Introduction to the elementary experience - instructors (enterprise)

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Schoology offers an experience for elementary learners that allows teachers to display their courses and materials in a more simplified and visual format that is engaging for young learners. Teachers can enable Schoology's elementary experience for any their courses. 

The elementary experience offers the following features:

• Students have access to a simplified course layout.
• A more visual and engaging experience.

• Students can draw, record, photograph, annotate, and more to submit their work. The elementary experience allows students to take a photo, record audio or video, upload a file, type, and submit to the assignment.
  
  

  

  • To get started with the elementary experience, system administrators can enable Course Themes from Feature Options. After the elementary experience is enabled, teachers can choose to set the elementary course theme in any of their courses.
  • Students using the Schoology mobile apps can review more information on using the elementary experience on the iOS mobile app or the Android mobile app.  

What is the elementary experience?

The elementary experience offers a focused, engaging, and efficient course layout. Students get the most important content as individual cards on the main page. This includes a streamlined navigation menu, folders, and course materials. The navigation menu provides access to My Activities and course apps, with materials arranged in a full-page format.

Teachers can add images to course materials and folders to make their courses more engaging and stimulating.

How do I enable the Elementary Experience for my class?

System administrators must enable Course Themes for the school district before teachers can enable the elementary experience in a course.

Teachers can enable the elementary experience for any of their courses from Course Settings.

1. Click Course Options from the desired course.
2. Select Edit Privacy / Course Settings.
3. From Course View Settings, select Elementary from the Course Theme drop-down menu.
4. Click Save Changes to confirm.

The elementary theme only changes your course display for students. Additionally, there is no option to select a course landing page since the Materials display is the primary experience for elementary.

Teachers can use the View Course As feature to preview the elementary experience for the course from a student's perspective. Alternatively, teachers can create and add a test student account to their course. Depending on your method of provisioning, this test account may be unenrolled after a daily sync. Contact PowerSchool Support if you have questions about creating test accounts in your organization.

Who should the new elementary experience be enabled for?

Teachers can enable the elementary experience for any of their courses based on students’ needs, grade levels, or accommodations. Schoology built this experience to better serve the needs of Grades K through 5, especially pre-readers.

How do I preview the course from my students' perspective?

Teachers may use the View Course As feature to preview how the elementary experience displays for their students.

• To use View Course As, at least one member must be enrolled in the course.
• Teachers who want to use View Course As before their course members have been provisioned should contact their system administrator.

1. Click Course Options from the course profile picture.
2. Select View Course As.
3. Choose a student from the list and navigate the course from their perspective.
4. After you finish previewing your course as that student, click Exit to return to your regular course display as a teacher. If you need to preview the course as a different student, repeat the previous steps.