Acronym for 'Application Programming Interface'. A standard programming term used to describe a set of requirements that govern how one application can talk to another. APIs do all this by “exposing” a program’s internal functions to the outside world. That makes it possible for applications to share data and take actions on one another’s behalf.
Acronym for 'Data Sharing Agreement'. For a software application to utilise Xporter services, the vendor must supply a suitable DSA to schools that describes and governs what and how they intend to process and store school data. While Groupcall insists a document is provided, it is ultimately the responsibility of the consenting school to ensure a DSA is adequate and fit for purpose for the intended use of the software they are installing.
The DfE's public register of educational establishments in England and Wales. We use this to confirm school registrations and as part of our verification process. Partners can also query this via XoD to retrieve and maintain their school’s public records, such as address and contact number.
Groupcall uses Xporter to power its own school-facing products, predominantly 'Messenger' and 'Emerge', a communication and teacher administration platform respectively. Groupcall’s partners can integrate and/or expose their products within areas of these for the benefit of mutual schools.
A term Groupcall uses to describe customers of its Xporter service, typically educational software providers, using the service to extract various areas of data from the school’s MIS.
A general term used to refer to the extraction (or write-back) of data from a school’s MIS database. Often used by educational software suppliers to minimise the administration and implementation of their solutions by automatically provisioning and/or importing student related information.
A term used to describe the ability to write or push data back to an MIS. For example, taking a register of class attendance in one application and using Xporter to write these changes/updates back to the MIS, making in instantly available to both MIS users and other applications that may also depend on attendance data.
The school census is a statutory census that takes place during the autumn, spring, and summer terms. UK schools are required to complete and submit statutory censuses by law, which are usually generated automatically using their MIS software. The census collects information about individual pupils and about the schools themselves.
Acronym of Management Information System, which in the UK education sector is commonly used to refer to database software utilised by educational institutions to store details on students, contacts/parents, staff, etc. This also includes ancillary demographic and statistical data used by schools to record, measure and manage many aspects of the day-to-day operation of a school.
The requirement for an MIS is mandated by the need for schools to produce a census (see below) for submission to the DfE to calculate funding allocation, among other areas, such as student attendance.
In other territories, it may be referred to as an ‘SIS’ (Student Information System), SMS (Student Management System), etc.
Acronym for 'System Interoperability Framework' (formerly 'School Interoperability Framework'). An interoperability standard maintained by the Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, previously the SIF Association. A non-profit collaboration composed of schools, government and software vendors. Xporter/XoD utilises some elements of the SIF data model and provides SIF compatibility for 'SIF Agents'.
The name given to the MIS software product developed by Capita Business Services Ltd, part of Capita Plc. SIMS accounts for around 85-90% of the UK MIS market in state maintained schools, making it by far the most prevalent MIS system currently in use. The remaining share is made up of around another 10 providers.
A unique scheme designed to support and assist start-ups launching in the Edtech UK market who require data integration or automated school MIS integration. Contact Groupcall’s Partner Team who will assess your needs and offer guidance as to the available options to help you launch your product.
Acronym for 'Xporter on Demand’, our Xporter MIS API, which allows software (once a school has granted it permission) to connect to and extract MIS/school data required to operate their applications. This could be timetable, attendance or assessment data, for example.
Groupcall’s application and associated services provided to educational software providers and developers. It enables efficient and secure MIS integration with a wide variety of systems from suppliers such as Capita SIMS, Advanced Learning, Bromcom, RM Integris, etc.
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