Instructional Management Program & Academic Communication Tool Gradebook for HS Counselors ADDENDUM: Online Course Requests PILOT 02/15/2009 Version 1.1 FINAL
This training guide copyright Campusware, San Antonio, TX, 2008. All Rights Reserved. This document may be duplicated only by authorized personnel employed by schools using licensed copies of GradeSpeed.NET 4.0. Any other duplication or usage rights must be obtained by contacting Campusware directly. Note: This guide was developed using GradeSpeed.NET 4.0. The screen captures were taken in a Campusware training environment. There may be slight differences between screens in this guide compared to the screens in the CPS Gradebook training environment, as well as the actual CPS Gradebook production environment.
Table of Contents Online Course Requests Process Overview... 3 Student - Course Request Process... 5 Teacher - Course Recommendation Process (OPTIONAL)... 7 Counselor Course Approval Process... 9 Manage Course Requests... 9 Student Requests Report... 13 Summary Report... 14 IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) i
Online Course Requests Process Overview The Online Course Requests module streamlines the scheduling process by allowing students to submit course requests using an online course catalogue rather than relying on error-prone bubble sheets or time-consuming manual data entry. Using CPS First Class accounts, students can log into the Student Portal and request their courses for the coming school year. Once all students have submitted their requests, teachers have made their recommendations (optional), and counselors have approved the final submissions, the course requests can be exported to SIM for scheduling. The steps below allow the administrative user to create the catalogue, make it available to students, and manage the resulting requests before scheduling. The sections displayed below describe all the processes involved. Most of these steps will be handled centrally or through SMS software, and will not be described in detail in this document. 1. Manage Departments The ID and section information for each course is stored in GradeSpeed.NET's database. This page allows administrative users to define academic departments. 2. Assign Courses to Departments This page allows users to organize the existing courses into the previously defined academic departments 3. Set Course Levels This page allows administrative users to define the order in which courses can be taken. It is used to define, for example, whether Algebra 1 must be taken before Algebra 2 for a specific grade level. 4. Build Course Catalog The previous steps are used to organize the current year's courses. This page allows administrative users to create a copy of the newly organized courses that will serve as the course catalog for the coming school year 5. Manage Course Catalog Since the courses taught during the current year may not all be identical to the courses that will be offered in the coming year, this page allows administrative users to modify the new course catalog as needed. Courses can be added or deleted, or information can be modified for existing courses. 6. Manage Course Requests This page allows counselors users to manage the course requests submitted online by students. See page 9 for more information. 7. Export Course Requests This page contains options for how the course requests will be exported to the student management system for scheduling. IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) 3
Student - Course Request Process Once the student has logged in to the Student Portal, click the Course Requests link on the left. The following page will appear: The student will then select courses by department from the drop-down lists. Be sure to emphasize that students need to select courses that are appropriate for their grade level and current class performance! If the drop-down list has the note Alt next to it, the student should select an alternate course request in case their primary request cannot be approved. Students may click Save at any time to save the classes selected so far. IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) 5
To send a message to the counselor or department teacher, students simply click the note icon next to the department name. This brings up a messaging window that they can use to correspond with their counselor or teacher. Once the student has selected enough courses based on the credit requirements set, the warning shown at the top of the screenshot above will disappear, and a Submit button will appear. Students can click Submit when they are satisfied with the classes and alternates they have selected. After clicking Submit, the course request drop-down lists will be grayed out and the student cannot take further action until the counselor approves or denies the requests. Students must click Submit or their requests will not be processed. IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) 6
Teacher - Course Recommendation Process (OPTIONAL) To view course requests submitted by your students, click the Course Requests link on the left side of the main Gradebook page. A list of your students will appear note that you can only approve requests for courses in the department you teach (example: if you are a math teacher, you will be able to add a recommendation to your current students requests for the math department). If a student has submitted requests that you have not yet approved, a warning icon will appear next to the student s name. Click Edit to view the student s requests. You will see all the requested courses, but the Approved check box will only be available for the courses in the department that you teach. IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) 7
