How to do things on this website?
Notice: Currently updating this How To page so some links may not work temporarily.
Where do I login?
- Pupils/learners
- Login to the Learners site
. The Markbook site is only for assessors . If you try to login to the Markbook site, you will receive a warning message
See: How do I create an account?- Assessors
-
How do I contact you?
Click on "contact us" in the top right of the home page menu, or click here.
For assessors
How do I get started as an assessor?
If you are an assessor, these are the things you need to do to get started:
- You should have a copy of the Assessor Handbook.
- You'll need an account on the Markbook site. The Markbook is a separate site where assessment outcomes are recorded and the actual certification is done.
This is where you record marks for your pupils, request awards, print awards etc. To get an account on the Markbook site you will need to talk to the Principal Assessor at your school or contact us at TLM. - You'll also need an account on the Learners Site if you want to use it to provide support for evidence management and student learning. We provide blogs, web page creations, evidence submission, progress tracking, forums and other features to assist assessors and learners. You can use as much or as little of this as you want. Everyone is welcome to create an account on this site. See How do I create an account?
- Once you have created an account use the contact page to send a message to "Support" asking to set your account to "assessor". This will allow the system to recognise you as an assessor rather than an ordinary user so that you get facilities such as being able to automatically receive evidence from learners in your teaching groups. Please include your user name, your real name and your school.
How do I get an account at the Markbook site?
To get an account for the Markbook site you will need to talk to the Principal Assessor at your centre. The Principal Assessor can set up accounts for colleagues that have the experience and background to assess particular qualifications. TLM has to set up a centre account and a Principal Assessor account for the centre first.
How do I find my assessor id?
When you log in to the Markbook site, you will see a 
button on the right side of the Menu Bar. Once you click here, you will see the following screen with tabs on the left side of your browser. On the Summary tab, you will see all the details about you.
How do I find a learner id?
You can find a learner's id from the certification site 
in the 
section. In the Groups tab choose edit for the group and the group will be listed with their ids. If you set up an account on the learning site 
and ensure that your e-mail address is the same on both sites, the system will find any learners associated with your groups on the markbook site and you can generate accounts for your learners automatically including a letter to each learner with a username, password, and id so they have something specific for reference.
How do I get the handbook?
We provide an on-line version and odt version of the handbook for download. These are here. You can get a professionally published version from Lulu.com.
Account management
How do I create an account on this site?
- Locate the learners site log in on the right hand side of the front page.
- Click on Create New Account (under the log in tab).
- Fill in the fields. Some notes about some of the fields:
- Email address
- Has to be a valid email address. We will not send you spam and we will not sell your address to anyone. But we need your email to send you a new password if you forget it. Since your e-mail address is unique (your name might not be) we can use it to make automatic associations between information on the Markbook and Learning sites as long as you include the same e-mail address for both sites. It then does not matter which order you set up accounts.
- Full name
- Your name will not be visible to other users apart from administrators. We need it, for example, to help locate your work so you can get your certificate.
- Pupil or assessor id
- Are you a pupil? Ask your assessor for your pupil id. Are you an assessor? You can obtain this information from the Markbook (How do I find my assessor id?, How do I find a pupil id?).
- Academy
- Name of your academy (centre) as it is registered on our site. Ask your assessor. Assessors: You'll find this information when you login to the Markbook, on the first page.
- You need to accept the terms and conditions. Then you can click on "create new account".
You will receive an email with additional instructions, including how to login for the first time and setup a password.
How do I change my password?
If you lost your password, see How do I get a new password?. To change your password, click on 
on the right side-bar. Then click on "Edit" at the top of the page. Scroll to the password field. Enter your new password and submit. Use strong passwords. Words that can be found in a dictionary are not good for passwords by themselves. Add numbers and characters like 75% or £23 or 89$.
How do I get a new password?
If you lost your password for the learning site and need a new one, follow these steps:
- Go to the login for the Learning site, top block on the right hand side of the home page.
- Click on Request new password.
- Enter your user name or the email address you used to create your account.
- Click on "Email new password".
The computer does not actually send you a new password. It sends you a link which you can use to login to your account. You can only use this link to login once. As soon as you are logged in, change your password to something you'll remember (How do I change my password?).
