Collaboration Using Google
We’ve added the option to use Google cloud apps (such as Google docs, sheets and slides) to create whole class or group collaborations. Teachers and students will need a Google account to use this feature, either a personal account or a school/organisation account.
Turning on Access to Google Collaborations
Site administrators can turn on access to Google for their organisations in Admin >> Edit global settings >> Cloud Services.
Tick ‘Enable collaboration using Google’.
Creating Collaborations
Collaborations are created in the task tool. This allows teachers to give the collaboration an educational context and allow optional assessment of the contribution if required. Tasks can only have one collaborative document.
As default, collaborations are for the whole class, but you can use the ‘Assign to’ to decide to only give access to groups or individuals.
When a teacher creates (or a student views) a collaborative task, they will be asked to give permission for itslearning to access their Google Drive (only if they have not already done so). They only need to do this once.
In the task the teacher can then select, for example, a doc, sheet or slide from their Google Drive for their class to collaborate on.
This document remains on Google, but class members are given access to collaborate on it. Currently you cannot create a document through itslearning (that is coming soon), but you can give access to collaborate on documents you already have on Google Drive. You can also add other ‘read only’ files from Google or your computer to the task to support the collaborative document.
Removing a Google Account (or Changing a Google Account)
You can remove or change the Google account associated with itslearning. This does not affect the resources on Google and will not change collaborations you have already.
Under your name in the top right of itslearning, under ‘Your settings’ is a new option called connected accounts.
This lists all external accounts and you can remove them or add (and re-add) them.
Please note that you can only have one Google account associated with itslearning at any time.
Linking to Google Documents
You can also choose to share a read-only link to a Google document. This has been added to the task and file & folder element in itslearning (and will appear in assignment soon). Unlike collaboration where access is very tightly controlled to named users, anyone who can view the Google link (or is sent a copy of the link) can see the file. Files are viewed in Google and if you are the author, you can edit them in Google too. This is great for sharing Google resources that you are still updating.
Assignment — Submit on Behalf of a Student
In the new assignment tool, teachers can now submit an answer on behalf students. For example, if student was ill and the answer sent to the teacher via email or if the student could not use itslearning to submit the answer.
Reporting — Grades in the Data Warehouse
We’ve extended the data warehouse with grade data. This will allow districts, municipalities and institutions to get all grade information via oData for their own analysis.
The new data objects are:
- AssessmentGrade
- AssessmentScale
- AssessmentStatus
- ElementCategory
- LearningItem
- Grades
We’ve also improved the data available to advanced report to expand the grades data model to include all course elements, not just assessments, and not just assessments in the assessment record.
- Our grades data model is expanded to include all elements (not just assignments),
- Template tables have been updated to add filters to include or exclude non-assessments
- Templates are renamed (so it is clear they contain additional data, not just grades).
