Using Merging Addon to Create Schoology Parent Access Code Letters

Keywords: Schoology, Parent Access Codes

Aliases:

This video will walk you through how to use a Merge Addon to create a how-to letter with student name and Parent Access Codes embedded into the letter.

Video Transcription:

Donna demonstrates how to use a merging add-on to generate personalized letters for students’ parents, containing their Schoology access codes. Here’s a summary of the next steps:

Accessing the Template Letter: Donna navigates to Schoology, then to the Schoology forum under ‘Resources,’ and locates a folder named ‘Parent Communications’ containing a template letter. She advises making a copy of this view-only template for personal use.
Modifying the Letter: In her copy, she replaces placeholders with tags corresponding to the columns in her Google Sheets document (e.g., {{First Name}}, {{Last Name}}, {{Parent Access Code}}). This ensures that the merging process will insert the correct information in each letter.
Highlighting Important Information: She emphasizes the need to make certain parts of the letter stand out, like the parent access code, by using text highlights or changes in font size.
Using the Autocrat Add-on: Back in Google Sheets, she opens the Autocrat add-on, sets up a new job, and selects the modified letter template. She then configures the settings to match each tag in the letter with the corresponding column in the sheet.
Creating the Merged Document: Donna chooses to compile all the letters into a single document with page breaks between each letter for easy printing. She ensures that each letter is properly formatted and that the information from the sheet maps correctly to the tags in the letter.
Finalizing and Printing: After running the job, a new document named ‘Practice Course Letters’ is created in Google Drive. This document contains a personalized letter for each student, ready to be printed and distributed.

The video tutorial is designed to simplify the process of creating and distributing Schoology access codes to parents, making it a more streamlined and efficient task for educators. Donna concludes by encouraging viewers to experiment with the Autocrat add-on for various applications and invites questions for further clarification.