Before using this outline to train users, make sure you've read through the Training Manual and completed the required preparation.
Getting Started Creating DocumentsCompleting DocumentsParent CommunicationCollaboration | Authoring DocumentsBank ValuesMeetings and SignaturesAdditional ToolsWrap Up |
timer | Time: 20 minutes |
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library_books | Discussion 1: SameGoal is a documentation management and compliance platform for special programs with over a 99% annual retention rate. SameGoal has been serving districts since 2008 and supports several special programs. |
library_books | Discussion 2: Discuss the reasons why the district decided to switch to SameGoal as well as which problems SameGoal will help to solve. |
library_books | Discussion 3: During this training we will cover topics such as:
I will be logged into the environment demonstrating the functionality as we work through the different topics and you will also be able to complete several activities where you can try completing different workflows in the application yourself. |
library_books | Discussion 1: Discuss how login works for the district (SSO, ClassLink, OIDC, etc.). |
touch_app | Activity 1: Log into SameGoal.
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priority_high | Important: Logging in can take a while. Make sure everyone is able to log in, and help those who are having difficulties. |
library_books | Discussion 1: During this training, you’ll come across real students and real documents, but for the purpose of training, we will be working with test data. For the time being, please ignore the real data. If we have time at the end, you will get the chance to explore the environment, the students, and the documents a bit more. |
library_books | Discussion 2: There are several different features and pages you can access from the left menu: Dashboard: This page gives users a quick and easy way to see important information in SameGoal and will reduce the number of clicks needed to get to commonly used information. Recent: This is the landing page when you log into SameGoal and it shows your 50 most recent documents. If you leave a document to work on other students, you can easily come back to what you were working on. Additionally, all documents you’ve been working on are all in one place. Caseload: Shows the documents you are actively working on. You can control which documents appear here by adding and removing documents throughout the year as what you’re working on changes. We will discuss how to manage your Caseload later. My Students: All students who have at least one document on your Caseload. This list is dynamic and will change as you work on documents year to year. If you add a student’s document to your Caseload, if they are not already on your My Students list, they will be added. Once a student no longer has any documents on your Caseload, they will be removed from My Students. Chat: You can switch from the My Students tab to the Chat tab by clicking on the chat box icon. This allows you to securely message other online colleagues. To switch back to My Students, you can click back to the student icon. All: Lists all of the documents you have access to, given your permissions; whether it was explicitly shared with you or because your administration gave you default access to the form type. Deadlines: A calendar of any deadlines that have been assigned to you. You can also display deadlines for students who you have an educational interest in, even if the deadlines are not assigned to you. Deadlines are calculated by SameGoal automatically when documents are completed and are assigned to whoever the owner of the previous document was. Students / create new: This is a list of all students you have access to based on your building permissions, which are controlled by your administration. Students are automatically added and updated each night based on a SIS demographics integration. All students are added, regardless of program participation status. This means if a student needs to be evaluated, they don't need to be added to the system first. Reports: This page will list all reports you have access to run given your report permissions set by your admin users. When you run a report, you are able to see information from documents you have access to. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Make sure you have the correct building permissions by searching for students.
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timer | Time: 10 minutes |
inventory | Preparation: Assign everyone in training a number associated with a test student. Test005 through Test250 are available. |
library_books | Discussion 1: In order to create a document for a student, you will first need to find that student and navigate to their Documents tab. You can do this by clicking on their name in your My Students list if they are listed there, or by searching for them on the Students / create new page. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Search for your test student.
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library_books | Discussion 2: There are several tabs on a student's page:
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library_books | Discussion 1: When you click into the Create new dropdown at the top of a student’s Documents tab, you can see all of the forms you have permission to create. Again, this access is set by your administration. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Make sure you have the correct form permissions.
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library_books | Discussion 2: If a student needs to be evaluated for Section 504, they will first need to be referred to the program. To refer a student, you'll need to create a Section 504: Referral. |
touch_app | Activity 2: Create a referral for your test student.