How do I change my theme?
The Ingot site is based on Drupal which has many possible themes. Unfortunately not all themes work fully predictably so for the time being we have omitted this feature. We may reinstate this in later versions of the site.
How do I disable the rich-text editor?
This site uses a "rich-text editor". It lets you create and edit HTML pages in an environment that feels similar to a word processor (How do I use the rich-text editor?).
The rich-text editor is enabled by default, if you wish to get raw html again then simply click either the 
button in the top left-corner OR cick the 
link underneath the text area. Using this is a good way for beginners to become familiar with HTML tags and how they work.
Exams and Tests (Baseline)
How do I register for the Baseline Test?
The procedure is to go to http://awards.theingots.org and at the top right click the sign up link. This will produce a web form to fill in. We will collect the minimum data from you in order that we can aggregate your data and give you useful contextual feedback. Once the account details are set up we will check and approve them – this is to eliminate spam and/or bogus sign ups that could contaminate the data collected. Once your account is approved you can upload the pupils to take the test using a csv file exported from your MIS system. The structure of this file needs to be as follows:
forename <eg John>
surname <eg Smith>
gender <Male or Female>
DOB <eg 26-04-1994>
ULN <This field might be blank as ULNs are not normally issued until age 14 but it needs to exist>
UPN <This helps ensure pupils are uniquely identifiable>
Once your account is authorised you will get an e-mail with the text below. (A lot of school filters and security prevent automated e-mails getting through. If you don't get an e-mail pretty well instantly after sign up e-mail ian dot lynch at theingots dot org and we will set up your password etc manually. We have reproduced the procedure here with screen shots and also as a video.
See also here.
How do I upload learners in a .csv file to take the test?
The Baseline Test is taken via our Learning Site, but this site automatically pulls students and groups from the Markbook Site once they are created. Since the Markbook Site is the site to track all of the assessment and progress, this makes the most sense. The instructions for adding learners to the Markbook Site are here.
How do I create a teaching group for students to take the test?
The instructions for creating groups are here. For the Baseline Test, it is good practice to create a group to reflect the nature of the assessment. Therefore, a group name such as ComputingBLTest-7 (Computing Baseline Test, Year 7) will make it easier to track should you have multiple groups and subject assessments in your area.
How do I put learners in groups to take the test?
The instructions for adding learners to groups are here.
How do I register my students to take the test?
Once you have added the learners to your account on the Markbook Site in order to track their progress in general terms, you can now move across to the Learning Site which is the site which holds and administers the Baseline Test. Create an account for yourself on this site .
NOTE: You must have the same user name and password on both the Markbook Site and the Learning Site
When your account has been created and verified on the Learning Site, you can now log in to see your groups.
Select a group from your list as shown above and click next to the group name n the test required. In this case, the Online Test link.
The Online Test option is hyerlinked as shown above. Click the link to open the options for the test process.
You can see above that you have the option for the selected group to register for Online Tests. In this instance we are registering for the Baselin Test which will be an option in the dropdown menus.
At the time of writing we have Test 1 as shown. There will be additional tests every 6 months which will allow you to check the prgress of your students against the school average or national average. Once you have selected the test from the dropdown options, you then can set a date for when you would like the students to be able to access the test online and press the Register button. That is now done and your group is registered to take the test on the date you specified. You can see below the date and the students rregistred for the test.
Once you are happy with the date of the test and the correct groups taking it, you can click on Start Test to begin the process.
By starting the test, the system will automatically register all the stuents for the correct test and date and will also generate a letter for you to send to your students as a reminder. Go back to your groups by clicking the link in the top left of the screen 
and click on the link 
.
The system will generate a series of letters for each pupil in the group which will include all of their login details, some general guidance to the test and an AUP.
At the bottom of the page (it may be very long if you have a large group), you will see icons for options to print the page directly, r to download it as a csv to be able to email it with some other advice or information.
How do students take the test?
After you have completed the registration and group enabling process above, you will have generated login details for your students as well as created the date and time of the test for them to take. Students can now use these details to log in to the Learning Site. When they login for the first time, they will need to accept some details such as an AUP for the site. Once they have completed this and are in to the site, they should see their learner dashboard. On this dashboard, they will see a tab for Online Tests.
