Guest Posted July 27, 2016 Posted July 27, 2016 On Tapestry there is no limit to the number of children you can add to an observation, therefore you can record group activities you are doing/have done in the form of a group observation. In a group observation any notes, media and assessments you add, will apply to all children that are included. Don't worry if you want to assess the children at different levels or add different notes/media for them though, as you can split the observation after you have saved it. I'll come on to what this is later in the tutorial. There are also some settings that apply to group observations that we suggest you have a think about, we'll also cover these in the tutorial. To skip to the relevant section, please use the links below. 1. Making a group observation a. Browser b. App 2. Splitting a group observation 3. Managing group observations We'll start by looking at how you can add a group observation. Making a group observation This tutorial here will talk you through how to add an observation on the browser and app versions of Tapestry. I'll just show you below how to add multiple children into an observation on the browser and app, making it a group observation. Please note that whilst you can add group observations on the app and browser, it's only possible to split observations from the browser version of Tapestry. We'll look at how to add group observations on the browser version of Tapestry first. To skip to the section on adding group observations using the app, click here. Browser When adding an observation on the browser version, to add children you'll firstly need to click the 'Select Children' button. This will provide you with a pop-up where you can add the children you'd like to include in this observation. You select children from the list of all children (1), from the manual groups you have added (2) or according to their cohort year (3). You can also search for the child at the top (4). You can add all children in a group by clicking on the '+Select All' button for that group (5). If you want to pick children from different groups you just need to click into the tick boxes for the children you want to add (6). When you're finished you just need to click on the 'Done' button (7). You will now see all the children you have added to the observation; if you have added any children by mistake, you can remove them by clicking on the 'X' button next to their name. Once you have added all the children you need, you can then finish the rest of the observation in the normal way. Remember to save an observation you must also include a title. You can add any notes, media and assessments as necessary but do be mindful though that these will apply to all children. After you have saved your observation and return to the main observations page, you can see the names of all the children included in the observation underneath it (1). If you have 5 or more children included, you will need to click on the 'and [number of children] more...' button to see all of them (2). When relatives view a group observation they won't see all of the children's names. Instead, they will only see their child or children's names and the number of other children included. App When adding an observation on the app you just need to 'Pick children' as normal, and then tap on the names of each children to add (1). A tick will show by their name to indicate that they will be included. You can also 'Select All' from the current list (2). You use use the filters to view and select multiple children from a group (3). When you're happy with your selected children, click on 'Done' (4). Once your observation is saved on the app you can see underneath the title how many children are included in the observation (1). To see the names of the children included, you just need to click into the observation and scroll down (2). At the bottom of the observation you can see the names of the children that have been included (3). At this point it is important to note that this observation is a group observation. You can edit this observation, but if you edit it, any changes you make to the media, notes, assessments or other fields, will show in all versions/journals for all children who were grouped in the observation. In the next steps I'll show you how to split these observations away, so that you can make individual edits. Splitting a group observation All splitting a group observation means is you can select children from within a group observation that will be removed and the observation will be duplicated, but just for the individual child/children. This allows you to then make edits to the observation for the individual child that won't apply to the other children. To do this you will need to be logged in to the browser version of Tapestry and be on the main observations page. Now you just need to find the observation you want to split, click on the cog button to the right of the observation (1) and select 'Split Group Observation' from the drop-down list (2). Once you do this, you'll see a pop-up box that lists all children who are part of this group observation. To the right of the names of these children is a check box. Choose which children you want to split away from the group observation by putting ticks in the boxes next to their names (1) and then press the 'Split Ticked' button (2). Alternatively, if you would like to split the group observation into individual observations for each child you can do this by clicking the 'Split All' button (3). It's important to note that you will need to leave at least one child in the original observation in order to split it. You'll now see that the home page now lists observations for those children you have split away separately from the main group observation (1). Once you've done this you can add separate notes, media, files and assessments to an observation as though they are a normal individual observation. You can do this by clicking on the 'Edit' button for an observation (2). For example, if you are wanting to edit photos (such as cropping) that were included in the original observation and only want the changes to take effect on an observation for one child, you will need to select the 'Edit' button for that observation and then find the photo you want to make the changes for and click on the 'Edit' button for it (1). If you want to remove the photo completely for that child's observation, just click on 'Delete' (2). If you have multiple items of media within the observation, it's also possible to change the order of them using the up and down arrows (3). Videos, audio clips, and pictures will still sit separately to documents when the page is saved, but you can change the order of them in each of their file type groups. On the pop-up you will need to ensure you tick the option 'Edit a copy of the image...' (1). This will ensure that changes you make to the media will only take effect for the observation you are editing. Once you've made your edits, you just need to click 'Done' (2). If you do not tick 'Edit a copy of the image', then changes you make to the media here, will also have an effect on the media in the group observation and the observations which have been split as the media is shared. You can, however, delete media in bulk on a split observation without the media deletion taking effect upon either any observations which have been split from the original group observation or on the remaining group observation. The media would only be deleted from the observation you delete it from. Managing group observations There are a few options for how you want group observations to behave, which we would recommend you consider, as they can involve safeguarding. In some settings, parents may not be happy with their child appearing in photos or videos that other parents can see, which obviously a multiple observation will allow. If this is the case, it is possible to hide media from relatives in group observations. To do this you will need to go to your Control Panel (1), select 'User Permissions' from the left-hand menu (2), click on the 'Relatives' tab at the top of the page (3), and select the 'Observations' drop-down (4). You will then need to find the option 'View group obs media'. If it is set to permitted and you want to change this, you just need to click on the 'Edit' button to set it to not permitted. When that has been selected parents will see this message on observations, rather than any media. Please note that this feature is automatically overridden when all the children attached to a group observation are associated with the same relative(s). With this permission disabled (so relatives can't see group observation media), if you split a group observation into just individual observations, the relatives of the children included will then be able to see any media included. This is because it is no longer a group observation. If this is a concern, then you can crop the photo on Tapestry or you can use a picture editing software to alter the photo accordingly. Another permission that you might want to consider is whether you allow relatives to comment on group observations. We recommend you think about whether you permit this or not because if you do allow it, this will mean relatives will be able to see comments by other relatives. You can set whether this is enabled or disabled again from the relative's User Permissions page, the option you will need to look for is 'Comment on group observations' and to change it you will need to click on the 'Edit' button. So, that's all about group observations on Tapestry, we hope you found this helpful! Go back to Main Tutorials Page
Recommended Posts