E-Learning Online Course. Teacher s Manual. Created by Focus School Software. for. Monte Vista Christian School

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1 E-Learning Online Course Teacher s Manual Created by Focus School Software for Monte Vista Christian School

2 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 1 Contents Disclaimer... 1 Portal... 2 Accessing the E-Learning Online Course... 3 To access the e-learning system:... 3 Administering Your Class... 3 Common Icons... 3 Create Topics to Organize Courses... 4 Assigning Students to Groups... 6 Add a Resource: Create Labels... 7 Add a Resource: Compose a Text Page... 8 Add a Resource: Link to a File or Website Assignments Upload a Single File Grading Single File Assignments Online Text Assignments Grading Online Text Assignments Create Quizzes Setup a Wiki Adding a New Page to a Wiki Disclaimer This training manual contains copyrighted material about Focus/SIS. The information is for strictly internal purposes only. This manual cannot to be reprinted, duplicated, sold, or distributed to anyone outside the school or school district without the express written consent of Focus School Software LLC.

3 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 2 Portal The Focus/SIS portal allows teachers to: View alerts such as You need to take attendance today: View school messages. View upcoming events on the school or district s calendar. From the portal, you access: Class attendance Class gradebooks E-Learning Online courses All Focus/SIS other programs Note: The Focus/SIS logo in the top-left corner is the home button in Focus/SIS.

4 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 3 Accessing the E-Learning Online Course To access the e-learning system: 1. Go to the right of the screen at the top and use the arrow to pull down and select the course you want to work with. 2. Click the Grades tab and choose Online Course or click. a. You can also click Online Course from the Featured Programs box. Administering Your Class On the left-hand side of the screen are the administrative tools for your class: Turn editing on allows you to make changes to your class. Settings allows you to change the look of your class. Backup allows your class data to be backed up. Your network admin will usually handle this. Grades takes you to the Focus/SIS gradebook. Logs shows you all of the activity in your class for a set amount of time. Files allows you to upload files to your e-learning Online Course or to view any files that you already uploaded. Note: To change anything in your e-learning Online Course, you must first click the Turn Editing On button in the top-right corner. Common Icons Click the right-arrow to move activities and resources to the right in the topic box. Click the parallel half-arrows to move an activity or resource to a different topic box. Click the hand holding a pencil to edit an object. Click the X to delete an object. Click the eye to hide an object. Click the empty box to only show this topic. Click the light bulb to highlight this topic as the current topic. Click the eye to hide this topic from students. Click to up-down arrow to move up or down in the order of topics.

5 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 4 Create Topics to Organize Courses After accessing the e-learning system, to create a new topic for your class: 1. Click the Settings button in the Administration box on the left side of the screen. 2. Click the pull down arrow next to Number of Weeks/Topics to specify the number of topics for the class. (This is the 6 th field from the top) 3. After selecting the desired number of topics for the class, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save. (You will return to the e-learning front page.)

6 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 5 4. Click Turn Editing On in the top-right corner. 5. Click the hand with a pencil icon next to the topic number. 6. Type a title or brief summary of the topic in the Summary box. 7. Click Save Changes. Now that you have created topics for your course, you can create resources and activities in each topic. You can also add resources and activities in the box above the topics, such as a syllabus or other important documents that are not specific to any one topic.

7 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 6 Assigning Students to Groups You can assign yourself and your students to a group within your course. You and your students can belong to more than one group. The Groups feature can be applied to an activity, to provide sight or interaction separation of students. You can group students at two levels: Course level: the group mode defined at the course level is the default mode for all activities defined within that course. Activity level: each activity that supports groups can also have its own group mode defined. If the course setting "Force group mode" is set to "Yes" then the option to define the group mode for individual activities is not available i.e. there is no Groups icon next to activities on the course page. To assign students to groups: 1. Click Groups in the administration box on the left. 2. On the next screen, click Create Group. 3. Type the name of the group in the Group Name box. You may also type a description of the group and add a small picture to identify the group. 4. Click Save to return to the previous page to assign students into groups. 5. Click Add/Remove Users to go move to the page where you can assign students into groups.

