Courses (Jr. high)
This guide will cover the steps on how to add courses to your Jr. High school. If you ONLY have high school please refer to this guide.
STEP 1: Add GPA
The initial step required before courses can be integrated into your school is to establish a GPA. GPA can be set up within the School Profile section by navigating to School Profile > GPA.
Note: If the Grade Point Average (GPA) is not included in the School Profile, users will need to enable GPA permissions from the School Profile > Security section. This can be done by navigating to Security and locating GPA under the Organization tab. Please ensure to check this option within the designated Group that is responsible for setting the GPA.
Schools will need to incorporate GPA into their system. When navigating to the School Profile section and selecting GPA, utilize the yellow plus sign to "Add New Scale." The next step involves naming the GPA scale (Standard, High School, AP, etc.) and selecting the Type (Letter or Number). It is recommended that the school opts for the Number type. Use Add Row to add rows to the GPA scale. When done use the Save button.
STEP 2: Add Departments (Optional)
This step is optional. Departments can help organize your courses. The school can add as many departments as they wish. Please make sure that all departments have the active box checked.
Note: Department defined list is found under School Profile > Settings. If user does not see Settings tab under School Profile the user needs to turn on the Settings tab in School Profile > Security This can be done by navigating to Security and locating Settings under the Organization tab. Please ensure to check this option within the designated Group that is responsible for setting the settings.
STEP 3: Add Courses
Jr. High School will need to add courses before adding classes.
NOTE: The school will already have courses created those are ELEMENTARY Courses ONLY . The school needs to create additional courses for High School students .
NOTE: School users are required to activate the Courses tab by accessing the School Profile > Security tab and enabling the Courses "View & Manage" options. Users should refresh the page to view the Courses tab on the top menu. Please ensure to check this option within the designated Group that is responsible for setting the settings.
Courses can be added in the Courses tab by clicking on the yellow "+" button labeled "Add Course". The school is required to select a subject and then choose a course from the list of approved NAD courses.
Schools have the option to create their own course by selecting "Not an NAD Course". It is recommended that schools utilize the provided NAD courses before creating their own.
Users are required to complete all mandatory fields in the Add Course flyout. A course must be set as Active in order to be displayed in the "Add Classes" flyout.
STEP 4: Create Class Schedule and Classes
Before classes can be created the school must first name sure that terms, day templates, and school day calendar are completed.
Class Schedule
Class schedules are the framework into which classes are organized. Prior to creating classes, it is essential to establish our class schedule. To create a class schedule, please access AE-Connect > Scheduling > Class Schedules and utilize the yellow "+" button to generate a class schedule. The class schedule should be labeled as Quarter 1 Schedule to represent the initial period of the year.
After successfully creating the class schedule, select the name of the newly generated class schedule to delve further into the scheduling process. This is the stage where classes will be formulated.
NOTE: User do not have to make another class scheudle if one has already been established for Quarter 1.
Creating Classes
Next, we need to define classes. When the user first accesses the Class Schedule, it may display "No Schedules Found" because the school has not created any classes yet.
To create a class, the user should utilize the yellow + on the left to "Add class".
Here is a comprehensive list of each section for adding a class.
- Users should select "Secondary" for high school classes.
- Subject: Select the subject of the course. For example, if adding English II, choose English.
- Course: Choose the name of the course. Note: Only active courses will be displayed in the list. If a course is not visible, please navigate back to the courses tab to verify its active status.
- Class Name: Provide a name for the class.
- Abbreviation: This is crucial as it will be visible to teachers in their class list and class filters for the gradebook.
- Room Number: Optional
- Capacity: Optional
- Teacher: Select the teacher who will be teaching the class.
- Co-Teacher: A class may have a co-teacher. Co-teachers have the same rights as teachers.
- Meeting URL: The teacher can input their Google Meet link or Zoom Meet link here. It will be displayed as a JOIN link next to the class on the Student Portal.
- Enable Class Attendance: This is applicable only if the school takes class attendance. Typically, this is relevant for high school classes. Elementary students usually have Day Attendance.
- Grade Attendance: If Class attendance is enabled Grade Attendance will appear this adds an invisible assignment to the class that will deduct points from the assignment depending on student attendance.
- Gradebook Category: Each class must have at least one category, with the default being Classwork. Teachers have the ability to include supplementary categories within the class area of AE-Connect. (Administrators may keep the default setting and advise teachers on how to add extra categories for their classes)
- Grading Scale: When adding a high school class, select 9-12.
- Default Assignment Grading: Users must choose a default assignment grading. This setting can be modified at any time and will be the default for every assignment created by a teacher.
- Terms: Choose the terms during which this class will be taught. This will ensure that only the selected terms will be cloned when creating the Class Schedule for subsequent quarters.
- Class Schedule: Choose one or more day templates to assign this class to.
- Student assignment should not be done in this view. It is recommended to utilize Bulk Enroll for enrolling students into classes.