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library_books | Discussion 3: When you create the document:
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library_books | Discussion 1: While working in documents, you will not have to manually save your work. Rather all document edits are autosaved, and you can see the save status in the top right of the document. Changes are saved every time you click out of a field or every few seconds while working within a field, so there is never a risk of losing more than a few seconds worth of work. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Explore autosave.
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timer | Time: 5 minutes |
library_books | Discussion 1: Documents cannot be completed until all required fields are filled out and there are no data errors with the document (except when bypassed by administrative users). We will learn more about validation checks later, but for now, we will quickly fill out the rest of the document so we can mark it complete. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Complete a document.
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library_books | Discussion 2: When a document is completed:
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library_books | Discussion 1: When the referral is completed, your student will automatically be pre-enrolled in Section 504 and a gray badge will appear next to their name. In order to see more information about program participation, you can view the participation timeline on the student’s Programs tab. |
touch_app | Activity 1: View a student’s Programs tab.
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timer | Time: 10 minutes |
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library_books | Discussion 1: After creating a referral, you'll need to send a Prior Written Notice to the parents and obtain their consent to evaluate the child. First, let's create a Section 504: Parent Consent document to pass along to the parents in order to obtain their consent. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Create a Consent to Evaluate document.
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library_books | Discussion 1: You may have noticed that when a new document is first created, demographics information on the cover page is automatically populated. This information is pulled in from the student's Details tab (which is updated nightly based on an active demographics integration). If information has been updated on the Details tab since the document was first created, you can click the Update Student Information button at the top of the document to re-pull the data. |
library_books | Discussion 1: After providing relevant information in the consent document, you'll need to share it with the parents in order for them to fill out the consent section. Documents can be shared with parents electronically and they are able to fill out the Parent/Guardian Response section of the document. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Share your document with a parent.
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library_books | Discussion 1: The other document that will need to be created is a prior written notice to provide the parents with more information regarding the proposed action. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Create and begin filling out a Prior Written Notice.
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library_books | Discussion 2: Once the document has been filled out, you can share it with the parents and mark it complete. Additionally, once the parents return the consent form, that can be completed as well. When these two documents are completed, it will trigger a new deadline, but for now we will leave the documents incomplete. |
timer | Time: 20 minutes |
inventory | Preparation: Organize attendees into groups of 2 or 3. You can either place attendees in groups yourself or allow them to find their own partners. It will be easiest if partners are seated next to each other. As the trainer, it will be helpful if you also have a partner to demonstrate with. |
library_books | Discussion 1: After parents grant their consent to an evaluation, a Section 504: Evaluation document will need to be created for the evaluation team to collaborate on. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Create and begin filling out an Evaluation.
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library_books | Discussion 1: Once basic information has been entered in the document, you'll want to add additionally collaborators to it so they may contribute. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Share a document with another user.
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library_books | Discussion 2: You may have noticed that by default, other staff are added to the Collaborative Team with Can Edit permission. When sharing a document you can determine which level of access other collaborators will have. The document access granted through explicitly sharing a document with a user might be different from the default access granted to them by administration.
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library_books | Discussion 3: When a document is shared with you:
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library_books | Discussion 1: There is no limit to how many users a document can be shared with and multiple collaborators may work in one document simultaneously without the risk of overwriting each other’s work. When another user is working in the same document as you, a concurrent user icon will pop up in the top right and you’ll be able to see their edits in real time. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Work in a document with another collaborator.
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library_books | Discussion 1: If you see another team member in the document at the same time, you can easily start a chat with them by clicking their card in the top right. In-application chat is a way to speed up communication between staff members and foster professional collaboration. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Send a message using the Chat feature.
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library_books | Discussion 2: It’s important to note that chat is not attached to the educational record for a given student and is not stored with the document in any way. You can start or continue a chat with another online team member by navigating to the Chat tab in the left menu. |
library_books | Discussion 1: Even with potentially several users all collaborating on one document, there is never a risk of losing your work due to another staff member entering the document and making unwanted changes or removing your work. SameGoal has a Version History panel in every document that is available to any user with access to the document. |
touch_app | Activity 1: View events in the Version History panel.
