Infinite Campus 101

What is Infinite Campus?

Infinite Campus (IC) is our Student Information System for Columbus City Schools. It is the primary record for all student data in the District. Because it is web based, it can be accessed anywhere on any device. Infinite Campus has also created portals for students and parents to access their information online, and a separate work area dedicated solely for teachers.

Where can staff access IC?

• CCS Internet Page> Staff Page

• Direct URL: https://columbusoh.infinitecampus.org/campus/columbusCity.jsp

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User Security

With great power comes great responsibility!

User security is very important in Columbus City Schools. During orientation, new users will be given an active directory username and password. This username and password will be used to log into a District computer, the Outlook email account, CCSDAS, Certify, CCS Google account, and Infinite Campus.  

Users will have a different username/password combination for ESS (Employee Self-Service) and PSW (PublicSchoolWORKS).

The active directory credentials given to new users are used to access all of the above programs because staff will be required to change their password periodically throughout the school year.  This way, users can change their password once, and it changes for all of these systems!

Tool rights in Infinite Campus are assigned based on your job title. There are different levels of access for different employees.

DO NOT SHARE YOUR PASSWORD WITH ANYONE! Sharing a password is like sharing a toothbrush. 

If someone needs to complete a task that they do not have tool rights for, they must submit a request for additional IC tool rights on CCSDAS.  No other staff member should work on your Infinite Campus account.

Remember to always lock your computer when you are walking away from your work area. Infinite Campus will log users out of the system after 60 minutes of inactivity.

Additionally, a user attempting to access a District computer using the wrong credential will be locked out of their account after 5 unsuccessful attempts to log in.  For help with this issue, contact the CCS Help Desk at 614-365-8425.  You can either call or text the number.  Staff will be asked to provide their name, employee id number, and location.

Parent and Student Portals

Parents and students can access their version of Infinite Campus to check grades and attendance, view their calendars, find assignment details, and a variety of other tasks.  Parents will see all children in their household, or students that are related through the Guardian checkbox of the Relationships tool.  Accounts are NOT shared among more than one parent/guardian within a household. Every parent/guardian should have their own sign-on for the portal. Student accounts are automatically created upon enrollment.

Parents are encouraged to access the portal for:

• Updating Family Member Information - Parents/guardians can review and update household addresses/phone number.  Secretaries no longer have tool rights to update addresses or households. To update an address, parents must complete the Annual Update on the parent portal.

• Payment of School Fees 

• Submit and Accept/Decline School Choice Lottery Applications

Where can parents access Infinite Campus?

• Go to the CCS public internet page:  http://www.ccsoh.us

• Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the ‘Parent Portal’ link.

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We have also created a Community Dashboard that functions as a knowledge base for parents.  To access this dashboard, use the following address: Community Dashboard

Accessing the IC Sandbox

The Infinite Campus ‘Sandbox’ is a test environment for users to practice using Infinite Campus in a safe space that will not affect student data. It looks exactly like the ‘live’ version of Infinite Campus, but users can practice entering data and using tools without affecting real time student data. 

When a user is logged into the ‘live’ version of Infinite Campus, the header bar at the top of the screen will be a bright green color.

When a user is logged into the ‘Sandbox’, the header bar at the top of the screen will be an orange color.

Never log in to Infinite Campus more than once IN THE SAME BROWSER!  You can corrupt data if you have Infinite Campus opened twice in the same browser, even if one is live and the other is the Sandbox. You are able to have two versions of Infinite Campus open if they are in different web browsers.

During this training, a student account will be provided for users to login to the Sandbox.  New employees may not have access to the Sandbox using their own credentials for the first 30 days of employment.

Infinite Campus Basics

Now let’s dive into navigating IC! There are several tools to help users find information in Infinite Campus.  This section will cover what those tools are and how to access them. Most users when logging in will initially have the following information show on their screen:

• District Notices

• School Notices

• Process Inbox – messages sent from the system-not an email inbox.

For teachers, upon initial login, they will be directed to the Teaching Center as their first screen where they can take attendance, view rosters, and grade assignments.

 Action Bar

The Action Bar is the bar at the top of the screen. There are several tools located directly on the Action Bar.

