How do I register to use ActiveClassroom?
You
can register with ActiveClassroom
with our Sign-up Wizard. When you
complete your registration, you will have set up
an ActiveClassroom account and will have a User
ID and password. It is important to keep those
two pieces of information in a safe
place!
ActiveClassroom.will allow you a free
30-day trial use of all features. After 30 days,
you will have the option of subscribing to
ActiveClassroom or cancelling your account. See
pricing and policies for further
details.
I forgot where
I go to sign on to my Teacher Control
Panel.
You can log on to
ActiveClassroom
Here
. In the left side bar
there is a form for you to enter your User ID
and Password. Once you press GO, you will
automatically be directed to the Main Menu of
your Teacher Control Panel.
I have
forgotten my teacher ID, how can sign on to my
Teacher Control Panel?
If you can no longer gain
access to your Teacher Control Panel, either
because you have forgotten your teacher ID or
your password, write to us at
lrpingre@volusia.k12.fl.us We will supply you
with the information that you have requested
once we verify which account belongs to
you.
How do my
students find my classes on ActiveClassroom?
Students first go to
ActiveClassroom
. From there, they click on
Classes. Then they type in your last
name. A list of all of your classes will
be displayed. From that list, they click on
their class.
When a student
is absent, how do they locate their old
assignments?
In the left side bar of
their Agenda page is a list of ActiveClassroom
Components. There are three ways available to
your student. (1) The calendar. If they click on
calendar they will see the calendar for the
current month. If there is an icon on a certain
day on the calendar that means that an
assignment was due that day. You can hover over
the icon with your mouse and it will tell you
what day the assignment was initially assigned.
If you click on the icon, you will go to the
Agenda page of that day. (2) The outline. If
they click on outline, they will be taken to a
page where they can search your assignments by
type and by date range. (3) Search. clicking on
search allows them to type in the title of the
assignment and get a display of any assignments
having that work in their title or
description.
Explain how assignments are grouped on the class
Agenda Page.
Assignments in the top third
of the page under Daily Agenda are either due or
being assigned that day. Assignments in the
middle third, under Current Assignments, were
assigned at an earlier date, but are not due
that day. Assignments in the bottom third,
under Tests and Quizzes, were specified when
they were assigned as being a test or a
quiz. They drop down into this third of the
page when they are within 5 days of being
due.
My class
Agenda page says logged on as a Guest, when
would a student need to log in?
If you
are a student at a school participating in the Enterprise Edition you
will be able to log on
to ActiveClassroom and see your own, individualized student home
page on which all of your homework
assignments from participating ActiveClassroom teachers will be summarized.
You will be able to
monitor your progress through both short term and long
term assignments. Class Agenda pages can also be viewed publically
without signing onto your Student Control Panel
- hence, the guest
account.
How do I
decide what to call my courses and classes so
that they are best displayed?
If you are an elementary
teacher who teaches multiple subjects to the
same group of students in a self-contained
classroom, we suggest that you use the following
protocol:
This will allow you to have a single
Agenda page where your students and their
parents can see all of the assignments for any
subject area in your class.
If you are a middle school or high school
teacher who teaches different students in
different periods, then we suggest that you use
this protocol:
|
 name
your courses your subject areas (e.g., English
10, Spanish I, Algebra II
Honors)
|
|
your
classes can be called by their period or section
number (e.g., 3rd period, 2nd
block)
|
|
your
assignment types represent your types of
activities (e.g., labs, homework, presentations,
tests)
|
|
your
titles will specify the exact topic (factoring,
speech on hiring practices, vocabulary on
Hamlet)
|
I registered
last year but my classes are no longer being
displayed on the class list, does that mean that
I have to re-register?
Classes of teachers whose
accounts have been inactive for 45 days are no
longer displayed on the class list. Your
original User ID and password will still allow
you to access your Teacher Control Panel.
Now that you are once again active, your classes
will appear on the class list. Feel free to
archive or delete old classes, and create new
courses and classes for this school term.
