Welcome to the SI Lab Portal! We’re so glad to have you here. This document will give you a quick overview of how to navigate and access basic features of the new platform to get you up and running!
Upon logging into the SI Lab Portal, you will enter the Class page. Here, you will see all courses that are assigned to you. Select your Sandbox course to enter!
Once you’ve entered your Sandbox course, you will see the list of lessons on the left-hand side of the page under “Units.” Select the name of the lesson you wish to review. Upon selecting the lesson name, you will see that there are two parts. The first part of the lesson will include the Exploration and Experimentation. The second part of the lesson will include the Evaluation.
Enter the Exploration and Experimentation by pressing “Start.” Once you have entered, you can navigate in two ways, either by using the lesson overview on the left-hand side of the page, or by using the “Next” and “Previous” button on the bottom of the page.
Note: In the instructor view, you can both view the layout of the lessons, as well as participate in the student experience with the ability to answer questions directly without creating a student account.
As you walk through the lesson, a few items to note:
• Multiple choice questions, including TYK and Question Time, will still be autograded! Students should select the “How Did I Do” button to get instantaneous feedback on their results.
• In the Experimentation, there is no longer a pop-up data panel. Rather, students will scroll to the end of the procedure to add their data.
Once you have reviewed the Exploration and Experimentation, you can navigate to the Evaluation by selecting the “Next Unit Item” button (next to the next/previous buttons). The evaluation includes both the competency review (multiple choice questions) and extension question (long answer).
When entering the Evaluation, students will see any settings that you have placed on that section. This includes open and close dates, time limits, number of attempts, and whether they will receive immediate feedback.
From there, students can:
• Answer the questions, navigating using the “Next” and “Back” button at the bottom of the screen.
• Review a specific question by navigating directly with the “Question Menu.”
• Submit their Evaluation using the “Submit Assignment” button.
To view or modify the lessons in your course, you will enter the “Content Repository” at the top of your screen.
Once you have entered the Content Repository, you will use the “Current Class” tab to navigate the lessons.
Note: You may see a note that says “Transform your experience with our new Content Manager.” This feature is in beta testing and should not be used at this time.
To view the lessons in your course, select “Lessons and Assignments” from the “Current Class” tab if not already selected.
When you first enter your course, you will see the master version of the lessons. They are designated by a green symbol next to the name. The master lessons are the original versions of the lessons created by SI and cannot be directly edited.
If you wish to edit a lesson you will need to:
- Select name of the lesson.
- Select the two parts of the lesson using the checkboxes.
- Select the green “Clone Into My Class” button in the right-most column on the screen.
- Reload the page to view the new copy.
An editable copy will be available in the lesson list. This is denoted by the lack of the green symbol.
You will retain a copy of the master lesson in your course. This way, if you ever wish to revert back to the original lesson or make a mistake while editing, you have a copy available to you. To hide the original lesson from view:
- Select the lesson name from the lesson list.
- Select the exploration/experimentation portion of the lesson (the first section listed).
- Select the “Hide” button in the third column that appears to ensure the students only view one copy of the lesson.
- Repeat this process for the evaluation section.
To edit the content in the lesson directly:
- Select the name of the cloned lesson.
- Select the section to be edited (Exploration/Experimentation or Evaluation section).
- Select the page to be edited.
- Select the part of the page to be edited.
Note: For each page, the text content will be listed separately from the assessment content. This is to easily allow you to add/delete questions from a page.
- Select the “Edit” button in the right-most column to enter the rich text editor and modify the content.
- Make any necessary edits in the Rich Text Editor, and then select save to save your work.
To remove a section or a page permanently from a cloned lesson:
- Select the name of the cloned lesson.
- Select the section to be edited (Exploration/Experimentation or Evaluation section).
- Select the “Edit” button in the right-most column to view a full overview of the section.
- Navigate to the section you wish to remove using the left-hand navigation panel.
Note: You can remove full sections or individual components of a section (e.g., a single question).
- To remove a full section of a lesson:
- Select the arrow drop-down next to the section you wish to remove.
- Select "delete."
- Confirm that you want to delete the section by selecting "ok" in the pop-up that appears.
- Select "Save and Close" at the bottom of the page to save the change.
- To remove a portion of a section (for example, a question from the experimentation):
- Select the question/portion of a page you want to remove from the sidebar menu.
- Select the garbage can icon next to the question/content.
- Confirm that you want to delete the section by selecting "ok" in the pop-up that appears.
- Select "Save and Close" at the bottom of the page to save the change.
While you cannot customize a master lesson, you are able to change the settings for both master and customized lessons. To do this, you will follow the same basic steps used to delete content.
- Select the name of the lesson.
- Select the Exploration/Experimentation or Evaluation section, depending on what you want to remove in the right-most column.
- Select the “Edit” button in the right-most column.
- At the top of the screen, select “2. Properties.”
From here you can alter any of the general lesson properties you desire. Here is a quick overview of key policies and our recommendations:
- General Properties Section
- Maximum Attempts Sets the number of reattempts a student can make while performing the lab. Typically, we recommend this be set to 1.
- Time Limit Sets a maximum amount of time allowed for the lab. We have left this unlimited and recommend keeping the time allotment unlimited for the Exploration/Experimentation portion.
- Show Launch Page Turning on the launch page will provide students with an overview of your lesson policies when they start the lab. This will include due dates, number of attempts, time limits, etc.
- Limit Visibility by Dates Students will only see a lesson between the lesson start and end date. Otherwise, the lesson will not be visible.
- Feedback (During) Section
- Show Hints and Show One Hint at a Time This is turned off by default because Science Interactive does not provide students with hints. Turn this on if you author your own questions and include hints!
- Show Current Grade This will show the student their current grade while the lab is in progress. This is turned off by default because many of our questions need to be manually graded.
- Allow Resubmit Turning this on will allow students to resubmit a question if they get it wrong.
- How Did I Do? The How Did I Do? Button allows students to receive immediate feedback on multiple choice questions. Turn this off if you do not wish them to get immediate feedback.
- Maximum “How Did I Do?” Uses If you wish to allow students to resubmit questions multiple times, leave this unset so they can check their answer each time.
- Show Correct Answer/Show Question Feedback This allows students to see the correct answer and the feedback from Science Interactive when they submit a question.
- Feedback (After) Section
- Use this section to set whether students can see their final grade, the correct answer after grading, and the feedback provided on their answer.
- Only Applicable to Lessons Section
- Complete When This will set when the student can see a checkmark indicating the lesson is complete.
- Allow Submit This will turn on/off the submit lesson button. Science Interactive defaults this to on.
- Scheduling and Visibility Section
- Visible This can also be used to hide/show a lesson.
- Start/End Date Allows you to set a start date for the lab, as well as a due date. Lab will close for student submissions on the due date.
- Restrict Feedback Until Allows you to set a date for feedback to appear to students. Set it after the due date to prevent students from sharing feedback while the lab is in progress.
- Schedule Force Grading On This feature will automatically submit an incomplete lab for grading when a date is added.