Packet Manager Updates

Tonight, 9/22/20, at about 5 PM AKT, expect this system to be unavailable for a major upgrade for at least two hours. This new upgrade includes several important new features:

• Packet Status indicators are now more informative
  • If you uploaded a packet after a student picked up their copy, their indicator will turn red so that you know they might not have received your materials
  • If you made changes to a packet after a student's copy was printed, their indicator will turn yellow so that you know that they might not have received the updated packet materials
• Error reporting to teachers so they know what PDFs are causing which problems in their packets
• Teachers may test compile their packets to see what the final product will look like for their students
• File duplication protection
  • E.g.: if you upload several copies of ResponseSheet.pdf, the file will be duplicated on the server (ResponseSheet_1.pdf, ResponseSheet_2.pdf, etc), so that if you change one, it does not replace all of them. For example, adding a question to ResponseSheet_2.pdf should not overwrite the others.
• Packet printers should receive vastly fewer errors (PDFs with errors are simply not included in the packet to be downloaded, and teachers are notified this will happen)
• School manager interface
  • A "school manager" can create and delete teacher accounts, set passwords, etc.
  • More legibility for users that manage students; students that no longer need packets are grayed out on the master student list
  • New user registration email messages with automatic secure password generation
• Password reset tool for all users

Thank you for your patience!

The system no longer supports entering packets that are multiple weeks long. Please make sure you're just uploading the packet for the week that you have selected, not future weeks. For example, don't upload weeks one and two in the week 1 packet, and avoid duplicates.

This caused too many problems before. For example, if a student showed up on week 5 to collect her packet, one teacher might have uploaded weeks 2-6 for week 2. The front office staff would then have to keep downloading packets repeatedly to find where the week 5 content is.

This system is designed to be used to print the packets on demand, so keeping everything as organized as possible for your front office staff is majorly beneficial. Thank you!

After last school year's emergency switch to onlline learning, it became apparent that a tool was necessary to organize all of the paper packets for students that lacked sufficient internet access to learn digitally. The product began as a PDF compiler, and grew into an organization system that leverages student schedules to build weekly packets to reduce physical storage needs, optimize front office time, and save teachers the time of copying packets that may or may not ever be picked up.

Some upgrades have occurred, clearing up user interface problems and restyling the entire program to better fit in with the Far North ecosystem. Thank you for using it, and thank you for producing yet another method of access to your curriculum. Packets are not an optimal method of instruction, but they are the only method of instruction for some students that have to learn remotely during extended closures.

Contact Far North if your school would like to use this program as well.