The school field trip offers both teachers and students a break from the ordinary and a different environment in which to learn. That said, planning and executing a field trip can require a lot of work. Teachers must coordinate with destinations, ensure adequate facilities are available and secure permission from children's parents while making sure all adults understand what to do in the event of an emergency and keeping count of everyone.
Field trip requests done on paper can be slow, and the manual processes surrounding paper field trip requests are prone to mistakes and inadvertently omitted steps. Not every step in the field trip process can be automated, but many can, and it doesn't require hiring a programmer for your school district. Here's why you should consider automating field trip requests with workflow software. Creating a Field Trip Workflow Prevents Mistakes Planning even the simplest field trip involves many steps. Dates must be set, coordination with personnel at the destination must take place, students must bring in proof of permission, and teachers whose students will miss class due to a field trip have to be notified and alternate arrangements made for students to complete assignments. Students who do not go on field trips may need to be placed in another class for the day. When all this is done on paper, the probability of mistakes is high. When field trip requests are managed through workflow software, however, no steps are omitted, and missing information or errors can be flagged automatically for correction. Relevant Personnel Can Be Involved Automatically Field trips don't only involve the school personnel who are going on the field trip. In some districts, field trip requests must include notification of the school nurse so that any relevant emergency or health information about participating students can be supplied. When field trip requests are done on paper, it can be easy for this vital step to slip through the cracks, potentially causing last-minute problems. But when field trip requests are processed with workflow software, the procedure can be designed so that it cannot go forward until all prerequisite steps have been taken. Workflow software can also notify affected personnel that a field trip is coming up, and their input, approval, or information will be required. Some School Field Trips May Involve Several Interlocking Processes All-day field trips have to include things other than just arrangements with transportation and the people at the other end. Teachers may need to plan on sack lunches or stopping somewhere for meals, and bathroom breaks must be scheduled when the field trip destination is far away.
