Infinite Campus Teacher Tools
Infinite Campus Teacher Tools
I. Changes
II. Assignments Overview
III. Teacher Preferences
IV. Grade Calculation Options
V. Categories
VI. Managing Assignments
VII. Assignment Copier
VIII. Grade Book
IX. Teacher Attendance
X. Elementary Teachers Only
XI. Reports
XII. Tips
Changes
The following is a list of changes to the Instruction module of
Infinite Campus:
1. Teacher Preferences: The teacher preferences have only one
minor change, you can now select a default grading task. You do not
have to use this feature since the default is set by the district
already.
2. Groups are now called Categories. You need to create one
under each standard/grading task you are going to have assignments
in. Categories span terms; before you created a group under each
term but this is no longer the case.
3. Lesson Planner is gone and is now called Assignments. This is
where teachers will do almost everything for grading.
4. You can no longer create/edit assignments from within the
grade book, you must use Assignments.
5. Due Dates are critical – they determine which term the
assignment falls into. You can no longer select the term.
6. Elementary -You can assign an assignment to multiple
standards. You still have to grade the assignment for each standard
applied to the assignment. Secondary- not used since all
assignments should be under your REPORT CARD task.
7. Elementary - Grading options can be set in mass now instead
of having to touch each standard.
8. Before you had to remember to save whenever you made changes
almost anywhere in the Instructions module. This is still true for
anywhere you see a Save button, but on the Assignments tool main
page, changes are saved automatically.
9. Tree View is just a view for teachers who were comfortable
with the old lesson planner view. Within this tool you can edit a
category or assignment.
10. Always click on SAVE before navigating away from a page. If
you navigate away it will prompt you to see if you really want to
leave. If you click Yes you lose the work.
Assignments Overview
The images below are one image but had to be split so everything
could be shown.
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1. Navigation Buttons
2. Grading Task/Standard(s) assignment is aligned to
3. The category the assignment belongs to
4. Shows how many active students have been given a score for
the assignment
5. Shows how many students received a “shortcut” score. Clicking
on the numbers will bring up the students with that “shortcut”
score.
*Click on the grade book icon under Assignment Name to enter
scores; clicking on the text will take you to the assignment
editor
Teacher Preferences
PATH: Instruction > Assignments > Edit Teacher
Preferences
Tips:Secondary teachers should have Use Canned Comments
selected.Remove percentage and calculations… I don’t recommend this
option to be checked.The default standard/Grading task doesn’t need
to be set; it is set on the course by the district
Mass Assigning Section Preferences
Users can assign preferences for multiple sections.
1. Select the checkboxes for the preferences you want to
assign.
2. Click the Mass Assign to multiple sections hyperlink.
3. Select the sections to which you want to assign preferences
or select Check All to select all sections.
4. Click the Save Teacher Preference button.
Grade Calculation Options
All teachers have to select a grading scale so the system can
convert assignment points into a final score. Previously elementary
teachers had to setup the scale and use weighting option on each
standard, but now you can do it in mass.
Having a calculation in a task/standard you don’t use for
assignments is ok.
Categories
A Category is like a folder to hold your assignments. If you are
going to use weights then you assign the weight to the category.
Example of weighted categories: Quiz 30%, Tests 50%, Homework
20%.
You need to create at least one category to hold your
assignments. The grading task/standard is aligned to the
category.
Secondary sites should make sure categories are aligned to their
REPORT CARD grading task.
Categories span terms now. Before you would have a group in each
term.
Editing a Category
You can create a category in multiple sections of the same
course and align the category to multiple standards (for
elementary) at once. Do not delete categories that contain
assignments.
Remember to save.
When entering a weight do not use a percent sign (i.e. type 20
in the Weight field for 20%)
Drop lowest score should be checked before the term begins.
Secondary teachers should only align their categories to the
grading task with the words “Report Card” in them. Previously when
a teacher mistakenly placed categories/assignments into the wrong
grading task we were able to change it; this is no longer the case
if any assignments are scored.
Managing Assignments
Click on the assignment name (if the assignment already exists)
to edit an assignment. To create a new assignment click on Create
Assignment.
Secondary teachers- assignments can be saved to multiple
sections at once by clicking on the check box next to each section
listed. To remove an assignment from just one section edit the
assignment and remove the check box from the section. DO NOT DELETE
the assignment unless you want it deleted for ALL sections.
Align the assignment to the correct grading task/standard(s) and
make sure to choose the appropriate scoring type (most likely
points). I recommend keeping the multiplier set to 1.
To score an assignment click on the grade book icon; if
editing/creating an assignment you can click on save and score.
Assignment Copier
PATH: Instruction > Assignments > Assignment Copier
The Assignment Copier allows copying a single assignment or a
group of assignments from section to section within a calendar and
across calendars. To access the Assignment Copier, click Copy
Assignments on the Assignment tab.
If the assignment due dates from the Source are not valid in the
Destination they will not carry over. Assignments without due dates
are placed in the first term in which the section meets. Campus
recalculates the term when a due date is entered.
Copying assignments can take some time. Right now it takes 6-20
minutes per 100 assignments. Also, it seems that the system will
hang on copying more than 200-300 assignments at once. Try to copy
assignments when people aren’t heavily using IC.
Copying Assignments
1. Click the Copy Assignments button on the Assignments page to
open the Assignment Copier.
