TEACHER QUICK GUIDE FOR EDLINE

Transcription

1 TEACHER QUICK GUIDE FOR EDLINE TEACHER QUICK GUIDE FOR EDLINE CLICK HELP AT THE TOP OF ANY PAGE ON EDLINE TO LEARN HOW TO USE THAT PAGE. Before using either Edline or GradeQuick, your account must be activated. The District has created authorization codes for all users. Contact your School Technology Associate or your Area Technology Integrator. Navigation - It is important that you use the links and buttons on Edline's pages to move around the site. As a general rule, don t use the browser's Forward and Back buttons (it is OK to use them inside the online Help). SETTING UP YOUR EDLINE WEBPAGE ADDING A CLASS PICTURE You can personalize your classes by displaying a picture and a short description on each class page. Go to the class home page by clicking the name of the class in the My Classes shortcut box. Click Manage Class in the Command Center. To display a picture, click the Browse button in the Image section. Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 1

2 You will see a File Upload dialog box. However, the files are listed by names only. Click on the down-arrow next to the image icon and select Thumbnails. The images will now show as Thumbnails. Click on the name of the file and click the Open button. NOTE: To avoid image distortion when your picture is displayed on the class home page, we recommend you use an image file that is: 1) type.jpg,.png," or.gif ; 2) approximately 314 pixels wide (the image height does not matter); 3) and smaller than 75 kilobytes. If your image will not load, you may need to explore a picture editing software package. The name of the image file will be displayed in the text box next to the "Browse" button. Click the button at the top or bottom of the page to save the new picture. Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 2

3 ADDING A CLASS DESCRIPTION Go to the class home page by clicking the name of the class in the My Classes shortcut box. Click Manage Class in the Command Center. In the Class Information section the Class Name can be edited to be more student/parent friendly. This will change the class name in the My Classes section. The Class Description area is a text area that allows a great deal of creative choices. The user can select text fonts, sizes and colors. Alignment can be left, centered or right. The text can be normal, Bold, Italic or Underlined, Type the class description in this area. Click the button at the top or bottom of the page to save the new description. Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 3

4 POSTING HOMEWORK AND OTHER INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS AND PARENTS Edline lets a teacher keep students and parents informed of the latest developments in your classes on a day-to-day basis. Schedules, homework assignments, special announcements, web links, and other information can be posted right to Edline. There are several sections on your class home pages that allow you to organize your information. CALENDAR : The Calendar is a good place to put reminders of important events such as field trips, early dismissals, homework, tests, and special class announcements. This information will also display in the Combined Calendar for all of your students and associated parents. Go to the class home page by clicking the class name in My Classes. Click the Edit button at the right end of the blue Calendar bar. The calendar for the current month appears. Note the Control bar at the top indicates an Event. Click on the Add button to add an event. Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 4

5 The Summary Information area The Document Title: will be the Headline for the event on the web page. It will be Bold and Underlined. The Document Summary: will also appear on the web page as the Sub-Title. It will appear as a regular font. The Calendar Date: will be the creation date by default. Click on the little calendar icon to select another date. If an event is to recur on several dates click on the Event Recurrence button. The Event Recurrence section will allow the event to be scheduled by selecting several contiguous dates or by selecting other recurrence options. When selections are complete click the Save & Return button. Generally, a Calendar Event is limited to the Document Title and Document Summary. However, there may be times when more content is desirable. There are 3 methods for entering content. Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 5

6 Enter Text by Hand: This choice opens the same window seen when entering a Class Description. As implied by the title content can be typed in directly from the keyboard. However, a better method is to Copy and Paste from an existing document. All users will be able to read content created using this method. An image can be placed at the top of the content by uploading an image in the same way an image was added to the Class Description. Import Existing File: Importing an existing file is very similar to adding an image. Click on the Browse button and select the document. Once the document has been selected MAKE SURE TO CLICK THE Import BUTTON! One downside to importing a file is the person viewing the web site MUST have the program to read the file (i.e., if the document is in MS Word, the viewer must also have MS Word to read the document. Upload a Web Document: This is method rarely used. A web page, or complete site, can be Zipped and uploaded for all end-users to view. (Contact your Tech Integrator for more details.) Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 6

