Online learner support manual

Filter for name and Proctored-and-Passed Only. You can click on this filter option under the View All results button or you can wait until you are viewing the assessment listing page to filter by "Proctored Only" and "Passing Scores Only" in "Filter Results.

Click the Review Certificate button at the top. Make sure you have chosen the correct assessment results. Click Download Certificate. Print the merged PDF certificate. In admin portal: Assessments tab Change a test taker's name if it includes a typo or if their name has changed. In the Assessments tab, filter by test taker name. Click anywhere on the assessment result.

Click Edit in the Name row. Change the test taker name and click Save. Note: You will only be able to find results from assessments taken at your agency, with the Location PIN entered. If you cannot find the results, you should re-proctor the assessment. Click Edit in the Proctoring row. Add the proctor's name from the drop down list. Click the check box next to an assessment result. Click Assign Tags. Select the tags you wish to add and then click Apply.

To manage tags, click Manage. See also Organizing Learners using Tags. Click on the check box at the top to select all results. Click again to un-select all selected assessment results. In admin portal: Assessments tab Invalidate an assessment when the test taker has cheated or otherwise violated the test taker code of conduct.

Find the assessment result you need to invalidate by searching by name or using other filter options. Click on the Info icon for the assessment or anywhere else in the result row. Scroll down to status. In the status row, click "Invalidate. Click on the Filter Results button and apply filters according to the data you want included in the report. See Reports Tab details for more information. If you like, you can print from your computer. Print the page to print a comparison of module information with the number of records, number passing, and percentage passing.

In admin portal: Assessments tab Test takers who pass any assessment can claim a digital badge at the time they complete the module. If a test taker passed an assessment through your testing location, you can also help them claim a badge later. Filter assessment results to find the test taker and specific assessment. Click anywhere in the assessment result row. Click on View Results Page in the top right corner. Click on Claim Badge. Follow the directions that appear. Making learner accounts YouTube video available We suggest you make a learner account for yourself to see how learners experience Northstar Online Learning.

To make a new learner account, click Invite New Learner. They will receive an email invitation to set up their account. You can also click the envelope button to resend the email.

If the account is still pending, click the lightning bolt. To reduce administrative effort creating learner accounts, admins can allow learners to sign up for their own accounts through your public profile.

If an admin at your location has allowed learners to sign up for their own accounts , you can automatically tag the learners by sending prospective learners a link that will automatically apply a tag to their account upon signing up.

Communicate the URL to your prospective learners via email, a paper instruction sheet, etc. That URL will open your self sign-up page. When the person fills out their information to sign up for Northstar, the tag will be applied.

Click on View Learners in the Learners tab. Each row summarizes a learner and their progress. Click Download Activity to download a spreadsheet of progress for all active learners. Note: this spreadsheet does not include data on how much time learners spend on NSOL.

For a guide on how to download reports on usage amounts, please see Viewing usage reports. Click Filter Results at the top to search for specific learners. You can also filter learners by tags. Note: Entering multiple tags in the search field will only search for learners who have all of those tags.

You can then click on a particular topic to see the most recent assessment result and whether the learner has practiced the necessary skills to improve their results.

Click anywhere in a Module row to view the learner's last assessment results, including standards mastered and standards needing improvement. This view also shows whether the learner completed the practice lesson that corresponds to each standard.

Make sure to get permission from a learner to make changes, especially when changing their password. Tags can be created to assign learners to a specific class, teacher, or group. They can also be used to track demographic data. Learners can be assigned multiple tags. Sensitive personal information, such as social security numbers, should never be used for tags.

Then, click Assign Tags to open a menu to select tags to apply. You can search for a tag by typing to the search field. As you type, if a tag does not already exist, click Create New to create and select the new tag. Click Apply to save the tagging changes. To select all learners, click the check box at the top.

To unselect all learners, click the check box at the top a second time. Archiving tags - in the Manage Tags page, if you no longer want to use a tag at your location, click the Folder icon next to it to archive it. After archiving, that tag will no longer appear in menus, but the assessments and learner accounts that you have associated it with, will continue retaining the data. Some testing locations track data on the amount of time learners spend on NSOL away from their testing location distance learning hours.

