Student Taskstream Guide

Transcription

1 Student Taskstream Guide Description Taskstream is the comprehensive portfolio system used by the university to assist students with their certification process. Purpose This document will provide instruction on how to work within Taskstream. Working within Taskstream Once you are logged in to your Taskstream Home Screen you can begin, or continue, working on any assessment in any program in which you are enrolled. Any program in which you are enrolled will be shown here. Click the program name in which you want to work. Clicking on the title of the program in which you want to work in will open the Directed Response Folio (DRF)for that program. Along the left side will be a column that lists all of the requirements necessary for you to complete your certification in this program. The items listed with a green circle require nothing from the student author. The information required for these entries will be provided by other student information systems such as Banner. The items listed without the green circle will require some input from the student author. Clicking any of these entries will open a page allowing you to work on that requirement. If the requirement has specific directions, they will be listed under the Directions tab. For an at-a-glance view of the status of all requirements for your program, you can click the Scores/Results tab. This display shows all of your requirements along with the current status of each. This display also allows you to work on any requirements from this screen. Viewing the Scores/Results pane shown below, allows you to track your status at a glance. The elements of the screen are described below. Projects Page 1

2 Area Status Actions Results History Lists the requirements or assessments the author must address. The current status of the assessment in question. Status options include: N/A - Not Applicable. No work is required from the author for this assessment In Progress - The author has begun work on the assessment but has not finished or submitted it yet. Submitted - The assessment has been submitted to a reviewer for evaluation. Needs Revision - If listed under Status, Needs Revision indicates the assessment was returned but without assigning a grade for it. The retur n of the assessment will be present in your portfolio history, but it will not have a final grade. Evaluation Released - The evaluator has finished reviewing the assessment, evaluated it and released the results of the evaluation back to the auth or. Generally this means that the author has met the assessment criteria. This column lists any actions the author can take regarding a specific assessment. Options include: No work is required for this area - The assessment data is pulled from another student information system and placed into the author's account. No action or wor k is required from the author in order to meet these requirements. Edit Work - This denotes an assessment for which the author is responsible. Clicking this button will allow the author to begin working on the assessment in question. Submit Work - Once the author has completed an assessment assignment, clicking this button will display a list of reviewers from which the author will choose. Selecting a reviewer will allow your work to be submitted to the reviewer selected. Resubmit Work - If an assessment has been returned, this button will be present to allow you to resubmit your updated assessment to your eval uator. Cancel Submission - Allows the author to recall the submitted assessment. NOTE: Canceling a submission must be done before the reviewer opens the assessment for review. This column lists the results of any assessments that have been submitted. Results options include: Meets Requirement - When an assessment has been completed and reviewed, the results will be noted here. Needs Revision - If listed under Results, the assessment has been graded and returned to the author for revision. Score/Results Report - This button will show you the details of the evaluation. Evaluator Feedback - When an assessment has been returned without recording a final grade, this button will show you the details and comments from the evaluator about the assessment. History/Comments - This button allows the author to view the comments from an evaluator as well as displaying the history of any reviews of the assessment, including date and time stamps. NOTE: This is the recommended display for authors to use and will be the assumed interface throughout the remainder of this document. Working with Surveys There are several assessments within Taskstream that take the form of surveys for you to complete. A few examples of these survey assessments are the various Disposition surveys and the Teacher Education Contract. Projects Page 2

3 Although the purpose and intent of the various surveys in Taskstream may be different, they are completed in the same manner. We will be using the Disposition Checklist survey as an example. From the Scores/Results tab, click the Edit Work button next to the assessment you would like to complete. This will open the main page for the assessment. This page contains the directions for completing the assessment as well as the evaluation method that will be used to review it. Beneath this is the survey to be completed. You can access the survey by clicking the Complete Form button, the complete this form link or the Form button at the bottom of the window. Clicking any of these will open the survey for you to complete. The survey may take several formats. The most common are illustrated below. The Disposition Checklist survey The Teacher Education Contract The Disposition Checklist and Teacher Education Contract are surveys in which you read and agree to each of the items. The Professional Disposition Traits survey Projects Page 3

