My Big Campus

Last days for Old Schoolwork. Migrate by June 30!

(Updated May 24, 2013)

Although I've blogged about the switch to New Schoolwork several times in the past few months, I noticed that there are a few teachers still assigning schoolwork in the old interface.

As we prepare for the upgrade to My Big Campus, we need to remind all teachers that the launch of the redesigned My Big Campus website also means the end of Old Schoolwork.

As a result, effective May 27, you will no longer be able to create quizzes or assignments in Old Schoolwork. All new items must be created in the New Schoolwork interface.

If you are still using Old Schoolwork, here are the steps you must take before June 30 to avoid losing access to grades, templates, and student submissions:

1. Export your grades before June 30. After that date, grades for schoolwork assigned and submitted in the old interface will be gone permanently.
2. Migrate any quizzes and assignments you want to reuse in the future.
3. Retain copies of submitted assignments (student-created videos, documents, presentations, etc.). Download and save submissions before the end of May.

Have questions?  Send them to support@mybigcampus.com.

Oh the Places we'll Go: May 20 to June 3, 2013

The My Big Campus team will be on-site at the following conferences in the next two weeks. If we're traveling to your area, we encourage you to sign up for training sessions, and stop by our booth to say "Hi!" Click any of the links below to reserve your place.

• NJASA Spring Conference, Atlantic City, NJ, May 20 to 22

Tips for Administrators: Getting ready for the summer break

As summer approaches, I'd like to share a few tips for administrators on managing student accounts on My Big Campus. Some of your students will be graduating or moving on to other schools or districts. Most will be advancing a grade or year level, and virtually all will have new teachers and classes.

Removing and graduating user accounts

You don't need to (and shouldn't) delete your student users at the end of every term. When you delete user accounts, all user content disappears — content that students and their parents may want to keep, particularly their files and photos. This is especially important for graduating seniors, whose digital portfolios will be valuable for job and college applications. You can also do this for teachers who retire or transfer out of your district.

District Administrators can manually upload a users.csv file that will disable access and remove accounts from your district, while still preserving student content. You'll find that option at the bottom of the SIS page on the Administration dashboard. Please note that this is not reversible -- only use this if you want to remove these users permanently from your district. After the import is complete, email the file to support@mybigcampus.com, and we'll use it to add these accounts to the new Alumni Portal (coming this summer) so students will be able to access the content they've created in My Big Campus. Access to the Alumni Portal is free. 

Updating student grade / year levels

One of the most common questions we get from students at the beginning of each school year is "I'm in grade / year x, but my profile says I'm still in grade / year y. How do I fix that?"

This isn't something the students can change from their Account Info page, however -- it must be done with a SIS import. First, make sure your student grade levels are updated in your Student Information System. Then create a new users.csv file with the updated student info, and import that into My Big Campus. The updated grade goes in column F, as shown in the following table.

US: Student grade level or year (1 through 12) Use 0 (zero) for Kindergarten, and -1 (minus one) for Pre-Kindergarten.

UK: Student year (1 through 12). Use -1 (minus one) for Reception, 0 for Year 1, 1 for Year 2, etc.

Changing Schools

It's also easy to transfer students and teachers to new schools within your district. Update your SIS with the new information, then export a users.csv with the people who are changing schools. The updated school ID goes in column E, as shown in the following table.

 

To secure your groups from use while the group owner is away, remove students from all groups. 

• If your groups are auto-populated and memberships maintained with SIS imports, you can use a SIS import to remove group members. In the "memberships.csv" file, if the field unique_sis_group_id matches an existing group, the import will remove all existing users (except the group owner) from the group, and replace them with the list of users in the CSV file. Use "groups.csv" to create new groups or update an existing group with a new group owner. Specify existing group ID to overwrites group settings for existing groups; new unused group ID to create a new group.

• If group owners maintain the group memberships, group owners can use the Group Maintenance tool to remove members.

NOTE for schools not integrated with the Lightspeed filter: If you have a free account and the students you've given accounts will no longer have you as a teacher, there's a bonus. When your students are removed from all groups, their policy will automatically change to lock down their accounts until they are added to a group again. They'll still be able to log in and browse the Library, but most social activities will be disabled. 

Also, speaking of groups, we've made the decision to retire the Bob's Corner group when the redesigned My Big Campus interface goes live early in June. While we recognize that many students enjoy being able to interact with other students on My Big Campus, we also realize that the "drama" that sometimes happens in Bob's Corner can be distracting for both students and administrators. 

Updating parent information

If you haven't already deployed the Parent Portal at your district, this is the perfect time to plan the rollout. This series of blog post explains what to do:

• Creating parent accounts
• Introducing Parents to the MBC Parent Portal
• Parents: Find out what your kids learned in school today in the new MBC Parent Portal

If you've already enabled the Parent Portal, you can update parent and child information from your SIS. Remember that parents log into the Parent Portal with their email address -- teachers who have children attending schools in your district will need to provide a personal email address, not their school email address. 