The students will see this table and will see that there is a column with Test Status.
Once all students are at this point, you will need to explain the rules of the test and explain that there will be some security measures built into the test to stop any bad practise. Students can now click on the Start link. They will see the following set of instructions and guielines to which they need to agree.
They need to click the acceptance box and then click to start the test.
They will see a green menu screen with the questions per page, with a drop down for each question. They need to make their choices per question and then click Next. If they move the mouse outside of the green window, there will be an audio and visual warning to alert them and the invigilator.
Once they have complted and checked all 50 questions, they MUST click the finish button.
How do I see their results?
When the students have completed their exam, you can go to your Groups and look at the Online Test tab and then look at the Finalised Test to see the results.
All results will also be pushed to the Markbook Site.
How do I fix any problems that happen to students during the test?
The most common problem is pupils coming out of the test before clicking the finish button. They can not rejoin the test until the supervisor unblocks them from the on-going on-line test list in the right hand menu block on the home page of the web site 
. Once this is done they can login and resume from where they left off. If 15 days passess they will have to start again.
Simple tick the box next to the names of the students who are having problems, and click Unblock.
Exams and Tests (Regulated)
How do I let you know when we are ready for exams?
Contact TLM at least 6 weeks before the exam is to be taken. Tell us if the exam is to be a "mock", "real exam" or "resit" and provide an estimate of the number of candidates. This is just so that we know you intend to set up groups to take the exam and we can support you in any way needed.
How do I create a group for the exam?
You will have carried out many of the processes below if you conducted the Baseline Tests. This set of instructions, however, is specific to regulated exams.
Go to the Markbook and create a group called eg 6006688X_21st_December_2014_mock and copy the learners who are to take the exam into that group. (This tells us which subject it is using the unique qualifications number without slashes, the target date, and purpose of the exam.) If you don't know the QAN number, you can find it on the Ofqual register at http://register.ofqual.gov.uk/ searching for qualifications with TLM in the organisation field.
See also How do I create groups for exams.
How do I set the exam?
On the learning site, go to register on-line tests and choose the exam you created as shown in the example above, i.e. 6006688X.
How do I choose which type of exam students will take?
Click the on-line radio button if you want pupils to take the exam on-line and paper if you want it as a paper exam (see above graphic). Put in the date of the exam in the exam date field and click register. The centre must have paid the exam fees before the exam date otherwise it will not be considered registered and it will not get marked. The 6 week period is to provide time for this to happen and to be able to pay the exam markers promptly.
How do I administer the exam?
If it is a paper exam we will e-mail the principal assessor with the pdf of the exam shortly before the exam date. You can then print the exam and give it to the students under suitably controlled conditions. You must keep the examination paper secure and all candidates in this sitting should do it at the same time under normal controlled conditions with seating arrangements that will minimise any likelihood of copying between candidates. At the end collect the papers, make a photocopy of all of them and send the originals to us using registered post. Keep the copies in a secure place until the marks and grades have been finalised and then destroy them with a shredder.
If it is the on-line exam, TLM will approve the exam request and when the date of the exam arrives, click the start button and then get candidates to login and start the exam. The start button will only appear if TLM has approved the request. If it is not there and you think it should be, contact us.
How do I deal with problems which arise?
The most common problem is pupils coming out of the test before clicking the finish button at the end. They can not rejoin the test until the supervisor unblocks them from the on-going on-line test list in the right hand menu block on the home page of the web site. Once this is done they can login and resume from where they left off. If 15 days passess they will have to start again. Supervisors of regulated exams must ensure that no candidate gets an unfair advantage from coming out of the exam without clicking the finish button. Normally the exam session should be completed for the whole group at the same time. If technical problems prevent a candidate from obtaining a result they will be allowed to resit as if they had not previously taken the exam but it will be a different version of the exam so that they do not gain any advantage.
How will I receive the grades for a regulated exam?
When the exam is completed and marked the result will be presented on the Markbook in the Assessment section in the exam unit. The assessor should check this list and notify TLM if there are any unexpected results. eg a very good candidate with an atypically low score or a weak candidate with an atypically high score. We will investigate any such cases before finalising the results. You can then select the candidates for whom you want to claim the qualification and click the request awards button 
. Once this is done the candidates with the qualification awarded can not retake the exam for at least 6 months. Those not selected can be put in for one resit before the result is finalised.
