Six simple steps for teachers to get started with itslearning
Welcome to itslearning We hope you enjoy it
itslearning is an online learning platform designed specifically to be used by teachers as a teaching aid. It also helps you reduce paperwork by automating many routine tasks. This quick guide will help you get started.
In this guide, you will learn how to: 1. Get started by logging on 2. Share resources and more with your students 3. Give your students course information through itslearning 4. Add resources for your students to study at home or in class 5. Get your students working in itslearning 6. Add your students to your online learning space
Glossary Participants: Learners, pupils or students Hierarchy: Group of learners Assignment: An activity for learners (e.g. homework) School dashboard: The first screen people at your school see when they log into itslearning Course: An online teaching and learning space where teachers can add resources, set activities for students and more Course dashboard: Welcome area on a course (the first screen people see when they log into a course) Early learners: A course that is specifically designed for learners between four and seven years old My web files: A place where you can store all your files (such as videos, photos and PDFs)
Get started
...by logging in
Your school’s itslearning administrator will give you the web address for your school’s itslearning site, as well as a username and password that is unique to you. 1. Open your internet browser and type the web address into the address bar. 2. Select your institution’s name from the dropdown menu. (If you don’t see a dropdown menu, move straight to step 3). 3. Enter your unique username and password. 4. Click Log in.
Top tip: Never forget If you don´t know your username and password, you can click Forgotten password or contact your school’s itslearning administrator.
Share resources and more with your students ...by creating a course
A course in itslearning is an online learning space. You use it to share resources with your students, set and collect assignments and communicate basic class information such as last minute room changes and upcoming tests and deadlines. Here’s how you create a course in itslearning:
1. The school dashboard is the first screen you see when you log onto itslearning. Click the Courses tab.
Top tips: To create or not to create‌? If your school has already created courses for you, skip this step altogether. When you click the Course tab, you will see a list of existing courses. If your course is already there, simply click the course name to go to the course dashboard.
A shortcut to your courses If your course has already been created, you can find it by clicking the Go to... menu.
2. In the top menu, click Add course. 3. You can now choose whether to create an early learners course or a standard course. Choose the course relevant to your students. 4. Give your course a title. 5. At this stage you will see some fields that are not relevant to you (for example, Course code and Credits). Ignore these for now. 6. Click Save and you’re done.
Top tip: Getting to grips with content blocks A new course in itslearning has six content blocks already on the dashboard. Content blocks enable you to add news, information, calendars, videos and more for your students to see. You can hide a block by clicking on the X and bring it back later when you are ready to use it. If you prefer to start with a blank course, you can hide all the content blocks at the beginning.
Welcome your students to the course, give them the latest news and more ...by adding a content block You can use content blocks to add and highlight information for your students. They’re really helpful for guiding students to essential resources, giving them reminders and keeping them informed of class news. 1. Open your course by clicking the Courses tab and then clicking your course in the list. 2. Click Add content block and choose Rich content. 3. Give your content block a title (for example, Welcome to English Language Class). 4. Write a short text welcoming your students to the course. 5. Click OK. 6. You can change the contents of the block at any time by clicking Edit.
Top tip: Getting creative with video If you have found a video on YouTube that you would like your students to watch, you can add it directly onto your course page. This way, your students will see it when they log onto your course and will be able to watch it without leaving itslearning.
1. Open YouTube, find the video you want and copy the URL (the web address in your browser’s address bar). 2. Open your course. You now need to add the Bulletin content block to your course page. (If you have a Bulletin content block on your course dashboard already, jump straight to step 3.) On your course dashboard, click Add content block, select the Aggregated tab and choose Bulletins. 3. Click Add bulletin. Give your bulletin a title and write some introductory text about the video for your students in the text editor. 4. Click Insert and choose Web 2.0 content. (If you would rather record your own video using your webcam, click New video recording.) 5. Paste the YouTube URL into the URL field and click Insert. You will see an icon in the text editor to show where the video has been added. 6. Click Save. Both you and your students will be able to play the video in the bulletin on the course page.