If you select No, learners will not be prompted to indicate their location and all time will be logged under Unknown Location in your usage reports. Save your changes. Note: If your site does not ask learners their location, all hours will be displayed under the column Usage with Location Unknown.

Click Filter Results to limit the output by date. When you have the data you need, you can download an Excel spreadsheet file to sort, format, and save it. The spreadsheet has two different tabs. The By Datetime tab shows the time for each usage session separately. To do this, click your name at the top right and select Northstar Online Learning. Setting up an account Check your email for an invitation to Northstar Online Learning.

Click the link to confirm your learner membership with the testing location, and make a password. On the Northstar homepage, click the Log In button in the upper-right corner. Enter your email address and password and click Log In. The site may ask if you are at your learning location or away from your learning location. Some locations use this data to get funding for their programs. When you log in, you will see the Dashboard.

Unlocked means the review questions are available. Checkmark means the review questions are complete. Click on Details or the module name to see more information about your progress. The Practice tab below shows a list of lessons and the standards they cover. The Standards tab shows your mastery of each standard, as of the last time you took the assessment. A red X means you got at least one question about that standard wrong.

A green checkmark means you got the assessment question s for that standard correct. On the right, the Practice column shows whether you completed the relevant practice lesson. If you have not finished the practice lesson, you can click the Practice button to start practicing. Click anywhere in a row to see your result page for that assessment. To start practicing, click Start Practice on the top of the page.

You can also click on lessons in the Practice tab or the Practice buttons in the Standards tab. Each lesson has something to read, to watch, or to do. The Next button at the bottom goes to the next screen. CC turns on text for the audio. The audio button turns sound on or off. The expand button makes the content fill the screen. If you need to go back, click the back button in your browser.

The rewind button starts the audio again. The menu button opens a navigation menu to go to different sections of the module. A green checkmark means that lesson is complete. When you have completed all of the lessons in a section, the Review Questions unlock.

If you get a Review Question wrong, an alert icon will appear next to the lesson you can review it to help learn that content. After you are confident in the material, you can retry the Review Questions to complete the section. To go back to the Dashboard, click the Northstar Online Learning logo at the top of the screen. Make any needed changes. Click Save Changes. Provide a contact email for learners in case they reply to their confirmation email, or in case they need to contact someone for support in the process.

Optionally provide additional information in Markdown formatting that may be important to communicate to your learners to successfully understand the sign-up process at your location. Now when people view your public profile from our Locations map, they will have the ability to click to register. Click Add New Staff Member. Fill in the fields with their first name, last name, and email address and click Create Staff Member.

Staff members will receive an email invitation to set up the password for their account. If staff members still cannot find the email invitation, make sure their email address is spelled correctly. If it is incorrect, deactivate the account see below and create a new invitation. For more assistance creating staff accounts, please contact us. Blue toggles indicate active staff privileges for that position.

Descriptions: Admin Portal Access : All active staff can access basic parts of the admin portal, including assessment data, Northstar Online Learning NSOL accounts, and the curriculum Proctor : Proctors can proctor assessments in order to issue certificates Proctors will need to complete proctor training before proctoring assessments.

The toggle will indicate if they still need to complete training. Admin : Admins can manage staff, location info, and billing. Note: each site is limited to 3 admins to limit the number of people who can make major changes to the account. We encourage sites to have at least two admins, though, in case of staffing changes.

If you need to add more than 3 admins to your account, please contact us. To deactivate a staff member, turn off the toggle under Admin Portal Access. This will deactivate their other privileges. Note: If staff members use their account at multiple locations, deactivating their account at one location does not affect their access at their other locations. See Location Info Tab details for more information. Select which Northstar topics you want available for your learners.

Note: de-selecting a topic removes both the assessment and the online learning module. If a topic was previously available, you can still search for and view older assessment results. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. Accessing Northstar curriculum You can access the curriculum a couple of ways.

The curriculum is aligned with Northstar Digital Literacy Standards and supports adult learners in meeting the requirements of the Northstar Digital Literacy assessments. The lessons give learners multiple opportunities to build digital literacy skills through practice tasks. Lesson plans are independent of each other and are not required to be taught in sequence.