How does the mock, real, resit triage work?
The "Mock", "Real", "Resit" triage is designed to prevent the waste of public money through many blanket resits while reducing the chances of candidates getting unfair marks because of illness or uncharacteristic performance in the exam. If a school has a cohort of 200 pupils and is unsure whether they are ready to take a grading exam they can provide a "mock". This exam is one of the real exams and it will be treated in exactly the same way as the real exam but the marks and grades obtained from it will not count and can not be used for final grading. If the school took a sample of weak, middle and high attaining candidates, say 20 of the 200 it will give a good idea of how well the cohort will do in the real exam. On-line this will cost £120. Once the school is sure that the cohort is ready, they can take the real exam and the great majority shuld then obtain their predicted grades with reasonable certainty. If one or two candidates still under-achieve eg for reasons of health or other issues they have an opportunity to re-sit. We think this is a better approach than simply banning all resits or allowing unlimited blanket resits. At present the best grade from this process will count towards the school's performance figures but we can't be certain that the DfE will not change the rules. That is unlikely before 2018.
How can I print the student's certificates once they have been graded?
Once approved the certificates will be available from the school management section in the Markbook using the Print Awards Tab. You must use the official templates available from TLM to print all certificates. This is part of the agreements signed when gaining access to the Markbook site.
Select the candidate(s) and click Print Selected.
Blogs
How do I start a blog?
A blog is composed of multiple "blog entries". These are just web pages that have particular properties to help in their organisation. Each blog entry is a separate page. A blog displays those pages starting from the most recent. To start a blog all you do is create your first blog entry (How do I create a new blog entry?).
How do I create a new blog entry?
To create a blog entry, first login to the site and then click on "Create Pages" under the Users > Learners pull down menu as shown above (main manu on the page). Then choose "Blog Entry". Type in a title and the body text of the blog. Note:
- The title is only for this entry. This is not the title of the entire blog. The title for the entire blog will be something like "Joe's blog".
- You must provide a title and some information on the page.
How do I view my blog?
On the right side-bar, click on 
. This page lists all your blog entries in reverse chronological order (i.e. most recent first). If the blog entry is long, you might only see the first paragraph or two. Click on the entry title to see the entire entry.
How do I edit or delete a blog entry?
On the right side-bar click on to get a list of all your blog entries. Scroll down until you find the entry that you wish to edit or delete. Click on the title of the entry. This takes you to the page for that particular entry. Now you should see an 
link at the top of the entry. Click on the button. If you wish to make edits, make the changes and re-submit the page. If you wish to delete the entry, scroll to the bottom of the page and click 
.
How do I find somebody else's blog?
There are two ways you can find somebody's blog:
- Click on
on the right side-bar. Here you can see the blog entries from all users mixed together. You can scroll until you find an entry from the blog you are looking for. - Use the search box in the navigation bar at the top of the page
. You can search for text that appears in the contents of the blog or you can search for the person's user name if you know it.
How do I use the rich-text editor?
Navigate to the page you wish to edit and click on Edit.
The rich-text editor provides a user interface similar to a simple word processor. It has many of he standard buttons that you see in a word processor (bold, italic, lists, undo/redo, etc). But it also provides some functions that are geared toward HTML editing:
- Source Edit HTML code directly.
- Horizontal rule.
- Link, unlink, anchor.
The rich-text editor comes with a basic hint to what the icons do, hover your mouse over each icon to see what it does. This is a third-party application called CKEditor. It is Open Source and integrates with the Open Source Drupal content management system. You can visit its website.
e-Portfolio
How do I make an e-Portfolio?
This is the guidance for learners wanting to organise their pages to create an e-Portfolio.
Make an Index page
- First you need to create an account (How do I create an account?). An e- portfolio is basically a collection of web pages organised together. To create a new page hover your mouse over "Users", then "Learners" in the menu bar above and a pull down menu will appear as shown below, then select "Create Pages" and choose "E-portfolio".
- Type in a title and the body text of the page (you can change these later). Note that you must provide a title and a body.
- NB: Once you create the basic page, you can then go back and edit it with the full HTML tool bar.
