Alma Announces Student Information System Upgrades

Alma Student Information System (SIS) recently unveiled updates to its SIS platform, providing new features making it easier for districts to onboard schools and use third-party apps. Both the parent and student versions of its portals are also now available in Spanish. The updates were released in time for the new school year.

“Alma’s upgrades make the onboarding and overall day-to-day SIS experience for schools and districts even better, and also support our mission of increasing educational equity, inclusion and family engagement,” said Andrew Herman, Alma’s founder and CEO, in a news release. “If schools and districts learned anything in 2020, it’s that technology demands on educators and parents are greater than ever. We are creating tools such as the App Center to make it easier for educators to use the apps they love while using their student information system. And we are improving access to student information for Spanish-speaking families, making Alma a comprehensive SIS solution for schools.”

Upgrades to Alma include:

  • Navigator, which helps school districts transition over to Alma. The in-app SIS implementation guide reduces migration and setup time by providing point-by-point onboarding instructions, project management tools, and progress updates. Schools can configure project plans to assign tasks (like setting up GPA scales or class schedules) to team members around the school, and users with permission can track the status of all assigned tasks.
  • The app center, which enables districts to integrate third-party apps into the SIS. Administrators can select their app of choice from Alma’s Vendor Library and select the appropriate files and data to share. They can also add apps to the Vendor Library and use the Integrations Dashboard to view the setup and metrics of its daily use.
  • Multilingual parent and student portals offer access and engagement to non-English-speaking families. Spanish versions of the portals are already available, with other language options coming soon. Students and families can access the system in English or Spanish for tasks like registering their children and viewing grades form a mobile device.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Chartwells Launches Campus Dining Evaluation Framework

    Contract food-service management provider Chartwells Higher Education recently announced the launch of BLUEPRINT, according to a news release. The evaluation framework was designed to provide a data-driven and customizable roadmap towards optimizing campus dining services and, by extension, the student experience.

  • Miami University Approves New $242M Multipurpose Arena

    Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, recently announced that its Board of Trustees has approved construction of a new multipurpose arena at Cook Field, according to university news. The $242-million project will serve as a new centralized hub for student life and create space for economic development on campus.

  • UTampa Breaks Ground on STEM Academic Facility

    The University of Tampa in Tampa, Fla., recently broke ground on one of its largest academic facilities ever, according to a news release. The Dickey Science Innovation Center will measure 153,000 square feet and has a scheduled completion date of fall 2028.

  • Tennessee Middle School Completes Health, Life Safety Renovations

    The Giles County Board of Education in Pulaski, Tenn., recently announced that a series of renovation projects has been completed at Bridgeforth Middle School, according to a news release. The district partnered with Wold Architects & Engineers and Brindley Construction to modernize building systems at one of the district’s oldest schools.