4 The Professional Disposistion Outcomes survey The Professional Disposition Traits and Outcomes are surveys that offer a range of responses. For each item, select the response that most closely matches the most correct response. Once you have completed the survey, click the Save and Return button. This will return you to the assessment's main page. You may submit your survey on this screen by clicking the Submit Work button in the upper right. You can also submit your work at any time from the Scores/Results page by clicking the Submit Work button next to the assessment in question. Clicking the Submit Work button will allow you to specify the evaluator you are submitting to, as shown below. Select the appropriate evaluator for the assessment and click the Submit for Evaluation button. If you have any comments that need to accompany the survey, you may enter them on the next screen as shown above. Otherwise, click the Skip Sending Comments button as shown below. Once you have submitted your survey, it will be reflected on your Scores/Results tab as shown below. Projects Page 4

5 Working with Uploads Uploading files allow an author to add custom content to meet specific assessment requirements. Common assessments that require uploading files are the Resume, Philosophy of Education and the Initial Artifact and Coversheet. AN IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT FILES: It is strongly recommended that you save your files as.pdf before uploading them in Taskstream. Keep your original files in whatever form they originate (.docx,.pptx, etc.) but save them as.pdf files before uploading them to Taskstream. To do so, open the program used to create the file (Microsoft Word is the example used below). Click the File button. Click the Save As button. In the Save As Type box, select PDF (*.pdf) and click the Save button. Uploading is a common operation when working in Taskstream. Using the Professional Resume assessment as an example, uploading files is performed as described below: From the Scores/Results tab, click the Edit Work button next to the assessment needing the file upload. This will open the main page for the assessment. This page contains the directions for completing the assessment as well as the evaluation method that will be used to review it. Projects Page 5

6 To upload files, click the Attachments button at the bottom left of the page. The Add/Edit Attachments window will appear. It shows any files that have been previously uploaded as well as providing options to upload new files or to attach other files residing elsewhere in your Taskstream portfolio. Click the Upload from Computer button to open the File Upload dialog box. The File Upload dialog box allows you to drag and drop files directly into the window as shown above. Optionally, you can click the + Add Files button to browse to the files to upload, shown below. Once you have selected the files that will be uploaded, you can enter a description of the files in the space provided. Click the Upload and Close button to upload the files to your Taskstream portfolio. Projects Page 6

7 Once the file has been successfully uploaded, you will be returned to the Add New Attachment window. This will show the files you have uploaded and allow you to attach each upload to the standard it addresses, if applicable. Standards and their use in Taskstream are detailed in the Working with Standards section below. Click the Save and Return button to return to the assessment's main page. Click the Submit Work button at the top to submit your work for evaluation. You can also submit your work at any time from the Scores/Results page by clicking the Submit Work button next to the assessment in question. Clicking the Submit Work button will allow you to specify the evaluator you are submitting to, as shown below. Select the appropriate evaluator for the assessment and click the Submit for Evaluation button. If you have any comments that need to accompany the files, you may enter them on the next screen as shown above. Otherwise, click the Skip Sending Comments button as shown below. Once you have submitted your files, you will be able to print a confirmation. This is not usually required as Taskstream tracks all changes to your folio automatically. Click the Close Window button to continue. Projects Page 7