8 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 7 6. Click a student s name that you would like to add to the group. Hold the control key (CTRL) to select multiple students. Click the left-pointing arrow to add a student(s) to the group. Once you finish placing your students into the group, click Back to Groups to return to the previous page to create more groups. Add a Resource: Create Labels After setting up the topics for a course, you can create a label for course content. A label is a way to add text to the content area of your course. Labels can be used to give a quick instruction or for telling users what to click on next. After accessing the e-learning system, to create a label for course: 1. Click Turn Editing On in the top-right corner. 2. Click the pull down arrow for Add a Resource in the appropriate topic box, and choose Insert a Label. 3. Type in the text box what you want to appear as a label for your resources. 4. Click Save Changes.

9 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 8 Add a Resource: Compose a Text Page A Text page resource is a simple page written using plain text. Text pages are a good place to put information or instructions. After accessing the e-learning system, to compose a new text page: 1. Click Turn Editing On in the top-right corner. 2. From the course main page, click the pull down menu for Add a Resource in the appropriate topic box, and choose Compose a Text Page. 3. You'll be taken to a page labelled "Adding a new Resource to topic x." 4. Type a Name for the text page. This is what your students will click on, so have it make some sense. 5. Add a summary (optional). The summary is displayed on the Resources index page. 6. Type your text in the Full text box. You can paste text from MS Word or any other location. When you save your text, the ext will be automatically formatted. For example: URLs such as or even will be turned into links. Line breaks will be retained, and blank lines will start new paragraphs. Smiley characters such as :-) will automatically become their graphical equivalents. You can even embed HTML code if you want to and it will be retained. Visit for more information on formatting.

10 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 9 7. Choose whether you want this resource to open in the same window or a new one. If you choose New Window, you can choose what attributes the new window will have by clicking Show Advanced on the right. Make sure you allow the window to be resized and scrolled; otherwise your students might not be able to read the bottom of the page. 8. Choose if you want to hide or show this to students. 9. Once you've made your choices, click Save Changes. You will see a preview of what your new resource looks like.

11 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 10 Add a Resource: Link to a File or Website After accessing the e-learning system, to add resources for your class (e.g. Syllabi): 1. Click Turn Editing On in the top-right corner. 2. Click the pull down arrow for Add a Resource in the appropriate topic box, and choose Link to a File or Website. 3. Type a name for the resource in the Name box. You can also type a summary of the resource in the Summary box. 4. To add a known website, type the URL in the Location box.

12 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers To add an unknown website, click Search for a Web Page (Google opens in a new window). a. Type a keyword(s) in the Google search box and click Google Search. b. Copy the URL from the address bar, after locating the website. c. Close the Google search window. d. Paste the URL in the Location box. 6. To upload a file, Click Choose or Upload a File. a. Click Upload a File in the new window. b. Click Choose File, locate the file on the computer, and click Open. c. Click Upload this File. d. Click Choose on the right side of the window. (The window will close.) 7. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the window.

13 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 12 Assignments In addition to adding different resources, you can create quizzes & assignments to collect work from students, review submissions, and give feedback including grades. Any quiz or assignment that you create in the e-learning Online Course will be added to your class gradebook. Students can submit any digital files such as Word documents, spreadsheets, images, audio, and video. Upload a Single File You can create an assignment where students can upload a single file. This could be a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, PDF, or any other digital file. You may use this assignment for accepting assignments such as essays or reports. After students upload their files, you will be able to open the submitted file, and you will be able to assign a grade and offer comments as feedback through the e-learning Online Course. A student may submit a file as many times as they like up until the deadline. Only the latest file is retained. After accessing the e-learning system, to allow students to upload a single file: 1. Click Turn Editing On in the top-right corner. 2. Click the pull down arrow for Add a Activity in the appropriate topic box, and choose Upload a single file. 3. Type the name of the new assignment in the Assignment Name box. 4. Type a description of the assignment in the Description box.