They can be taught in order, or teachers may choose lessons for their class based on desired instruction for specific Northstar Digital Literacy Standards. We continue to develop additional curricula.

Each unit contains two-hour lesson plans. The Career Search Skills unit contains 15 lesson plans to support the expanded standards of that topic. The lessons were written to support classroom teachers, as well as volunteer tutors working with small groups. Lessons may be adapted by teachers for one-on-one instruction. Access to computers, a projector, and internet are necessary to facilitate the curriculum in person.

Northstar provides tips for teachers to facilitate the lesson remotely. Please see Northstar Tips for Remote Teaching. The lessons were written to support adult learners at an intermediate English reading comprehension ability or higher; this reading ability is also required to complete the Northstar Digital Literacy Assessments. These scores equate to an approximate 4th grade reading level.

We suggest that instructors give learners the corresponding Northstar Digital Literacy assessment module as a pre-test before beginning instruction in order to assess the standards on which their learners need additional practice. Instructors should also give the corresponding Northstar Digital Literacy assessment module as a post-test after teaching curriculum content relevant to the learners. We discourage use of the assessments with low-literacy learners with minimal experience using the computers.

For these learners we recommend instead using a paper-based screener. These screeners are provided as a quick and easy way to determine whether low-literacy individuals have the level of computer skills needed to take the Northstar assessments in a meaningful manner. If individuals have very low skills, it is best to provide some instruction prior to having them take the assessments, so they do not become frustrated by attempting to complete assessments far above their skill level.

There are two versions of the screener for each module, one for large group screening and one for one-to-one screening. The use of these screeners is not required, but recommended for use with low skills. Animations that use text should show the text long enough for a slow reader to read it. Essentially, this should be under learner control. Learner control should also be available for selection of sound and its alternative representation.

Document metatags should be used to improve searching. Ensure the search facility is forgiving in terms of spelling. Consider a system for version control which will display the date, version number and the date it was created. This will assist in user-testing and piloting of your site. Text should be a mixture of upper and lower case letters and should be left justified with a ragged right edge.

The length of a line of text should ideally be between eight and twelve words for some user groups. The clarity and legibility of information depends upon the visual contrast between fonts, text blocks, headlines and surrounding white space.

Do not specify the text in pixels as it is difficult to magnify. Underlining text - this is also difficult to read and some users may think the text is a hyperlink. Tables for formatting, because the cell contents may be presented in a wrong or misleading order. Tables to control text width may not work if larger or smaller font is selected; it is generally better to let users control the window size. Flashing text - many users find this difficult to read - especially those with dyslexia or epilepsy.

Upper case text should be avoided, even in headings because it is not accessible to all groups of learners. Unnecessary capitalisation should be avoided. Too many Acronyms and Abbreviations should be avoided as screen reading software may read them as a word.

It is recommended that animated or moving graphics are not used, unless the animation is necessary to illustrate important information, such as animation demonstrating how a machine works. It is best to place the animation on a different page, or to set it up to start only when activated by a mouse click or keystroke.

The size of text and graphics affects usability as well as accessibility. For those with visual impairments, magnification can make the difference between being able or unable to use the application. Where multimedia is used, displaying more than three rows of text at once may prove impractical, as the viewer may have difficulty reading the captions and keeping up with the video.

There needs to be an easy-to-use facility to print, copy and save the desired portion of text as a text file - not html or a picture. Provide information for learners to change their default settings. There must be keyboard access for all menus, controls and buttons, in the form of single key.

Note that these may already exist in an application and any additional keystrokes should be consistent and compatible. Some learners using a screen reader will navigate via links - make sure links are labelled logically and meaningfully. Pages should be broken down into meaningful self-contained chunks, which do not overflow onto the next page; this will enable the learner to absorb the information contained in the chunk of learning, before progressing. Units should be structured into sufficiently small elements so that learners can easily leave and return to the current point, using a bookmarking facility or a system of menus.