7 It is possible to have the Event appear on more than one class web page Calendar without repeating all the work involved. When all sections of the Create Document page are complete, click the Save & Return button located at either the top or bottom of the page. Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 7

8 NEWS: Use the NEWS section to post announcements for students and parents to see when they visit the class home page. Go to the class home page by clicking the class name in My Classes. Click the Edit button at the right end of the blue News bar. With News showing in the pull down menu, click the Add button at the top of the page. The Summary Information area The Document Title: will be the Headline for the event on the web page. It will be Bold and Underlined. The Document Summary: will also appear on the web page as the Sub-Title. It will appear as a regular font. A date may also be entered for the item. This will cause the item to additionally display on the calendar. There are several ways to enter the main text of the document. Review these methods in the Calendar Section. Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 8

9 CONTENTS is a good place to put documents like notes, reference materials, permission slips, PowerPoints, Podcasts, pictures, etc. Create a Document To create a Document on a class web page, go to the class home page by clicking the class name in My Classes. Click the Edit button at the right end of the blue Contents bar. To add a document (i.e., a permission slip), make sure Document is selected as the type to add. Click the Add Button. The Create Document page has become very familiar. With the resources available on this page the Document is given a Title, the Document Summary, can be added, it is possible to Add Content in one of three ways: Enter Text By Hand Import an existing file; or Upload a web document. The document can be copied to other class web pages in Multiple Posting. Note: The Document Summary does not show immediately on the web page but is available as a Roll-Over when the user points to the Title but does not click. Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 9

10 Create a Folder Folders on web pages behave just like folders on a computer or in a file cabinet they hold documents. To create a Folder on a class web page, go to the class home page by clicking the class name in My Classes. Click the Edit button at the right end of the blue Contents bar. In the Select the type to add area click the down-arrow and select Folder from the choices. Click the Add button. Though the labels differ slightly, the top of the Create Folder page is once again familiar with Folder Name: and Folder Description. Note: The Folder Description once again becomes a Roll-Over item. Farther down the Create Folder page is the Folder Visibility section. Normally, anything on the web site, with the exception of reports from GradeQuick, can be seen by anyone who stumbles upon the web page. To view these pages does NOT require a password. ` Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 10

11 Once again Reports from GradeQuick are PRIVATE and by default require a password to be viewed. Everything else on the web page is visible to the world unless the author changes the visibility. Click on the Change Visibility button. As stated above, by default, Everyone (including guest users) can see this folder. Let us say we have a folder with homework answers that we only want parents to be able to access. Remove the checkmarks for Students (we don t want students to see the homework answers that would be cheating!) Staff (whomever they are). Alumni (whomever they are). Those who definitely need to be able to see this folder would be: Parents need to be able to see the Folder. They are who this folder was created. Teachers (you the author) need to have access to the folder. Administrators in this case are not school administrators, but administrators of the program (i.e., the Technology Integrators), the people who help with problems. Click the Update button at the bottom of the page. Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 11

12 At the top of the Create Folder page click the Save button. And the folder is now available in Contents management window. Click Done to return to the web page. Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 12

13 LINKS: The Links section is the place to list websites outside Edline that would be helpful to the students and parents in your class. To create a Link on a class web page, go to the class home page by clicking the class name in My Classes. Click the Edit button at the right end of the blue Links bar. By now the page that opens should be familiar. To add a new link on the class web page, click the Add button. Again a familiar window opens. Document Title: The Document Title is the text that shows on the web page. It does NOT need to be the URL (web address), it just needs to be descriptive. However, it should be pretty. Document Summary: As in previous areas, this is what is shown as the Mouse Roll- Over. Calendar Date: Why would one want to place a link on the Calendar? Okay, maybe you do want one. Here is where it is done. Link to the following URL: Here is where the web address is typed. It is behind the scenes and is functional. It doesn t need to be pretty. View Link in A New Window When Clicked: Generally, it is a good idea to have this checked. When the user is done and clicks the X in the upper right corner, control is returned to the class web page. Multiple Posting: Copy the link to other class web pages. Updated 6/2/2008 Teacher Quick Guide for Edline Page 13