Fair/Contest Setup

From zFairs Contest Management

Our software has many customization options.

Setting Schedule and Important Dates

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Schedule"
  4. You can now customize your timezone/schedule
  5. Click "Save"

Overview of Schedule Fields

Timezone: This field is for selecting the time zone that the fair/contest is in. If you are in an area that uses daylight savings, you will need to manually adjust so that your contest opens and closes at the correct time.
Student Registration Starts: This allows you to select when students will be able to start registering. This can allow you time to get the schools/teachers registered first.
Student Registration Ends: This is the deadline for when you allow students to create an account.
Student Registration Late End Date: This deadline can be set to allow a "late" registration for students. This can be associated with a fee if you select.

If there is no registration fee or late registration fee then set date to be the same as the 'Student Registration Ends' date. Otherwise this will override the 'Student Registration Ends' date.


Student Information Freeze: After this date students will no longer to be able to to edit their project/personal information. Note: Staff/Admin can still edit the student account if needed.
Fair Starts: This is the date that your fair/contest actually begins.
Fair Ends: This is when your fair/contest will end.
Judging Starts: This allows you to select the day/time that the judging will begin.
Judging Ends: This allows you to select a deadline for the judging for your fair/contest.
Public Display Opens: (optional) This allows you to post when the public display will open.
Public Display Closes: (optional) This allows you to post when the public display will end for visitors.
Award Ceremony Starts: (optional) This allows you to post when you will be holding your awards ceremony.
Awards Ceremony Ends: (optional) This allows you to post when you will be ending your awards ceremony.
Post Fair Results Online: (optional) This allows you to select when you would like your fair results posted.

Enabling Registration

In order to allow individuals to register for your fair, you will need to enable registration.

Teachers

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click Settings"
  4. Click the "Teachers" tab
  5. Click the setting "Allow teachers to register"
  6. Scroll to the bottom and click "Save"

Judges

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click Settings"
  4. Click the "Judges" tab
  5. Click the setting "Allow judges to register"
  6. Scroll to the bottom and click "Save"

Students

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Schedule"
  4. In this box you will need to select the dates you would like the students to be able to start/stop registering
  5. Once the dates are selected, Click "Save"


Adding a School

Via settings you can turn on or off school registration, you can also limit who can edit/add schools.

  1. Sign in
  2. In the menu click on Staff then Schools
  3. Add/Edit School
    • Edit a school select the school to edit and then click Edit Selected School
    • Add a school click Register Another School
  4. Make your changes
  5. Click Save
  6. When you are done click Cancel / Close

Adding/Editing School District

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Under the "Other" section click "School Districts"
    • If adding a new district click "Add School District", edit fields, and click "Save"
    • If editing a district click on the edit pen to the left of the district name, edit fields and click "Save"

Changing Site Background Color

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Custom Styling"
  4. Adjust colors as needed
  5. Click "Save"

Setting Emails to be sent to Students During Registration

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Settings"
  4. Under the "Students" tab select the email settings you would like
File:Emailsettingsforstudents.PNG
  1. Click "Save"

Making Sponsors Page Visible

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Settings"
  4. Under the "Fair Features and Settings" section turn click "Show Sponsor(s) Information"
  5. Click "Save"

Collecting Donations

You can turn on the feature to collect donations during the checkout process.

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Settings"
  4. Under the "Fair Features & Settings" you can select the "Collect Donations when collecting fees/payments"
  5. Click "Save"

Customizing Your Site

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Customize Text"
  4. Click on the page you would like to change (You will also have the option to upload files to the pages you are editing. Once a file is uploaded you can click on it and drag it onto the page where you would like it.)
  5. When you are done editing a page click "Save"


You can also choose to edit as you are navigating the site. This is done by:

  1. Clicking on the "Edit" button while on the page you would like to edit
  2. Double click on anything that has the edit background
  3. Make any changes and click "Save"

Defining Divisions

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Fair Divisions"
  4. Click "Add New"
  5. Populate fields with division information
  6. Click "Save Fair Division"

Editing Divisions

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Fair Divisions"
  4. Click on the division you need to edit or delete
  5. You can either make changes and click "Save Fair Division" or you can click "Remove" to remove the division

Defining Categories

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Categories"
  4. Click "Add New"
  5. Populate fields with category information
  6. Click "Save Category"

Editing Categories

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Categories"
  4. Click on the category you need to edit or delete
  5. You can either make changes and click "Save Category" or you can click "Remove" to remove the category

Enabling Invoice Generation

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Settings"
  4. Under "Fair Features & Settings" you will have the following two options:
  • Allow Teachers & Staff Members to generate invoices
  • Allow Students to generate invoices

Creating Coupons

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Under "Other", click "Coupons/Subsidy"
  4. Click "Add Coupon"
  5. Fill in information about your coupon
  6. Click "Save"
  7. Give this coupon code to those who will be using it

Setting Custom Questions for Registration

  1. Click on "Staff"
  2. "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "(Student's, Judge's, or Volunteer's) Custom Questions".
  4. Click "Add New".
  5. Enter your question and the response type
  • If the response data type is "multiple choice", enter each possible choice next to "Multiple Choice Options" with each option on its own line.
  • If you have more than one custom question, you can set the sort order for each question by typing a number next to "Question Sort Order". (By giving a question a sort order of 1, you are requesting to ask this particular custom question first. By giving a question a sort order of 2, you are requesting to ask this particular custom question second, etc.)

