The Structure of OMBEA Connect

Learning Statement: In this article you’ll learn how OMBEA Connect is structured so that you better understand how it works.
Audience: This article is aimed at OMBEA Connect Administrators.

Background

OMBEA Connect is an optional extra with ResponsePad kits, but comes as standard with ResponseApp. You can access your OMBEA Connect account via connect.ombea.com.

OMBEA connect enables you to: - Aggregate voting data from multiple voting sessions in one central location. - Centrally create and control access to Presenter accounts for your ResponseApp users. - Centrally create Student account so that Students may view their own voting data from the sessions they have participated in. - Structure your ‘Site’ in to Branches for reporting purposes. - Monitor site-wide or branch-wide usage of your OMBEA ResponseApp licence.

OMBEA Connect from an Administrator’s Perspective

  • After site installation is complete, Administrators can create new Branches, as well as upload Presenter and Student accounts in bulk using an XML file.
  • Students may also create their own accounts if this would work better for the establishment. Presenter accounts must be created centrally by Administrators.

OMBEA Connect from a Presenter’s perspective

  1. The Presenter has an account. This identifies them uniquely. They access their account by way of a username and password entered at connect.ombea.com.
  2. Under this account, the Presenter can build and even bulk enrol Students_one or more _Courses.  These represent a related series of lectures belonging to a specific course of study.
  3. Also under this account the Presenter may change options like their password or their custom ResponseApp Session ID.
  4. When it comes to polling time, the Presenter creates a voting session for the Students to participate in via ResponseApp or ResponsePads. If they are using ResponseApp, the Presenter must enable the option to require Students to log in before polling.
  5. At the end of the session, or at the next convenient opportunity, the Presenter uploads the voting data to OMBEA Connect through either the OMBEA Response ribbon or the OMBEA Response 360 control panel.
  6. When the Presenter next logs in to OMBEA Connect they will see their uploaded sessions and their courses. They can marry their sessions to the appropriate courses. At this stage OMBEA Connect will automatically match the Device IDs in the session data with the Student records within the course database.
  7. Any Device IDs that are not recognised because they have no relationship to a Student record will show up now and can be manually fixed or removed. This is to cover scenarios where Students have forgotten to register themselves to the course or they have had to switch from a known ResponseApp to an unknown ResponsePad during the session. This can happen if, for example, the Student’s own device battery dies and they have to use a ResponsePad temporarily.

Now that the voting data is in OMBEA Connect, assigned to a course and matched to Students, there are three main ways to view this data.
1. The Presenter can view all Students on their courses over time. They can interrogate the analytics by course, by Student, or by activity.
2. The Student can log in to their own account and look at their own data against the anonymised group averages. They can also view the data by course or by activity over time. 3. In both the above examples, the Presenter or Student access the data via connect.ombea.com and will automatically be shown the data that is relevant to them.

OMBEA Connect from a Student perspective

  1. The individual student has a Student Account. This identifies them uniquely. They access their account by way of a username and password entered at connect.ombea.com.
  2. Under this account, the student can be assigned one or more devices. For example they may own a ResponsePad, an iPad and a laptop. Each device is given a unique Device ID and linked to them.
  3. Also under this account, the student registers on Courses. These are set up by the Presenter and represent a related series of lectures belonging to a specific course of study.
  4. When it comes to polling time, the student joins the voting session via ResponseApp or alternatively uses their ResponsePad. If they use ResponseApp, they will be prompted to log in (as long as the presenter has enabled this option) as part of the process of joining the session.
  5. Once the Presenter has uploaded the data and assigned it to the appropriate _Course, t_he student can log in to their own account and look at their own data against the anonymised group averages. They can also view the data by course or by activity over time.

The Relationship between the Site, Branches, Admins, and Presenters

OMBEA Connect User Levels

OMBEA Connect features four access levels:

1. Administrator

  • Administrators install the system and can set up key elements such as logos or the language used to define different departments.
  • Administrators can run ResponseApp sessions, create courses, and assign sessions to those courses.
  • Administrators can create all other user account types either individually or by bulk-upload.
  • Administrators can view site, branch, and personal usage analytics.

2. Super-Presenter

  • Super-Presenters can run ResponseApp sessions, create courses, and assign sessions to those courses.
  • Super-Presenters can run ResponseApp sessions, create courses, and assign sessions to those courses.
  • Super-Presenters can create additional Super-Presenter, Presenter and Student accounts either individually or by bulk upload.
  • Super-Presenters can bulk enrol students on to their courses if they wish to take this task away from the students.
  • Super-Presenters can view site, branch, and personal usage analytics.

3. Presenter

  • Presenters can run ResponseApp sessions, create courses, and assign sessions to those courses.
  • Presenters can bulk enrol students on to their courses if they wish to take this task away from the students.
  • Presenters cannot create other user accounts unless they are student accounts being created as part of a bulk enrolment process.
  • Presenters can view personal usage analytics only.

4. Student

  • Students can log in to Connect and see their own responses to courses they have been assigned to. They can also see how their responses compare with group averages.