Changing the Year/School

To change the year/school:

1. Click on the year/school already showing at the top of the screen. A menu will display.

2. Select a year and school. 

3. The selection must be saved by clicking the blue ‘Save’ button.

Schools that have more than the traditional grade levels at the building will have an additional option listed under ‘Structure’.  For instance, Berwick K-8 will have an option to view ES (K-5) grade level students, or MS (6-8) grade level students. 

This is done because CCS processes attendance differently based on grade level.  Elementary students have attendance taken once a day.  Middle and high school (Secondary) students have attendance taken on them every period of the school day. When entering information into IC, ensure that the correct year/school shows at the top of the screen.

 Main Menu

This is the main menu of tools and resources available to the user.  This menu changes based on a user’s tool rights in Infinite Campus. Not all users will have access to all the same Main Menu options.

The Main Menu is broken into sections to assist the user with navigation. Each category contains all the related tools and screens in Infinite Campus as well as reports that are specific to that category. Reports will only run for the year/school that shows at the top of the screen.

Favorites

The Favorites menu allows users to mark tools as favorites and have these tools populate a separate menu. This allows for easy access to those tools which you find most important and use on a day-to-day basis. To add a tool to your Favorites menu, click the star icon next to the tool name. This will add the tool to the menu. To edit the order of this menu, click the Edit button.

Recent Tools

Recent Tools allows quick access to a menu of recently visited tools by clicking the icon. This speeds up the process of jumping back and forth between different tools when working through various workflows.

Search Menu

The Search Menu – The search menu allows you to quickly and easily search a multitude of data within Infinite Campus. Simply click the magnifying glass icon, then select the type of data you wish to search for (i.e., Student, Household, Tool, etc.), and enter your search criteria. Results will appear below the search box.  In the next section, we will cover conducting a search in Infinite Campus.

Searching Infinite Campus

Infinite Campus provides a unified search menu, allowing you to quickly and easily search a multitude of data. The Search Menu contains drop-down menus for different types of searches. The screenshot below shows the various searches that can be conducted in Infinite Campus.  

A user's tool and calendar rights greatly affect the options available to the user in the Search field, as well as the results returned by the search.

For example, a teacher may only have rights to search for students currently scheduled in the course sections that he/she teaches -- but would not have rights to search options like All People, User, Address etc.

Selecting a search result will send you to the appropriate tool for that piece information.  The search menu also remembers your last search results, allowing you to quickly toggle back and forth between the list of tools within the Main Menu and search results without losing your place in either screen. Search results also remain visible within the left-hand panel while you interact within a tool you got to by selecting a search result.

The Search screen will also appear automatically when a user selects a module from the Index that requires additional information be entered to filter records.

Below is a list of the different search options:

Student Search

This search returns students that are attached to the year and school that show at the top of the screen.  This does not search the entire CCS District – Use the ‘All People’ search to view results from the whole district.

Results are based on the current user's tool rights, an enrollment record within the selected school year, and the year/school displayed in the Campus toolbar.  All results will display in alphabetical order.

Students will display with a picture and basic information such as name, student ID, DOB, and a photo.  If a student has a red ‘x’ showing on their photo as seen in this screenshot, it means that the student has withdrawn from the school.

To search for a student, enter the following information in the ‘Search’ field:

When a user clicks on a student’s name, additional information about the student will display at the top of the screen.  This will include the student’s picture, name, nickname if provided, student number, DOB, Grade, and relevant flags.  Flags provide a way of labeling students for things such as food allergies, medical alerts, contact restrictions, and the need for language interpreters. Users can hover their mouse over the flag to see additional information if it is available.

All People Search

This search will return search results that include staff, students, parents/guardians, and emergency contacts. Users should be specific with their search criteria to limit search results. If the search returns more than 3000 results, the user will receive a limit reached message.

To search using All People, enter the last and first name of the person, or a student ID.

Address Search

This search returns address information based on street number or street name. Do not enter directional values or specific street descriptions (i.e., Rd., Dr., North, South).  Only enter the number and street name.

