1. Information Technology in Science Instruction
ITSI Portal
ITSI material is based upon work supported by the National
Science Foundation under Grant No. ESI
2/22/2019

2. Overview The ITSI Portal is the main entry for teachers and students
The Teacher Signs Up at the Portal
The Teacher sets up classes and selects activities to use in those classes
Students Register for the classes
Students sign in and run activities
Teachers view reports on student work
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3. The Portal as a Teacher Go to the ITSI Portal at:
Click on the “Sign up as a Teacher” link
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4. Fill out the simple registration form.
The Portal as a Teacher
Fill out the simple registration form.
If your school is not yet on the list, please select “Other” and add it.
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5. The Portal as a Teacher
Sign-up is Complete — Click to return to the sign-in page
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6. Sign in using your new username and password.
The Portal as a Teacher
Sign in using your new username and password.
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7. The Portal as a Teacher
When you first sign in, your home page will show you that you have neither classes nor students. We will remedy that shortly.
Please note the “My Info” section near the bottom. Click the “Change this Information” link to update your password, probe interface, address, etc.
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8. The Portal as a Teacher
Start by Clicking on the “Add a new class” link near the top of the page
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9. The Portal as a Teacher
Enter a Class Name on the Left and a Sign-up Word on the right. The Sign-up Word is used by students when they register to ensure that they are placed in the correct class.
The Sign-Up Word must be unique within the system so you may want to add your own name or some other indicator to it.
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10. The Portal as a Teacher
Select the activities that you wish to use with your classes by clicking on the checkboxes.
You can view a particular level of classes by clicking on the names to the left.
A running total of activities is listed above the activity selector.
Clicking on the information icon will show a description of the activity.
Clicking on the picture icon will show a web preview of the activity.
Clicking on the green arrow will launch the activity in testing mode.
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11. The Portal as a Teacher
Click on the “Save this Class” button to continue.
You will be reminded of your sign-up word and then be given several possible next steps.
You can edit the class if you decide to add or remove activities.
You may wish to make a copy of the class to save time if you teach several similar courses.
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12. The Portal as a Teacher For now, click on Return to my Home Page
You will see that you now have a class where it was empty before.
Holding your mouse over any of the icons will show a “tooltip” indicating their function.
Click on the gear icon to edit the class, the two sheets of paper icon to copy a class, the bar chart icon to view reports, the sheet of paper with an arrow on it icon to view a class roster, and the red X to delete a class.
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13. The Portal as a Teacher
Now we can add a student. Click on the “Add a new student” link
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14. The Portal as a Teacher
Enter the student’s first name, last name, password, class and probe interface.
The students could also sign-up themselves using the Sign-up Word specified for a class, thus saving the teacher some data-entry time. In the case of self-registration, a student is assigned to the probe interface used by her teacher.
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15. The Portal as a Teacher Click on the “Continue” button to continue.
You will be reminded of the student’s username and password.
You can edit the student if you decide to change his name or password.
For now, please click on the “Return to my Home Page” link.
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16. The Portal as a Teacher
You can now click on the Class Roster button to see a list of all the students in your class.
The Class Roster shows usernames and passwords for an entire class. It is very helpful in situations where students lose their passwords.
Click the “Home” link from the left navigation to go back to your home page.
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17. The Portal as a Teacher
Click on the reports icon next to your class name.
You will see a summary report for each student in the class on each activity in the class. (Please note: this feature is not yet available to the public but will be so shortly after completing its testing phase).
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18. The Portal as a Teacher
Similarly, you can click on the reports icon next to a student’s name
You will see a more detailed report for the selected student (Please note: this feature is not yet available to the public but will be so shortly after completing its testing phase).
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19. The Portal as a Teacher
Creating Activities - Click on the Create link from the left hand navigation.
You will be presented with a activity selector similar to the one for selecting activities for your classes.
Either click on the Create a new activity link to make a completely new activity, or on any of the gear icons to copy an exisiting activity, making your own custom version of it.
The other icons work the same as in other areas of the portal.
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20. The Portal as a Teacher
Please Note: Activities for the ITSI Project are created in the Do-It-Yourself or DIY system. The Concord Consortium is currently working to better integrate the two systems.
You should be automatically logged into the DIY site after clicking on an icon on the activity creation page.
If you are not logged in automatically, please try using your same account on the main DIY site at:
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21. The Portal as a Student
If you click the “Sign Out” link under your name at the top left of the screen, you can try signing-in as a student.
Students have a very streamlined view of the portal, allowing them easy access to run the activities you have selected. The simply need to click on the green arrow from their home page.
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22. The Portal as a Student
Students can also update their name, password and probe interface by clicking on the “My Info” link on the left side bar.
Students can also create their own activities in the Do-It-Yourself system.
The Concord Consortium is currently working on integrating teacher and student authored activities into the ITSI portal.
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23. Information Technology in Science Instruction
ITSI Portal
Bob Tinker
Scott Cytacki
Carolyn Staudt
External Evaluator - Sig Abeles
ITSI material is based upon work supported by the National
Science Foundation under Grant No. ESI
2/22/2019