Setting Guidelines and Requirements

This section is for any information you would like your participants to agree to before they register to participate in the fair/contest. You can set custom information for each type of participant.

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Guidelines & Requirements"
  4. Click "Add New"
  5. Fill in the information/Select the type
  6. Click "Save"

Enabling Online Judging

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Settings"
  4. Under "Premium Features" click "Enable Online Judging"
  5. Click "Save"
  6. Return to the home screen and click "Judging"
  7. Click "Setup"
  8. If the button at the top says "Online Judging: OFF" click it so it says "Online Judging: ON"

Configuring Available Judge Questions

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Settings"
  4. Click "Judges" which is found under the "User & Registration Type Settings" section
  5. Select any questions you would like to be required

Setting up Judging Sessions

  1. Click "Staff"
  2. Click "Fair Setup"
  3. Click "Judging Sessions"
  4. Fill out the information
  5. Click "Save Judging Session"
  • If you would like to add another session click "Add New" and repeat the above steps.

Viewing Judge's Sessions and Answers to Custom questions

  1. Click on "Staff"
  2. Click on "Report Viewer"
  3. Select "Judges Detail" or "Judges Detail Lite"

How to Generate Rubric for Online Judging

  1. Click on "Judging"
  2. Click on "Setup"
  3. At the bottom of the page, click "Add Judging Category"
  4. Create category, and select the weight of the category
  5. Click "Save Judging Category"
  6. Once a category is added you can click the "Add" button on the right to add assessment categories with their score types
  7. Click "Save Assessment"

You will now be able to view this rubric in the Report Viewer. It can be found under Judging Rubrics, and will be titled "Judging Rubric from Online Judging".

For your rubric to work you need to have judging categories and assessments under each category. The assessments are the points the judges will score under each category.

Changing the Assessment Weight of Judging Questions

While creating the rubric for judges you are given the option to adjust the weight of the assessments. The following are a couple of examples of how this feature works.
Note: Changing the assessment weights does not change the overall category weight. It only alters the weight of the assessments within the category. In order to change the weight of the category, you need to edit that category and alter the category weight.

Example 1:

We have created a category of Presentation that is worth 20%. Within this category we have 2 assessments.

  • The first assessment is the "Interview" which is set as a Yes/No question.
  • The second assessment is the "Project Board" which has a scoring range of 1-10.

If the assessment weight for each assessment is not set, the default will be to have the "Project Board" worth 10 points and the "Interview" worth only 1 point. So within this category which is worth 20%, the "Interview" will be worth approximately 9% while the remaining 91% will be the "Project Board".

These same categories could be altered to have equal weight by setting the assessment weight. If you set the assessment weight of the "Interview" assessment to be 10, this category will now carry the same weight as the "Project Board" question. This will allow both categories to be worth 50% of the Presentation category.

Example 2:

We have created a category of Analysis that is worth 30%. Within this category we have 3 assessments.
  • The first assessment is "Relevant" which is set to a range of 1-5.
  • The second assessment is "Sufficient Data" which is set to a range of 1-10.
  • The third assessment is "Correct Analysis" which is set to a range of 1-5.

If the assessment weight for each assessment is not set, "Relevant" will be worth 5 points, "Sufficient Data" will be worth 10 points, and "Correct Analysis" will be worth 5 points. So within this category which is worth 30%, "Relevant" will be worth 25%, "Sufficient Data" will be worth 50%, and "Correct Analysis" will be worth 25%.

Now, lets say you determine that you want to leave the ranges the same but you want "Correct Analysis to have a higher weight than the other categories. You could set the assessment weight of "Sufficient Data" to 5, and set "Correct Analysis" weight to 10. Now, within this category "Relevant" will be worth 25%, "Sufficient Data" will be worth 25%, and "Correct Analysis" will be worth 50%.

Entry Scheduling

This is a feature used to schedule the judging interview that is currently used by the National History Day.

Automatically Assign Judges

For information on using this feature see: Judge Assignments

Setting up Judge Captains

Our software has the ability to set up "Judge Captains". This will allow you to have a captain for each of your categories and the captain can assist in making assignment for the other judges and ensuring all projects are being judged as many times as they should be. For more information on setting up this feature see: Judge Captains