Configuring Classes

Overview

Schools have the ability to manage, control, and display various options available to a teacher/class. There are a number of configuration options that enable different kinds of functionality in the teacher, student, and parent portals.

This article details class configuration options, accessed from the “Review Class Configuration” report on the System homepage, in particular:

• General Class Configuration
• Class Status
• Parent/Student Portal Assignment Display
• Other Class Assignment Configuration
• Common Class Configuration Scenarios

General Class Configuration

Grading Period Group

The Grading Period group indicates which grading periods are relevant for this class.  Grading Periods are used for both scheduling and report card document grades.

Note: Nightly scripts update the begin and end date fields if the field is blank or if the date in either of the fields is set to within 7 days of the grading period begin/end date. This only occurs for classes in the Active School Year.

Block Group

The Block group indicates which Periods/Blocks are relevant for this class.

Grade Conversion Scale

The Grade Conversion scale indicates how numeric grades for this class should be converted into Letter Grades or GPA points.

Track Class Attendance

The “Track Attendance” checkbox indicates that this class will be taking class attendance

Class Status

Future, Active, and Completed

The Status field on a class record indicates whether the class is ongoing, has ended, or has been postponed for a variety of reasons. The Future, Active, and Completed statuses are updated automatically by the system based on the begin and end dates for the class.

• The class will have the Future status until the begin date of the class, at which point it will switch to Active during the nightly processes.
• The system will automatically update the status to Completed four weeks after the end date on the class. This four-week delay gives teachers time to finalize assignments and grades without having to first navigate to the “Completed” section of their portal.

Canceled and On Hold

The Canceled and On Hold statuses are not automatically updated by the system, but are manually entered by the school:

• Canceled: The Canceled status indicates that a class should remain in the database, but will no longer be meeting. Students may have enrolled in the class, but due to perhaps low enrollment or too many conflicts, the class has been removed from the set of offerings for the year. Canceled classes do not display on students’ and teachers’ PDF schedule documents.
• On Hold: The On Hold status indicates that a class has temporarily been postponed. The postponement may be due to changing the grading period during which the class will meet, or may be due to an Interim grading period that meets in the middle of a school year, interrupting the standard rotation of classes. Classes On Hold do not display on students’ and teachers’ PDF schedule documents.

Permissions Tab Functionality

The Permissions tab on the Class record serves two purposes for class configuration: setting whether the class is visible on the Parent/Student Portals, the visibility of assignments on the Student/Parent Portals, and the teacher permissions. Changing any field on the Permissions tab requires that the green Update button to be clicked afterwards to update all modified details.

If the Grading Method for a class is set to "Not Graded", the Parent Portal Assignment Display and Student Portal Assignment Display fields are not visible on the Permissions tab of the class record.

Parent/Student Portal Visibility

A teacher can modify whether or not a particular class can be viewed in both the Parent Portal and the Student Portal. In the upper-left section of the screen, the fields for Parent Portal Visibility and Student Portal Visibility  are accompanied by drop-down menu options for “Show” and “Hide”. Schools also have the ability to hide all classes in Student and Parent Portals, which is helpful in scenarios such as working on the schedule over the summer. Read more about hiding student schedules.

Assignment Visibility

A teacher can modify how much information is visible about assignments given in class on both the Parent and Student portal. The Parent Portal Assignment Display and Student Portal Assignment Display fields are both accompanied with drop-down menus containing a variety of options:

• Suppress all hides all assignments and related data from displaying to Parents or Students.
• Assignments Only (no status, no scores) allows Parents or Students to view assignments, but not scores or statuses (complete, incomplete, late, etc).
• Assignments + Status (no scores, no grade detail) allows Parents or Students to view assignments and the status of the assignment (compete, incomplete, late, etc), but no scores or grade details. This is the default status.
• Assignments + Status + Scores (no calculated grade, no grade detail) allows Parents or Students see the assignment status and the grade(s) the student received for a particular assignment, but not the overall student average/calculated grade in the class. When this option is selected, scores cannot be entered for assignments that are set to “Not Displayed” unless “Include in Calc. Grade” is turned off for the assignment.
• Assignments + Status + Scores + Calculated Grade + Grade Detail allows Parents or Students to see the assignment status, grade(s) and the overall student average/calculated grade in the class. It also gives the Parents or Students access to see the grade detail report. When this option is selected, scores cannot be entered for assignments that are set to “Not Displayed” unless “Include in Calc. Grade” is turned off for the assignment.

