The Power of ECA Management with Digistorm

September 6, 2023

Venturing beyond the classroom opens a world of opportunities. Extracurricular activities (ECAs) encompass everything from music, sports, coding clubs, debating, performing arts, and more, transforming a standard education into a holistic experience.

These ECAs play a crucial role in a student's success and overall wellbeing. Academic achievements, mental health, and social skills development are just a few of the benefits students reap from participating in ECAs. While the classroom imparts knowledge, extracurriculars provide different kinds of learnings. 

Given the significance of these activities, it's no surprise that parents attach great importance to this aspect of their child's education. Consequently, schools should do the same. This is where Clipboard’s integration with Digistorm comes into play.

What is Digistorm?

Digistorm has been developing custom school app solutions, websites, and admissions platforms for K-12 schools worldwide since 2011. Their plug-and-play solution provides a range of custom and standard modules, allowing schools to tailor their communication tools to their unique needs. Along the way, they have forged strategic integrations with various ed-tech providers to seamlessly connect existing school software solutions and enhance the user experience.

What is Clipboard?

Clipboard is an extracurricular management system (EMS) designed to empower schools to provide great extracurricular activities for their students. Our user-friendly, purpose-built platform streamlines administrative processes, eliminates redundant tasks, and enhances communication among staff, students, and parents. Improved communication and visibility also contribute to enhanced child safety.

While your school's student information systems (SIS) and learning management systems (LMS) handle various aspects of education, they often struggle to effectively address the diverse requirements of extracurricular programs. Using an EMS like Clipboard offers superior data security and ensures clear data visibility among coaches, tutors, and teachers, centralising extracurricular activities in one hub.

Why Choose the Clipboard and Digistorm Integration?

The integration between Clipboard and Digistorm offers numerous advantages for schools, including:

  • Personalised extracurricular schedules in your school app: Parents and students can view all of their sport, music, and co-curricular schedules inside the school app - and they only see what’s relevant to them.
  • Instant push notifications when activities change: As soon as an event’s details change (like a sports fixture being cancelled), the relevant students and parents are immediately sent a push notification.
  • Google Map directions: Parents can bring up a game or event and instantly get Google or Apple Maps directions to the location, helping them arrive on time stress free!
  • Less systems for parents: If parents are already going to your schools Digistorm App, this means that they can now see all their extracurricular information in the one place and do not need a seperate app for this crucial information.
  • Time-Saving Efficiency: By eliminating redundant tasks, the integration streamlines processes, saving valuable time for school administrators and teachers, allowing them to focus more on students and less on administrative tasks.

How the Integration works? 

For schools already using either Clipboard or Digistorm, implementing the integration is straightforward:

  • My school doesn’t have Digistorm App: If your school doesn't have an existing Digistorm App, you may consider investing in one. Digistorm can create a ‘Clipboard App’ focusing solely on extracurricular activities - this will be branded with your school’s logo and colours, and the app name can be customised (for example, “Clipboard College Co-Curricular”). You can also choose to adopt a full-school Digistorm App, covering Co-Curricular and all other areas of your school with LMS integration. All Digistorm apps will be fully branded for your school and available on the iOS and Android app stores.
  • My school already has the Digistorm App If your school already has a Digistorm App, the Clipboard integration can seamlessly integrate into the App as a dedicated tile.  You can reach out to the Digistorm team to get this added to your app!

When users access the Digistorm App, Digistorm sends an API request to Clipboard to retrieve specific data related to that user. For instance, if a parent has two students at the school, Clipboard provides schedules, team/group lists, and other relevant information for those students. This ensures that parents receive personalised and current information through the Digistorm App.

Additionally, Clipboard uses webhooks to trigger targeted push notifications to relevant individuals impacted by any changes made in extracurricular activities. This real-time, personalised communication significantly enhances the experience for parents and students, keeping them informed and engaged.

Prioritising Data Security and Confidentiality

The integration between Clipboard and Digistorm prioritises data security and confidentiality. Measures are in place to maintain data integrity during data exchange:

  • Secure Data Transmission: All data exchanged between Clipboard and Digistorm is securely transmitted using industry-standard encryption protocols.
  • Access Control and Authentication: Both platforms enforce strict access control mechanisms to ensure only authorised individuals can access and modify data.
  • Data Transformation and Validation: Data transformation and validation processes during synchronisation maintain data consistency and integrity, preventing errors and ensuring accurate information exchange between the systems.

Data and User Experience

The integration facilitates the exchange of various data types, including student profiles, schedules, and enrollment information, reducing the need for manual data entry and minimising potential errors. For school administrators and teachers, this central hub for extracurricular management streamlines workflows, eliminating the need for multiple systems and manual data handling, allowing staff to focus more on students and less on administrative tasks.

Likewise, parents and students enjoy an improved experience with targeted, personalised, real-time, and accurate communication, rather than generic, delayed, and potentially irrelevant updates.

Future Enhancements

The partnership between Clipboard and Digistorm underscores our shared commitment to simplifying school processes through innovation and technology. Our product development teams collaborate closely to explore ways to enhance the integration and improve extracurricular management. This collaborative approach ensures that schools can benefit from future enhancements and innovative features that further streamline processes, enhance user experiences, and adapt to the evolving needs of schools, parents, and students.

The integration between Clipboard and Digistorm offers schools a powerful solution for efficient extracurricular activity management. By seamlessly connecting these two platforms, schools can streamline administrative processes, enhance communication, ensure data security, and provide an enhanced experience for parents and students. The ongoing partnership between Clipboard and Digistorm guarantees continued development and innovation, promising a brighter future for extracurricular management in schools.

So, why wait? Connect with us to unlock the full potential of your school's activities.

Ed Colyer
Chief Executive Officer

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