In order to ensure that our software fully protects our user’s personal information, we have made some significant changes to the way in which VSware handles user passwords.
It is important that all schools are aware of these changes, so please take the time to familiarise yourself with the information below. Once you have read this overview, visit our comprehensive password guide for specific steps on how to manage passwords.
What has changed?
- All users can now update their own passwords
- Permanent passwords (the ones created by the user) are never visible to anyone but the user themselves, even to secretaries and principals
- Passwords can no longer be generated in a list for either individual users or groups of users
- There is a new report that generates a list of which household contacts, student accounts or teacher accounts are missing a password
—————————————————————————————————————————– Glossary of terms
Household contact: This includes the following contacts stored in the household tab of a student: Mother, Father, Other, Self, Sister, Brother, Grandmother, Grandfather, Aunt, Uncle, Step Mother, Step Father and Social Worker.
Student – Any currently enrolled student
Teacher – Any current user with a Teacher permission
Admin – Any current user with a Secretary or Principal permission
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Users can now update their own passwords
When a user forgets their password, teachers, students and household contacts must now request a temporary password from the school admin. Once this is received, the user will be able to update their own password from their own VSware account.
Before this change was made, if a student, teacher or household contact forgot their login details, the admin would have to update the password on their behalf which was time consuming.
Permanent passwords (the ones created by the user) are never visible to anyone but the user themselves, even to secretaries and principals (admin)
The only instance that the admin will ever be able to see the password of another user is when the temporary password is created. There is an option to make this temporary password briefly visible so that the secretary can give it to the user, however the secretary will never be able to view/print/download the permanent password of another user in any instance.
In the case of a household contact or a teacher, the secretary has the option to directly send the password in an SMS, so in this case they won’t see the temporary password. For student accounts, there is no option to send an SMS containing the temporary password so the secretary must view it and then pass it on to the student.
Passwords can no longer be generated in a list for either individual users or groups of users
Now, when you view ‘Print Student Data’, the options for Mother Password, Father Password, Self password or Student password are no longer available to generate in a downloadable file or to print. You are also not able to print a teacher’s password from ‘Print Teacher Data’. This applies to when you are accessing the print student/teacher data screen either from a group or an individual user.
There is a new report that generates a list of which household contacts or student accounts are missing a password
The new reports found under ‘Student Reporting’ and ‘Teacher Reporting’ have been created because print student/teacher data can no longer be used to identify accounts with missing passwords.