- In HTML, headings are marked with the tags <h1>, <h2>, ... down to <h6>. These tell the browser to put a heading style to the text when it is displayed. The top-level heading is <h1>. For example:
-
How it will look in a web page HTML tags that the web browser uses to change the style Section 1
HelloSection 1.1
Section 1.1.1
<h1>Section 1</h1>
Hello
<h2>Section 1.1</h2>
<h3>Section 1.1.1</h3>
- You make links with the <a> tag, like this: Please visit <a href=”https://theingots.org”>The INGOT</a> website. The "href" attribute ("hypertext-reference") contains the Internet address you want to link to. You can link to another web page or to a file you uploaded. See How do I let people download a file?.
- There are two kinds of lists in HTML. Ordered lists are used to list a sequence of items with a specific order. For example, a recipe for boiled eggs:
-
How it will look in a web page HTML tags that the web browser uses to change the style - Put eggs in a pot with water.
- Boil for 5-10min.
- Remove from heat.
- Remove the egg shell.
- Enjoy.
<ol>
<li>Put eggs in a pot with water.</li>
<li>Boil for 5-10min.</li>
<li>Remove from heat.<li>
<li>Remove the egg shell.</li>
<li>Enjoy.</li>
</ol>
- Unordered lists are for listing items that have no particular order. For example, the primary colours:
-
How it will look in a web page HTML tags that the web browser uses to change the style - Red
- Green
- Blue
<ul>
<li>Red</li>
<li>Green</li>
<li>Blue</li>
</ul>
- An index page helps the user find all the pages and documents on a web site. A good index page will use headings to organise the content into sections, and use a bullet point list of links. Each link points to a page that forms part of your e-Portfolio.
- For example:
<h1>e-Porfolio Index Page</h1> <h2>Silver Ingot Work</h2> <ul> <li><a href="/community/blog/12">My Ingot blog</a></li> <li><a href="/community/node/342">My project proposal</a></li> </ul> <h2>My Art Work</h2> <ul> <li><a href="/community/node/435">My paintings</a></li> <li><a href="/community/node/463">My final project</a></li> </ul>
- Note that node/342 is the identity of a page where the project proposal is located. Whenver you make a page the system will automatically create a unique node and number for it. You can give the page a name too if you want to. If you name your My paintings page paintings, the reference would be <a href="/community/paintings"> Note that if someone else has named a node paintings, you would have to use a different word. There is a field in every page creation to put in a word to replace the node number.
- See: How do I upload a file? and How do I let people download a file?
- You now have the basic skills. Your task is to put together an e-portfolio with an index page and several linked pages with at least two files of work uploaded that you would like to present to others. It is best if these files are in formats that can be used without forcing the user to buy particular software. Don't assume they have popular but expensive software! You can improve the appearance and interest of your portfolio by inserting pictures.
- The GIMP is a free, top-quality image editing program. You can download it for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X at no cost. To learn how to use the GIMP, see the GIMP tutorials. A few things you might do often with GIMP include:
-
- Change the image's format to JPEG or PNG
- File ---> Save As. Change the file extension to .jpg or .png and click Save.
- Change the image size (scale image)
- Image ---> Scale Image. Set the new image dimensions and click OK.
- Take a screenshot
- File ---> Acquire ---> Screenshot
- Cut out a portion of the image (crop image) to do this:
- Click on the knife icon ("Crop").
- Select a region of the image.
- To resize, click on one of the sides of the region.
- When you are satisfied click on a corner to crop.
- Make sure you select an appropriate image size and file format before uploading. (JPEG for photographs (.jpg) and PNG for drawings (.png). GIF is a popular but out-dated file format, use PNG instead. SVG is the standard for vector drawings, but not all browsers support it (e.g. Older versions of Internet Explorer). Never use BMP. BMP files are 10 times bigger than the equivalent PNG and 20 times bigger than the equivalent JPEG and will take up unnecessary space and bandwidth. Size - No image should exceed 200KB or 300 x 200 pixels (width x height) without a very good reason. Make your images smaller if possible. Use good judgement to pick the right size for your page.
For designing illustrations we recommend Inkscape. It is free and open source and there are some good tutorials on You Tube or here.
