Welcome to the Technology Design Team Weekly Lessons Learned! This is a recurring feature on Friday afternoons where the Technology Design Team will share top of mind resources and learning. Each week, we will post a few key things we hope you may find useful. We look forward to sharing our learning with you. We look forward to sharing our learning with you.
Some of the content may be specific to the realities of Austin ISD though, we hope, much will be useful to viewers worldwide. The Weekly Lessons Learned Archive contains a list of topics from and links to previous updates.
Don’t forget about the new TDT web site.
Looking for answers? Needing technology-related training? Do you have a hard time finding some of the technology resources that may have been shared with you before?
Announcing the new and improved Technology Design Team website! This new site will link Austin ISD Staff to resources for Blended and Personalized Learning, technology used in the classroom, professional learning and more!
Bookmark http://bit.ly/tdthome today!
With the end of the grading period, we thought we would share some gradebook related tips.
What grading options are available in BLEND?
- BLEND allows teachers to set Late Submission policies
- Setting a Late Submission policy affects all assignments in a course, including assignments with due dates in the past.
- To exclude a specific assignment, mark the submission as something other than Late in the Grade Detail Tray.
- Teachers can set a default grade for an assignment.
- Teachers can message groups of students directly from the gradebook.
- Teachers may also filter their gradebook view to make grading a bit more focused.
How can I get the grades for students who have changed schedule out of my BLEND course?
- This silent screencast demonstrates the process of displaying concluded students.
- This step set also demonstrates the process.
How do I set and/or change due dates in BLEND, and why is this important?
- Setting due dates on assignments, discussions, and quizzes can help students see when something is due on their calendar and to do list. It also helps a teacher see work in the proper grading period as well as target missing or late work from the gradebook. It’s a win-win!
- If an assignment does not have a due date, it will show up in the gradebook in the final grading period.
- Watch the screencast BLEND Canvas Tip – How and Why to Set Due Dates to learn more about adding due dates to items in BLEND.
- If you’d like a more detailed look at due dates and availability, view this Canvas guide: What is the difference between assignment due dates and availability dates?
My gradebook is showing “Select Student Group – Due to the size of your course you must select a student group before launching SpeedGrader.”
At the assignment level you may see this:
Or you may see this message in your gradebook when trying to grade a submission, then follow the steps below.
In course settings, find the box that says “Launch Speedgrader filtered by group” and make sure that it is NOT checked.
Once you have unchecked that box, click update course details to make sure to save that setting.
Is there a way to transfer grades from the BLEND gradebook to my Frontline gradebook?
- The Teacher Tools Chrome extension, developed by Northeast teacher Eric Schaffer, can help transfer grades from BLEND to your TEAMS gradebook. This short step-set provides information on how to use Teacher Tools,
- and this short screencast walks through the process.
For next grading period, how do I change how my grades post in BLEND?
- This screencast will go over the basics of posting and hiding grades in BLEND.
- In addition, you may find these two Canvas articles helpful: How do I use posting policies in a course? and How do I select a grade posting policy for a course in the Gradebook?
Technology Design Team Virtual Office Hours
The Technology Design Team is hosting virtual office hours to help provide real time instructional technology support in the first weeks of school. Virtual Office Hours with the Technology Design Team will happen on Monday-Friday from 10:30 am to 1:30pm.
Please check the Global Announcement in BLEND for the Zoom link.
If you have a technical support issue (device repair or setup, access to systems, etc), please create a ServiceNow ticket to have a technician address your concern.
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