Empower has built into its software a “Plus/Delta” feedback button. This gives every user a simple way to communicate to the site administrator about their needs or feedback. Please note: This feedback goes to someone local, not to the Empower team. However, if needed, the local administrator can elevate the need to Empower's helpdesk. Learn more in THIS ARTICLE.
Students & Guardians
1) Plus Delta
2) Date
Sometimes affectionately called Empower's "time machine." By setting this date back, you can view the data as it stood on that date. Remember not to talk to your past self while you're back there.
3) Quick Access ID
Every activity, quiz, and playlist in Empower has a quick access ID assigned to it. By typing that number here, the user will be taken directly to that item.
4) Messaging
Learning is social so so is Empower. Woven throughout (see items 4, 13 and 19 on this list) Empower is the ability to message others in your learning community.
This icon is the main feed which will list all messages for this user.
WATCH A VIDEO about how to use these tools.
Safety and Controls
Some safety features are built-in to these tools. For example, guardians can only message their own learners and visa versa. Even if they are involved in a group chat, a student will not see a message from any guardians except their own.
Additionally, it is good to know that nothing on this social network is private. Admins can search and see all messages.
WATCH A VIDEO about how to do that as well as turn other dials such as restricting roles and specific users and broadcasting messages.
5) Class/Group
The main body of this portal is organized by Classes/Groups. This cannot be changed to be organized by Course or Content Area. If users want to see their data organized in that way, they should flip over to the Online Progress Report.
6) Create an Activity
Students have an opportunity to really own their learning by creating evidences from whole clothe. When they do, we flip the script and the student assigns the activity to a teacher who will then be notified and score it so that the evidence appears in the learning portfolio thereafter.
7) Target Browser
All stakeholders have the ability in the Target Browser to view the full scope and sequence of standards. Students and Parents will see the student's scores overlaid on top of the standard tiles.
ARTICLE
8) Search
Students can search for content that has been shared such as Playlists, Activities, and Quizzes; or find a group that is covering content they may need or want to participate in.
VIDEO
9) Class Log
Without opening the entire class section of the page, users can see if there is any new information they should dig into more deeply. Notifications here could include new scores and messages in this class.
10) X of X at or above proficient
Especially when the section is not expanded, this metric informs the user how many standards from this class the student has achieved proficiency on.
11) Pace
This is the official pace that will potentially appear on a printed or online progress report. For more information on Pace, see #17 of this list. If this box does not match the pace labeled here as #17, that is because the teacher has manually adjusted it.
Learn more about Pace in this ARTICLE.
12) Next Up
This section orders the activities and quizzes that are coming. Empower will present the tiles in order based on due dates and status. Teachers or users can also pin tiles to this section. See #21 in this list.
13) Class Messaging
Learning is social so so is Empower. Woven throughout (see items 4, 13 and 19 on this list) Empower is the ability to message others in your learning community.
This icon is the class feed in which users associated with this class can have general, class-wide discussions.
WATCH A VIDEO about how to use these tools.
Safety and Controls
Some safety features are built-in to these tools. For example, guardians can only message their own learners and visa versa. Even if they are involved in a group chat, a student will not see a message from any guardians except their own.
Additionally, it is good to know that nothing on this social network is private. Admins can search and see all messages.
WATCH A VIDEO about how to do that as well as turn other dials such as restricting roles and specific users and broadcasting messages.
14) Code of Cooperation
Not all schools use a metric like this, but if you do, the language can be changed to your preference. This score is set manually by the teacher in the Progress Report Comments Tool.
VIDEO
15) Last Viewed
The last activity or quiz that was opened by the user will be displayed here for easy access.
16) Status
Each tile shows the student's status. Statuses include Finished/Proficient, In Progress, Below MAS/Redo, Late/Missing, and Turned In.
17) Course Pace
These bars show the student's target growth vs actual growth to date. It is a simple calculation based on the number of standards being covered and the time the class exists. In the example pictured, there are 5 standards being covered, so the meter goes from 0.0 to 5.0.
Evidence scores do not count toward a student's pace, only overall (standard/summative) scores do. Each increment in the overall score moves the needle here.
Learn more about Pace in this ARTICLE.
18) Grad Pace
This meter is similar to the above, but it measures the student's proficiency in all standards in the content area against the needed proficiencies for graduation and the expected graduation date. For a much more detialed look at this data, users may want to go to the My Learning Path tab (#27 on this list).
19) Activity Messaging
Learning is social so so is Empower. Woven throughout (see items 4, 13 and 19 on this list) Empower is the ability to message others in your learning community.
This icon is the activity feed in which users associated with this instance of the activity can have specific discussions about the activity.
WATCH A VIDEO about how to use these tools.
20) Upload Evidence
With this button students can quickly upload evidence to the activity such as videos, files, Google docs, etc..
21) Pin
Teachers or students can use the pin icon to give the tile primacy in the Next Up section. Pinned tiles will appear as the first tiles in the Next Up section. The main function of this is as a reminder for later or to call attention to the tile.
22) Playlist Browser
Expand this section to navigate the playlists assigned to this class/group. On the left are the different playlists and to the right, the selected playlist and its hierarchy can be seen and interacted with.
23) Need Help?
Tons of great resources here for all users. VIDEO
24) Notepad
25) Expand/Collapse Class/Group
When the class section is collapsed, this will appear as a "+"
When the section is expanded, it is shown as a "-"
Click to toggle.
26) User Profile
Users can edit their profiles here.
WATCH VIDEO
It is also possible to load student user images en masse and disable the students' ability to change their user image.
To do this, put a request in to the helpdesk and share there a folder containing student images. Each image must be titled with the student ID number matching the student ID in Empower.
27) My Learning Path
Below we cover this tab and all its constituent parts.
1) Plus Delta
Empower has built into its software a “Plus/Delta” feedback button. This gives every user a simple way to communicate to the site administrator about their needs or feedback. Please note: This feedback goes to someone local, not to the Empower team. However, if needed, the local administrator can elevate the need to Empower's helpdesk. Learn more in THIS ARTICLE.
2) Graduation Pathway
If a district offers multiple pathways to graduation or curates different options for students with different career goals, Empower can adjust this page to display progress along those.
Learn more about setting up multiple Graduation Pathways in consultation with your Empower Representative.
3) Legend/Filter
This Legend refers to the color of the tiles shown below on the My Learning Path tab and the students' achievement in each.
4) Course Tile
Each tile represents a course. Courses in Empower are sets of standards which districts designate.
More about Courses
5) Course Progress
The bar represents the standards in this course and the student's progress through them. Mouse over it to see a bit more detail. Click on it to drill into the information.
Green: Proficient in the standard
Yellow: Some progress, but no proficient score yet.
Grey: No summative score yet in that standard.
6) Credits
The numerator here is the number of credits the student has received in this content area.
The denominator is the number of credits needed in the content area to graduate.
7) Learning Options
Click on the + to browse the course catalog from the school. Here students may discover they have partial credit in certain courses in which they are not presently enrolled and may choose to select that course to be displayed on their interface so they can easily monitor progress.
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