The Home Edit, itslearning Edition: Efficiently Organize Your Course with Registration, Course Groups, Permissions
Manage Your Course with Registration, Course Groups, Permissions
Before we get into the tech tips and tutorials part of this post, thank you,
firstly, for all of your hard work during what has been a uniquely
challenging school year. You have been supporting students in different ways
than ever before, while they learn from different locations, near and far.
You are writing new chapters in the world of teaching as you embark on this
journey, and it certainly comes with its fair share of obstacles. Thank you
for going above and beyond for students. It is notable, appreciated, and
remarkable work. You are amazing!
As students turn in work from in-person classes, online, or a mix of both,
there are many moving parts to manage. To help manage your workflow and the
process of giving feedback to students, check out the itslearning tips
below. Specifically, we'll explore how you can create and organize course
groups on itslearning, assign folders/content to specific groups of students
(such as online learners), use the registration tool to create course
groups/assign work to specific students, and send messages to particular
groups of students. If you are a Netflix fan, consider this an itslearning
version of the show the Home Edit to help make the most of your
course organizational features!
Course Groups
What:
Course groups are a way to organize students in your itslearning course.
Secondary teachers will have course groups automatically created for the class
periods you teach during the day (they are named after the section # on
PowerSchool, you can edit the name if you need to). You can create your own
course groups at any time, perhaps a course group for BRIDGE students,
research project groups, or novel studies.
Why:
- Course groups are helpful for efficiently sorting rosters of students when grading
- Teachers can send messages to a specific course group rather than the full class, if needed
- Folders, assignments, and resources can made available to particular course groups if desired
The Perfect Pair: Registration Tool and Course Groups
What:
The registration tool, like the name implies, is useful for helping students
register for something, such as a book for a novel study, a group project,
research project topics, a timeslot for a conference with a teacher, or to
indicate that they are an online learner. The tool essentially serves as a
survey tool within itslearning.
More importantly, the registration tool can be used quickly create course
groups! Students can "register" for a choice and then the teacher can create
course groups based upon students' registration choices. This is particularly
helpful if you want to create course groups quickly and have a way to message
specific groups of students efficiently. Furthermore, you can also control the
number of registrations for a particular option in the registration tool. For
example, if using the registration tool to have students select from a variety
of research topics, the teacher can limit 4 students in selecting Ancient
Ghana, 3 students maximum in selecting Ancient Mali, and 2 students maximum in
selecting Ancient Egypt.
The teacher can also toggle the settings on the registration tool to require
the student to write a few sentences explaining the rationale for this choice.
This would be helpful for selecting research topics, but also a great feature
to use when using the registration tool for conference times with students.
Students could write questions in this field before their scheduled time with
the teacher so that the teacher would have an opportunity to review
beforehand.
Why:
- Quickly create course groups with the registration tool
- Provide opportunities for learners to indicate interests, ask for help, and make choices
- Schedule conferences with students (in-person or online)
- Coordinate research topics and group projects
The Final Touch: Folders and Permissions Settings
What:
Building upon course groups and the registration tool, a final, helpful step
in managing student work, learning environments, and rosters is to use the
registration tool, course groups, and permission settings in an itslearning
course. "Permission settings" are the controls on a folder or item in an
itslearning course that determine who can and who cannot access, or view, the
resource.
Why:
By default, any resource a teacher adds to an itslearning course and toggles
"active" can be viewed by all students in the course. However, perhaps a
teacher wants to create a folder for a particular group of students who are
learning remotely, or a group of students who are reading a certain book. How
can the teacher ensure those students get the resources they need, without
overloading the course with every folder possible, potentially creating an
overwhelming, distracting learning environment? Permission settings are the
solution! The teacher can create a folder and change the "permissions" so that
it is only available to a particular group of students-perhaps only a
particular "course group" (see, it is helpful to create course groups using
the registration tool first, I promised we'd get to the good stuff). Once the
teacher has adjusted the permission settings, anything added to the folder
inherits the same settings. Be mindful, however, that students have equitable
access to support resources, tutorials, and guides. I do not recommend using
permission settings for all content pieces.
Expert tip: Make the folder first, then add your resources to it to
save time!
- Create folders for study groups, research topics, or online learners
- Create folders for teachers to collaborate with one another (do not give access to learners to view)
Bonus expert tip from UDL and itslearning all-star, Corie Williams:
If you have other teachers in your itslearning course (co-teachers, ELL staff,
special education staff), make sure you give these teachers access to the
folders you create that may have particular permission settings. Be sure to
add these staff members in the list of participants who can "participate and
view" items in the folder so that they can still effectively support learners.
How:
Review the slides and the tutorial video to learn how to view/create course
groups, utilize the registration tool, create course groups with the
registration tool, and adjust folder permission settings for groups of
students.
Have an idea for an upcoming blog post? Let us know!
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