To show that you approve of the student s course requests, simply check the box in the Approved column, and then click OK. Click Cancel if you want to discard your changes. Once you have given your approval for a course, the warning sign will change to a check mark. This will be displayed next to the courses that you approved on the main Course Requests page. Note: Counselors will still have to do the final approval on ALL courses requests, even those approved by the teacher. If an unread message exists related to a specific course, the writing tablet icon will blink. Click the blinking icon to read and respond to the student's message. The teacher user can enter a reply in the text field, and then click the Reply button to submit that message. Close the message window once all messages have been read or sent. Teachers can also initiate communication with students by clicking on the writing tablet icon and creating an email-style message that students will see the next time they log into the Course Request portion of the Student Portal. IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) 8
Counselor Course Approval Process Manage Course Requests Once students have submitted their requests, the administrative user can manage these requests as needed. To access student course requests, go to Tools and Settings -> Course Requests -> and then select the Manage Course Requests icon. All course requests will require approval. This will be noted with the symbol shown below, which appears next to every student who has submitted requests and has not yet received counselor approval. Note that if a teacher has given preliminary approval for a course, the counselor must still give final approval for the course request to be considered finalized and then exported to SIM. If a student has sent a message along with his or her requests, a writing tablet icon will appear next to the request. The administrative user can filter the list of students several ways, including by homeroom, using the drop-down lists at the top and bottom of the page. If one of these options is selected, only students who meet the criteria will be displayed. For example, if "Approved" is selected, then only students whose requests have already been approved will be displayed. Administrative users can also search for a specific student. To search, simply enter all or part of the student's name or ID in the search window, and then click Search. IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) 9
To manage course requests for a specific student, click Edit next to the student's name. The following window will appear: If an unread message exists related to a specific course, the writing tablet icon will blink. Click the blinking icon to read and respond to the student's message. IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) 10
The administrative user can enter a reply in the text field, and then click the Reply button to submit that message. Close the message window once all messages have been read or sent. Administrative users can also initiate communication with students by clicking on the writing tablet icon and creating an email-style message that students will see the next time they log into the Course Request portion of the Student Portal. To change a course that a student has requested, simply select a new course from the appropriate department's dropdown list. For schools that are using the Teacher pre-approval process, counselors can note whether or not the appropriate teacher has given approval for a course using the Approval column. The administrative user can save any changes by clicking OK or Apply. The Finalize Requests box will be automatically checked this indicates that the student had submitted his or her final requests. You only need to uncheck this box if you wish to have the student submit requests again or make changes to their requests. To approve the courses, check the Approve Requests box and then click OK. To see if students have submitted requests or if any information has changed since the Manage Course Requests page was loaded, click Refresh. IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) 11
The Clear All button will likely only be used when testing the program - clicking this button will clear ALL students' course requests. A warning will display when the Clear All button is clicked. For obvious reasons, it is not advisable to click the Clear All button! Students' course requests do not need to all be managed at one time. The administrative user can manage the requests as they are submitted. Once the administrative user is finished managing requests, he or she can simply click Return to the Online Course Requests menu. Once courses are approved by the counselor, all students primary selections and alternates are exported to the SMS for the scheduler to build master schedules for the next school year. IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) 12
Student Requests Report The Student Requests Report can be used to create a printable report summarizing a student s course requests. Use the drop-down lists to create the appropriate filters - the report can be generated for all students, for a specific grade level, or for a specific student. The check boxes labeled Report data for students not arriving at this school until next year and Display the selected semester are not applicable. Check the other boxes as desired, and then click Generate to create the student request report. IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) 13
Summary Report The Summary Report will be particularly useful for schedulers using the Course Requests module in Gradebook. To run the Summary Report, uncheck the box labeled Report data for students not arriving at this school until next year and check the box labeled Display next year s grade levels. Click Generate to view the report, which shows a course-bycourse summary of the students who have requested it as a primary and as an alternate course. Note that only finalized, approved course requests will be included in this report if nothing has been finalized, the report will not return results. IMPACT Gradebook for HS Counselors: ADDENDUM - Course Requests PILOT (v1.1 FINAL) 14