MIS block - The Blue School, Wells › shopimages › documents › MIS... · 2017-08-21 · Telephone: 01535 604026 This displays the list of learners as well as the New filter area

MIS blockTeacher’s Manual

MIS block Teacher’s Manual

Telephone: 01535 604026 www.webanywhere.co.uk

IntroductionBlock’s menu Welcome

Upcoming Events

Timetable

Learners

New filter area

Achievements

Assessments

Attendance

Behaviour

Timetable - Learners

Pages Welcome page

Upcoming Events page

Timetable page

Achievement page

Assessment page

Attendance page

Behaviour page

Gradebook page

Documents page

SIMS Writeback Award achievement

Behaviour incident

Marksheets

Marktables

Creating a marktable

Using marktables

Take register

Introduction



The MIS blocks is an advanced and enhanced block that supports safe and convenient integration of Moodle platform with SIMS.net school management system. It supports:

Block’s menuThe content of the MIS block for a teacher is as follows:

The content of MIS block strongly depends on a logged user’s MIS privileges. There are a few MIS roles that are assigned according to settings in SIMS.net. These are: MIS Learner, MIS Parent, MIS Teacher and MIS Staff.

This manual only refers to options available to MIS Teacher users. Most of the guide is applicable to MIS Staff users as well, however depending on your school’s setup you may not have access to all of the areas listed.

This manual covers how MIS block may be used by a teacher.

Synchronization of accounts between SIMS, Active Directory and Moodle

Transparent and safe access to some SIMS data

SIMS Information sectionthis allows a user to display information retrieved from SIMS database.

SIMS Writeback sectionthis contains forms that insert or modify information in the SIMS database, therefore these functions should be used responsibly. A more detailed account of this will be provided in the next chapter.

Welcome page

Upcoming Events page

Timetable page

Achievement page

Assessment page

Attendance page

Behaviour page

Gradebook page

Documents page



The teacher’s MIS block will display the information about all the learners and parents. This information includes details such as: personal data, grades, attendance, behaviour and each child's parent(s).

The following types of pages display particular sets of information retrieved from SIMS system by MIS block:

A teacher may display these 9 types of pages for each learner. The first three pages are available for the teacher, whilst the first two are available for the parents. These pages look the same, but their content refers to learner, teacher or parent respectively. The type of information that is displayed depends upon the button selected.

The aforementioned pages are available via the following icons:

All the available pages will be described in the next chapter.In the following paragraphs a description of how to use each particular section of an MIS block's menu will be provided.

Welcome



This will usually display some basic details about the teacher. Additionally the welcome page displays a timetable for today’s lessons.

Upcoming EventsThe Events link will take you to the teacher’s Upcoming events page; this page will be described later in the document.

The Events icon takes you to the teacher’s Upcoming events page, whilst the Timetable icon will take you to the teacher’s Timetable page.

The Timetable contains the following columns:

Lesson name

SIMS group name

Room number or symbol

Start and end time of the lesson

Timetable



The Timetable link will take you to the teacher’s Timetable page; this page will also be described later in the document.

LearnersThis option displays a list of all the learners present within the establishment and subsequently allows a teacher to perform quick actions on them. The quick actions are covered further into this document.

In most cases the list of learners is enhanced with the additional information of the parents names, for convenience.This is very similar to the list of all the users available to admins and it can be filtered in the same way.

New filter areaThe New filter area appears on this page and also on many others pages available via the MIS block menu.

To filter, users you should fill the field to the right of the First name, Surname or Profile labels.

To make a filter work press the Add filter button. The Active filters area will then appear under the New filter area which will contain all the active filters. The only learners that will then appear will be the ones who match all of the active filters.

When you no longer want the list to be filtered or, if you have too many active filters, they can easily be removed. Simply mark the Active filters you no longer require and press the Remove selected button. You may also use the Remove all filters button.



Below the filter area there is a list of users with the role of MIS Learner. The columns are:

In the Actions column there is a With this learner... list that contains the following actions:

Full name

Actions

Parents

Lesson name

SIMS group name


Get an overview

opens the learner’s welcome page that contains a lot of information about the learner.

The same page can also be opened by clicking on the learner’s name

View timetable

opens the learner’s timetable, which differs only slightly from a teacher’s timetable,

namely it

View attendance

opens the learner’s attendance page with an attendance table for the learner and for the specified

period of time.

Login as

lets you log in as a learner to see the site the way they see it. Note that this can be achieved in many

other places, too.

In the Parents column you can find the parents’ names. When you click on a parent’s name you are then taken to their Welcome page.

The following 4 menu items work very similarly to the item above; they all have the filter area with a list of learners below. The only difference is that the learners’ names are linked to different subpages.

Achievements



This displays the list of learners as well as the New filter area that can be used to filter entries as described above.

