The RISC Upgrade Path - What's New in RISC?

There have been significant enhancements made to RISC since version 1.0 was released in March 1995. Below are the major improvements included with each major upgrade of RISC.

Improvements from RISC v1.0 to v2.0 (1996)

• The RISC Form Letters Module
• Ability to mark contacts as 'Confidential'
• Ability to enter back-dated contacts
• Read Only Access switch.

Improvements from RISC v2.0 to v3.0 (1998)

• Customized Data Export Facility
• Searching and Reporting by Date Range
• Automatic Data Rebuilds
• Smarter Clear Form Control
• Full Millennium (Y2K) Compliance
• Better Network Support
• Table View Size increased to 999 records
• All contacts can be displayed in Table View
• Table View can be sorted by Student Name
• Utility to check for and repair Data Corruptions
• Roll Class (Home Room) imported and displayed on RISC form.

Improvements from RISC v3.0 to v4.0 (October 1999)

• Contact Reports Module
• Spell Check Facility with UK and Custom Dictionaries
• Status field name can be user-defined
• Auto Data Backup Facility
• Ability to append multiple search results into one Table View
• Database expanded to 64,000 contacts
• Parent Contact and Home Phone fields enlarged
• Export/Import routine for New Zealand's MUSAC Pupil Files system
• Export/Import routine for Victoria’s CASES system.

Improvements from v4.0 to v5.0 (April 2001)

• RISC Shortcut Lookup for Description & Action fields
• User selected Date from pop-up perpetual calendar
• Student Record Report added to Table View
• Import of Grade/Year from School’s Admin system
• Searching and Reporting by Grade/Year
• Refurbished data import facility with new comma-delimited import format
• Officer renamed to Teacher and updated to allow for 18 characters and full name entry
• Creation of a U.S. version of RISC with U.S. dictionary and standards
• Upgrades and New Sales of RISC delivered electronically via Internet
• Major update of RISC website to coincide with release of v5.0.

Improvements from v5.0 to v6.0 (February 2004)

• The HTML-based RISC Help System - updated for v6
• A RISC Virtual Tour was added to RISC and the RISC website
• RISC Student Database Editor utility
• Total rewrite of RISC to optimise for Windows XP and 2000
• RISC v6 is the fastest and smallest release of RISC ever
• Fully integrates MS Word 2000 or later for Form Letters and Contact Reports
• Interfaces directly with MS Excel 2000 or later for reports and data exports
• Better Calendars
• Table View size increased to 1,999 contacts
• Better, faster Table View sort process
• Better error trapping and problem resolution
• Redeveloped and simplified CASES21 (Vic) export/import procedure
• Easier standalone and network server installation
• New workstation Setup utility
• UNC (Universal Naming Convention)  Network Path support
• Better support for Novell Netware 6 and Windows 2003 Server environments
• Better support for Network printing.

Improvements from v6.0 to v7.0 (February 2006)

• Increase total Form Letters stored from 100 to 200
• RISC MailMerge facility included to allow for multiple form letters to be printed for selected student groups
• Copies of merged and sent form letters can now be saved and stored electronically
• RISC PhotoCapture! allows for student photos to be taken with a simple USB WebCam and attached automatically to student records
• Parent details and home address now shown with each contact record
• Import of Student ID, Gender, Date of Birth and parent Mobile Phone included
• An additional User-definable and searchable Contact Category field included
• New Contact Descriptors in the form of "smiley" faces to quickly tag a contact record as positive or negative
• New Tally by Contact Descriptor, Gender and Category2 field
• Main data form had a facelift to streamline and better define the data layout
• New contact navigation tools added to main form
• Updated HelpDesk and Virtual Tour.

Improvements from v7.0 to v8.0 (February 2008)

• The Print This Form button has been split into two separate buttons: "Print Form on A4 Page" and "Print Form on A5 Page". The first button is the same as the original button, producing the output on a single A4 page. The new button allows the user to cut A4 pages in half (to A5 size) and put them into the laser printer tray to print the form in reduced size, saving paper. This format is perfect for using RISC to produce Late Notes. The A5 pages should be inserted as if you were printing in Landscape format. Thanks to Moorebank High School for this suggestion
• You can now Mail Merge directly from the RISC Table View and all students listed in the table view will have a user-selected customised form letter merged and printed with record of the form letter automatically added to the Contact Action field
• The Set Date Range function can now optionally use the Actual Contact Date OR the Updated Contact Date.
• The Print Table View function now produces a more neat Table View printout in landscape and includes the Contact Category 2 field.
• Includes an updated OASIS Export Report to export Mother's Mobile Phone instead of Emergency Contact
• Includes the RISC Batch Photo Import Tool
• New View Saved Letter button wherever a contact record is displayed where a form letter was sent and a copy saved in the RISC database This button opens the letter in MS Word for viewing/editing/printing
• Reintroduces the minimize button on the main RISC form (this has been missing since v5)
• New "RISC Quick History" window to quickly show the last 25 records of the selected student on the screen
• The Student's Photo can now be merged into a Form Letter, extending the use of the form letters module for other purposes
• If a rebuild is required by RISC, it will now perform one automatically
• New splash screens and new Marillion Designs logo introduced
• New Privacy Note prominently displayed on the RISC main form
• Updated HelpDesk and Virtual Tour.

