November 2022-Trimester Transitions

By hadley_n  

Staff, thank you for your patience as we go through this time of support for our students and buildings. 

As we transition trimesters, below you will find a list of resources to assist you. 

Trimester Transition Update:

New course shells will populate into Canvas over this long weekend, 11/24-27, if on Monday you are missing a course shell please notify us immediately by emailing 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu. Students will not populate until the start of Trimester 2. Remember, the first thing that must be done is cross-listing. There are more details below. 

Students Receiving Incompletes (High School):

Finally, after much trial and testing, we have located what we need to give students specific access to courses past their end-date so they can work on assignments, and turn them into the course.

Please see this updated policy to see how and more information: Click Here 
***Note you must do this process prior to the last day of term***

Canvas-Synergy Sync:

When syncing your course from Canvas to Synergy with the grade passback system, at times it may get stuck on a few data points. This is common when moving large amounts of data. To fix this issue, open your course, go to the Grade Sync link in the left-hand menu (if the link is not visible, enable it by going to Settings, and Navigation), from there you can click on Utilities and select Remaster Gradepassback. It will have you confirm. After about an hour, you should see the correct scores and updated information in Synergy. 

If for some reason you do not, some culprits could be: 

  • You don’t have the sync activated for that assignment: Go to Assignments, and check it has the green check mark on the right for Syncing, instead of the black circle with an X. 
  • You are trying to do extra credit out of zero. Synergy cannot divide by zero and sees it as an error, so that assignment will not sync: Instead tack on extra points to an assignment with a point value, ie 12/10. 
  • Your assignment isn’t published or does not have scores: An assignment won’t push to Synergy until it has been published and has been graded for at least one student. 
  • You haven’t synced in a while: Go to Grades, and in the menu bar at the top on the right and click Sync, and Sync Now. Remember a sync can take 20-30 minutes, or longer depending on how much data you are moving, and how busy the servers are. 
  • In Synergy the assignment is marked “HIDDEN TYPE”. This means the mapping in Synergy is such that the grading category is not visible: In Synergy, go to Gradebook, Gradebook Setup, and ensure that the dropdown menu reads “Add my types to the district types” and apply this to all classes at the bottom before clicking “Update”. 

The most up-to-date sync materials can be found here. You can always reach out via 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu and tickets are routed to me, please use the ticket system as it’s much easier to keep track of help requests. 

Updates to IQWST’s Platform!

Starting 11/29/2022 IQWST will now have an auto-score feature for multiple-choice questions! More info can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLegZMfbjy0

End of Term Checklist:

  • When finished with grading, export a copy of your grade book for each class and email them to your registrar. 
    • Go to Grades. Click Export. Click Export Entire Grade Book. Save and upload to an email to your registrar for safekeeping. 
  • Tidy up any grades and comments in Synergy under Report Card- Progress Reports. Be sure to save frequently and to hit Post Grades when finished entering any comments you wish to add. 
  • If you would like to work on any coursework or alter anything for next year from a Synergy-generated course it should be copied to a Sandbox. Sandbox courses do not close and remain open for teachers to alter content indefinitely. 

*Optional* Export your Canvas course(s) as an IMSCC file. These files can be uploaded to most other LMS providers and give you a hard-copy backup of your course. Note that these files are not editable in their downloaded state. They need to be uploaded to an LMS, like Canvas, to be editable. See here for more information.


Setting Up Trimester 2:

Course shells will populate over the Thanksgiving long weekend. Students should start populating between 12/1-12/2. 

CROSS-LIST

Remember, if you have common preps, it is highly recommended that your cross-list them together. This must be the first thing done prior to building or importing content. 

Cross-Listing Video Here

IMPORTING TEMPLATE

If you are using the template, which has weekly modules and dates preset for T2 and need a refresher on how to get content from the Commons, see this video. 

GRADEBOOK SYNC

Synergy Gradebook has received an update, and now, syncing the gradebook between Canvas and Synergy is even easier than before! For a full walkthrough, including step-by-step instructions and videos click here!

IMPORTING PAST CONTENT

You can of course import content from prior years/trimesters into current classes. Keep in mind, it’s best to select the option to “Remove Due Dates” when importing to eliminate the possibility of forcing zeros in the gradebook for missing assignments. 

Importing Video Here

INTEGRATIONS

The following curricular integrations are available in Canvas, they are very helpful in including accessible text options, activities, text-to-speech, and much more! 

 

Publish your course for students!


The Hour of Code is just around the corner, December 5th-11th! Sign up for it! It’s super fun and students of all ages love it! Don’t worry at all if you don’t know a thing about coding, all the puzzles offered on the website will walk students through everything they need to know. I’m happy to visit your class to get your class up and running. It’s for all ages, K-12! Once students get started, they can continue all year long! Here’s a link to Amy Page’s availability and you schedule a visit here as well

https://hourofcode.com/br/en 


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  1. By November 23, 2022 – Madison Middle School on November 23, 2022 at 10:20 pm

    […] Technology Tips/Checklist for end of Trimester from Nicholas Hadley – In case you missed his email from this morning […]

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