When you click on a learner’s name you are then moved to the learner's Achievement page. When you click on a parent’s name you are taken to the parent’s Welcome page.

AssessmentsThe assessments subpage displays a list of learners as well as the New filter area that can be used to filter entries as described above.

When you click on a learner’s name you are moved to the learner's Assessment page. On this page you will be able to see all of the learner’s assessments, classwork and task results.

When you click on a parent’s name you are taken to the parent’s Welcome page.

AttendanceThis displays the list of learners as well as the New filter area that can be used to filter entries as described above.

In each row there is the learner’s full name and their parents’ names. When you click on a learner’s name you are then taken to the learner's Attendance page.


BehaviourThe behavior subpage displays a list of learners as well as the New filter area that can be used to filter entries as described above.

In each row there is the learner’s full name and their parents’ names. When you click on a learner’s name you are taken to the learner's Behaviour page. The Behaviour page contains information about the learner’s behaviour incidents.


Timetable - Learners



The Timetable menu for a teacher contains 3 sub options: Learners, Teachers and Staff. These three sub options work in the same way the only difference being that they display the learners’, teachers’ and staff’s timetables respectively. Each of them contains the New filter area that was described above.

When you click the Learners link it opens the list of learners for you to view.

In each row there is a learner’s full name and their parents’ names. When you click a learner’s name you are taken to the learner's Timetable page. Subsequently if you click on a parent’s name you are then taken to the parent’s Welcome page.

When you click the Teachers item you will open a list of teachers, where you can then click to see any teacher’s Timetable page.

Similarly when you click on the Staff item it opens the list of staff, where you can click to see any staff member’s Timetable page.

PagesSeveral examples of the MIS block page are illustrated below. Each example displays the information taken from the SIMS system. The content of the page depends upon which category of user it concerns. The content will be slightly different for the teacher, learner or parent depending on what permissions are set in Moodle.

Welcome pageOn the Welcome page of a teacher there is some basic information and a table with lessons for the day ahead.



The timetable contains the following columns:

A parents Welcome page displays their personal details and a list of their children.

Lesson name

SIMS Group name



The Welcome page of a learner contains the following information:

Personal details with SIMS ID, Date of Birth etc.

Timetable for the current day with subject, teacher, room and time

Achievement - last few items from achievement table

Behaviour - last few items from behaviour table



Upcoming Events pageThe Upcoming Events page displays a calendar identical to the standard calendar view from Moodle. It displays all the events that refer to the user: a teacher, a learner or a parent. You may choose between month and day view.

The events are taken from a standard Moodle calendar and they can be added, edited and viewed from within the Moodle calendar block only. The types of events differ in block colour. The integration can also be configured to pull events from the SIMS Diary.

Below there is an example of an Upcoming Events page of a learner, who has many global events and one user event labelled ‘some event’.

This page looks the same for a teacher.The parents Upcoming event page will display only their child(ren)’s events.



Timetable pageThe timetable page displays the timetable with the rounded blocks corresponding to lessons. The timetable covers the upcoming week with columns representing the days and rows representing the hours within that day. The content depends upon who’s timetable is displayed.

To view last week's timetable or the following week press the Previous or Next links above the table. The start and end dates of the current week are also displayed above the table.

For a teacher each block is labelled with:Lesson name

SIMS group name



In the case of a learner each block displays:

Here is an example of a teacher’s timetable:

Lesson name

Teacher’s name





Achievement pageThe Achievement page refers only to learners and contains their positive achievements.

Achievements always refer to a date. By default all the achievements from the entire school year are displayed, but you may filter the dates by filling the From and To elements and pressing the Select button.

Overall achievement points is a sum of all the achievement points scored by the learner. It does not depend on the above filter.

Below there is a table with all achievements.

At the bottom there is a link, Add an achievement for... that will take you to the form where you can add a new achievement. Further information about the form will be covered in the SIMS Writeback chapter.

Date

Assessment - assessment or classwork name

Description - optional assessment description

Result - may be single letter or result description if teacher entered it

Assessment page



The Assessment page displays the learner’s results from various assessments, classwork and tasks.

On the learner’s Assessment page there is a table with the following columns:

You can use the Filter area to filter the table entries by dates. To filter them just set a From and To date of the period that you want to be displayed and press the Select button. By default the whole school year is set. If the filter is too narrow you will get the message No assessment to display.

Attendance page



This page displays the attendance records of a leaner.The page includes the following parts:

To see how to use the filter option, please see the previous chapter.A detailed table of attendance is the most important element of this page and its layout depends on whether you choose: Session view or Lesson view, which can be found at the top of the page. Each day contains two sessions: AM and PM and in the session view we can view attendance for the morning and afternoon sessions.