Lastly, you need to upload your image and put it on your page. - See How do I insert an image on a page?
How do I find my pages?
Sometimes you write a page and you lose the URL. There is an easy way to find all the pages you've created:
- Go to
- At the top of the page, next to the "Edit" link, you will see
. Click on that.
This will give you a list of all the pages you have created, starting with the most recent.
How do I edit or delete a page?
Find the page you wish to edit (How do I find my pages?). Once you have arrived at the page you wish to edit, click on
at the top of the page. If you wish to make edits, make the changes and re-submit the page. If you wish to delete the entry, scroll to the bottom of the page and click 
.
How do I write HTML?
W3Schools provides a good tutorial. What follows is an overview of a few of the tags that are used most often. You can learn these tags as part of your e-Portfolio:
Pargraphs - Go to
- The Ingot site creates paragraphs automatically, but usually when you write HTML you have to say where paragraphs start and end using the <p> tags. Like this:
<p>This is a paragraph. A paragraph is made of many sentences.</p>
Headings - In HTML headings are marked with the tags <h1>, <h2>, ... down to <h6>. The top-level heading is <h1>. For example:
-
How it will look in a web page HTML tags that the web browser uses to change the style Section 1
HelloSection 1.1
Section 1.1.1
<h1>Section 1</h1>
Hello
<h2>Section 1.1</h2>
<h3>Section 1.1.1</h3>
- Images
- You insert images with the <img> tag, like this:
<img src="https://theingots.org/community/sites/default/files/uploads/u12/myPicture.png" alt="descriptive-text" />
The "src" attribute ("source") contains the Internet address where the image is located. Usually, that will be a file you have uploaded. Please see How do I insert an image on a page?
The "alt" attribute is what will be displayed if the address specified in src cannot be found. It is also used by screen readers for people who have poor eyesight.- Links
- You make links using the href tag like this:
-
Please visit <a href=”https://theingots.org”>The INGOT</a> website.
The "href" attribute ("hypertext-reference") contains the Internet address you want to link to. You can link to another web page or to a file you uploaded. See How do I let people download a file?. - Lists
- There are two kinds of lists in HTML, "ordered" lists (numbered) and unordered lists (bullet points)
- Ordered lists are for listing a sequence of items with a specific order. For example, the steps in a recipe for boiled eggs.
-
-
How it will look in a web page HTML tags that the web browser uses to change the style - Put eggs in a pot with water.
- Boil for 5-10min.
- Remove from heat.
- Remove the egg shell.
- Enjoy.
<ol>
<li>Put eggs in a pot with water.</li>
<li>Boil for 5-10min.</li>
<li>Remove from heat.<li>
<li>Remove the egg shell.</li>
<li>Enjoy.</li>
</ol>
- Unordered lists are for listing items that have no particular order. For example, the primary colours:
-
How it will look in a web page HTML tags that the web browser uses to change the style - Red
- Green
- Blue
<ul>
<li>Red</li>
<li>Green</li>
<li>Blue</li>
</ul>
-
File management
How do I insert an image on a page?
Note: Unless you have a good reason, follow these guidelines: Only upload JPEGs or PNGs. Make the image no more than 200KB in size and 300 x 200 pixels (width x height).If you are using the Rich-Text editor in a page you are editingFirst upload the image to your user account on the learning site server- Click in the page in the edit window where you want the image.
- Click on the "Insert Image" icon in the toolbar. A pop-up appears.
- Click on the Browse server button.
- Select the directory under "My files" where you want to store the picture once it is uploaded.
- Go to Upload, top left and click.
- Find the picture file you want to upload on your computer and select it and Open it. It will upload to the file directory you chose.
Now display the image on the web page- Double click the file in your file directory and it will appear in the image properties dialogue ready to go into the page.
- Set any of the properties such as the border or size and fill in the alt field with a description of the image
- Click ok to insert.
See also: How do I upload a file?, How do I use the rich-text editor?, How do I write HTML?
How do I let people download a file?
- Upload the file.
- Write down the file name (e.g. myPicture.png) and the name of your personal files directory. Go to the same page where you upload files. On the second part of the window you will see something like "Directory: files/uploads/u12".
- Navigate to the page where you want people to download the file from.