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library_books | Discussion 2: Version History is helpful in several ways:
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timer | Time: 10 minutes |
library_books | Discussion 1: If the evaluation team determines that a Section 504 plan should be developed for the student, before the team can meet to develop the plan, a notice will need to be sent to the parents inviting them to the meeting. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Create and begin filling out a Section 504: Parent Invitation.
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library_books | Discussion 2: After filling out the document with information about the meeting, it will need to be passed along to the parents. The document can be completed once they respond. |
library_books | Discussion 1: The 504 team should begin developing the plan before meeting to review it and sign off on it with the parents. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Create and begin filling out the Section 504 Plan.
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library_books | Discussion 1: Now let's learn about some tools that can help make document authoring easier. Authoring documents in SameGoal is very simple and works similarly to any other word processing application, including keyboard shortcuts, copying and pasting, and more. When you click into a field, the rich text editing toolbar at the top of the screen becomes available. This allows you to format your text as you wish as well as insert tables and lists. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Add text to a document and format it.
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library_books | Discussion 1: You might notice that several documents have various add buttons throughout them. These allow you to add additional sections to the document. You can also remove these sections if you don't need them using the X in the top right corner. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Add and remove a section.
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library_books | Discussion 1: You can add information to documents by typing it or copying and pasting it in, but another way to include information in a document is by adding attachments. Several different file types are supported. It can be helpful to attach examples of student work, submitted documentation from third parties, or even audio recordings from meetings. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Add an attachment.
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timer | Time: 10 minutes |
library_books | Discussion 1: SameGoal offers functionality to store frequently used text in text fields in any form. This tool is referred to as Bank Values. By storing text in banks, users can avoid needing to rewrite common content for each document. Bank values support name and pronoun substitution. By typing “[Name]”, the student’s name will be substituted when adding the text to the document. Any gendered pronouns (he/she, his/hers, etc.) will also be automatically substituted to match the student’s gender. User Bank Values can be made by any user and are only accessible to the user who created it. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Create and use a user bank value.
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library_books | Discussion 2: Saved banked values are available in every document of the same form type. If you were to work in a different Section 504 Plan, you would be able to use this stored value in the same field. |
library_books | Discussion 1: District banks are made by an administrative user and are accessible to all users in the district. District banks are denoted with a small building icon so you can tell them apart from your own user banks. District banks cannot be edited or deleted by non-administrative users. District bank values can provide users with compliant text and suggestions and reduce the amount of bank value creation and management required at the user level. |
library_books | Discussion 2: Both district banks and user banks may utilize Topics and Keywords. Topics help to group like values together, similar to putting the values in a folder together. Keywords basically give a bank value a title. This is useful when a bank value is very long and can help you identify the bank value quicker. |
smart_display | Demonstration 1: Show how to create topics and keywords.
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library_books | Discussion 3: Administrative users can also add district banks as default values. Default district bank values will automatically pre-populate fields when a new document is created. These values are often meant to act as a template for staff to follow to ensure they include all required information. |
timer | Time: 15 minutes |
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library_books | Discussion 1: Documents in SameGoal run validation checks, which ensure all required fields are filled out and check for data errors. All required fields are denoted with a red asterisk and any data issues will cause a big red dot to appear. Validation checks are dynamic and update in real-time as you work within a document. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Explore validation checks.
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library_books | Discussion 2: As you’re finishing a document and getting ready for a meeting, you’ll want to make sure you haven’t missed anything important. To save time, you can enter into Validation Mode, which allows you to quickly go through all remaining unsatisfied validation checks. |
touch_app | Activity 2: Enter into validation mode.