8 Upon returning to your Taskstream Scores/Results page, you will see the status updated on your assessment. Working with Standards and Artifacts Standards fall under two general categories or types, Academic Standards and Content Area Standards. Standards are measurable and can guide other education systems. In the state of Missouri, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has established the MoSPE Standards to serve as the Academic Standards and govern education as a whole. These standards apply to all teacher programs regarding all aspects of the classroom and the interactions therein. The second set of standards are specific to each of the subject areas in which education students can certify (for example, Elementary Education or Secondary-Mathematics Education). These Content Area Standards vary across the teacher programs and are specific to each content area. In general, the Academic Standards cover how to teach, the Content Area Standards cover what to teach. As you progress through your education program at MSU, you will learn these standards and how your work as a teacher aligns to them. In Taskstream, some assessments will require that you identify which standards your work aligns to. The most common assessment involving the use of standards is the Initial Artifact and Coversheet. ARTIFACT COVER SHEET - The Artifact Cover Sheet is a critical document that must accompany the artifact it discusses. An artifact cover sheet is required for each artifact that is uploaded into Taskstream. The artifact cover sheet must be a separate document but it is to accompany the artifact at all times. The purpose of the artifact cover sheet is to put the artifact into perspective for the evaluator. Each cover sheet is to address the following questions regarding the artifact in question: Quality indicators addressed by this artifact - Include MoSPE and Specialty Area Indicator(s) as well as PEU CF Learner Outcome(s) as appropriate. Reflective narrative How this artifact reflects performances specific to MoSPE, PEU CF Learner Outcomes and/or Specialty Area performance indicators as appropriate. What do I know and what am I able to do? NAMING CONVENTIONS - It is strongly recommended to use concise, descriptive file names for your artifacts and cover sheets. In general, you would use some form of the title of the artifact as the filename for the artifact. For example, if your artifact is a lesson plan for a crepe activity, the file name should be something like: Crepe Lesson Artifact.pdf An Artifact Cover Sheet is always named identical to the name of the artifact it corresponds to, with an ACS preceding the filename. For example, if the artifact is named Crepe Lesson Artifact.pdf Then the Artifact Cover Sheet that corresponds to this artifact would be named ACS Crepe Lesson Artifact.pdf This preserves clarity and shows a clear association between the two documents for the evaluator. ARTIFACTS DEFINED - An Artifact is defined as anything authored by the student that is used to align to standards. Artifacts can consist of multiple original documents, a Unit Plan and three Lesson Plans for example, but when the artifact is used within Taskstream, it must be as a single file. To create an artifact file for Taskstream that consists of multiple original documents, see below. TO CREATE A SINGLE ARTIFACT FILE FROM MULTIPLE ORIGINALS - the goal is threefold: To preserve all of the contributing documents, in their original state. To Create and preserve a new composite document consisting of the originals appended in order. To Create a.pdf file of this composite document that will be uploaded and used within Taskstream. For our Unit Plan and three Lesson Plan example: Open the Unit Plan in the program from which it was created Save it as a new file name. Remember: Always make your filenames concise and descriptive. The artifact coversheet file name is always preceded by ACS Open this new Unit Plan document and scroll to the end. Open the document for Lesson Plan 1, and copy its contents. Paste these contents to the end of the new Unit Plan document. Scroll to the new end of the Unit Plan document again, after the point where Lesson Plan 1 has been added. Open the document for Lesson Plan 2, and copy its contents. Paste these contents to the end of the Unit Plan, after the Lesson Plan 1 contents. Projects Page 8

9 Scroll to the new end of the document, paste the new Lesson Plan 2 content. Open the document for Lesson Plan 3, and copy its contents. Paste these contents to the end of the Unit Plan document again, after the point where the Lesson Plan 2 content has been added. Save this new composite document in its original file format to preserve it. Save this new composite document as a.pdf file. This is the file that you will upload into Taskstream to use to meet your assessment needs. To save as.pdf, see the reminder below. AN IMPORTANT REMINDER ABOUT FILES: As a reminder, it is strongly recommended that you save your files as.pdf before uploading them in Taskstream. Keep your original files in whatever form they originate in (.docx,.pptx, etc.) but save them as.pdf files before uploading them to Taskstream. To do so, open the program used to create the file (Microsoft Word is the example used below). Click File. Click Save As. In the Save As Type box, select PDF (.pdf) and click the Save button. Once you have your Artifact Cover Sheet as one.pdf file and its corresponding Artifact saved as a separate.pdf file, you are ready to upload them into Taskstream for use. ACS Crepe Lesson Ar... Crepe Lesson Ar... Once you have successfully logged in to Taskstream and in to your program, click the Scores/Results tab. Click the Edit Work button beside the Initial Artifact and Cover Sheet assessment The Initial Artifact and Cover Sheet main page will open. You will see Directions, Evaluation Method and Specified Standards at the top Directions Provide any directions relevant to the assessment. Evaluation Method Describes the evaluation method that will be used for this assessment. Specified Standards A discreet list of standards the author will select from to align to. Click the Attachments button at the bottom of the page. Upload your attachment to Taskstream. When presented with the Description Window, enter a clear description of the artifact and denote the cover sheet with ACS, as shown below. Notice how the descriptions are identical with the exception of the 'ACS - ' for the cover sheet. To upload files to Taskstream, see Working with Uploads above. Projects Page 9