Learner’s full name

Filter to select date period

Chart of attendance

Summary table of attendances

Detailed table of attendances

Write registers link

Behaviour pageThe Behaviour page contains information about a learner’s behaviour incidents.You can use the Filter area to filter table entries by date; a description of how to do this can be found above.

As shown above, each row is labelled with an week commencing date, which in this case is Monday. Each cell displays a symbol of learner’s attendance at a specific session of a specific day. The symbols used are defined in SIMS. You can find a sample of the symbols that are used in the Take register chapter below.

In the Lesson view each row refers to one day, the columns correspond to lessons and again, the codes are from SIMS.

The Write register link, at the very bottom of the page, takes us to the Take register form where we can input a learner’s attendance. The available symbols used for registration purposes can also be found here.



Gradebook pageThis page gives you quick access to the grades of a learner, from all the courses they study. Moodle courses include many elements that may be graded, for instance, quizzes, assignments and SCORM content. Moodle can also calculate a final, aggregated grade for the whole course. A table with all grades from one course is called Moodle gradebook.

In regards to the Overall behaviour points, this is a sum of all the behaviour points scored by the learner. It does not depend on the above filter.

Below this there is a table with all of the behaviour incidents listed.

At the bottom of the table there is an Add a behaviour incident for... link that takes will take you to the form where we can add a new incident. This form will be discussed further in the Behaviour incident chapter.



Documents pageThe document page displays a list of all documents which have been attached to a student from within the SIM.net interface. Each document has: type, status, summary, and may contain a note and file attachment. Attachment titles link to original file stored in SIMS.

The gradebook allows parents and teachers to view the moodle gradebook from within the MIS portal.

The screenshot featured below shows that Michael is enrolled in ‘Year 7 Food Technology’ and ‘Around the World’ courses. To display a gradebook of a certain course, just click on the show/hide grades link. To hide the gradebook, click the link again. You can click the graded element title in the first column to go to the element details in the course page.

Usually the learner is enrolled into more courses than shown, but with one gradebook open, we cannot see others that are listed below.

Note that unlike most of other pages, the content of these tables is based upon Moodle course content and not from data in the SIMS database. You can mark students’ work in a course.



SIMS WritebackIn the SIMS Writeback section there are options that enable you to write changes back into the SIMS system.

Award achievementThis displays a list of learners and a filter area. If you click on learner’s name you are taken to the Add Achievement form.

In regards to filling in the form you should:

When you press the Save changes button a new achievement will be written to the SIMS database.

The points from all the achievement are added and displayed as Overall achievement points on the Achievement page.

Choose the date of achievement from the calendar. The current date will usually be marked with a red background. You can change the month or year by clicking the arrow symbols in the header of the calendar



Choose the Achievement Type - the items of choice are defined in SIMS

Choose the Activity/Subject that the achievement is in regards to the set up in SIMS; note that they do not have to match any courses in MoodleWrite a comment describing and/or justifying the award

Type in the number of points awarded, this should be a number and not a written description

Behaviour incidentThe Behaviour incident screen displays a list of learners and a filter area. If you click on a learner’s name you are taken to the Add behaviour form.

In the form you should:

MarksheetsMarksheets are tables with grades. They contain data that is stored in the SIMS database, due to this, the layout of the sheets is defined and configured by SIMS. Please note they should not be confused with grades scored in Moodle for activities.

Here is an example of a marksheet:

When you press the Save changes button, the new behaviour incident will be written to the SIMS database.

The points from all the behaviour incidents are added and displayed as Overall behaviour points on the Behaviour page.

Choose the date that the incident occurred from the calendar. The current date will usually be marked with a red background. You can then switch the month or year by clicking the arrow symbols in the header of calendar



Choose the Type of behaviour - the items to choose from are defined in SIMS

Choose the Outcome that followed on from the behaviour incident - as defined in SIMS

Write a description of the incidentType in the number of points that will be added to the overall behaviour points; again this should be a number and not a written description. Do not use a minus sign.

Choose either Event or Subject depending on where an indiscretion took place. It is usually noted as a subject if the incident took place during a lesson and an event if it took place during an outside activ-ity. This is configured in SIMS

Each row of a marksheet corresponds to a different learner, columns are gradable elements of a course and the grade can be found in the subsequent cells.

All the content and layout (marksheet name, list of learners, number and names of columns or available grades) is read from SIMS, it is configured there and cannot be changed within the MIS block in Moodle.

The grade can be chosen from a list, with possible grades (scales of grades) being defined by SIMS, where they are called gradesets. Examples of gradesets are: (A,B,C,D,E,F), (+,=,-), (A1,A2,B1,B2,C1,C2). There can also be descriptive fields (for instance “below”, “meets” and “above”). Such fields may also be read-only.