Teacher Portal Permissions

In addition to features highlighted above, the Teacher Portal Permissions section on the bottom of the screen exists to offer additional functionality. Any person record added to this section will be able to access all permissions available in the Teacher Portal for that class.

To grant a new individual permissions to the Teacher Portal, click on the green “Add Record…” button, which will add a new line to the Person Record table below. Type in the name of the Person to be added or click on the magnifying glass to bring up a person query with selectable options. In order to toggle the ability for the person to have access to everything or nothing in the Teacher Portal, from the Teacher Portal Visibility drop-down menu, select “Show” to grant all access, or “Hide” to grant no access, and click Update. This is useful if certain people should only have access to the Teacher Portal some of the time. Checking and un-checking the “Track Attendance” box will determine whether or not Attendance will be generated for that person for schools who monitor Faculty/Staff Attendance.

To allow a faculty member to toggle between grading periods, the View Grades box must be checked for the class permission for that teacher.

Other Class Assignment Configuration Options

Assignment Dropbox Method

Allows schools to specify if a particular class can have the dropbox enabled, which allows students to upload and submit files/resources/URL’s for an “open” assignment. It can be enabled or disabled.

* This method must be set to “Enabled” if a class/teacher wants to use the Veracross assignment dropbox. Read more information about the assignment dropbox.

Assignment Score Publishing Method

The two publishing options are:

• Automatic. Scores are immediately available (“published”) in Student and Parent portals when they are entered into the gradebook.
• Manual. Scores (both raw and MYP) remain invisible until manually published by the teacher, though completion status is immediately visible. Manually publishing grades may be thought of as “handing back” graded work to students all at once. Note that there is no way to display only certain students’ scores.

Assignment Grading Method

Typically will be set to Default unless your class wants to use criteria on assignments. Talk with your account manager before selecting any other option than “Default”.

Options currently include:

• Default
• Generic Criteria
• IB MYP Criteria
• IB MYP & Generic Criteria

Common Class Configuration Scenarios

This section outlines several common class configuration scenarios:

1. No Assignments on Portals
2. Assignments Only (No Scores, No Dropbox)
3. Assignments Only + Dropbox
4. Assignments + Completion Status
5. Assignments + Scores + Dropbox (Automatic Score Publishing)
6. Assignments + Scores + Dropbox (Manual Score Publishing)
7. Assignments + IB MYP Grading

No Assignments on Portals

Admin Class Configuration:

• Class `Parent Portal Assignment Display` = “Suppress All”
• Class `Student Portal Assignment Display` = “Suppress All”

Teacher Gradebook Workflow:

• Teachers can use the gradebook as normal
• All references to assignment “portal display” will be hidden
• Dropbox is disabled
• Assignment Feedback is disabled

Parent/Student Portal Consequences:

• No Assignment Planner
• No Classes tab
• No Grade Detail
• No Assignments on student/household calendar
• No Assignments on class website

Assignments Only (No Scores, No Dropbox)

Admin Class Configuration:

• Class `Parent Portal Assignment Display` = “Assignments Only”
• Class `Student Portal Assignment Display` = “Assignments Only”

Teacher Gradebook Workflow:

• Teachers manually decide which assignments are displayed on the Parent/Student Portal using the “Display Status” field on each assignment
• Teachers may send Feedback
• Teachers may send Notifications

Parent/Student Portal Consequences:

