Forms are an integral part of Slate and can be used for many tasks. A well-developed form can be crucial in marketing efforts, record management and review, events, interviews, and more. They enable you to quickly and easily collect data from students, administratively update existing data points for person records, display custom data points to your staff, and so much more.

An effective way to begin learning about forms is to build an Early Alert Form, which collects data regarding students who may be at risk. An Early Alert form is often used either within Slate or in a custom portal designed to help your staff complete their task while displaying pertinent student data such as GPA, class lists, events attended, and more. Information gathered within the Early Alert Form can allow for automated communications to be sent to your staff if a student needs attention or staff intervention. These communications are customizable to meet your needs and are documented in further detail here.

Try a Slate example  💼

Copy this Suitcase ID and paste it in  Database → Suitcase Import to import an early alert form:

42a0ea8c-0e35-4e24-af91-cd1c550dce76:slate-success-showcase

Creating a form

1. Select Forms on the main navigation bar.

2. Select New Form.

3. Enter the following Form configurations:

   • Page Title: The title of the page that appears for the student.

   • Folder: Using folders will keep forms organized. Select an existing folder or select Other to create a new folder.

   • Realm: This can be set to limit access to the form. For this example, however, we will leave this blank.

   • Status: Set to Confirmed/Active.
     

4. Select Save.

Does a Form need to be active to test?

Yes, even when a form is active, it is not accessible to the public until linked on a website or URL is published.

Form management

After saving form configurations, the Form Management screen appears. This page provides administrative tools to manage the form, such as editing the configurations, changing the items on the form, and using advanced reporting tools to view and summarize form responses.

URL

By default, a hyperlink to reach the public-facing version of the form that includes a GUID (Globally Unique Identifier - a 128-bit value consisting of numbers and letters used to identify the form). Modify the `URL by selecting Edit URL.

This would remove the GUID from the default link and replace it with a more user-friendly link. For instance, you can change the link from "https://yourdatabase.net/register/?id=d48023c9-r0g0-fc03-38ab-e3dcb8d589e7" to "https://yourdatabase/register/alert" 

Documents

Like notes in the previous screen - This is for internal use only and can be used to attach a document to a specific form. For example, if a form is associated with an event, you could attach a list of FAQs enabling your staff to see the form and the notes or talking points related to that particular event or form.

Registrants

Registration information appears in this area when a form is submitted. Additionally, a Slate user may add a registrant administratively by selecting the New Registration link. When using this form to to track Early Alerts on students, the names of those students will be listed here and the form submission will link the form to the student record.

The next step in building an Early Alert form is to determine the information that needs to be collected on the form.

Select Edit Form on the right to begin adding questions.

Editing a form

Some standard Slate fields appear by default when form content is edited for the first time. It is best practice to include these standard fields on most forms.

• Fields may be reordered by dragging to the desired position.

• Edit a field by double-selecting the field or hovering the cursor over the field and selecting the pencil icon.

• Delete a field by hovering over the field and selecting the X icon.

  

Form Building Tools

There are many form design tools available on the Edit Form page. Some of these are crucial to building an Early Alert form, while some are more nuanced. 

 Best Practice

Make a User-Friendly Form! Before building an Early Alert form, plan the questions that should be included on paper. Make sure the form is easy to complete and does not preclude staff from submitting their information by presenting an overly complex layout with many required fields.

Form Fields Palette

When building a form, use the Form Builder Palette to drag in the type of content to be added.

Make it compatible

Be mindful when selecting the tools from the Form Builder Palette. It is imperative that a compatible tool is selected for each field. Use the descriptions on this page to help determine the appropriate tool for form fields.

Items that might be used on a basic Early Alert form are described below. The other items will be explained in more detail in other Knowledge Base articles.

• Instructions: Use the HTML editor to add descriptive or instructional information to the form.

• Text Box: This is generally used for capturing free-text data in a short sentence or phrase, such as First Name.

• Option Buttons: Captures a single-option response to a field with visible prompt options (such as “What is the priority of this alert?”).

• Check Boxes: Captures multiple responses to a field with visible prompt options (such as “What types of alert are you submitting?”).

• Select List: Captures a single response to a field with prompt options (such as “Who is the staff person submitting this alert?”). The prompt options appear in a dropdown list, so this is the preferred type of field when offering a long list of prompt options. 

• Multi-select: Captures multiple responses to a field with prompt options. The prompt options appear in a scrollable list, so this is the preferred type of field when offering a long list of prompt options that may need more than one option selected. 

• Street Address: Captures an address such as Mailing Address.

• Date: Captures a date such as a Birthdate.

Examples and testing

Before you make any form, make sure that you have properly created any necessary fields and prompts.

As an example, the screenshot below shows a custom field created in the Fields tool for Alert Type. This field is associated to the person (student) record and will store any of the values listed in the Prompts section. These are custom prompts made with the Prompts tool where you can choose to setup any and all alert types you deem necessary. Within the System Field settings we are telling the form to save any values set by your staff to a Field called Alert Type. This process of linking a form element for a standard or custom field is called 'mapping'. Note that not all fields on a form need to be mapped, but it is best practice to do so.

Form example

Continue to add items to your form to ensure you are capturing all data necessary. We recommend you keep the first name, last name, and email address fields as these help identify the student record you are saving this data to. An example of a complete form might look something like this:

Testing the form

Once your form is complete, test form registrations by selecting New Registration. Enter the name of a test record.

Complete and submit the form. Your test record appears in the registrant list. Select the registration to find submission details and a link to the registrant’s record.