In SIMS the full set of of a learner’s grades for an activity is called a resultset.

When you use the Marksheet item in MIS block you will see the list of all marksheets. Note that a teacher has access to all of the marksheets, not only their own. You can filter out marksheets bound to one teacher. To do so, expand the list initially labelled All marksheets, choose the teacher and then press the Show marksheets button.

When you press the Save changes button, the new behaviour incident will be written to the SIMS database.



To open a specific marksheet simply click on its title. To enter/change a grade, click on a proper cell (a list with grades to choose will expand), and choose a grade.

To view an entire marksheet, that may contain many columns, use the horizontal scrollbar above or below the sheet.

To store information back into the SIMS database you need to press the Save changes button that can be found both above and below the sheet. Note that the button is inactive (greyed out) if you have not made any changes.



MarktablesA marktable is a special, flexible tool that may be regarded as a report creator for marksheets. The marktable extracts grades from marksheets and displays them in another layout. A marktable displays grades for one learner at a time.

Creating a marktableEach teacher can create their own marktable, choose a year group, add columns and rows, give them a title and map grades to table cells. Here is how to achieve it step by step.

The teacher can click the Mark Tables item in the MIS block. This view shows:

A marktable is a special, flexible tool that may be regarded as a report creator for marksheets. The marktable extracts grades from marksheets and displays them in another layout. A marktable displays grades for one learner at a time.

Mark table title

Year group from SIMS, associated with this marktable

Date created

Date modified

To the right of the screen there are icons to edit and delete the marktable.

The teacher can click the Add new button to create a new marktable. On the New marktable page the teacher should:

The most important step is binding the cell to a chosen column of a chosen marksheet. To do this, click on the Edit icon from the picture above. This will open the Mark table field settings dialog box.

Enter title

Choose a year group from SIMS

They can also:

Enter row labels

Add new rows with the Add row button

Enter column labels

Add new columns with the Add column button

Delete rows or columns with red cross icons



From the listbox below the Marksheet label you can choose a marksheet that you would like to load the grades from. When you choose a marksheet, the columns from this marksheet will fill the list below the Column label. Please note that this may take some time. Once this has finished processing you may choose a column that you would like to show the grades from.

When you press Save changes, the current cell will be bound to the chosen column of the chosen marksheet. Here is how it will look:

This now means that in the marktable titled ‘My marktable’ the only information that will display is the grade for ‘English Test Level KS2’ that is from the ‘AM English Year 7 Progress Tracker : 7A/En 12/13’ mark-sheet defined in SIMS.

Note that we have not stated whose grades will be displayed, this will be covered below.



Choose a learner by using the Learners item in MIS block

Click on the Assessment icon for this learner

Click on the Show marktables link above the Filter area

Using marktables



A marktable will display grades given to one learner at a time. To display a marktable, you should:

Please note that each marktable is bound to one year group from the SIMS. Each student belongs to a year group and only marktables bound to the student’s year group will be displayed.

If you get the message ‘No marktables to display’ under the student’s name, make sure that you have created marktables for this student’s year group.

The example above shows that Cameron, from Year 7, scored 5 for his ‘English Test Level KS2’.

To add additional rows and columns to the marktable press the Edit icon and choose the same marktable as before. Press the Add Row or Add column button and select a new aspect to add to the grid. The screenshot below represents a marktable with four aspects added.

Take registerThe Take register item is used to open a register where teachers mark learners’ attendance at particular times. When you click on the Take register item of the MIS block, the following page opens:



Note that the two cells of the first row are bound to one marksheet and Cameron’s grades are just copied here. Here is the original place the grades are taken from. We can see that 5A was really scored for ‘English Termly Target 1’.

You can select registers from a previous day using the date filters and pressing select to submit the desired date. The registers for this day’s lessons will display in the Choose lesson/session area.

When you check Show all registers and press Refresh list, all of the registers will be displayed. By default it is unchecked, which means the teacher will only see registers for their own lessons.

Picture - This shows the SIMS picture of each learner

Full name

Mark - where you may choose an attendance symbol from a set defined in SIMS

Result - a tick will show once the system has written back to SIMS

Actions - performs some quick actions on the learner similar to those displayed on the Learners page



To see a particular register just click on its title. The titles of registers are set in SIMS so they cannot be edited here.

The particular register displays as a table with the following columns:

Clicking on the Picture displays a learner’s profile.Clicking on a Full name displays the learner’s welcome page.

To mark a learner’s attendance you should choose a symbol from a list in Mark column. The screenshot below displays the attendance codes you can enter for each student.

After choosing the attendance code from the list, the data is immediately written to the SIMS database. A green check mark should appear in the Results column. If the data was not successfully written to SIMS database for some reason, a red cross will appear. In this case you can try setting it again or check the SIMS connection.

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