Buttons or keystrokes should be provided for ease of navigation to allow the learner to exit the current section, move upward within a hierarchy of menus and, from the top level, to exit the material. It should be difficult for the learner to close the application down accidentally by exiting a current section - there should be a logging off procedure.

The learner should be provided with the facility to play, pause, stop and restart any audio or video associated with the current screen, to ensure that they can control their own speed of progress through the material. Progress indicators breadcrumbs should be located at the top of the screen. A progress bar shows the learner how far through the material he or she is. Learners should know where they are within the package at all times.

The Back button allows learners to review screens that have already been viewed by moving backwards through the material, screen by screen. It is also used to enable learners to have another attempt at questions or activities. The Menu will take the learner directly from any tutorial screen to the menu screen. Where the material has more than one menu, this button will take the learner back to the previous menu in the hierarchy. Avoid rollovers for navigation - this may be impossible for those with motor difficulties or those using keystrokes.

Where larger buttons are used, the amount of screen space available for the learning material is reduced. It is often a good idea to use different versions of buttons: 'available' out , 'selected' in , and 'unavailable' greyed out. The learner should also be provided with an introduction to the learning material - possibly through the use of an introduction screen, to include at least the following Use of graphics.

It is important to remember that graphical images should be used for instructional, motivational, or attention-focusing effects, and not simply for the sake of including them on the screen. Every item on the screen should earn its place. Graphics should be crisp and clear. Multimedia mix. Video and audio tracks can be used, and multiple text tracks may be included within the clip. Multimedia materials can also be used to overcome problems of accessibility, particularly for use by learners with special educational needs.

Users without the capability of playing sound, as well as the deaf and hard of hearing can benefit from the use of captioned movie clips in learning materials. Users can view captioned clips and follow the soundtrack visually rather than aurally. For maximum accessibility transcripts should always be used in conjunction with audio-only clips.

People who have special needs, whose first language is not English or who have low literacy skills may have problems downloading, using or accessing plug-ins easily. Try to ensure that at the specified minimum bandwidth there is a delay of no more than ten seconds in the loading of an image or animation.

Audio effects should be free from extraneous noise, such as unnecessary hiss and page turns etc. Multiple-choice questions can be difficult for learners to engage with.

Avoid too much scrolling and it may be appropriate to open a new Window for each question. Provide alternative activities, for example it would be inappropriate to ask a visually impaired person or someone with a motor disability to draw a diagram. However, remember that equivalent access providing your resources in a range of formats is preferable to alternative access. Remember that the above are only a guide.

Please refer to the nof-digitise programme technical standards and guidelines and test your learning materials with all groups of learners. The Functional Prototype. Ideally, a pilot or prototype should be produced - even in small projects. The prototype should be run on hardware with the exact target specification and should be produced early in the project.

This will reveal any potential technical problems and 'look and feel' conflicts before they become serious, preventing costly changes later on. The purpose of the functional prototype is to demonstrate how each element will function and test how users interact with the material. The prototype should also demonstrate the proposed interface, functionality and screen layout. The prototype should be tested with as many end-users as possible, and if appropriate, use their feedback to develop a further prototype.

The functional prototype is a fully working sample, and as such should contain an example of every element of functionality to be used in the material. A functional prototype typically comprises the following:. Usability Trials. At the start of the project you should identify the quality expectations for the learning materials and at an early stage in the development the proposed design, in the form of the functional prototype, should be tested on a sample of users.

The purpose of the trial, is to ensure that the material will function correctly and is effective for the target users before the majority of the content has been incorporated. Users, or, where applicable, subject specialists should be used for content testing. In the case of a consortia those involved in the trialling should be drawn from more than one group to avoid bias. This trialling team should be responsible for approving the content of the learning materials, beta testing and providing user evaluation of the materials.

A checklist-based approach should be used to assess the learning materials against quality criteria. End user testing must be conducted at each stage. Running a usability trial:. Starting the observation.

You should record your observations on a Usability Trial checklist. Remember to attribute problems to the product rather than to the user. Record your observations and use prepared prompts on areas of particular interest, such as new types of functionality, or for example ask - 'Do you find the Help facility useful?