Add resources that you and your students can access at anytime ...by using My web files
itslearning makes it easy to store, access and share digital files and teaching resources, such as PPTs, PDFs and videos, with students and other teachers at any time from any computer. You have one central space (called My web files) where you can store all your files.
Adding a file to My web files 1. Click ePortfolio in the top menu. Then click My files and choose My web files. 2. Click Upload file and then Choose File (or Browse). A pop-up box will appear. Find the file you want and click Open. 3. Click Upload file and your file will be saved to itslearning. It will appear in the list in My web files.
Adding a folder to your course 1. Start by adding a folder to your course. On the course dashboard, click Add at the bottom of the left-hand menu. 2. Click Add folder. Give the folder a title and click Save.
Sharing a file with your students 1. Now you can add a resource to the folder. In the left-hand menu, click the folder you want then click Add. 2. Choose Add note. Give your note a title and add a short description in the text field. 3. Click Insert and then click File from ‘My web files’. 4. Find your file and then click If you are adding a video, it may be better to embed it directly into the note by clicking 5. Click Save and your note will appear in the tree folder.
Get your students working ...by adding an assignment
You can use the assignment tool for any activity that you want your students to do, such as homework, a research project or an essay. itslearning simplifies setting, collecting and marking assignments. Everything is done online, vastly reducing the piles of paper on your desk.
Adding an assignment for your students 1. In the left-hand menu, find the folder that you want to add the assignment to. Click Add. 2. In the activities menu, click Add assignment. Give the assignment a title (for example, Homework assignment for unit 1).
3. In the text box, write the instructions your students need. 4. You can add additional information, including the deadline. (Feel free to ignore any fields that are not appropriate to you, such as Add learning objective, Submission status and No course group.) 5. Click Save. Your students will be able to see the assignment when they log in. You’ll get a notification when a student uploads a completed assignment.
Add your students to your online learning space …by adding them to a course Once you’ve created a course, you need to add your students to it so they can start working. Here’s how you do it. Your school’s itslearning administrator should already have created groups of students so you can add an entire class to a course at one time.*
1. Click Participants in the left-hand menu. 2. Click Hierarchy synchronization and then click Find hierarchy.
* Note: if you are using an itslearning demo site, you may not be able to add students to a course.
3. Under the heading ´Title´, find the group you want. (It may take a few clicks to get down to the correct group.) 4. Click Choose and then click Save.
Top tip: Hierarchies are easier than you think A hierarchy may sound complex, but it’s actually just another word for group. Using hierarchies in itslearning makes it easy to add and remove groups of students from courses and projects. The great thing about hierarchies is that they update automatically. So, if a student moves class or a new student joins the school, you don’t have to update the class list on your course. Any changes made by the administrator will be automatically reflected in your courses.
Your notes...
Do more with itslearning’s teacher recipes If you are ready to do more with itslearning, please visit www.itslearning.eu/recipes to find classroom recipes from real teachers.
Helping teachers collaborate with colleagues
Designed for teachers and how they want to teach, itslearning is a cloud-based learning platform used by millions of teachers, students, administration staff and parents around the world. It can be found at all levels of education, from primary schools to universities, helping teachers make education more inspiring and valuable for today’s students. At itslearning, we pride ourselves on understanding the needs of education. More than 20% of our staff have worked as teachers, and we can often be found in the classroom, learning from teachers. We provide a full range of services, from simple training sessions to full-scale implementation projects. Established in 1999, we are headquartered in Bergen, Norway, and have offices in London, Birmingham, Berlin, Paris, Mulhouse, MalmÜ, Enschede and Boston.
Head office itslearning AS, P.O. Box 2686, 5836 Bergen, Norway +47 5523 6070 www.itslearning.eu | post@itslearning.com