• Assignment Planner is enabled
• Classes tab is enabled
• Assignments on student/household calendar
• Assignments on class website
• NO Grade Detail report

Assignments Only + Dropbox

Admin Class Configuration:

• Class `Parent Portal Assignment Display` = “Assignments Only”
• Class `Student Portal Assignment Display` = “Assignments Only”
• Class `Dropbox Method` = “Enabled”

Teacher Gradebook Workflow:

• Teachers manually decide which assignments are displayed on the Parent/Student Portal using the “Display Status” field on each assignment
• Teachers manually decide which assignments are “dropbox enabled”
• An assignment must be “displayed” before the dropbox can be opened
• Teachers may manually open/close individual student dropboxes

Parent/Student Portal Consequences:

• Assignment Planner is enabled
• Classes tab is enabled
• Assignments on student/household calendar
• Assignments on class website
• Students may submit files from the Class Enrollment Detail on the “Classes” tab
• NO Grade Detail report

Assignments + Completion Status

Admin Class Configuration:

• Class `Parent Portal Assignment Display` = “Assignments + Status”
• Class `Student Portal Assignment Display`= “Assignments + Status”

Teacher Gradebook Workflow:

• Teachers manually decide which assignments are displayed on the Parent/Student Portal using the “Display Status” field on each assignment

Parent/Student Portal Consequences:

• Assignment Planner is enabled
• Classes tab is enabled
• Assignments on student/household calendar
• Assignments on class website
• Students and Parents may view assignment status from the Enrollment Detail on the “Classes” tab
• NO Grade Detail report

Assignments + Scores + Dropbox (Automatic Score Publishing)

Admin Class Configuration:

• Class `Parent Portal Assignment Display` = “Assignments Only”
• Class `Student Portal Assignment Display` = “Assignments Only”
• Class `Assignment Dropbox Method` = “Enabled”
• Class `Assignment Score Publishing Method` = “Automatic” (default)

Teacher Gradebook Workflow:

• when a teacher enters a score in the Gradebook it will be immediately displayed on the Parent and Student Portals

Parent/Student Portal Consequences:

• Assignment Planner is enabled
• Classes tab is enabled
• Assignments on student/household calendar
• Assignments on class website
• Students and Parents may view assignments and scores from the Enrollment Detail on the “Classes” tab
• Grade Detail report is enabled

Assignments + Scores + Dropbox (Manual Score Publishing)

Admin Class Configuration:

• Class `Parent Portal Assignment Display` = “Assignments Only”
• Class `Student Portal Assignment Display` = “Assignments Only”
• Class `Assignment Dropbox Method` = “Enabled”
• Class `Assignment Score Publishing Method` = “Manual”

Teacher Gradebook Workflow:

• Same as scenario above
• Teachers must manually publish scores in order for them to display on Student/Parent Portals
• Publishing only affects the raw score. Completion status will always be displayed regardless of the publish status.
• Unpublished scores show up in “black” in the gradebook
• Unpublished scores do not factor in to the calculated grade
• Unpublished scores do not show up in the grade detail report

Parent/Student Portal Consequences:

• Same as scenario above
• Raw Scores will only be displayed if the teacher has published that score
• Raw Scores that are not published will not factor in to the calculated grade
• Raw Scores that are not published will not show up on the Grade Detail report

Assignments + IB MYP Grading

*Talk with your account manager first before changing this option*

Admin Class Configuration:

• Class `Assignment Grading Method` = “IB MYP Criteria Grading”
• Class `Grading System` = “IB MYP Grading”

Teacher Gradebook Workflow:

• Teachers select criteria using the “criteria” tab on the assignment window
• Teachers enter criteria grades using the “criteria grades” tab on the assignment window

Parent/Student Portal Consequences:

• Criteria Grades are displayed on the Grade Detail report
• Criteria Grades are displayed on the Class Enrollment Detail page of the Parent/Student Portal