Managing student access during breaks

Because users can access their My Big Campus accounts from anywhere at any time, including school breaks and vacations, you will need a procedure for monitoring user actions when staff resources are limited. If staff are not available, you can use policies in MBC to limit or remove access to My Big Campus features during breaks. In addition, I and my staff continue to monitor user activity just as if school was in session. Anyone violating the terms of use will have their account suspended—and our school contacts will be notified in the usual fashion.

Through MBC Administration, you can adjust the policies for students at each school to disable any aspects of the site you don't want them using over the summer, such as student-to-student messaging.

District and School administrators can also disable accounts using policies. You'll see it as just another check box in the list. We hope this won't be necessary, and I want to assure you again that My Big Campus is monitored by my staff even during school breaks. 

If this is your choice, however, here's how to turn off My Big Campus for all students, or for specific groups of students:

1. In the top navigation bar, click Administration, then click the Policies tab.
2. To disable all student accounts, left click the "All Students" policy and choose Edit.
3. Select (check) Disable all users that get this policy.
4. Click Save

If you only want to disable a subset of students, you can create a Custom Policy and assign it to MBC groups, Active Directory groups (requires Lightspeed filter integration), or individual students. This Tech Note explains how.

Important: Update your Emergency Contacts

When school lets out for the summer, MBC staff will continue to monitor user activity. Occasionally, they find posts that must be referred to local school or district administrators for action. When student safety is at stake, we need to be able to reach someone who can help. As your staff makes plans for summer vacation, make sure your emergency contacts are up to date, especially if you will be allowing students to use MBC over the summer break.

• Make sure everyone on the list is available and willing to be contacted in case of a serious incident.
• Provide alternate contacts if necessary.
• Read this overview of our emergency contact program and procedures.

That's it for now. I'm eagerly awaiting the launch of the newly redesigned My Big Campus website and mobile apps, and our staff is hard at work on training materials to ease the transition. As always, I welcome your comments and questions related to this blog post. I'll see you around Campus!

Oh the Places we'll Go: May 13 to May 27, 2013

The My Big Campus team will be on-site at the following conferences in the next two weeks. If we're traveling to your area, we encourage you to sign up for training sessions, and stop by our booth to say "Hi!" Click any of the links below to reserve your place.

• NYSCATE Digital Wave, West Seneca, NY, May 14

Students speak out about what makes their teachers special

With Teacher Appreciation Week underway, I wanted to share some of the stories people told me about teachers who had made a difference in their lives. Here are some of the great comments I received from students on last week's blog post:

• I appreciate my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Grossmann, for showing my class My Big Campus. It has helped us in many ways and I'm going to use it in middle school and maybe high school. -- M.T.
• I love my teacher because she is really funny, nice, caring, and if I have a problem, she solves it -- A.R.
• I appreciate all of my teachers. They come to school every day for our benefit. My greatest teacher appreciation story would be when Mr. Bushey threw a pizza party for the winning seventh grade class in our sale. We had to set up jobs for people in our class, and decide what to sell to students in CMS for profit. We won the sale with about 280 dollars. I will never forget his kindness. -- T.J.
• I appreciate my teachers, Mrs. Jalovec, and Mrs. Lucero because they helped us make a fun dance video. They have both always been there for me and my classmates. I LOVE MY TEACHERS!!!!! -- A.L.
• My teacher Mr. Brady is a really good band teacher. Even though we are his biggest group ever, he is really nice and patient with us. We are also very loud and noisy, and he is still always very patient. You are my favorite teacher. -- A.P.

Sometimes it's easy to recognize great teachers right away. And sometimes we don't realize how special a teacher was until years later. I wouldn't be where I am today, running My Big Campus, if it hadn't been for so many of my teachers who showed me how to be patient in tough situations, and to keep working through problems until I figured things out. They weren't just trying to teach me science, math, history, or English -- along the way, they also taught me how to be honest, persistent, and creative. So, to all my teachers, past, present, and future, thank you. 

Oh the Places we'll Go: May 6 to May 20, 2013

The My Big Campus team will be on-site at the following conferences in the next two weeks. If we're traveling to your area, we encourage you to sign up for training sessions, and stop by our booth to say "Hi!" Click any of the links below to reserve your place.

• TechTalk Live/IU, Lancaster, PA, May 6 to May 7

Guest Post: Transform your class from paper-WORK to paper-LESS

Take it away, Gwynn!

My Big Campus has changed the way I give assignments

I teach science, and have put My Big Campus to the test this year. I have taken my class paperless, and have found that I have put MORE rigor into my lessons with the help of MBC.

• Although my students still do some labs (ones that involve liquids or possibly dropping computers), the rest of their work takes place in My Big Campus: research projects, essays, fill in the blank, and multiple choice quizzes.

