TLCC 2012: Let's Talk Online Education

We had a great Thursday morning discussion on Education and the Web. Here are our notes... and let's keep the discussion going right here on the forum!

TLCC 2012 – Let's Talk Online Education

Moderators:

Patricia Garza     Center Theatre Group   pgarza@centertheatregroup.org

Karyn Elliott        Tessitura Network           kelliott@tessituranetwork.com

 

Subject Matter Guru:

Patrick Schley    First Stage                           pschley@firststage.org

 

·         Logins

o   Science Museum of Minnesota has experience with this

o   For teacher bookings:

§  Get school info from state database

§  Auto-fill school name and info dropdowns and push to web

o   Important to use aliases and data entry standards

§  Less to merge that way

o   School login and password?

§  Shared by teachers

§  Then maybe identify which teacher is booking

o   Complicated if teacher records are affiliated with school and household, because Tessitura will want to push transaction to primary affiliation group

·         Account Look-up

o   Different ways to approach

§  Last name/Zip/Phone

§  Member number/Phone/Last name

o   CTG uses email as login and tessi ID as password to simplify this for teachers

·         Moving Patrons Online

o   Parents prefer online – priority access

o   Still accept mail/fax – class might fill up, though, delayed processing

o   Teachers guides online – with fee if they want a print copy

o   How do lower income families manage?

·         Surveys

o   Use of Scantron machines to digitize paper surveys

§  Easier than having an intern enter them into Surveymonkey!

o   Where do they go in Tessi?

§  New Vic has a custom screen/SSRS reports

§  Could also be a CSI

§  First Stage uses research notes for “anecdotal” survey responses

o   SF Opera uses a google site to collect survey responses from parents

§  Teachers forward the link on to parents and response has been good

·         Intranets

o   New Vic & First Stage have good examples

§  First Stage SharePoint site gives access to teaching artists, program participants, parents

o   WPAS Gospel Choir will have a simple password protected page on their front-facing website

·         Pre- or co-requisites

o   Using content elements to handle business rules

o   Use rankings to trigger MOS shift

o   Flex packages (select X number of classes from each of these groups)

o   Constituencies to identify pre-requisites

o   Ticket history

o   Just take their word for it!

·         Summer Camp/Class Registrations

o   La Jolla Playhouse uses TNEW to collect info on

§  Student name

§  DOB

§  Tshirts

§  Allergies

·         Goes to custom Student Info tab in Tess

o   Web solutions to create a new student record and affiliate to parent household

o   First Stage/Oregon Shakes puts spots on hold for financial aid or scholarship recipients—so they don’t disappear

o   OSF does adult classes

§  Use hold codes to save spots for general public after member presale

o   Waitlist

§  Some use a different MOS, some use a different Zone

·         Non-credit card payments

o   “Purchase order” -> seated, unpaid – shows a $$ balance (teachers use this with Houston Grand Opera)

o   “Check” payment method -> generates a CSI for follow-up

o   **Paypal is very cost prohibitive

·         Packages

o   LA Opera does professional development packages for teachers

·         Auditions

o   Phoenix Theatre uses TNEW and seats audition requests for AEA and Non-AEA audition days

o   Other web-based solutions used by First Stage include PleaseBringIt.com and Sign Up Genius

·         Free Student Matinees

o   Comp price type

o   Ranking triggers a MOS shift

o   CTG requires a $50 deposit for materials – allow to check out w/o payment

·         Training

o   Sit side by side with ticketing so you know how everything works

o   Acquire permissions from IT gradually as they know you know what you’re doing

 

Odds and ends:

·         V11.0.4 will allow renaming of special request fields