Data Synchronisation via Groupcall

Groupcall FAQs

What is Groupcall Data Synchronisation?

Your school has a subscription to SAM Learning, which requires that your data is kept up-to-date .

Once you have authorised and set up, Groupcall will contact your MIS each night to see if there have been any changes to Learners, Teachers or their Classes.

It will then bring that information back to SAM Learning so that logging in, setting tasks etc is simple.

Please see this file for a list of your Learner data fields that Groupcall will share with us (or the table in the attached pdf for more detail).

As per our GDPR documentation, we WILL NOT use your data for any other purposes - or share it beyond our organisation.

Why am I being asked to Re-Authorise our Groupcall Data Synchronisation? (Summer 2020)

Currently teachers have to register themselves and link to their classes.

From September we plan to register your teachers, link to their classes and then send login info automatically.  This will remove an administrative burden from the school, as well as allowing teachers to get started faster.    

Additional data "scopes" allow for the collection of this Teacher/Class data - and these need your permission.  Once you have re-authorised, we will be able to synchronise your teachers' details as well.

What is the process for setting up Groupcall Data Synchronisation?

1. Give us contact details for your Network Manager
2. We will send SAM Learning Admin Login details and a Groupcall Authorisation
3. You log into Groupcall for two purposes - Xporter on Demand setup and invitation for data synch authorisation
4. Learner data should synchronise the next night

Read Groupcall's Article about Setting Up Xporter

Why is SAM Learning partnering with Groupcall?

SAM Learning has partnered with Groupcall to provide more effective and efficient data provisioning between your school’s MIS and SAM Learning. Through this partnership, SAM Learning looks forward to providing your school with:

• increased efficiency
• increased security
• increased data accuracy
• improved customer experience

Which MIS are supported?

The Groupcall Xporter supports all major UK MIS including SIMS, iSAMs, Progresso and many others.

What is the process if my school wants to transition to Groupcall?

An invitation will be sent out by Groupcall asking the school to enter its SAM Learning Admin credentials, its Groupcall credentials and authorise the data sharing. Once this has been done, the school will appear in SAM Learning’s Groupcall dashboard, which is monitored daily. Every day, commencing at 2a.m., a sync takes place between SAM Learning and Groupcall. At this point, data from any authorised schools will be uploaded.

Are there any additional costs?

There are no additional costs to your school for partnering with Groupcall. This service for data provisioning is included in your SAM Learning subscription.

What testing has SAM Learning done for its integration with Groupcall?

The technology integration between SAM Learning and Groupcall was carried out in August 2018. Initial testing was carried out with four synthetic schools in a test environment. We then entered a pilot phase with 5 existing customers in early September. When all 5 had been successfully onboarded and all fields successfully collected via Groupcall, the full launch began at the end of October. 36 schools have successfully transitioned to Groupcall and are their data is syncing daily.

Is SAM Learning confident that authorising Groupcall will not in any way touch, duplicate, remove or modify passwords for existing learner and staff accounts?

We can guarantee it as long as the UPN and admission numbers in Groupcall match the data used for previous imports. Otherwise, we’ll create new accounts for new IDs and suspend the old ones, which results in resetting the password and usage stats for non-matching learners.

How does the Groupcall import handle leavers?

Only the learners marked as On Roll are imported into SAM Learning. Any learner who doesn’t exist in Groupcall or has a different status (e.g. Leaver or PreAdmission) is automatically suspended in SAM. As per GDPR requirements, these learners are also anonymised after 3 months.

What happens if names imported from Groupcall do not match names used to set up SAM Learning accounts, e.g.a  nickname has been used or legal vs. preferred names?

At the moment, Groupcall provides Forename, Surname, MiddleName, DisplayName, LegalForename and LegalSurname for each learner. We are only using the Forename and Surname to keep it compatible with other import methods. We rely on Groupcall and underlying MIS to resolve the name preference in such a way that Forename and Surname already have the preferred variant. We also have a mechanism to customise import rules for a specific school if fields are mapped differently, so we can consider changing this rule for Harrow Way if needed.

My school currently uploads data to SAM Learning using the SIMS Sync. Can we still transition to Groupcall?

Yes, as soon as a school is added to the Groupcall import list, any existing SIMS Sync connection will be suspended.

I want to authorise for Groupcall, but I can’t remember my SAM Learning Admin credentials.

Please contact [e-mail] to reset your Admin credentials before proceeding with the authorisation.

I want to authorise for Groupcall, but I can’t remember my Groupcall credentials.

Please contact [e-mail] to reset your Groupcall credentials before proceeding with the authorisation.

I want to authorise for Groupcall, but I haven’t received an invitation.

Please contact either [e-mail] or [e-mail] to check we have the right contact details and issue the invitation.

What are the troubleshooting procedures?

• If there are problems with individual learners, e.g. missing UPN or Reg group, they will be excluded and an error report sent to SAM Learning customer support. The rest of the file will be imported. Support will then contact the school to resolve the issues with individual learners.
• If there are problems with more than 20 learners or 10% of the total file, the import will fail and an error report will be sent to SAM Learning customer support. Support will then contact the school to resolve the issues.
• If there is a problem with the school’s Groupcall connection, the upload will fail and an error report will be sent to SAM Learning customer support. Support will then raise a ticket with Groupcall to ensure their support team is in touch with the school to resolve the issue.