14 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers Next, you can set how the assignment will be graded by clicking the pull down arrow next to Grade. 6. To set a time window for when students can submit an assignment, set the dates using the pull-down menus next to available from and due date. You may also prevent students from submitting late assignments. 7. You can set preferences including: a. Allowing students to resubmit assignments b. Receiving an when a student submits an assignment 8. Click Save Changes. This takes you to a preview the assignment description. To make changes to the assignment click Update this Assignment in the top-right. Grading Single File Assignments To grade and leave comments on a student s submission: 1. From the e-learning Online Course front page, click on the assignment. 2. Click View X Submitted Assignments to view the student s submission. 3. Click Grade on the right to grade the submission. A new window will open where you can grade the assignment and leave comments as feedback.

15 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers Assign a numeric grade for the assignment from the grade pull-down menu. To leave comments for feedback, type the comment in the text box. 5. When finished, click Save Changes to return to the previous window. Or, click Save & Show Next to grade the next student s submission. After grading the assignment, the grade will automatically be posted to your gradebook. To grade in the original window, check Allow Quick Grading and click Save Preferences. Online Text Assignments Online Text assignments allow your students to submit text assignments, such as essays, short answer questions, or journal entries. Students type their answers into the text box or paste text from a wordprocessor. You can grade the assignments online, and even add inline comments or changes. After accessing the e-learning system, to allow students to submit online text: 1. Click Turn Editing On in the top-right corner. 2. Click the pull down arrow for Add a Activity in the appropriate topic box, and choose Online Text. 3. Type the name of the new assignment in the Assignment Name box. 4. Type a description of the assignment in the Description box.

16 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers Next, you can set how the assignment will be graded by clicking the pull down arrow next to Grade. 6. To set a time window for when students can submit an assignment, set the dates using the pull-down menus next to available from and due date. You may also prevent students from submitting late assignments. 7. You can set preferences including: a. Allowing students to resubmit assignments b. Receiving an when a student submits an assignment c. Commenting within the submission 8. Click Save Changes. This takes you to a preview the assignment description. To make changes to the assignment click Update this Assignment in the top-right. Grading Online Text Assignments To grade and leave comments on a student s submission: 1. From the e-learning Online Course front page, click on the assignment. 2. Click View X Submitted Assignments to view the student s submission. 3. Click Grade on the right to grade the submission. A new window will open where you can grade the assignment and leave comments as feedback. 4. Assign a numeric grade for the assignment from the grade pull-down menu. To leave comments for feedback, type the comment in the text box. If you turned on inline comments, you can comment within the submission. 5. When finished, click Save Changes to return to the previous window. Or, click Save & Show Next to grade the next student s submission. After grading the assignment, the grade will automatically be posted to your gradebook. To grade in the original window, check Allow Quick Grading and click Save Preferences.

17 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 16 Create Quizzes After accessing the e-learning system, to create a quiz: 1. Click Turn Editing On in the top-right corner. 2. Click the pull down arrow for Add a Activity in the appropriate topic box, and choose Quiz. 3. Type the name of the quiz in the Name box. On this screen you can set time restrictions for the quiz, limit the number of attempts, and select a grading method. 4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes. 5. You will next create a question bank to add questions to the quiz. You may use the questions in the question bank for future quizzes. 6. Create questions one at a time by selecting a question type (e.g. Multiple Choice, Matching, True/False, etc.) from the pull down to the left of Create New Question in the Question Bank box. 7. To create a new question: a. Type name for the question in the Question Name box. b. Type the quiz question in the Question Text box. c. To set correct answers for: i. True/False: Select either True or False from the Correct Answer pull down. ii. Multiple Choice: Type each possible answer in the Answer box for each choice (e.g. Choice 1, Choice 2, etc.). d. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. e. Repeat this procedure to create a question bank. You may use this question bank for future quizzes. 8. Click the check box next to each question for the quiz and click Add to Quiz. You can also add individual questions from the question bank to the quiz by clicking the << to the left of the question name.