- If you are using the Rich-Text editor:
- Type some text such as "click here to download my file".
- Highlight the text.
- Click on the "Insert Link" button (Chain on the globe icon) A pop-up appears. There are several options, but the only important one is "Link URL".
- Use browse server to find the file in your file space and double click on it.
- Click ok - note you have made a hyperlink to the file in your user directory.
How do I upload a file?
Every user has a personal directory with sub-directories to which you can upload and organise your files. All your files are kept here. To access your files, or upload new files, do the following:
- After you log in, click on "My account" on the right side-bar.
- Click on "File Browser tab" (at the top of the page as shown below).
Here you can see your personal files directory (graphic above). From here you can upload files, delete old files and preview image files. To upload a file, click on Upload at the top, a new box will then appear, click on Browse, select a file and click on Upload. The upload takes one step, its simple, and all your files are in one place. To delete a file, click on the file you wish to delete and then click the word "delete" at the top of the page next t Upload. To preview a file, click on the file name. A preview appears on the second half of the window.
Note: The maximum size of file that you can upload is 4MbSee also: How do I add large files?
How do I add large files?
If you wish to include large files in your pages, please consider the following alternatives:
- You can upload movies to YouTube and large images to Flickr. These services are designed to hold large amounts of data.
- Instead of massive PowerPoint presentations, consider using a Google Apps account and making a link to your document. Google offers a free on-line presentation program.
Google Apps is free and it will run in any web browser so your audience does not need to buy MS Office or download special software to view your work. It's good to learn to be efficient with storing and using files and to learn to use the internet flexibly. If you are smart you don't need masses of space and all the tools you need are free on the internet.
How do I view my files?
How do I delete a file?
Forums
How do I post to a forum?
Click on the Forum link under the RESOURCE pull down menu as shown above. You should be logged into the forum automaically. If you are not, you can login using the same user name and password you use for the main site. The forums are divided into several broad categories. Each has a short description explaiing what discussions belong there. Click on the category you are interested in. Forum discussions are divided into "topics". You can start a discussion about a new topic or you can post to an existing discussion topic.
- Start a new topic
- Above the list of topics, click on
. Enter a subject and the body of your post. Every new topic must have a subject and a body. - Reply to a topic
- Click on the topic you wish to reply to. Above the list of posts, you can click on REPLY. Another option is, if there is a particular post you wish to reply to, scroll to that post and click on Quote. This starts a new reply quoting the post you are replying to. Please note that replies are only available to assesors and not students.
TIP: You can have the forum email you when someone replies to a given topic. When you write your post, click on Additional Options and then "Notify me of replies".
How do I set up and manage on-line tests?
Setting up your own test
In most case the test will already be set up and linked to a unit on the Markbook site. This tells you how such a test is created.
- The on-line tests use the Quiz building system.
- To make an on-line test login to the Learning Site with the appropriate account, go to the Users menu link on the home page. From here find the link to Create Pages and then Quiz.
- On the Create Quiz page, enter a title eg Football Test 1.
- Ignore the menu settings, result comments, taking options and pass/fail options and in the description just put a short description of the on-line test you are creating and its purpose.
- In the linked unit menu choose the unit that is to be associated with the test. For the ITQ on-line test, this is Gold Unit 1 - Improving Productivity Using IT and this test is already set up.
- Ignore the other options and click on the SAVE button.
- In the next section we can add questions to the quiz, either using existing questions in the question bank or by adding new ones. The questions are organised in different types. Tests can be mixtures of different types of question. If for example, we are just using multiple choice, select multiple choice and enter the full text of the question and then alternative answers. Check the box in the correct column next to the correct answer. Add as many options as your test requires and save.
- Repeat this for more questions and finally click submit at the foot of the page.
- (Hint: Avoid importing questions from word processors as formatting and other problems can be generated by style information embedded in the text. Use plain text from a text editor. If you have the questions in a word processor document, export to plain text first)
- The test is now set up.
- The next section is related to managing the test with learners.
- Learners are normally added to to the Markbook site. (See the How to..Adding learners and putting into groups from the front page primary links menu Help)
- As an assessor go to the Assessment link in the main menu bar of the Markbook. Select the learner group and unit that is associated with the test. Click the save button on the screen listing the learners in the group against the assessment criteria to register them for this unit and the associated test.
