MyTop Language

From working with Excel lists to the advanced student tracking system My TopTaal; this development has taken place in recent years. The customized system meets the needs of customers and clients. Product Owner José Glas of TopTaal mainly looks at the steps that lead to further improvement.

Purpose

Although the initial goal when building My TopTaal was a more efficient administration, the applications are now numerous. The ready-made tool that TopTaal used to become 2017 started to show more and more flaws with the strong growth of the company. That is why the management chose to build their own system, a costly and time-consuming job. José Glas about the creation of My TopTaal: 'We have started to sort out the processes and the requirements of users. Municipalities, teachers and our own back office. When we had identified that, we came in contact with a party that could build such a system. We expand the functionalities every month on the basis of short sprints. That takes time, but works very efficiently. "

We attach great importance to measurability

Milestone

It was a beautiful milestone, when municipalities and companies could start using My Top Language a year ago. For example, they always have access to the latest information regarding, for example, attendance and results of intake, module tests and exams. In recent months we have noticed that municipalities need information about the integration process of their status holders. Are they already working on a course? How are you? What are the results? These are questions that the client managers want to gain insight into. With the online system, they can see in real time how many hours the student has attended, until when he has time to meet his civic integration obligation and which exam components he has already passed. They are no longer dependent on the status holders themselves to obtain this information.

'MijnTopTaal also offers customer managers insight into the loan that is outstanding with DUO in Groningen. Where the billing process was time-consuming and error-prone in the past, it now automatically enters the system and immediately shows which part of the budget is left. That is useful for our back office, but it also benefits the municipality, "says José. "In this way we can look at the best plan of action together with the client manager and the student when the money runs out."

Another important functionality is the correspondence tab in the file of every student. This is a kind of logbook that describes what has been discussed with or about the student. Employers, municipalities and teachers see the notes that are important to them in this. '

Privacy is paramount

Flexibility is necessary when developing a system for different users, if only because the different departments within TopTaal have different needs and priorities. We also have to deal with the wishes of our teachers and various clients, such as municipalities and companies. Legal changes such as the privacy legislation revised in 2018 also have an impact on the system. "Privacy is very important to us," says José. 'On the one hand we want to have as much data as possible available online, on the other hand privacy is our priority. We solve this by always carefully considering which data we do and do not store and which users may see which data. The starting point is whether the display of the information is necessary for the purpose for which the user has access to the system. For example, we do not record any medical details and the client cannot see the reason for absence stated by the student.

Developments

What does José expect customers to notice in the coming period of developments within My TopTaal? 'We now ensure that the results on the final tests of modules become available. By comparing that with the results from the intake at the start, you can clearly see what the result of the language lessons has been. We attach great importance to that measurability. We will also ensure that municipalities and companies can register candidates and schedule them for an intake or an independent language test. The student then automatically receives an invitation and a reminder with where and when his appointment is. A lot is still going to change, especially now that municipalities in 2020 are in charge of integration. Next year we will ensure that both our course offering and the system are prepared for this. Consider, for example, differentiation based on the individual goals from the personal Civic Integration and Participation Plan and a different method of billing the courses. Fortunately, the possibilities of My TopTaal are endless. '