Classter Product Updates – January 2021

Classter platform has made significant upgrades and improvements during 2020, as we tried to make our all-in-one platform more feature-rich and easy to use by improving its functionality as well as the user experience. 

We also expanded the connectivity of Classter even more, with 3rd party systems and payment gateways to give more power to the end users. We are privileged to have a broad user base, as more than 500.000 students, teachers, parents, and educational experts use Classter every day. That gives tremendous insight on what users actually need and we’re more than happy to adjust our product development to end users’ actual needs. 

We are excited to announce six significant product enhancements that took place during the first month of the new year, along with hundreds of small improvements to the Classter platform: 

• Online Sessions via Mobile App 
• Students/Teachers Meetings 
• Attendance Justification Function 
• New Payment Gateways 
• Integration with Canvas LMS 
• Admissions Interviews planning with Calendly 

Online Sessions via Mobile App 

As the times are changing and students are using mobile apps for everything, Classter is enriching its mobile app for students. In many cases due to the increased strain on family finances, students may be forced to use mobile devices to access online learning platforms and, in our case, their Classter platform.  

With the improvement of the Classter mobile app, students will not only be able to monitor the schedule through their calendar, but they will also be able to view classes that have been scheduled for online sessions via the various integrations for telecommunications tools. Students will be able to open these class sessions and view instructions for the online session and after a click on the meeting link to attend the online session from their mobile device. This improvement adds functionality and versatility for the students, who will no longer be bound by a specific location. 

Student/Teacher Meetings 

We have added a new function for students, so that they may schedule meetings with their teacher either in person, by telephone or even online. Previously this function was only available for teachers and parents. No more, students can plan their own meetings with their teachers. The system works much as it has for parents, students can book meetings based on the teachers’ availability or their own.  

Attendance Justification 

Attendance taking is an important part of every educational institution, marking students as a present, absent, or even late. There are many reasons for students to be absent or late, but how can the institution really know the reason. Is it a student's lack of interest or absentmindedness? Could there be a legitimate reason for a student’s attendance record? 

This new function has been added to better understand and justify student’s attendance, be it for an absence or delay in class. With Attendance Justification a parent can view their child’s absences and add a justification for the absence. If a child was absent due to prolonged illness or other unprecedented issues, parents can add comments and justification documents to inform the institution about the reason for absences or delays. 

New Payment Gateways 

With the increase in global online payments, Classter has responded with the integration of multiple payment gateways to facilitate online and real-time payments. In this round of improvements and additions, Classter has added two new online payment gateways available to all current and prospective users of the Classter platform. 

UPayments  

UPayments is a recent addition to our list of payment gateway and boasts great bank-level security for all online transactions. They have reasonable fees for transactions and allow for the use of all major credit and debit cards. 

UPayments is used a lot in the middle east regions and has many positive reviews. You can create an account and connect it to the Classter platform in order to offer your students and parents a fast and safe method for paying tuition and other fees online. 

Single Market Payment Gateways 

In our effort to offer ever more payment gateways for a variety of regions and taking into consideration the needs of educational institutions to operate with local banks, Classter is adding payment gateways that are specific to a region or country for example JCC for Cyprus or IBank Simplify for Greece. Many of our clients prefer to work with local banks and their online payment gateways. We are always open to discuss with you, the possibilities for adding regional payment gateways to help you transact with your customers in a way that better suits you. Feel free to contact us about any regional bank payment gateway you would like to use for your educational institution. 

Integration with Canvas LMS 

Canvas is the leading learning management system in the United States, it is used by all ivy league schools and offers a user-friendly ecosystem. This LMS offers solutions for all types of educational institutions as well as businesses. 

With this integration you can synchronize your Classter classes and groups with Canvas groups, allowing specific users to communicate and exchange educational material via this powerful app. Embedded video capabilities are available. Additionally, end-users can create and answer online quizzes. 

Admission Interviews Planning with Calendly 

The admissions process involves many steps and covers a wide range of applicant and institutional need, it offers the opportunity to students to apply to an educational institution online and give all their relevant personal information and required documentation.  

Additionally, now students and admissions employees can take advantage of the integration between Classter and Calendly to plan and organize interviews with the institution. Calendly is a great meeting scheduling tool, that works well with an institution's system and adjusts time zones for all users, making the planning of an interview or meeting as easy as ever. Classter Admissions covers the complete applicant experience from creating an account to interviews and acceptance. 

What comes next? 

Here in Classter we always try to keep up with developments in the educational space and providing the best user experience possible. After all, our vision is to remove any unnecessary complexity in everyday operations in educational organizations and provide a powerful management solution to users with no IT knowledge. 2020 was extremely busy for the product team with many new developments, integrations, and updates and we plan many more to come in 2021. Our focus will be on providing a richer set of functionalities for all existing modules, a more mobile-driven process, and better on-boarding and do-it-yourself tools and content.