup, Registration, or Outcome screens (the 3 screens that have tabs), you must click on Submit/Update to save the data.

Status:

Closed

25.

Issue:

For an Open Entry/Exit class, a low total number of Scheduled Hours is saved in the Class Setup. If a participant exceeds the scheduled hours when entering attendance, an error message appears.

Resolution:

This is a confirmable alert and not an error. You can confirm that the participant did exceed the classes scheduled hours to save the attendance. You can also go back to the Class Setup and update the Scheduled Hours for the class if they are not correct.

Status:

Closed

26.

Issue:

Unable to enter attendance for those participants with no pre-test. Several students enrolled, attended, then were no shows for the testing date. They have now stopped coming. How can I capture attendance?

Resolution:

A pre-test is required to enter attendance. The pre-test determines the participant’s EFL to determine what class is appropriate to enroll them into. You could do one of two things which will be a local program decision:

a. If the participant had a pre, progress, or post-test within the last 180 days during last program year, you can use this as the pre- test for this program year.

b. If they did not attend any hours you could delete the participant from the class altogether through the enrollment function.

Status:

Closed

27.

Issue:

In the Assessment History Module, why is the Test Instructional Area designated as both ABE/ASE?

Resolution:

Since a participant can be registered with multiple Instructional Areas, each participant can now have up to 2 pre and post-tests. One being ESL and the other being ABE/ASE. CASAS (ABE/ASE), TABE 9, TABE 10, GAIN, WORK KEYS can be used for a participant taking either or both ABE and ASE classes.

Status:

Closed

29.

Issue:

In the class setup tab, there is a limit of 999.99 hours for "Scheduled Hours," but with open entry-open exit, I have a learning lab class that is open 1300 hours throughout the school year. How do I set up the class?

Resolution:

The Scheduled Hours is the amount of Instructional Hours needed to complete the class. If the lab is self-paced, a local program decision can be made as to how many hours should be entered.

Status:

Closed

30.

Issue:

Can a MAERS password contain special characters?

Resolution:

A MAERS password can contain letters and numbers but no special characters.

Status:

Closed

31.

Issue:

Since a student can have 2 pre-tests now, why do I receive an error stating only one PRE test can be stored?

Resolution:

A participant can have 2 pre-tests but they cannot be from the same Instructional Area. A participant can have one pre-test for ESL and one pre-test for ABE/ASE.

Status:

Closed

32.

Issue:

Can you explain the difference between Courses and Classes?

Resolution:

A Course is the material taught. A Class is the instance when the material is taught. Example: Math 101 is a course in which basic Math is taught. This Math Class is held on Tuesday and Thursday from 6 – 9pm.

Status:

Closed

33.

Issue:

I have several students who have been placed in ABE as their program of enrollment, but are not taking the ABE class. When I go to enter their schedule the only class that comes up is ABE. They are all taking HSC classes. How do I go about scheduling these classes?

Resolution:

Each participant can have multiple instructional areas selected within their registration. (Instructional Areas used to be called Programs of Enrollment). So you would need to select HSD as an instructional area for these participants to make them eligible to enroll into an HSD class. However, you need to follow Adult Education’s Assessment Policy with regard to providing services that are appropriate for the educational level the Participant has at program entry.

Status:

Closed

34.

Issue:

How can I eliminate a class that is erroneously entered?

Resolution:

You can do one of two things:

1. Go into the Class Setup and update the class with what you want it to show.

2. Go in to the record and make the class “Inactive” on the General Information Tab in the Class Setup. You can do this as long as no Participants have been enrolled into the Class.

Status:

Closed

35.

Issue:

I need to delete 2 enrollments. The students have no attendance hours as of yet and are dropped from our program.

Resolution:

You can do the deletion yourself by doing the following:

1. Click on the Participant tab

2. Select Class Enrollment by Participant

3. Search for the participant and navigate to the Enter/Update Participant Class Enrollments

4. Check the Delete? Box

5. Click on the Save button

You will then want to go to the Outcome module and exit the participants from your program.

Status:

Closed

36.

Issue:

How accurate do attendance records need to be? If a student attends 10 hrs and 20 minutes in a month, should it be entered by the ½ hour or ¼ hour?

Resolution:

This is a local program decision however attendance can be entered as decimal time. 10 hrs and 20 minutes = 10.3 hrs. An hour/minute to decimal calculator is located at http://www.springfrog.com/converter/decimal-time.htm

Status:

Closed

37.

Issue:

I input a pre-test for a participant but I am unable to input attendance for the same participant. The system says I need a pre-test to input attendance, but the pre-test is recorded.

Resolution:

Make sure the pre-test is an approved test for the instructional area chosen (refer to Assessment Policy for approved pre-tests per instructional areas). If the pre-test does not align to the instructional area of the class you are trying to enroll the participant into, you will get the error. Several ways to fix this issue:

1. Delete the pre-test and enter the correct pre-test for the chosen instructional area.
2. Change the Instructional Area of the Class

Status:

Closed

38.

Issue:

How can I transfer students from my current database into MAERS?

Resolution:

MAERS does not have a transfer function. You need to enroll a participant into a Class and when they are done; you Exit the participant from that class. The participant can then be enrolled into a different class. MAERS also supports concurrent Class Enrollments in different Classes, which means they can be active in two or more Classes at the same time. The dates you use for your Class Enrollments and Exits are a local decision, but you should adhere to the following two basic rules:

1. Class Enrollment and Exit Dates must be within the Begin and End dates of the class.
2. Dates used should reflect accurately what has transpired with the Participant’s activity. For example, are you Classes in session (or available if Distance Education) to participants on Sundays? If they are, would someone on staff be working and process the Exit and then Enrollment into a different Class on this Sunday? If so, then use these dates. If not, use the dates when activities actually took place.

Status:

Closed