If you can no longer access your Teacher Control
Panel, write to us at
lrpingre@volusia.k12.fl.us
In those cases, you
will most likely be asked
to re-register for a 60-day trial
account.
My courses
this year are not the same as they were last
year. How do I remove my old ones from my
course list?
By
clicking on courses on the Main Menu of your
Teacher Control Panel, you can add another
course, edit any course that you have previously
registered, or delete an existing course. If you decide
to delete a course, all its classes and all
of their assignments will automatically be
deleted with it. This would be a viable solution
if you have no need to reference any
past assignments that were made to
any classes in that course. A third option
is to print out any lesson plans that
you would like to use as a permanent
resource.
Instead, if you would like
to keep one class in the course with its
assignments as a reference for future use, you
could delete the other classes from the course
and keep just one class. Then instead of
deleting the course, rename it so that you know
it is from a previous
year.
My courses are
the same as last year, but my classes have
changed. How do I setup my new
classes?
One method would be to
delete all of your existing classes and just
start over by adding new ones and affiliating
them to your existing courses. However, if
the assignments in some of the existing classes
would be a helpful reference, you might prefer
to rename at least one from each course and keep
it as a resource. Any of these former
classes that remain associated with current
courses for the new school year will continue to
receive assignments when you add assignments by
course. They will also continue to be
displayed on the classes list. You can also
choose to archive a class so that its contents
are available for future use. Archived classes
do no receive any new assignments even if they
are affliated with active courses.
Once you have decided what
to do with the classes from last year (delete,
rename), then add as many other classes as
necessary to finish your teaching
schedule. Don't forget that classes which
share common assignments should be affiliated
with the same course so that you can add, edit,
and/or delete assignments by course in addition
to editing by individual
class.
If I delete a
course, do I also delete its assignment types
and class resources?
Yes. Assignment types
and class resources are course specific. Whether
you delete a course or create a new one,
assignment types and class resources will have
to be redone. However, if you rename a
course, delete any existing classes, and create
new classes, your assignment types and class
resources will remain in
tact.
How can I
change my display name on
ActiveClassroom?
In your original
registration you submitted your display name.
That information, as well as any other personal
contact information that you would like to
update, can edited in your Teacher Control Panel
under Personal Account
Information.
What are Date
Ranges?
Date ranges represent
important calendar intervals in your
courses. For example, some teachers might
enter the dates for the four quarters of their
school year. Or if in a trimester school,
they might enter the dates for each trimester.
Date ranges are used in two places on
ActiveClassroom's screens: (1) under Outline to
restrict the display of assignments to a
particular date range, and (2) under Display
Lesson Plans on the Teacher Control
Panel
What is a
Class Resource?
A class resource is a
hyperlink that you always want displayed on any
ActiveClassroom page. It is a web-based
reference that you always want your students to
be able to access easily. You can add as many
class resources as you like. In actuality, they
are really course resources since every class in
the same course has the same class
resources.
What is a
Class Style?
There are three major
ingredients of the Agenda Page that you can
modify beyond your assignment type icons. One is
your class logo, the second is the homepage for
your classes when they click on your logo, and
the third is the color/font scheme or
stylesheet.
When users click on your
class logo on any ActiveClassroom page, the
default setting takes them to
/class/
. If you have a
personal or school homepage that you would
prefer to use, the Class Page URL blank in the
Style form allows you to type in your preferred
URL.
Here is a page with a
sample collection of class
logos
that
coordinate with ActiveClassroom's default
stylesheet. If you make your own logo
(recommended dimensions are 165 x 55 pixels),
make sure that it has a web-address so that it
can be linked to ActiveClassroom. This is
usually done by importing the image into a web
on which you have authoring permissions. Once
your class logo has a URL, it can be linked to
ActiveClassroom.
All of this information can
be accessed in the Styles form where you can
change any of the three and save your new
combination with a special one title. That
combination of logo, homepage, and stylesheet
color scheme is called a class
style.
