Designing Online Assignments for the Advanced Academics Classroom

1. Designing Online Assignments for the Advanced Academics Classroom Presented By: Annette Terry & Jennifer Bost

2. Welcome • Our Journey • Where are you?

3. Objectives • Address student access concerns. • Discuss basic uses for Skyward Online Assignments (OAs). • Evaluate critical-thinking options with OAs. • Identify student issues with using OAs. • Design and create a Skyward Online Assignment for the first 9 weeks of the 2012-2013 school year.

4. Student Access Concerns What do you need to know regarding access?

5. What you should know? • Online assignments are available to all teachers in grades 2 and up.  • Logins are available through the counselors.

6. However, Keep in Mind… • Students in 2nd and 3rd grade do not have access to the gradebook when they login Skyward Student. • Students don’t learn their student ID until 3rd grade, when they begin using it login into the network • In most elementary schools, students don’t learn to use their Skyward login until the 2nd semester of 6th grade – when they register for 7th grade.

7. The Basics to OAs How can you use them as a tool in your classroom?

8. The Basics on Use • Checking Understanding through Homework • Quizzes or other Assessments • CFAs or Data Analysis • Paired with Reading Assignments • Writing Assignments • Test Corrections

9. Critical Thinking Options The Free Response

10. Critical Thinking Options • Free Response Questions • Short Answer Questions • Grading Options

11. Student Issues What will go right! What might go wrong?

12. What will go right? • Students will complete their online assignments and the grades will appear in the Skyward gradebook. • The teacher will be able to access the report to see data on the Online Assignment. This includes a breakdown of questions missed with supporting data. • Students will ask questions about the wrong answers on their Online Assignment (especially if you have the correct answer function unselected.)

13. What might go wrong? • Students forget to do the assignment. • Solution: Open the assignment back up or post a paper copy on your AISD website for the students to print and complete.

14. What might go wrong II? • Students accidentally submit the assignment prematurely for grading instead of going on to the next question. • Solution: In your gradebook for that class period, click Score Online Assignment. Select the student’s name. Click allow student to resume.

15. What might go wrong III? • Skyward will go down and students won’t have access to the Online Assignment for a time. • Solution: Adjust your due date if it has a fast turn-around time for students. If the assignment was given three weeks prior, hold the deadline and offer a late grade.

16. What might go wrong IV? • Students will tell you they could not access their Skyward account. • Solution: Start off the school year with students required to check if they can access their account before they start their first assignment. • If it is an issue with one student, then they probably were trying to access Skyward through their parent’s account. The OAs can only be accessed through the student’s Skyward account.

17. What might go wrong V? • There are strange characters, letters, and numbers displayed in my questions after I copied and pasted from another source. • Solution: Type out the questions rather than copy/paste. Or, copy/paste from your word document but view a paper copy to see if the strange characters appear. If so, go back and type those sections.

18. Academic Dishonesty • Students working together from home • Screenshots of questions • What helps… • Randomizer function • Not selecting the Show Correct Answer Function

19. Design your own OA. Plan to implement it in your classroom during the first 9 weeks of the 2012-2013 school year.

20. Plan, then Design • Where in your curriculum would an online assignment be beneficial to your students? • What would you be assessing? • What kind of questions would you need to ask? • How many questions do you need? What would be the point value per question?

21. “How To” Click Sheets • How to Create an Online Assignment • How to View an Online Assignment Report • How to Access Online Assignments (students) • Options for collecting an image for your Online Assignment (see next few slides)

22. The Basics #1: • Print Screen Function • Print Screen Button Or • Alt + Print Screen Or • Control + Print Screen

23. The Basics #2: • Use the capture tool in Smart Notebook. • You must cite your source! • 1. Open Smart Notebook. • 2. Click on the Camera or Screen Capture. • 3. Select what you would like to capture/copy. • 4. Resize accordingly. • 5. Copy/paste the image into PowerPoint. • 5. Document the source. • 7. Save with directions on the Basis #4.

24. The Basics #3: • Getting something out of a PDF File • You must cite your source! • 1. Open a PDF File. • 2. Go to “Edit” and select “Take a snapshot.” • 3. Select what you would like to copy. • 4. Paste. • 5. Resize accordingly. • 6. Document the source.

25. The Basics #4: • Save anything as an image through PowerPoint! • 1. Open PowerPoint. • 2. Paste your text/graphic/image/etc… • 3. Right click on your object. • 4. Choose “Save as Picture.” • 5. Name your object and choose JPEG as the file type. It won’t be in PowerPoint anymore! • 6. Image can be uploaded for various uses.

26. Thank you for your time! Please email me with any questions or concerns! Annette_Terry@allenisd.org Jennifer_Bost@allenisd.org