18 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 17 i. 9. Set maximum possible points for the quiz in the Maximum Grade box and points for each question in the Questions in this Quiz box. Be sure the points for each question equal the maximum grade. 10. Click Save Changes. 11. Click the Preview tab to preview the quiz. 12. Click the Edit tab if you need to make any changes to the quiz.

19 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 18 Setup a Wiki A wiki is a collection of collaboratively authored web documents. Basically, a wiki page is a webpage everyone in your class can create together, right in the browser, without needing to know HTML. A wiki starts with one front page. Each author can add other pages to the wiki by simply creating a link to a page that does not exist yet. An entire class can edit a document together, creating a class product, or each student can have their own wiki and work on it with their classmates. It may be useful to think of a wiki's front page as a structured table of contents. Essentially, a wiki is organized by its links. After accessing the e-learning system, to create a wiki: 1. Click Turn Editing On in the top-right corner. 2. Click the pull down arrow for Add a Activity in the appropriate topic box, and choose Wiki. 3. On the Adding a New Wiki page, give the wiki a descriptive name. 4. In the summary field, describe the purpose of the wiki and what you expect students to contribute. 5. Click Show Advanced to display the following additional options: o Print wiki name of every page If you select this option, the top of each page will have the name of the wiki. o HTML mode There are three options: No HTML, safe HTML or HTML only. No HTML will display all HTML tags as tags. Safe HTML will allow certain tags to be displayed. HTML only enables the HTML editor. o Allow binary files

20 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 19 Binary files are graphics, audio, video, and other non-text resources. If you want students to be able to add files as attachments, set this to Yes. o Wiki auto-linking options A new page can be created in the wiki by typing a word using CamelCase i.e. with a capital letter at the beginning and a capital letter somewhere else in the word. It's called CamelCase because the two capital letters resemble a two-humped camel. CamelCase combines all the words for the link into one word. Each word in the link is capitalized. When a word is added in CamelCase, the wiki automatically creates a new page and makes the word a link. You can disable this feature if you wish, so that typing a word enclosed in square brackets is the only way of creating a new page. o Student admin options When students can edit a page, you can allow them certain administrative privileges in the wiki. o Page name You may wish to seed the wiki with a page name for the first page. o Choose an initial page This can be the first wiki page that is created, or a way to switch to a different front page. 6. Select the common module settings. o Group mode Another location to set the group mode for the activity. If group mode is forced in the course settings then this setting will be ignored. o Visible This determines whether students may view the activity or not. 7. Click Save Changes to create the first page of your wiki. Type your desired content into the text box for the first page of your wiki. You can then create new pages that link to each other. Click Save when done entering content for the first page of your wiki to view your updated wiki.

21 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers 20 Adding a New Page to a Wiki Participants in a Wiki can create a new page by editing an existing Wiki page and adding a Wiki link that points to the page they want to create. A Wiki link is simply any character string enclosed in square brackets. The string is converted to a link by the following process: 1. Click the Edit tab on the front page of the Wiki. 2. In the Edit this page PAGE NAME box type the title of the new page that you want to create. Enclose the title text in square brackets. Like this: [New Page Name] 3. Click Save. 4. The page you have just edited will now be displayed. The words "New Page Name" will be displayed with a question mark link immediately after it and may look like: New Page Name?

22 Focus/SIS e-learning Online Course Manual for Teachers Click on the "?" and you will be taken to an edit screen for your new page called: "New Page Name." 6. You can now add text to the new page and edit this new page, and then click Save. 7. To return to the original link page: 1. Click on the page link under referring links at the bottom of the new page in view mode. 2. Or from the Choose Wiki Links drop down menu, select Site map. Click on the original page displayed on the screen. The words "New Page Name" will have now become a link to your new page.