Apex Student Tutorial

Transcription

1 Apex Student Tutorial Welcome to Apex... 2 Announcements... 2 Navigation... 2 Learning Tools... 4 Vocabulary... 4 Study Sheets... 4 Transferring Study Guides to a Word Processor... 5 Reports... 6 Student Progress... 6 Student Preferences and Information

2 Welcome to Apex Apex Learning is an online curriculum provider of high school and middle school content. You can think of it as an interactive online textbook complete with quizzes and tests. Students can read and study from any computer connected to the Internet; however, we suggest that you use a high speed internet connection for optimal performance. You will log into the curriculum from (the VS stands for virtual school) with your username and password which follows the pattern of first initial, last name, six digit birth date. For example, John Smith who was born on February 21 st, 1993 would log on with jsmith as both his username and password. Your username is: and your password is:. Once enrolled in at least one course, you can see the Reports tab. Course links are accessible from your Home tab. Don t worry if the link does not list the course name as you know it. Announcements Pay attention to the announcements, some might be for you. Clicking on the blue link lets you read the entire message. If you have questions, just your teacher. Navigation Once in your course, there are some navigation tricks you need to be aware of. Working efficiently in Apex is key to your success in online learning. 2

3 The course outline to the left of the screen is your navigation between units, lessons, and assessments. You must drill down by clicking blue text to get to individual lessons. 2. When a course outline is expanded, you may need to use the up and down arrows to navigate through content. 3. Once open, a lesson may have many pages. Use the left and right arrows in the lower right to view all of the pages in a single lesson. This is important; all the answers to the tests will be here. 4. When all else fails, use the search tool at the top of the screen. It works very well for finding content in your courses. Important: One of the biggest navigation mistakes new users make is not drilling down far enough and skipping content. You must keep clicking the blue links until they are not blue anymore! When the text is black, you are inside the lesson. You can now use the navigation at the bottom right of the page. 3. 3

4 Learning Tools There are many tools inside of Apex to help you learn the material in your course. It is actually much faster to get through a course if you take advantage of these tools the first time through, rather than trying to beat the test before reading or doing the activities. Vocabulary One of these tools is the vocabulary list at the beginning of each unit. Ask your teacher for specific vocabulary strategies or check some out at this link: Click here to open the vocabulary list. Mouse over to see the word definitions. Study Sheets Another important learning tool Apex provides is Study Sheets. Study Sheets are guided note taking documents which you may find helpful. They can be accessed from the first page of each lesson. Click here to open your Study Sheet. 4

5 Study Sheets are an optional activity for students who are meeting mastery on course assessments in three or fewer tries. Study Sheets are a required activity for students who do not meet mastery in fewer than three tries. What this means is, if you get locked out of a quiz or test and must have your teacher unlock you, the teacher will need to see your completed Study Guides before resetting your assessment. You may print your Study Guides and fill them out by hand Use the PRINT button or Transferring Study Guides to a Word Processor 1. Click your mouse inside the Study Guide web page. 2. Use Ctrl + A to select all of the content. 3. User Ctrl + C to copy all of the content. 4. Open your word processer (like Microsoft Word) and paste the content (Ctrl + V). Now you can type right on the Study Guide and it to your teacher! Don t forget to let your teacher know which class it is for (in this case, ECCR 1 st semester) and the lesson (in this case, Study: Historical and Literary Context). Also, sign your so you can get credit where credit is deserved. Secret Hint: The numbers in the Study Guides correspond to the page numbers in the lessons. 5

6 Reports Student Progress The Reports tab, is where you go to see your syllabus as well as your current scores on practices, quizzes, and tests (CST = Computer Scored Test). Click on the Student Progress button to see more. Click Reports tab, then Student Progress. Note: The On-Schedule Indicator will only change from green to red if your teacher set a calendared goal for the completion of your class and you are more than a week behind. Clicking on the number shows you exactly which items are overdue. This student has 3 overdue items, but is still in the green. We use Quality of Work rather than Grade to Date, which is affected by overdue items. 6

7 You will see progress for all of the courses you are enrolled in, including ones that you have completed in our program. Clicking View will show you the details of the course, including scores on your assessments The detailed view shows: 1. Each graded item in the course 2. The date you took the assessment (or for practice items the date your teacher entered a score) 3. Your score 4. The due date (if your teacher set a calendared goal for the completion of your class) 5. This report serves as your course syllabus. You may wish to print it using the Print link in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Print this off and hang it on your refrigerator or someplace you and your parents can see and keep track of. You can fall behind very quickly if you don t work in your course some each day. Always watch for Extra Activities that may have been added to the end of you course. They will show up in your printable syllabus, but you won t see them in your class until you get to the end. Some of them involve reading a book, so always check with your teacher for details. 7

8 Student Preferences and Information Clicking on My Profile at the top of the page allows you to edit update your , manage alerts, and add Spanish support for some of your classes. Important: Do NOT change your username. Yes, the system will allow you to do it, but the next time the accounts are updated from our student information system, your account will break. 8