2. Select the section from which to copy assignments in the
Select Source Section group box. Upon selecting a section, the
total number of assignments and details for the assignments aligned
to the selected section will appear.
3. Select the checkbox next to the assignments you want to
copy.
4. Select the section to which you want to copy the assignments
in the Select Destination Section group box. Assignments already
aligned to the section display below the group box.
5. Click the Next button to open the Copy Assignment Name
editor.
6. Select the checkbox next to the assignments to copy and clear
the checkbox for assignments or alignments that should not be
copied.
7. Click the Copy Assignments button. The Assignment Copier
duplicates the assignments and assigns them to the destination
section. The Assignments screen appears. To verify the assignments
copied correctly, select the calendar and destination section in
the Campus toolbar.
Grade book
The grade book can be used to enter points for assignments and
put comments. You can use the grade book to get a quick glance of
in-progress grades. The ability to ad/edit assignments has been
returned. The primary function of the grade book is to post grades
(for final scores or to post grades to other grading tasks); you
post grades by right clicking on the yellow portion of the grade
book and select a task/standard. This will move grades to the green
section.
Don’t forget to SAVE. It will not warn you to save.
Shortcut scores:
(M=Missing, X=Excused, L=Late, C=Cheated)
If you don’t see scores in the Yellow area then you need to set
a Grading Scale on the Categories you are using. If you are using a
custom grading task and you still do not see anything in yellow
then the grading task may be setup incorrectly.
Make sure to excuse assignments for students who were not
required to do the assignment (i.e. a student transferred in middle
of the term so they don’t have to turn in the assignments assigned
and due before his arrival). You want to excuse the assignments so
they don’t appear on the missing assignments report.
Teacher Attendance
For elementary teachers, this will need to be done only once
first thing in the morning. Secondary teachers will need to take
attendance at the start of each class period.
There are two places you can click to take attendance:
1) The Process Inbox will list each period remaining for
attendance to be submitted.
2) Access attendance from the Index Outline.
Three bubbles will be shown next to each student name.
Attendance defaults to the first bubble, with everyone marked as
Present, or P. The second bubble should be selected for any student
who is Absent, or A. The third bubble is for students who are
Tardy, or T. When finished taking attendance, make sure to click
Save to submit the attendance.
Elementary Teachers Only
Elementary teacher have a Grading Comments tab that should be
filled out so that comments show up on the custom report cards. In
order for anything on this tab to show up on the report card the
first standard (i.e. Reading on the 3-6 report card) needs to have
a score entered.
Report cards can be printed by going to Student
Information(Reports( Select your grade’s report card(Click on
Generate Report.
Comments:
Each field can only contain fifty characters maximum (system
limit which I can’t control). Each term has four fields so the
teacher has 200 characters per term. The fields are located on the
Grading Comments tab. The comment fields are setup so that they
continue together seamlessly on the report card. For example, if my
last word on a comment field was “together” but I ran out of space
after “to” then I would continue to the next comment field (if one
exists) with the word “gether”. If you finish a sentence in a
comment field start the next field off with a space.
Promote or Retain Student:
The Grading Comments tab has two drop down fields. Populate the
Promoted/Retain field. This will tell the system where to place the
value for the Promoted/Retained Grade field. The Promoted/Retained
Grade field is the grade that the student is promoted or retained
in. K-2 teachers should always use X while the 3-6 teachers need to
choose a grade level. If you leave either field blank nothing will
show up on the report cards under Promote or Retained.
If you only want to print one student’s report card you still
generate all the students’ report cards but upon printing you have
the option to print a single page.
Reports
Infinite Campus has built-in reports you can find under
Instruction(Reports. Most reports have brief explanations when you
navigate to them. This section will discuss the most used
reports.
Missing Assignments report:
The Missing Assignments Report displays missing assignments per
student. Information is based on scores and comments entered in the
teacher's grade book. If a due date has passed and a teacher has
not graded an assignment the assignment will show up under the
missing assignment report. To avoid this there is a Turned In score
(T) that can be temporarily given to assignments that are turned in
but it are yet to be graded.
Student Summary Report:
This report should be used for students who are leaving your
class in the middle of the term. It has in-progress grades
(assuming that you have entered all the assignment scores up to the
student’s point of departure).
Roster Label Report:
Useful for printing mailing labels should you need them. They
can be addresses to parent’s guardians or they can be printed with
the student’s name and the teacher they belong to.
Keeping the default report settings usually works for most
teachers; just change the settings on which students you want.
Tips
Infinite Campus will time you out after 60 minutes of
inactivity.
Use Grading by Task to quickly give citizenship grades or give
scores for standards that don’t usually have assignments
(elementary).
Elementary teachers who don’t want to use the grade book can
still post final grades using Grading by Student or Grading by
Task.
The Daily Planner is a great way to see all your assignments for
the month and see which students were absent on which days:
You can change sort order by clicking on the arrows on any of
the headers
Can’t post grades? Make sure to go to Assignments(Edit Grade
Calc Options and set a grading scale.
Secondary teachers: you can see a parent portal view of your
student’s grades by going to your student’s Grades tab and clicking
on the grade book icon. This assumes the other teachers are using
the grade book.
You can find teacher videos and simulations on the IC Resources
page at:
http://www.ceres.k12.ca.us/portal/ICRes.htm