10 Once the files are uploaded to Taskstream, you will be returned to the assessments main page. The artifact and cover sheet files you uploaded should be listed here as shown below. IMPORTANT NOTE: It is assumed that the author has completed the artifact cover sheet for the artifact item by this time. The artifact coversheet specifies what standards to align this artifact to and should be consulted to verify that the artifact is correctly aligned. Remember: You have to align both documents to the same standards, so consulting the cover sheet and keeping the standards specified in mind, click the Standards button for the Artifact Cover Sheet. Working with Clinical Logs Clinical Logs are artifacts that document your experiences in the classroom as they relate to three areas: Diversity Technology Public Affairs A new clinical log entry is typically made after each classroom experience. The Clinical Placement log consists of three questions and three surveys. The questions are designed to detail your experiences while the surveys detail what you observed and were able to use. The three questions are as follows: Diversity Technology Public Affairs Please provide a brief description of the students in your class, emphasizing diversity. Please note any interactions, modifications, etc., that you or your cooperating teacher attempted in order to accommodate specific needs of diverse learners in the classroom to ensure that all students learn. Please note technology used to support student learning by your cooperating teacher, students or yourself. Please provide a brief description of lessons/activities where you incorporated aspects of the public affairs mission in the classroom or school, i.e. highlighted citizenship roles, rights, and responsibilities and/or directed or supported student involvement in community activities. PLEASE NOTE: When working with the clinical logs, it is strongly recommended that you have your responses to these questions prepared in advance. This will prevent the possibility of data loss due to page timeout. To begin, from the Scores/Results tab, click the Edit Work button beside the Initial Clinical Placement Log assessment. The Initial Clinical Log assessment main page will open. The Directions and Evaluation Method will Projects Page 10

11 provide any necessary information regarding how to complete the assessment and how it will be evaluated. To access the assessment, click any one of the links indicated below. The assessment will open. The first item is a Diversity survey. Simply place a check by the categories of diversity that you experienced. The next item is a rich text box where you can enter your response to the Diversity question listed above. As a reminder, it is advised to have your response already prepared by the time you get to this page, as this will prevent the page from timeout and the loss of your response information. Enter your diversity response in the space provided. Note that the text box provided for your response has a fully functioning toolbar to allow you to use all sorts of editing features including hyperlinks, tables, illustrations, etc. The next items are two surveys. One is a survey of the technology you observed in the classroom. The second is a survey of the technology you actually used in the classroom. Again, like the Diversity survey above, place checkmarks by the relevant Technology selections in both surveys. Projects Page 11

12 The next two items are the responses to the Technology and Public Affairs questions listed above. Simply input the appropriate responses into the correct rich text boxes. Once you have completed the assessment, click the Save and Return button. If you need to save your work to finish later, click the Save Draft button. At the main page for the assessment, you can click the Submit Work button at the top of the page. You can also submit your work at any time from the Scores/Results page by clicking the Submit Work button next to the assessment in question. Clicking the Submit Work button will allow you to specify the evaluator you are submitting to, as shown below. Select the appropriate evaluator and click the Submit for Evaluation button. Projects Page 12