Improvements from v8.0 to v9.0 (February 2010)

• RISC v9 is now compatible with and appropriate for recording data related to the "Positive Behaviour for Success" program being implemented across many schools in eastern Australia.
• A new password security system with four different levels of access now included with RISC.
• It is no longer necessary to run SETUP on every workstation that is to run RISC. Just host the RISC program and data on a fileshare in your server and your staff workstations will be able to run it simply by clicking a shortcut.
• A new RISC Alerts window has been added. RISC executives and administrators can add "sticky-notes" against any or all students providing useful and relevant information about the student to other users of RISC. 
• The RISC Type-Lookup can now have "levels" values added to each entry.  If you use RISC to track discipline issues, negative values can be entered against each incident Type.  All of the students incidents are then tallied and an overall LEVEL displayed against that students record, providing an instant snapshot for the teacher of a students behaviour and attitude at school. 
• The number of active archived databases has doubled from 10 to 20.
• A new User-Definable data entry field has been added to the RISC form, called Type2. By default, this field is named "Motivation".
• A new entry in the Options menu allows for the Deletion of a Contact record (with administrator approval).
• The RISC Admin Student Database Import for CASES21 (Victoria) was modified due to a change introduced by the Victorian Education Department.
• RISC Admin Student Database Import tool updated to allow for import from MAZE for the Queensland Catholic Education System
• In the Database menu, a new entry has been added to "Clear the Rebuild Flag".
• A "Spell Check Text Fields..." button was introduced to the main RISC form. This uses the spelling checker from Microsoft Word to check the spelling in the two large text fields on the RISC form.
• The Print This Form button has been split into two separate buttons: "Print Form on A4 Page" and "Print Form on A5 Page". The first button is the same as the original button, producing the output on a single A4 page. The new button allows the user to cut A4 pages in half (to A5 size) and put them into the laser printer tray to print the form in reduced size, saving paper.
• You can now Mail Merge directly from the RISC Table View and all students listed in the table view will have a user-selected customised form letter merged and printed with record of the form letter automatically added to the Contact Action field
• New v9 splash screens introduced
• Updated HelpDesk and Virtual Tour
• Fully compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Improvements from v9.0 to v10.0 (February 2012)

• Re-design of the main RISC control buttons to simplify the program for new users. Exit button removed and replaced with normal Windows "X" close button
• Context-sensitive Save or Save Changes button appears only when it's required, uncluttering the user interface
• RISC FAQ showing a wide variety of common questions and their answers in bite-sized chunks on the main form. Provides a great incentive for just-in-time and ad-hoc learning about using RISC for both regular and new users. Displayed FAQs change regularly while using RISC giving exposure to features of RISC that users may not be familiar with
• When typing a student name into RISC v10, a look-ahead list is shown allowing for easier name selection
• New setting in RISC Admin for the Student Levels Calculator. Levels can now be calculated based on recorded incidents for (a) the whole year, (b) the current semester (c) the current term (d) the current month
• The Student Alerts and levels window can now be moved to another location on the screen and kept there by unlocking it from the Quick History table with the new item in the Options menu
• RISC v10 can now support either .DOCX or .DOC format for Form Letters or Reports. If .DOCX is chosen, Office 2007 or 2010 or later is required on all workstations. This allows for many new features of Word to be used with RISC, such as pull-down pick lists. Full instructions are here: http://marilliondesigns.com/riscdocx.htm
• Windows Print Dialogue Box now appears prior to all printouts to allow the user to select the desired printer. Once selected, that printer will remain the chosen printer for RISC for that session, but will not change the Windows Default Printer setting
• New option to Enable Quick Printing to the Default Printer will now remember the last setting you used
• For NSW Public Schools, an AUTO-IMPORT process from OASIS/ERN is now available. This allows for enrolment data to be exported from OASIS and imported into RISC automatically every night, ensuring the RISC enrolment database is always up to date without user-intervention
• New tool in RISC Admin to quickly synchronise contact records of students that have had a name change
• New Tally by Smiley Indicator report added to the Reports menu
• New v10 splash screens introduced
• Updated HelpDesk and Virtual Tour
• RISC is now fully compatible with MS Office 2010

RISC System Specifications:
 

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The Register of Individual Student Contact (RISC) is developed & distributed
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