On-line Assessments coming to Infinite Campus!

Information was released today that Infinite Campus is planning to add an on-line assessment feature…

Q1. When will it be available?
A1. There is talk of late spring – but, it’s most likely that we wouldn’t upgrade Campus until summer.   I’ve learned over the years – there’s nothing worse than messing with your grade book during the months of April and May, so if the feature comes out then, we’ll hold until the summer.

Q2. What information is available about its features?
[The following information was provided by CIC, who handles support and implementations for Infinite Campus in Iowa and other area states]    The Online Assessments module will provide teachers and district staff with the ability to create tests and deliver the assessments via the Campus Portal, and after the student completes the assessment, the grade book will be automatically updated with the students’ total scores.

Test Item Bank
The Test Item Bank can be created using several different options:
• Answers to the test items can be multiple choice both single and multiple answer, true /false, short answer and essay.
• Test items can be aligned to standards, assisting teachers and / or district staff in creating local standards‐based assessments.
• Should you choose to create a district‐wide assessment, you can create test items to be reserved for district use only, which could remain unseen by teachers.
• Items can also be deactivated if it is determined that they should no longer be used.

 
Assessment Creation
Once the Test Item Bank has been populated, assessments can be created with the following options:

• Assessments can be created by teachers or can be created by building / district‐level staff and can then be published for use.
• The sequencing of the questions can be controlled. 
• Responses can be randomized.
• Access to specific assessments can be controlled with security rights (reserving district assessments for district use only)
• Details, such as the author, published date, audience and required materials are stored with the assessment

Delivery

• Once created, assessments will be delivered via the Campus Portal
• Assessments can be made available for only a certain testing window/date range.
• A timer can appear at the top of the assessment, indicating how much time is left to complete.
• Once the assessment is saved and submitted by the student, teachers can view the student’s responses via the gradebook.

Things that we’ll have to consider about this feature……..

* Will we use it for formative assessments, summative assessments or both?

* Will we use it for teacher based assessments only? or should we use it to help standardize course or grade level based assessments?

Missing Assignments Notifications Coming Soon!

Problem:  Both parents and teachers have expressed a desire for a better notification system regarding “missing” assignments.  

Solution:  We’ve been working on a scenario where parents/guardians would be sent missing assignment notifications via email on a given day of the week.   Instead of just receiving a notice of missing assignments, parents would prefer to see an actual list of the missing assignments, viewable directly in the email. We are putting final touches on the notification system and hope to begin testing within the next week.

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Q1. How would this new feature work?  What would teachers mark in the gradebook that would trigger this?
Each week, the system (Infinite Campus) will query all grade books (6th grade thru 12th grade) and identify all assignments that have been marked “M” for missing by the teachers.  A district standardized email is  then sent to each guardian that has a student with 1 or more missing assignments.  If your child does not have any missing assignments – then no notification will be sent.   

Q2. What about assignments that are past the due date and have not been graded?
Those assignments will not be included in the notification, only the assignments that were manually marked as missing by the classroom teacher.

Q3. When will the notifications start?  and how often will they be sent?
We’re hoping to finish up the programming on this feature this week and will roll the feature out as soon as it’s ready.  We will start by sending the notifications out once a week – every Thursday evening. 

Q4. Why Thursday night? Why not Friday?
Parents were requesting the information prior to the weekend, so that students have a chance to return to school to get the missing work.  Parents were concerned that sending out the notifications during the weekened was nice – but would be frustrating because they couldn’t get back into the building during the weekend to collect materials that might be needed.

Q5.  Will the message be unique to each school?
No.  Since the message is sent from Infinite Campus, it must be standardized and apply to all students in all schools.   

Q6.  What will the notification look like? Could we see a sample?

To: < Parent email address>
Subject:Missing assignment reminder for <last name>, <first name> — A Message From: WDMCS Messages

Campus Messenger from the West Des Moines Community Schools

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Parent/Guardian of <student first name>  <student last name>:

 Your student <student first name> has the following missing assignment(s).

Course Number	Course Name	Teacher	Assignment Title	Due Date	Teacher Comments
MTH304	Algebra II – Trig B	Bakker	Quiz 8.1-8.3	02/13/2012

Please sign into your school’s parent portal at https://campus.wdm.k12.ia.us/campus/portal/westdesmoines.jsp to find more information.

Thank you for your support!

West Des Moines Community School District Missing Assignment Policy: Assignments marked as “M” are currently missing and have not been turned in to the teacher. Students are allowed to finish and submit all assignments designated as missing. Submitted missing assignments cannot receive a zero, however, they may not receive full credit as this is determined by the classroom teacher.

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Please do not respond via the email client Reply button. Your response to the Campus Notification will not be delivered to the person who originated this message

 

 Q7.  Why does the policy state that “zeros” are not allowed?
If we are going to notify students and parents about missing assignments – and if they go through the work of getting the assignments turned in, then a zero is not appropriate.  However, as to what portion of credit can be earned, that is at the discretion of the classroom teacher.