This guide will walk you through how you can customise steps and sections within your application form, add questions and configure your settings
You may access your application form by doing the following:
Click on Settings (gear button) > Application Form
The application form area is broken down into phases, steps, sections and questions.
Depending on your intake, you may use only one phase (application form)—generally Year 7, Reception, and In Year or multiple phases (account creation, application form, offers, enrolment form)—generally Year 12, and sometimes Nursery.
You can read more about Phase View here.
Step Settings
Each step has toggle buttons that you can switch on or off to decide whether students are shown these questions on your form. Blue indicates it is on, while grey indicates it is off
You may also rename the steps if you wish by clicking on the pencil button in the "Actions" column to the right.
To access the questions within a step, click on the name of the step itself or the settings cog located in the 'Actions' column.
Please note that the Child’s Basic Details step is always switched on by default and cannot be disabled.
You can add your own steps as needed, via the + New Step button.
Section Settings
Customise Sections - This is the option you use if you’d like to add another section to the step you are working on. Once a section has been created, individual questions can then be added to it. This is where you can also sort your sections accordingly.
Adding New Questions
Every section within your form has its own + New Question button, so you can add extra questions to a pre-existing section, or build a new section from scratch.
You can add questions to your form in a number of ways, depending on the required formatting.
You'll be prompted to choose what you would like to add - do you want to add a field which writes back to your MIS, or not, or simply a text block to provide information?
If you opt to add an MIS Compatible field, you will see a list of those available and can search by name, or from the dropdown list.
Fields which already exist in your form will have their checkbox greyed out, and if you try to click on it, a message will appear to tell you where that field already resides.
For fields which are available to add, you can select more than one at once, and then use the Add Selected Questions button to add them into your form.
If an MIS Compatible question does not exist, you can switch to adding a custom question (not MIS Compatible) instead.
If you select to add a Custom Question you will be reminded that this will not be able to write back to your MIS.
You can search to see if the question already exists, or choose a question type to design and add something new.
If you need to switch and add an MIS Compatible question instead, there is a button to allow you to move to that screen instead.
Text input - Use this if you would like to add free text response questions.
Single line text is for short answers while Multiple line text is for paragraphs or answers that require further elaboration. You can also add a question for Phone Number and Signature if you require one.
Selectable options - All of these options are applicable to "choice" questions that you would like to add on the form.
Choose Single Select/ Dropdown Single Select if the question only requires one choice then Multiple Select/ Dropdown Multiple Select if the question requires two or more answers. Additionally, you can add a Date Picker or a question with a Yes/No answer.
Unit Value - Use this property if you are planning to add questions that ask relevant numbers about a student/parent. (i.e a parent’s monthly income, the student’s punctuality and attendance)
Files - You may use this property if you would like to ask for supporting documents (i.e Proof of Address or Birth Certificate, for example)
Text Block - You may use this property if you would like to add further instructions or descriptions on the form.
Once you have selected your question type, you can then format your question. You will be asked to select the property group and should try to choose the section title which most closely matches the area of the form you are working in. For example, if you are adding a question in your "Basic Details" step, select the property group "Basic Details".
You should then type your question in the "title" box, and set your other parameters as applicable before clicking to "save".
Here are some examples:
Example 1: Text Input
Example 2: Single or Multiple Select
If you select to add an Explanation Text Block you can add information for the applicant, without the need for them to answer a question - it can be useful in cases where you need to provide additional background information or explanations in your form.
All questions on the form are moveable or can be rearranged. Just click the "sort questions" button. Then you may drag the questions into the order you prefer.
33% means 3 questions will be displayed per row; 50% means two questions per row and 100% means only one question per row. Questions read left to right, so in the example above, applicants will answer Date of Birth, Gender, Year Group Applied For, in that order.
You can add extra descriptions or information to any questions within your application form, to help those completing the form to understand what you are asking of them.
Click the pencil icon for a question, and you will see the option to add a description:
User Defined Fields (UDFs) - It is very straightforward to add UDF questions that exist in your MIS.
Simply click + New Question as you do for other questions, then locate the User Defined Fields section within the MIS Compatible area - from there you can add the question into your form and rearrange as needed.
Please note that if your MIS is SIMS these UDFs will be synced into the system automatically once you have downloaded the Admissions+ SIMS App.
If SIMS is not your MIS then this is how you could download your UDFs from your MIS.
Please go to Settings > School Settings > Integration.
You'll then be directed to the Integration area, please click "Import UDFs".
Once you've done this, a message should pop up saying that the UDFs have been successfully imported.
Individual questions can also be switched on and off using the toggle switches. We would strongly recommend switching off questions you don’t need, rather than deleting them. The blue box ticks mean that the question is compulsory; parent/student will not be able to continue with the form if they have not answered that specific question.
The MIS Logo next to questions means that property is transferable to your MIS upon exporting your applications at the end of your admissions cycle.
‘Visible on Student Profile’ means that answer will be visible to you on admin view of the student profile.
You have an option whether the questions will be visible for internal and/or external students.
Internals are students already in your MIS, externals are students joining you for the first time.
For example, if we turn off one question for external students here, and refresh the page...
You'll see that this question is now gone for external students once you click the preview application form as external students.
The "First name" text field is not visible for external students.
Another thing you can do is make a question mandatory; you simply need to make the check box ticked for Internal or External or both and unticked if not required/mandatory.
Questions within the application form that are required will be denoted by a red asterisk.
Toggleable Questions - setting a follow-up question to be conditional on a prior answer
You can link questions, sections and steps together in your form, so that they only appear given a particular response to an initial question. You will find some of these are already set up in your Welfare and Additional Information step but you can create these yourself in any section of your form.
In this example, when an applicant answers "yes" to this question, a follow-up question is triggered, asking them which Local Authority they are in the care of.
Please see this guide for more information on Toggleable/Conditional Questions.
Preview Application Form - Once you’ve made changes in the form, you may preview it by clicking this button. The option given which is to view it as Internal/External student will vary depending on your intake(s).