Assess the experience of users. Assess the motivation of users. Establish and record the motivation of users towards the product, and towards the use of a computer as the means of delivery. To assess how easy the prototype is to use you will need to record the actions of users, noting:. Appropriateness of material. Appropriateness of delivery style. Assess the environment in which the usability trial takes place.

To assess how the delivery environment will affect the use of the materials you will need to record the actions of users, noting:. You will also need to compare and record any differences between the trial environment and the intended delivery environment. Defining the learners and the outcomes 'For whom? Alternative applications of on line learning Defining the learners and the outcomes Developing a justification in response to the question 'What added benefits do online materials bring?

Development and usage issues A crucial task is the establishment of an appropriate development team with adequate resources. They also generate a number of interesting questions such as: What is meant by 'completion' in such circumstances?

How many and which of the resources should the learner make use of? Is sequence important? How, and at what points, can the learner be given a sense of achievement? Conclusion The advent of on line learning has raised a number of significant questions as well as creating a wealth of opportunities. Planning On Line Learning Materials The Development Stages of a Project The diagram below illustrates the different stages that you will need to consider when planning your project.

Standards on use of language Standards should be established for spellings eg -ise or -ize , abbreviations, punctuation, use of italics, emphasis, gender, style for lists, rules for numbers in figures and words , spacing after full-stops and line spacing. Learning design The interaction of the learner with the materials is one of the most significant factors affecting how the learner progresses and should be considered central to the design of your materials.

You should consider the following within the design of your materials: are the learning objectives clearly stated for independent learners? Developing a functional specification for learning materials Thought should be given to the functionality of the materials and any interactions to be used should be fully defined in your documentation.

The following items should be planned and described: on-screen buttons inactive screen areas question types to be utilised use of sound or video or scanned images if applicable any special features or functionality progress indicator Style The style of the materials will need planning and consideration given to the branding and overall graphical treatment.

Content Careful consideration needs to be given to the content and subject experts should be used to make decision about: the topics to be developed a list of the proposed learning objectives details of the proposed duration or size of each section Structure The structure of the material needs defining in terms of: menu structures information about the proposed structure as the user would find it an explanation of the provision for types of users if relevant ie if route different for different users details of the menu structure a diagram showing the structure of the material Target learners The number, the location and the characteristics of the learners should be documented.

Storyboards Purpose of a storyboard A storyboard sets out the content of the materials to be developed and describes the format in which it will appear in the finished product. Guidelines for producing a storyboard The storyboard should detail: the name of each screen and the text it will contain the number of each sound file and the text it will contain a description of the interaction which will take place on each screen a description of the graphics specified for each screen Storyboards and user testing A storyboard can be used as a basis for testing ideas with potential users of the site, to help generate ideas and test your assumptions.

Designing On Line Learning Materials Creating the look and feel of your learning materials will probably be thought to be the 'fun' part of the project but if they are to be accessible to all groups of learners the design will need serious care. Screen Design Screens should be uncluttered, and data and information should be ordered consistently, so as not to confuse learners with learning difficulties.

Present the key information at the top of each page. Menu options should be self-explanatory and limited in number. Label graphical images with text see below for use of Alt Text and Longdesc.

Text Format Text should be a mixture of upper and lower case letters and should be left justified with a ragged right edge. Other considerations include: It is recommended that animated or moving graphics are not used, unless the animation is necessary to illustrate important information, such as animation demonstrating how a machine works.

All buttons should be located in the same position on all screens for ease of navigation. Avoid colour-dependent navigation, with instructions such as 'Click on the Green button' Where larger buttons are used, the amount of screen space available for the learning material is reduced. Titles Titles or headings ensure that learners always know where they are within the package. Choose a suitable point size for headings - so as they are clear but not too imposing.

Do not crowd the screen with too many headings. The learner should also be provided with an introduction to the learning material - possibly through the use of an introduction screen, to include at least the following:- the purpose of the material who the material is aimed at any prerequisites learning objectives the structure of the material how to get the best from the material how to report any problems a full list of included materials estimated elapsed time required to complete the material Use of graphics It is important to remember that graphical images should be used for instructional, motivational, or attention-focusing effects, and not simply for the sake of including them on the screen.