Teach Academy Orientation – Chapter 4

This Session… 1.Student Classes 2.Instructor Classes 3.Online Assessment Tools 4.Exam Activation 5.Instructor Grade Book 6.Historical Grade Book for Instructors 7.Certificates and Letters 8.Student Certification Vouchers 9.Success Story

Roles and Responsibilities Teacher Manager of classes Synthesizer of curriculum Community outreach collaborator

Creating a Student Class When creating a course the following information may be entered: Time Zone Enrollment Primary Instructor Secondary Instructor Environment Curriculum Class Name Language Version Start Date End Date Final Exam

Creating a Student Class Instructors may create student classes if they have met the following criteria: –Passed the Academy Orientation Course –Passed the Instructor Training for the course they are creating a class in Main Contacts may also create student classes and designate the following: –Primary instructor that has met the above criteria –Secondary instructor that has met the above criteria

Editing Student Class Information After a class has been created all fields may be edited if the roster is empty and the class has not started If the roster is not empty or the class has started the following fields may not be changed: Class Name Course Language Version Start Date Environment

Viewing Class Information Instructors or Main Contacts may also chose to view class information: –View Class Gradebook –View Class Roster –Add New Students –Enroll Eligible Students –Enroll Incomplete Students

Creating Student Accounts Instructors may enroll different types of students –New students –Eligible Students –Incomplete Students In order to enroll a new student, instructors or main contacts must first create a student account.

Enrolling Eligible and Incomplete Students Instructors may enroll students who: – Have taken other courses in the Academy Program –Have an account and have met the prerequisites for the course To enroll an incomplete student, instructors must not only select the account from a list of incomplete students they may also select what to do with previous exam information

Deleting Students From a Class Students may be unenrolled from a class roster as long as they have not taken any assessments in that class If a student has completed at least one assessment then it is necessary to mark them incomplete

Changing Student’s Passwords Instructors are unable to view student’s passwords. However, if a student has forgotten their password and is therefore having difficulty logging into the Academy Connection an instructor may reset the student’s password for them.

Roles and Responsibilities CATC and Regional Academy instructors train other Academy instructors, and support Academies, on a timely and ongoing basis –orienting instructors to the program –providing continuing education for instructors –helping instructors set up their classrooms –answering technical and curriculum questions visiting the Academies observing instruction offering seminars and workshops recommending specific online resources

Roles and Responsibilities

Daily Training Guides for Instructor Training Daily training guides provide a recommended schedule for instructor training sessions These guides may be modified to meet the training needs of a specific class

Creating an Instructor Course When creating a course, the following information may be entered: Final Exam Time Zone Maximum Primary Instructor Secondary Instructor Environment Curriculum Class Name Language Version Start Date End Date

Creating an Instructor Class Instructors are able to create Instructor classes as long as they have met the following criteria: –Passed the Academy Orientation Course –Passed the Instructor Training for the course they are creating a class in –Affiliated with a CATC or Regional Academy for that course Main Contacts may also create Instructor classes and designate a primary and secondary Instructor that has met the above criteria

Editing Instructor Class After a class has been created all fields may be edited if the roster is empty and the class has not started If the roster is not empty or the class has started the following fields may not be changed: Class Name Course Language Version Start Date Environment

Viewing Instructor Class Information Instructors or Main Contacts may also choose to view class information –From the class information screen approved users may also choose to: View Class Gradebook View Class Roster Navigate to the edit class information page

Instructor Enrollment Instructors must self enroll in Instructor training courses Instructors that have met the course requirements for registration will see a link called Register Selecting this link will begin the registration process by displaying available classes for this course

Unenrolling From an Instructor Class Instructors cannot delete Instructor trainees from their class instead the trainee must unenroll themselves from the class

Purpose of On-line Exams The main goal of the on-line exams is to assist in the learning process by identifying what students have learned during instruction Instructors often use the results of on-line exams to –Make inferences about the proficiency of individual students –Determine class level strengths and weaknesses –Adjust instructional process

Purpose of On-line Exams

How Should The On-line Exams Be Recommended guidelines: –Multiple-sources of information are needed –Hands-on performance is needed –Assessments serve multiple purposes. The information from the test needs to be interpreted relative to local conditions.

Different Types of Assessment Several types of formal assessment opportunities are available through the on-line resources –Quizzes –Practice Exams –Pre-Test Exams –Chapter and Course Final Exams

Open vs. Close Book Assessment Some educators believe that open-book assessments resemble real life work Other educators believe that closed book assessments obtain a true estimate of a student's knowledge level We recommend: – All exams be proctored –All final exams be administered closed book and should be proctored

Multiple Forms Sometimes it is valuable to have more than one exam on-hand to measure specific curricular content. When this occurs, the multiple exams are called forms of the exam. –All forms will cover the same content areas. –All forms are equivalent in difficulty. –Most items on each version are different from the other forms of the exam. –All forms of the exam will have approximately same number of scored items. –All forms may contain some non-scored field test items.

Multiple Ways to Ask Questions Multiple-choice single answer question Multiple-choice multiple answer question Interactive items (Drag and Drop, Point and Click, Simulation items) Testlets

Field Test Questions Field test questions are questions that appear on a test but are not used as part of the student's score. The questions are used on a trial basis to ensure their appropriateness and quality before they are used in tests to determine a student's grade.