- When the criteria have been assessed as S or H (ie the learners have demonstrated competence against the unit criteria, they are ready for the test. All the criteria should have been changed from N or L to S or H.) request a test by clicking the request test button for the learners with criteria satisfied and see the status change to test requested. Once a moderator has approved the test request, the date and time of approval will appear in the "test made available column". (scroll to the right using the next page button if not visible) and the status will change to "Test not yet passed". At present this will request a test for all members of the group who have not yet passed the test.
- Now we turn our attention back to the Learning Site where the test will be administered. You need to have an account on the Learning Site with assessor permissions. If you don't already have one, use the create new account link at the foot of the Learning Site login on the home page. You will need to be given assessor permissions by your account manager. The following assumes you have such an account set up.
- Log in to your account on the Learning Site and observe the contents of the My Groups tab. Groups are listed on the left with a link to the right of them to the online test and a link to the pupil id letter to the right of that. To assign a test to the whole group, click on the online test link next to the group and then "Register online tests". You will see a menu link for available on-line tests and "from" and "to" fields where you can set the time interval when the test will be available to the members of the group. Submit this and your learners can then login to their accounts and take the test within the time limits specified.
- If you want to assign tests to individuals in the group or automatically create accounts for members of the group so that they can take the test and use other facilities on the learning site, go back to the "My Groups" Tab and click on the group's name. Click the "Check accounts" button to see if there are any learners in this group who do not have an account set up on the learning site. The Learner (pupil) ID number is used to identify any learners registered on the Markbook Site that do not have accounts on the Learning Site. Any that do have accounts already set up will be recognised by their ID number as long as they have entered it into their profile in their "My Account" View tab. This is the purpose of the Pupil ID letter, so that all learners in the group can be given their ID from the Markbook site including a username and password for their new learning site accounts once they are registered on the Markbook.
- You should see a list of your learners under the check accounts button with a column headed online test to the right.
- You can click on the online tests link to register an Online test for any individuals in the group. Choose the test from the online test menu and then use the "from" and "to" fields to set the start date and time and end date and time for which the test will be available to the candidate(s).
- When the candidate logs into their account they will see a tab with online test. They click on this and they will see the test with status ready. Click in ready and they can take the test. Tests are provided with security so once a candidate start they must complete the test in a single session and they are restricted to an area of the screen to take the test so that they can't get out of the test screen to find information eg on the internet. If they try to do so they will be warned and persistent attempts will result in the test being cancelled. If you have problems with test delivery please contact your account manager.
Assessment methods
There are two main types of assessment used in TLM qualifications although there could be some variations due to specific circumstances. The two main types are:
- Evidence that directly matches the assessment criteria that originates from day to day work
- Evidence from controlled tests or tasks that are related to the assessment criteria
- Both of these are broad categories and will provide scope for sub-categories. The advantage of type 1 is that it most closely matches the learning outcomes in a representative accurate context. The disadvantage is that there is less confidence in this type of assessment and it is less straightforward to grade achievement. The advantage of type 2 is that when externally set and marked they generate the most confidence. The disadvantage is that tests don't necessarily demonstrate competence against the full range of learning, they can end up measuring what is easy to measure rather than what is of most value and they can result in a narrowing of teaching to what is likely to be in the test. TLM generally favours a combination of both of these assessment methods.
Receiving and managing learner evidence
It is up to the Centre to decide how it gathers and provides learner evidence. This description assumes that this will be using the TLM Learning Site. This has the advantage of being highly integrated with the online Markbook.
Learner submits evidence through their account. There is a video explaining this here.
How do I track learner progress?
As you can see from the above linked video on managing learner evidence, if you and your students use the Learning Site, the system will automatically have a record of their actions and progress, and any scores listed against units or criteria which they are registered for will show in a graph if selected. The students will be able to see their own progress by clicking the Tracker tab on their profile page.
The students can see their progress against pre-set IEP targets, by criterion, unit or by assessor reports.
They can then select the appropriate criteria to display as shown here. The system will automatically create a graph which they can download for reference.
The above graph is from a demo account, so actual student graphs will be far more accurate as to their actual progress.
