Month: September 2023

Innovation … What’s in a Name?

InnovationAssessments.com brings to mind a testing service. And so it once was!

Was…

But the pandemic spurred its growth toward the full online teaching platform that it is today!

Not to disparage our educational testing apps. This platform started out twenty-odd years ago as a test generator for multiple-choice tests. The test generators, test question bank management apps, secure online testing, and algorithmic AI-assisted scoring of short answer tests and summaries makes it a powerful tool in your teacher’s toolbox.

But…

While we kept the name (Do you realize how hard it is to rebrand a website?), we are more than our name! I invite the reader to explore the collection of apps that makes this a top-notch teaching platform.

For starters, Innovation evolved under the demands of real teachers and students in real classrooms. As my colleagues and students shared suggestions for apps and upgrades over a decade, I modified and adapted the software. My coding students were assigned to try to hack it; I built defenses. My teacher colleagues had lots of ideas for ensuring assessments integrity. We collaborated to built something reliable and intuitive to use.

It is difficult to compose a promo for Innovation because by the time we list all the features, we have lost the attention of the reader.

Lesson Planning

The first thing that I did not like about Google Classroom was how clumsy it was to communicate assignments to kids. I don’t like the comment stream approach. And what about students who are ahead and want to see what tomorrow holds? The planning app at Innovation is the first thing students see when they navigate to their course playlist. They see this week and all the assignments. They can jump to them from the planner or scroll down the playlist. There is a custom note option just for today’s lesson.

Curating Resources

It is important to me to be able to effectively curate my resources; my links to assignments on and off Innovation. I want to be able to hide things until the time is right, lock tests with a key code, schedule the visibility of tasks to the best moment, and so forth. Innovation possesses all of these features and more for efficient curating of class online resources. Link to Google docs and website of any kind, manage who has access and when, hide unit plans for next school year.

But it is also easy if you curate your resources elsewhere!

Many subscribers to Innovation curate their links at Google Classroom or other platforms. Well, most use Google Classroom… But that’s okay! Innovation is a verified app on the Google system. You can embed a link to your Innovation task on Google classroom and after a quick authentication app, students are engaged in the day’s lesson.

Proctor

The proctor at Innovation is an algorithmic AI that monitors and reports on student activity. My colleagues and I wanted to know whether students were really watching our video assignments or whether they were pasting in text in some places; we wanted to know how long it took students to do a task and when they logged in and from where. Proctor AI gives detailed information about what students are doing online in your 21st century learning space.

Study Apps

The Tutor app and the flashcard system are perfect for drilling terms and facts.

The algorithmic AI coach advises students on short answer, summaries, and outlines based on a corpus of models on which they were trained.

Modifications are easily made to drills to accommodate special needs.

Innovation has what your students need to study and what teachers need to scaffold their objectives to individual needs.

The Etude

The Etude is our favorite app. Teachers embed a lesson in video, PDF, and/or audio format and include guiding questions. There is note-taking space for students. The Etude is the perfect tool to curate deliverables online in 1:1 laptop classrooms or in remote teaching situations.

Merit Badges

Manage merit badges to chart progress. Invent your own or import ours. As students earn new skills, automated badge awards provide visual evidence of progress.

Ventura!

Students love playing this Jeopardy-like game. It is easy for teachers to generate games from their test question banks. Suitable for in-person or remote learning situations, the Ventura game is a hit with students.

Why not try it out!

Look, I know we’re a small startup company, unknown and not really able to compete with Google, Scoology, and the big names.

But…

This platform has a lot going for it.

Managing Student Accounts at Innovation

In response to teacher requests over the years, there are a number of different ways to add student sub-accounts to your virtual classroom at Innovation.

Self-Registration

It’s best to just have students register themselves in your virtual classroom. There is a link provided on the Students tab in your teacher dashboard. The links are on the left.

One link is generic, allowing students to create sub-accounts using a password or using Google Sign-in.

One link is specific to Google Sign-in. Send this one if no one is using username-password. You can always switch later if you want.

Import Student Roster from Google Classroom

If you are integrating Innovation tasks into your Google Classroom, you can import the rosters.

Adding Students Manually

Teachers can just add students manually using the Add Student app. The app will create a unique username from the student’s first and last names. You can optionally assign students to a class. More about enrollment below…

Adding Students via Spreadsheet

Teachers can upload a spreadsheet of student data and let Innovation create the accounts from there. Teachers who do this must use the XLSX template provided.

class_roster_templateDownload

Expiration Dates on Student Accounts: Commercial Licenses versus Free Licenses

Teachers who have a commercial license to Innovation can manage expiration dates on student accounts. This is useful, for example, if you are working for a tutoring service and you are charging students to access your virtual classroom for a certain period of time.

Teachers with Free Licenses do not have expiration dates on student accounts and need to manage them manually.

When a new student is added for commercial accounts, it is by default created for two days at first. Teachers need to add time. Manage student account expiration dates in Students :: Student Account Expiry.

How Students Access Innovation

There are three ways students can log in to Innovation:

  • Google Sign-in
  • PIN + Virtual Room Number
  • Virtual room number + username + password

Google Sign-in

If you are using Google classroom and plan to integrate Innovation tasks into that platform, this is your best choice. Students will already have Google accounts and they can sign in without remembering an extra password.

PIN

Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) are for students under 13 because students must be 13 or older to use the Google Signin or username-password methods. But you can use this for any of your students. Teachers need to activate the PIN system and can optionally allow access this way only from certain IP addresses. For example, I have set this up so that my students could only use the PIN from my school.

Username + Password

The traditional way to log in also still exists at Innovation. Students need to know your virtual classroom number, their username assigned on account creation, and a password. The teacher controls the passwords.

The Quick Login Link

If a student cannot log in because they have forgotten their password, you cans end them a quick login link. This link will automatically log students in without a password, Google authentication, or PIN. It only works once and the link is only good for two hours.

Manage Course Enrollment

Teachers can now restrict access for students to certain courses in their virtual classroom at Innovation. By default, enrollment is “open”, meaning students can freely access any course.

For teachers who need to restrict access by students to a certain course, there is an app to manage enrollment. Access the app from Students :: Student Accounts Management :: Manage Course Enrollment. From here, follow instructions to restrict enrollment and then assign students to a class.

Commercial licensees will find this useful if they are charging for access to a course and need to prevent free access to courses for which students have not paid.