Guidance on Creating Usernames

Karla McNamee

This is our first year using Blackbaud in the Admission Office, it has been quite the learning experience. One of the major issues we face are parents having trouble logging in. We allow parents to create their own login so that they do not have to wait on us to start the application. When a parent creates their own new login, there doesn't seem to be any issues. However, when we select to "create login" for families that submit an inquiry or the SAO application is when there are issues.


Can someone share how they go about creating usernames for parents and candidates, and how you notify them of their login information?


Thank you in advance!


Karla

Coco Parham

Our candidates have to go through the inquiry step first, then we use the Username Generator. We use the email as username option (so if they become students, the step to BBID is faster). We have saved message to go out to them.

I have it on my calendar to generate usernames a certain # of times each week.


Hope this helps,


Coco

Karla McNamee

Thank you Coco for responding. This may be a stupid question, but do you also need to give them a temporary password?

Lisa Dimant

Coco, is your message an auto-generated one?

Karla, we have the same issue as you! We allow parents to set up their own username when applying, however when they submit an inquiry or Open House registration, we are the ones that are setting up their usernames.

I wish that there was a way for BB to notify the parents of their usernames when we set them up and have an autogenerated password that is also set up, instead of us having to email over 200 people during the Admissions season.

Coco Parham

Here are the instructions I use from the username generator (set up in Communications - Notifications - Username Generator email):
(We use the parent email as their username)

Hello [firstname],
My name is Coco Parham, and I am the Admission Office Manager at Christ School. We have an online portal, called OnCampus, you can use to apply for admission to Christ School and keep up to date with your son's application status.
A username has been created for you to log into our online community. Please use [username] as your username to login.
We recommend using Chrome as your browser when logging into OnCampus.
Go to www.christschool.org and click on the "OnCampus Parent Login" button at the top of the page.
Click on "First time logging in or Forgot your Login?". Follow the instructions to request a temporary password be sent to your email on file.
Once you are in, you will be on your son's Admission Checklist Page. Instructions for the application are on the right side of the page.
If you have any questions, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Coco Parham
Admission Office Manager
828-684-6232 ext. 106


I sometimes set a temporary password for people if they are having trouble or if they are visiting and want to set it up with me.


Hope this answers all questions!

Karla McNamee

Coco, this is great!!! Thank you so much for your response, it is very helpful.

Coco Parham

Lisa,

It is generated when I use the username generator. I do not create their temp password (unless they are physically here for a visit and the situation presents itself). Since creating accounts is an everyday occurrence now, people are used to creating passwords online.

Lisa Dimant

Thanks so much Coco!!

Coco Parham

Your welcome Lisa! Have a great weekend!

Lauren Marcus Eisenberg

Coco Parham‍ Thanks for sharing the message that you use - so helpful!

Lauren Marcus Eisenberg

Karla McNamee‍ We struggled with this for quite a while, as well. After some trial and error, our procedure is to assign usernames for parents (but not candidates), using their email address. We don't notify them per se (I love the message that Coco Parham‍ shared!), but typically simply assigning it seems to enable / empower parents to log in. Families having issues typically reach out to my Admissions colleagues, then I step in to help them log in. We have a generic email address: loginhelp@leffellschool.org that appears in the myLeffell login box, for those needing hand-holding.

Liz King

I generate their usernames, but I have them retrieve their new username and a link to set their password by following these steps. Here are my instructions:

Please complete the following steps if you are a first-time myHIES user or if you need to retrieve your myHIES username and/or password.

1. Visit https://hies.myschoolapp.com
2. Click Forgot username or password? First-time user?
3. Enter your email address (the email associated with your Ravenna account or on file with the school)
4. Check the Username and Password boxes and click Send.
5. You will receive two emails. One will contain your username, and the other will contain a link to set your password.

After you set your password, you will be automatically logged in to myHIES. The next time you log in, you will use your new username and password.


*I have to assign usernames to Parents of Candidates currently so they can log in to sign their contract and submit their deposit via BB Tuition Mgmt. We use a combination of Ravenna and Blackbaud currently. Hope this helps!

Oona McKnight

Coco, what do you do about parents who do not have an email address? Or two parents who share an email address?

Thanks.

Coco Parham

For parents who do not have an email address, I usually ask for it when they visit or if they are going to be an incoming parent (we are a small school ,so this is manageable). The same for parents who share an email. Usually that is the information they give us initially and as they progress to incoming, I get that information. I have a list of "to do's" and that is part of the process of enrolling their son and BBID connecting the parent, I know this isn't ideal but it is my workaround.

Geoffrey Goodfellow

I've found your post and other people's responses regarding usernames from April 2021 very helpful. My current question is how people have been integrating BBID for parents now. In other words, we used to reserve BBID only for current students, but now we are wanting to include parents in BBID too, so how have you found that this works best in your workflow of creating usernames for parents. @Coco Parham , have you updated your parent email now to include different instructions about BBID? I'm still struggling with how best to implement this…do I still create a username for them the old way, and then connect BBID or do I skip the username part and just connect BBID?