Course/Section Search

This search returns all of the course names or course numbers related to the school/calendar displayed in the Campus toolbar.  The results displayed will allow users to drill down into the course information to view the name of teachers and the roster of students for every course.

State ID Search

This search returns students matching the State ID entered. The State ID is a alphanumeric number assigned to every student in the State of Ohio.

Staff Search

This search returns staff members based on the entered last name or last name/first name combination.

Household Search

This search returns the name and address of person(s) who are members of a household. A household can be considered a container that ties individuals together under one heading.  It lists the phone number, the address, all students regardless of school placement, parent/guardians, and any other family members who may be in the home. This allows an address change to be entered for an entire family once instead of processing a change for each individual student. User can search by student number.

Tool Search

This search will allow you to quickly search for a tool using the tool’s name.  This is very helpful for users who may not know where to find a tool or report that they are looking for.

To use the tool search, simply type in the name or a partial name of the tool and IC will display results for the user to choose from.

For example: Secretaries may search for the ‘Classroom Monitor’, an attendance tool used to manually enter attendance for a substitute teacher in the building.

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search link on the Search screen allows users to enter more specific criteria by which to search, including Ad hoc filters when applicable.

Advanced searching allows users to continuously narrow a set of results by stacking additional criteria on each set of search results.

 For example, an advanced Student search for females will return all enrolled female students. Then, if the user enters a grade level of "10" and searches again, only tenth-grade female students will be returned.

 Each of the search options in Infinite Campus has its own advanced search option menu.

Links in Infinite Campus

On the Main Menu is a section called ‘Links’.  We have placed links that are commonly used by our users.  In this section you can find links to CCSDAS, Transportation Info, Certify, the LeaderBoard, the Infinite Campus Dashboard, and TDX or the Infinite Campus Support Ticket.

Student Information in Infinite Campus

On the Main Menu, users can find the Student Information section where the most commonly viewable screens of student data are accessed.  Keep in mind that the information viewed here will be based on the user’s tool rights. 

When a user clicks on any of the menu options under Student Information, a ‘Related Tools’ Menu will display on the right of the screen. This menu allows a user to visually see tool that are directly related to each other.

At any time when a user is in IC, navigable breadcrumbs will display on the right side of the screen when working within a tool.  Clicking an item in the breadcrumb will send you to the category or menu item selected.

Now let’s discuss some of the screens available under the Student Information heading.

Summary Screen

The Summary screen lists basic student information to provide a quick look at student data. This is a read-only screen that displays data entered in Census tools. Features on the Summary Screen include:

• A blue ‘G’ next to the name of all VERIFIED guardians.  Certain information can only be shared with the student’s official guardian.

• Household Information

• Emergency contacts – includes the order in which they should be contacted in case of an emergency.

• Allows users to print out a mailing envelope/label.

Profile Screen

The Profile screen displays a current snapshot of the student's grades, attendance data, behavior incidents and course work. This is a read-only screen, but users can view detailed information.

Documents Screen

This screen is considered the electronic cumulative record for a student. In previous years, all students had a hard copy folder at the school building that contained important documents for the student. When a student switched schools, the folder would follow them. CCS now keeps all these records digitally. The following information is stored on this screen:

• Personal student documents (birth certificate, shot records, proof of address)

• Central Enrollment – Registration Documents

• Grade Level Change Forms

• Withdrawal Forms

• Behavior Letters

Enrollments Screen

The Enrollments Screen displays all occurrences of a student’s enrollment in the district. Enrollments are listed by enrollment start date with the most current enrollment in bold.  Students receive a new enrollment every school year even if they will be repeating a grade level.

Enrollment types:

• Primary enrollment - Main enrollment for the student, will display a ‘P’ under type.

• Secondary enrollment - Used for students that have a secondary enrollment at another school and will display a ‘S’ under Type.

  • Examples: VCAP, Columbus Gifted, Options for Success, Career Center, Columbus State Community College, Global Academy, Juvenile Detention Facility.

  • Charter/Private Schools – Students will display who have an enrollment to a charter or non-pub school.  These are used to track transportation for these students.  Any student who lives within the CCS boundaries that decides to attend these schools can be provided transportation from CCS.