Where do I go
in ActiveClassroom to apply my Style to my class
pages?
In your Teacher Control
Panel, choose Class Setup. On that screen, you
will see a drop down menu labeled Styles. In that
drop down menu you will find the style that you saved
on the Style form. You will need to repeat the
process for each of your
classes.
What is a
stylesheet?
A stylesheet is ActiveClassroom's programming method of controlling the
display features on its pages. This advanced feature is
your means of coordinating your ActiveClassroom
display with that of your school's website. Each
part of our page has an attribute which can be
edited so that the
display
has the colors and fonts
that you want. Currently we are developing an
interface to assist you in making these changes.
The
stylesheet wizard
is only recommended for
advanced users who are comfortable with html.
During your design session, the wizard opens
with the default properties of ActiveClassroom's
stylesheet. You need to type in a one (1) word
name for your new stylesheet. Then you can go
down the list and change whatever properties you
desire. The diagram at the top of the page is
hyperlinked to the location in the form where
each property can be edited. Whenever you save
your edits, you will be returned to a screen
where you can preview your design and then
continue making changes until you have it
perfected.
When you are satisfied, you will need to copy and paste the Stylesheet URL
which looks like: http://online.cctt.org/physicsnotes/ACstylesheet/code.asp?ID=#
and your sheet's title into the CSS URL blank
and title blank on the Styles form in your
Teacher Control Panel.
To edit your stylesheet, you
will need to go to your Style form and write
down two facts: (1) the title or name of your
stylesheet, and (2) its ID number. Then,
you need to
click here
to return to the Stylesheet wizard. This
special access page will allow you to edit your
existing stylesheet after you correctly input
your stylesheet's name and ID number. Once
again, you will be able to repeatedly edit and
preview your combinations. Since you are not
changing your stylesheet's name or ID, there is
no need to alter any of the information linked
on the Style form in your ActiveClassroom
Teacher Control Panel.
At a later date, this
process will become automated (along with a
color picker and font properties library) with
your design ID being automatically registered
with AC. We will notify you when that
programming is in place. Alert: if you create a
completely new stylesheet with the stylesheet
wizard, then you need remember its title and
StyleID in case you want to modify it
later.
When
adding assignment types it asks for an icon's URL. Where do I go to get icons?
ActiveClassroom provides
some default icons from which you can choose.
You can customize your icons by linking to any
of the icons in this
collection
of icons presently being
used by other ActiveClassroom accounts. This
page also has a link to several free websites
for icons. To discover an icon's URL, right
click on the icon's image in a browser,
highlight the icon's address, and copy it. Then
go to ActiveClassroom, open your Teacher control
Panel, click on the assignment type for which
the icon is going to be used, and paste the link
(including the http://) into the URL box.
What is the
recommended size for an icon?
The recommended size is less
than 40 x 40 pixels. Otherwise, they will
distort the calendar. Most of our icons are 32 x
32 pixels.
If I make my
own icons, how can I link them?
If you make your own icons,
make sure that they have a web-address so that
they can be linked to ActiveClassroom. This is
usually done by importing them into a web on
which you have authoring permissions. Once an
icon has a URL, it can be linked to
ActiveClassroom.
When are icons
displayed on the Calendar?
Icons are displayed on the
calendar on the assignment's due date. If you
let your mouse hover over an icon displayed on a
calendar, you will see the title of the
assignment and the date that it was assigned.
Clicking on the icon will take you to the Agenda
Page of that day. From there, you can find
out the student directions and click on any
assignment hyperlinks.
When I make an
assignment, there are no assignment types to
choose from. What am I doing wrong?
You have not yet selected
your course/class. Remember, assignment
types are course specific. Get in the habit of
choosing your course/class first, then typing in
a title and choosing an assignment
type.
When making an
assignment, what is the difference between
curriculum notes and teacher
comments?