• Rather than watching a GREAT NOVA video in class for 3 class periods, I gave the kids 10 days to watch at home, write down facts from 20- to 25-minute segments of the video, then write a review of the video.

• On the day the project was due, we had a class discussion of the video content. The discussion we had was fantastic, and as the kids watched the video, they would send me comments and ask questions. The video is a great review for our state test.

• We have also done vocabulary projects, where the kids made 30 to 45-second videos and PowerPoints demonstrating what the words mean.

Here is an example (above) of a paper assignment my students used to do, and how ONE of the questions looks as a MBC assignment (below).

Teachers need to get creative

I think to get the most out of MBC, teachers need to think outside the box and get creative. Going digital doesn't mean everything HAS to be multiple choice.

It doesn't always mean grading is going to be faster and less time consuming. And it doesn't always mean grading is done automatically. I have to read many more open ended  answers. As the year has progressed, my 8th graders are really writing complete thoughts for their answers.

However, the advantage I get with MBC for that is I can grade anywhere I have internet access, AND I don’t haul tons of paper back and forth between home and school, or stay stupid long hours grading. I often grade on my couch while watching TV. Once I graded 75 assignments at a school board meeting while waiting for my turn to present (I was presenting on using MBC in the classroom).

Keeping track of assignments is easier, and the lack of paper everywhere is awesome. When we do a paper assignment and my desk is covered in paper piles I go nuts!!! I feel overwhelmed and can't wait to get back to digital assignments.

 

Thanks, Gwynn. These are some great insights, and some really useful tips from a My Big Campus power user. Got ideas or tips of your own, related to the subject of this blog? Let me know in the comments.

Oh the Places we'll Go: April 29 to May 13, 2013

The My Big Campus team will be on-site at the following conferences in the next two weeks. If we're traveling to your area, we encourage you to sign up for training sessions, and stop by our booth to say "Hi!" Click any of the links below to reserve your place.

• ACPE, Mt. Hood, OR, May 1 to 3

Share your "Teacher Appreciation" stories

We all know how hard teachers work -- the years in college, the long hours of preparation, the classroom lessons, the after-school mentoring and coaching, and the weekends and summers learning the latest in teaching techniques, professional development, and classroom technology. 

Teacher appreciation week is coming up soon (May 6-10), and I want to hear from you about how the  teachers in your life have inspired you at school and beyond. Here's your chance to say thanks to your favorite teachers, and tell your stories about how they've influenced your life. I'll post the best stories next week.

Please leave your "Teacher Appreciation" comments below, and watch my blog for updates! 

Teachers: Looking for something to do this summer?

With the summer break approaching rapidly, let's take a look at a few tips from My Big Campus staff, as well as trainers, teachers and administrators at schools all over My Big Campus.

Take advantage of free training resources

Create your own adventure with self-guided training modules that help you find and share resources with ease, ditch the thumb drive, spend less time at the copier, and more.

Join veteran teachers-turned-MBC Senior Coaches who offer free one-hour My Big Campus Overview webinars and half-hour training webinars on a variety of subjects, on days and times that should work for nearly everyone.

Find inspiration, lesson plans, professional development in the Bundle Exchange

As a staff user, when you click on Bundles you see the Bundle Exchange where you can search for inspiration, lesson plans, PD, and more by keyword, rating, popularity, state or common core standard, and more.  Brooke Wheeler from Benjamin Bosse High School came up with a great idea for a Bundle: My teacher is absent! What should I do?. It's a fun and engaging lesson for her art classes that she can share with a substitute teacher for days when she can't be in class. And it's an easy idea to adapt for your own subject areas -- create your own, or find and adapt bundles by state standard, type (lesson plan / unit / project-based learning, etc.), or keyword.

Check out our Professional Learning Communities

The educator-only newsfeed EduTalk has come into its own as a source of ideas, questions and answers, and shoutouts from users in every corner of the US and abroad. Many teachers have already linked My Big Campus with their Twitter accounts, and tweets propagate automatically to EduTalk. You'll see "hoots" from experts like MBC Senior Coach Matt Kitchens, PBL practicioner Jason Seaver, and virtual education specialist Michele Eaton, among many others.

For PD resources, discussions, and subject-area collaboration, visit our Topics -- they work like Groups, but they're open to educators anywhere in My Big Campus. If you're new to MBC, join the MBC Orientation Center. You'll also find special interest areas for Flipped Classroom, iPad/iPod, and Project Based Learning.

Finally, there's the MBC Trainers group. We created this group originally to host the first MBC Summer Academy, back in 2011, and it's become the go-to place for best practices, collaboration, technical discussions and expert help from certified MBC Coaches, MBC staff, and other MBC power users. You don't need to be an MBC expert to participate -- request to join, and group owner Merleen Johnson will even send you some goodies! 

Got tips or feedback of your own?

Let me know in the Comments if you have a question, or would like to share a tip of your own. I always welcome your feedback related to the subject of this blog post.