Schedule Screen

(Must have the correct school the student is/was assigned to selected to see information on this screen) - The Schedule screen allows users to view and print the student's scheduled courses in multiple formats. The student's schedule can be used to find where the student is during the day, to determine which courses the student should be taking in future years and to print the student's schedule. 

This screen also contains the Walk-In Scheduler, which it the only tool used during the school year to add, modify, or delete a student’s schedule. (Not all staff members will see the Walk-In Scheduler, only those with scheduling tool rights.) Every Student MUST have a course scheduled for every period of every day. Modifying a schedule incorrectly has the potential to delete attendance and grades!

Attendance Screen

(Must have the correct school the student is/was assigned to selected to see information on this screen) - All attendance data for each student is displayed on the Attendance screen. This information is given at the detail level for each day. Days that the student was present in school will not display.  Attendance events are color-coded according to the key at the top of the screen:

This screen also contains the Attendance Digital Repository for every student (or a digital folder where all attendance documentation for that student will be stored).  This includes excuse notes and attendance related documentation.  It is a button labeled ‘Documents’ on the Attendance screen.  

All secretaries have a scanner on their desk to allow them to upload all attendance notes and documentation for that individual student into their repository. The attendance screen will also allow users to edit or add an attendance record for a student.

Flags Screen

The Flags screen indicates allows a user to add, edit, or delete a flag for a student that has special information on file in the office, has certain living requirements or may be involved in a special program that uses flags (like allergies or family alerts). There is no limit to the number of flags that can be assigned to a student.

Grades Screen

(Must have the correct school the student is/was assigned to selected to see information on this screen) - The Grades screen lists the grades the student received for each grading task or standard assigned to a course. It will also allow the user to drill down into the course to see the assignments for a particular teacher’s course.

Transcript Screen

A transcript is a historical record of a student's performance in a course that awards credit to the student. This is not the Columbus Custom Transcript – that can be found in the Grading and Standards menu.

Behavior Screen

The Student Behavior screen provides a history of the student’s behavior events. This collection of student information can be used to review an individual's participation in behavior incidents and the subsequent resolution.  Incidents will show on this screen from previous school years and school buildings.

Assessments Screen

Student’s test scores from Districtwide tests can be viewed, manually entered and/or imported to the student Assessments screen.

Contact Log Screen

A log of contacts initiated by school staff to the parent/guardian of students in their building are all recorded in the Contact Log.  This log will allow the user to log multiple forms of contact such as text, phone, Zoom, email, and in-person meetings.

Transportation Screen

The Transportation screen shows users transportation information for a student.

Students who live less than 2 miles from the school of attendance may be considered walkers.

Click on the school’s name under the ‘Calendar’ heading to see details such as route number, stop location, and pickup/drop-off times.

Census Menu

On the Main Menu, users can find the Census heading.  It also contains screens that have common viewable screens of student information.   Below are some of the relevant screens under the Census heading.

• Demographics - Contains specific details about the person - name, birth date, student or staff number, race/ethnicity, and state student id number (SSID).

• Identities - Notes previous existence of a person with different name or birth date.

• Households - Notes where the individuals address and specifies other members of the family in that home. Also contains information on emergency contacts.

• Relationships - Indicates linkage to other people in IC such as guardian and siblings.

Reporting in Infinite Campus

The Reporting Screen tools provide users with the ability to filter, display and report specific database information based on defined criteria. Ad hoc filters can also be used in conjunction with many reports throughout Campus to further filter results to a specific set of data or students.  The Reporting screen has the following tools:

Filter Designer

The Filter Designer provides a tool for the end user to select certain fields located throughout IC and place them into a custom-made report.

• The Query Wizard allows users to create a filter by selecting specific data fields from within the product.

• he Selection Editor allows users to manually select a group of students for whom a report can be run. This editor is for creating student filters only.

 Data Export

The Data Export tool allows users to view additional reports available for CCS staff.  These reports are broken into categories. The report will only run for the year/school that is listed at the top of the screen. Users can indicate what format they wish to receive their results in, for example users can have their results display in:

• HTML

• Delimited values (CSV) – this is a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet

• PDF report