Curriculum notes and student
directions are displayed in your
lesson plans
. They are "public information"
about the assignment. In the teacher
comment area, you can keep private information
about the assignment; such as, modifications
that you might feel need to be made the next
time the assignment is
used.
If I initially
add an assignment by course, and then edit just
one class, can I still make changes by
course?
Once an assignment is made
by course, you can always edit it by course,
even if you have edited it in one class only by
class. The course relationship is always
maintained. Whatever property of the assignment
that you update by course will be passed on to
every class to which it was assigned. Changes
made by course override those done by
class.
If I hyperlink
a lesson but I don't want it active until a
later time, can I override the link to NO and
change it back to YES when I am ready to use the
lesson?
ActiveClassroom
automatically links assignments that have an
assignment URL. All you need to do is
change YES to NO and press save. Then, when
you are ready to release the hyperlink, return
to your Teacher Control Panel and switch it back
from NO to YES. The choice is
yours.
What do the
words (URL) and (plan) mean on the class
assignment display in my Teacher Control
Panel?
When the word (URL) is
displayed next to an assignment's title, that
means that you have linked that assignment with
a URL. Clicking on (URL) will permit you to
preview your link without having to leave your
Teacher Control Panel. Clicking on the word
(plan) will direct you to a screen where you
can print one assignment; as opposed to Display
Lesson Plans on the Main Menu which only permits
you to print assignments by
Date Ranges
.
Explain what
content is.
Many teachers do not have
access to a website on which to create web-based
content. This feature of ActiveClassroom
will allow you to put up text-based pages that
your students can then view in their web
browsers. Features include the ability to
directly paste WORD documents and EXCEL
spreadsheets. You can also compose your content
directly in the web document editor. To save,
your must give it a title. Once the file
is saved, you can then assign it; that is, link
it to an assignment. Utilizing
this editor to create content pages
requires features of
IE 5.5; so
teachers wishing to incorporate this feature
into their assignments, must have
IE 5.5
installed.
In
addition to using the web-document editor,
teachers can also upload files to
ActiveClassroom. Using a simple browse feature
you can select a file to save to ActiveClassroom
where it can then be assigned as either a
Class Resource or viewed as an
Assignment.
Do people
viewing my content assignments also have to use
IE 5.5?
Users viewing the content
are not required to have any particular
browser.
What are the
limitations of the web document
editor?
Currently, the web document
editor cannot upload images, support special
characters, or give you the ability to create or
manipulate tables inside the
editor.
If I don't
want to add standards to any assignments, will
the lesson plan still work?
Yes. The lesson plan
display is a formatted page where the following
information can be viewed about each assignment:
title, assignment type, assigned date, due date,
curriculum notes, student directions, and
standards. The addition of standards to an
assignment is optional. If you choose to not add
standards, the remainder of the information will
still be displayed.
How do I know
if standards have already been associated to an
assignment?
When standards have been
added to an assignment, you will see a checkmark
under standards on your assignment display
screen. If you would like to view the standards
you have chosen for that assignment, click
(print). If you would like to edit the standards
that were chosen, click on the assignment's
title, check the YES radio box when it asks you
if you want to add standards to this assignment,
and press Save. That will take you back to the
standards screens so that you can add or delete
from your existing list. When you are
finished editing your standards, click Finished!
and you will return to your Assignment
display.
Will other
national standards be added?
Standards groups will be
added based on decisions made by
your participating school or district
administrator. Whichever standards are
made available to you will be displayed
on your Lesson Plans when you add them to
an assignment.
What new features are currently being developed for ActiveClassroom?
We are looking forward to
working with our users as ActiveClassroom 3.0
continues to be developed. Beyond those
items already mentioned in the above FAQ
answers, we are developing additional features for each access level of ActiveClassroom's
Enterprise
Edition: teacher, student, and administration. If you have any suggestions,
please feel free to contact us at
lrpingre@volusia.k12.fl.us
.
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