How Many Times Should Students Be Allowed To Take Exams? Chapter Exams: As many times as necessary to help students achieve mastery with the content material Final exams: Generally used as an evaluative tool to determine the level of mastery students have achieved on material for a particular course. As such, a single administration of final exams is strongly encouraged

Assessment Contact Information Help desk should be contacted at By phone at 1-(888) For policies regarding assessment or the content found on any particular exam:

Personalized Feedback On exams that offer Personalized Feedback, students are provided links to the content covered by each item that was answered incorrectly

Proficiency Report Proficiency Reports provide feedback on a student's proficiency level as measured by their performance on an assessment activity Cisco is currently using four categories in the Proficiency Reports : Novice, Partially Proficient, Proficient, and Advanced

Course Feedback The purpose of the course feedback is to obtain direct student feedback regarding their satisfaction toward the course. Instructors can view detailed summary information about each course feedback question on the Survey Results page in the Gradebook.

Exam Activation Default Exam/Form Attributes –From the Exam Home, users may perform a number of tasks: View Default Exam Attributes Activate New Exam View Exam Status View List of Expired Exams Deactivate Exam

Exam Activation Single and Batch Activation –Single activation has more flexibility to set the exam activation features to their preferences –Batch activate exams requires the acceptance of default exam and form attributes

Exam Activation When the page Set Exam Attributes is open, it is populated with the default values authored by the Academy Assessment team: –Available attempts –Instructor approvals –Form selection

Exam Activation Available Attempts –Students can retry exams until they reach the specified stop criteria or expend all tries, whichever comes first.

Exam Activation Instructor Approval –The Instructor can determine if the students must get authorization for a number of situations: Additional attempts during the same activation period Additional access to expired sessions

Exam Activation Form –There are cases when the instructor may want to have forms in different languages available for the students.

Exam Activation Form Attributes –The instructor may customize the form attributes : Randomized Items within a form Personalized Feedback Item Information Proficiency Reports The Sub-Score Reports Duration of the form Number of retries Stop Criteria

Exam Activation Select Students –The instructors may select the students to which they will assign the form. –When selecting students, a table shows the number of times each student has taken the form and the number of tries still available

Exam Attributes Exam Status –When an exam is active the instructor can monitor the Exam Status. This information page can be used to: Identify students who are currently taking the exam. Determine how many times students have started and submitted each form. Approve additional attempts for students. Re-enable the expired exam for students.

Exam Activation Expired Exams –The page List of Expired Exams displays the following information: Exam/Form name Language Logon period Duration

Exam Activation Expired Exams The page List of Expired Exams displays the following links: View Default Exam Attributes View Status Return to Exam home

Exam Activation Deactivate Exam –To stop an exam that is currently active or will become active in the future, an instructor would select the link Deactivate on the Exam Home page

Instructor Gradebook The instructor may complete the following tasks from the Gradebook: –issue the certificates and letters to the students –view the detailed exam results –decide the weight of each exam in the final grade. –Enter custom scores

Instructor Gradebook Some columns can be edited directly by the instructor –Skills-based Exam –Grade Base –Attendance Column –Result Column

Instructor Gradebook Exam Details- the following information can be seen for each form –All the questions in the form are listed as numbers –Maximum score for each question –Each student's score for a question –Total score of the form and each student's total score. –Percentage score –The Proficiency Score –Analyze Exam Page

Instructor Gradebook From Student Homepage –A student will only be able to see his/her own information –Students may also be able to access item information for each item –Students can view sub-scores and summary

Instructor Gradebook Analyze Exam –This page displays performance summary information on the class exam Median percentage for the class Proficiency level Number of students who took the item Percentage of students who scored 0 in the exam Percentage of students who had a partial score in the exam Percentage of students who achieved the maximum possible score Median score of the question

Instructor Gradebook Custom Scores –Instructors add assignments and scores for activities that do not appear in the main Gradebook Label Weights for each project Total points possible for each activity Score for each student

Instructor Gradebook Student Homepage –The student will see the following: Weights assigned by the instructor for each custom project Total score for each project The scores for each project

Instructor Gradebook Course Feedback –Survey results for the class, which informs the instructor of the students' satisfaction toward the course Each Question that appeared on the Course Feedback Rating scale for each question Median rating for each question The median represents the middlemost score on the item. Half of the responses will be above this score and half of the responses will fall below this score.

Historical Gradebook Provides information on the exam results for previous classes Links to the following: –Information on the requirements to allow a student to graduate –The print certificate for student link will show whether a certificate was printed for each student in the class. –The View Gradebook as a comma separated file

Certificates and Letters Students and instructors in the Academy Program may be eligible to receive a certificate of course completion A letter signed by John Chambers at the conclusion of a class

Certificates and Letters To Qualify: –For a certificate of course completion: students and instructor trainees must receive a passing grade in the result column of the grade book from their instructor –To receive a congratulatory letter signed by John Chambers: students and instructor trainees must pass the course and receive an 80% or higher in the weighted average column of the gradebook.

Certificates and Letters Instructors may turn on the ability for students to print their own certificates and letters Instructors may also choose to print certificates and letters for the students or them to their students

Certificates and Letters Student Qualifications The Academy Program offers discount vouchers for select industry certifications to students who qualify. Currently discount vouchers are offered for the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Certification Exam and Certified Web Design Apprentice (CWDSA) Certification Exam.

Certificates and Letters Requesting Vouchers –CCNA Students that qualify may request vouchers by selecting Career Development, and click Vouchers on their home page –CWDSA Academy students can obtain the CWDSA exam discount by visiting