13 You will be presented an opportunity to enter any comments to the evaluator. Enter any appropriate comments and click the Send Comments button. If no comments are necessary, click the Skip Sending Comments button. After the clinical log has been successfully submitted, you will be presented with a confirmation page. You may print this confirmation by clicking the Print this Confirmation button, but this is not usually required as Taskstream automatically tracks any changes to your programs and assessments. The status of the assessment has now been changed to Submitted along with a time and date of submission. Also displayed is the name of the person to which the log was submitted. The Cancel Submission button will allow you to recall your submission for further editing provided that it has not been evaluated yet. Working with the Compliance Tool The Compliance Tool is an invaluable resource allowing you to stay on top of your clearance documents including background checks, vaccinations and professional liability insurance. The importance of maintaining your clearances cannot be overstated. Current clearance documents are required before any student can be placed in a classroom setting. The Clinical Compliance link is located on the right side of your Taskstream Home Screen under the Additional Links heading. There are several benefits to using the Compliance Tool: You retain the original copies of these important documents The expiration dates of these documents are automatically tracked for you. You are notified well in advance of any expiring documentation It provides a single point of contact to manage your clinical compliance documents Projects Page 13

14 Click the Compliance Tool link to continue. The Clinical Compliance window will open. The Clinical Compliance window displays the current status of all of your clearance documents as well as allowing you to upload documents to address or renew any remaining compliance items. Note that all documents will display as "Not Submitted", until you begin uploading documents To submit documents for compliance, click the Upload button. The Add File window will appear. To upload compliance documents, click the Add File button and browse to the file you wish to upload. Alternatively, you can drag the file into the Add File dialog box as shown below. PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING LIMITATIONS: Files must have one of the following extensions:.pdf,.bmp,.gif,.jpg,.jpeg,.png,.tiff Files must be 10MB or less You may only upload one file at a time, although the one file may contain multiple compliance documents as shown in the illustration below. Select the requirement(s) that the document being uploaded applies to and click the Upload and Submit button to upload the document to Taskstream. Projects Page 14

15 After you have begun to upload documents and the University has begun to evaluate those documents, you will notice the status begin to change for your requirements. Under the Status column you will notice several terms described below. Not Submitted Pending Evaluation In Compliance In Compliance - expiring in [x] days Out of Compliance Evidence has not been uploaded for this requirement and student should upload a document to show compliance Evidence has been uploaded for this requirement, and is waiting for the evaluator to review the document Evaluator has reviewed the evidence and determined the student is in compliance for that requirement Evaluator has previously determined the student is in compliance with that requirement, but the expiration date that was set is approaching within 90 days. Evaluator has previously determined the student is in compliance for that requirement, but the expiration date that was set has passed. Rejected evidence will be displayed with a red box at the top of your screen. This will appear when you have submitted a requirement that was rejected by the evaluator. When this happens, there will be some comments from the evaluator explaining why the evidence was rejected. To remedy this, simply upload a new document. Once the requirement is in a Pending Evaluation state, it will no longer appear in this box. You may need a waiver for one or more requirements. If this is the case, upload the evidence that supports the need for this waiver (doctor's note, etc.) and select the appropriate requirement. When evaluated, if Projects Page 15

16 your waiver is approved, the status will change to In Compliance and the category will be Waiver. Any notes from the evaluator will display in the comments area. The Compliance Tool features an automated notification system for students. Students will receive automated notifications under the following circumstances: When an evaluation is completed with comments for the student When evidence will be expiring soon When new evaluations are completed, s will be sent to the student if there are comments for the student. When a completed evaluation is edited, will only be sent to the student if it is the most recent evaluation for that requirement being edited, an1d comments for the student are present. For clearance documents that will be expiring soon, the will be sent out 90 days prior to a requirement s expiration date, and at 60, 30, 15, 7, 1, and 0 days prior to expiration. Projects Page 16