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library_books | Discussion 3: Documents cannot be completed until all validation checks pass (except when bypassed by administrative users). If you try to complete a document before all validation checks pass, you will receive a popup warning with the remaining errors and will not be able to complete the document. When all errors have been satisfied, the validation icon in the toolbar will appear as a green check mark. Once this happens, the document may be completed. |
library_books | Discussion 1: Meetings can be held in-person or remotely. When meetings are in person, many districts present the document in SameGoal on a smartboard or using a projector for the group. When doing this, it’s recommended that you enter into Meeting Mode. This allows you to sign out of chat so no unexpected messages pop up, hides other students on the left, and gives you more screen room by hiding the editing toolbar. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Enter Meeting Mode.
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library_books | Discussion 2: If a meeting is being held remotely, the document should be shared with the parents. When you share a document with a parent, they will receive an email containing a link to the document. Then the parents may follow along in the document during the meeting. While a parent is viewing a document, if a staff member clicks into a field in the document, the parent’s screen will automatically scroll to that field, making it easy for the parent to follow along. Parents see a read-only version of the document and are not able to make edits, except to parent signature-related fields if you grant them Can View & Sign permission rather than just Can View permission. This allows them to fill out consent fields and add their signature. |
library_books | Discussion 1: Document authors, collaborators, and meeting participants can easily sign documents electronically. Any place where a signature is required, you’ll see a little pen icon and when you click the signature field, you’ll get a popup that allows you to sign electronically. Signatures can be drawn on a computer using a mouse or trackpad, or on a smartphone or tablet using a finger. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Electronically sign your document.
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library_books | Discussion 2: Additionally, rather than writing your signature each time, you can store your signature and "stamp" it into signature fields with one click. |
touch_app | Activity 2: Store your signature.
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library_books | Discussion 1: If you’re meeting with parents who do not speak English as their first language, before the meeting takes place, you may request a document translation directly within SameGoal. When a document is translated into another language, its contents will be displayed in both English and the second language. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Request a document translation.
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smart_display | Demonstration 1: Show a translated document.
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library_books | Discussion 2: If a translator participates in a meeting and the meeting is recorded, the recording may be uploaded as an .mp3 attachment directly to the document. |
timer | Time: 10 minutes. |
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library_books | Discussion 1: Documents can be previewed in-screen at any point, with or without PDF attachments. From a document preview, you can print (or download the document). Additionally, when a document is printed, it looks the same as when you’re editing it. SameGoal’s document layout is “what you see is what you get”. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Print a document with attachments.
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library_books | Discussion 2: Before a document is completed, you will be able to see a DRAFT watermark across each page when printing or downloading. Displaying a draft watermark on documents until they are marked complete helps districts better communicate to parents and other team members when a given document contains all required information and signatures, especially when meetings are held remotely. This will go away when the document is marked complete. |
library_books | Discussion 1: If a document needs to be edited to correct a clerical error (i.e. change an incorrect date), it may be marked Incomplete by an administrative user. If you need to make a small edit to a document, reach out to an administrative user and ask them to incomplete the document for you. When the document is re-marked incomplete, you can go in and make changes, then complete the document again once you are finished. |
library_books | Discussion 1: For each student participating in a special program, you’ll need to conduct a plan review each year to ensure the student’s needs are still being met. With this review, a new plan document will need to be created. To help save you time, you are able to copy from existing, completed documents to create new documents. |
smart_display | Demonstration 1: Create a new document by copying from a completed document.
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library_books | Discussion 2: The new document that is created will automatically pull information from the previous document. Exactly which fields will copy over varies by form type, but dates, signatures, and demographics information will not pull over. So when it comes time to review a student’s plan, you can copy last year’s plan and just review and update the information as necessary. |
timer | Time: 5 - 30 minutes |
library_books | Discussion 1: SameGoal publishes robust online help guides covering a range of topics from general system functionality to specific program documentation workflows. These support guides contain step-by-step instructions on how to complete different tasks in SameGoal as well as videos that demonstrate the workflows. Users can also contact and receive support from SameGoal’s daily helpdesk via phone or email. |
touch_app | Activity 1: Access SameGoal’s support resources.
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library_books | Discussion 1: If time, allow users to ask any questions they might have. |
touch_app | Activity 1: If time, explore your environment and the real data already in it (optional).
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After completing this training, make sure you complete the required Cleanup steps.