ALEKS manual for teachers and ALEKS admins

Updated December 17, 2015

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Table of contents

Creating a new teacher account (admins)....................................3

Creating courses and adding students to it (all teachers)..................4

Adding students to a course.....................................(step 6)...5

Moving students from one class to another class (all teachers).............7

NOTE: Curriculum Coordinators Steve Hiner and Terra Baker must be contacted in order to move students from one school to another school. This is very important: if this is not done, the student will have two accounts with different data in each.

Removing (hiding) a student from class (all teachers)......................8

How to move a student from one teacher to another teacher in the same school(admins).............................................................9

How to share a class with another teacher in the same school (all teachers).................................................................10

How to create a spreadsheet of names from CiMS............................11

Common errors.............................................................14

Resetting a student’s initial assessment..................................15

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Creating a new teacher account (admins only)

1. Log onto ALEKS.

Hover your mouse over “Instructor Administration”.

Select “New Instructor”.

2. Fill out the Basic Information section on the screen.

The Contact Information can be left blank except for the email field.

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Creating courses in your own account and adding students to it (all teachers)

Courses were automatically created and teacher accounts and student accounts were automatically generated at the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year. However, in the event that a teacher’s schedule changes, classes are added, etc., it may be necessary to create a new course and enroll students in that course. Likewise, when new students enter the district and get added to a teacher’s class, it will become necessary to create a new student account.

If a teacher needs to add a student to an existing class, it’s important to know if the student is new to the district or if that student is transferring in from another school. If the student is already in ALEKS and needs moved to another school, please contact Terra Baker or Steve Hiner. If the student does not have an ALEKS account, an account can be created if you know the student name and ID# (step 6).

The directions below show how a teacher can create a new class in his or her own account.

1. Log onto ALEKS.

Hover your mouse over “Instructor Administration”.

Select “New Class”.

2. Select “Create a New Class”.

3. Using the example at right as a guide, fill in the “I am teaching this class section” with the appropriate information for your class.

Notice the Start and End Dates. Basically, use dates that run from the beginning of the year to the beginning of the next school year (in case the student enters summer school).

Refer to the image on the next page for course names and class naming conventions.

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For consistency, try to keep course names similar to those listed here. However, the course name is ultimately left up to the teacher.4. Elementary teachers may wish to use Quicktables.

Others can skip that section. Click “Create Class Now”.

5. You can also do textbook integration. This allows you to select a book that goes along with the class. If you choose this option, you will see a screen such as the one on the right. Select the book that goes along with the class. Note that teachers can also go back to this setup screen later.

The section below shows how to enter students into a class.

6. Hover your mouse over “Class Administration” and choose “Enroll/Pre-Register”.

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7. You have a couple of options as to how to add students. You can type all names and ID#s, or you can copy and paste a spreadsheet of names and ID#s.

For instructions on copying and pasting, skip to Page 11.8. Let’s assume you choose to type names and ID#s.

Type in first name, last name, and Student ID#. Continue until you have added all names, hitting “Add a new Row” as necessary.

9. You will see a review of the students that you entered. You can go back and make corrections or confirm.

10. You will then see the students and their usernames/passwords. In the first example at right, the password is an all-caps word composed of two random words: this account was just created by you (this is the normal password type created by ALEKS).

In the second example, the second student already had an ALEKS account. That student has a password that was changed at some point, since it is not two capitalized random words.

If a student exists with the same name and ID# of a student you are entering, that student will not be enrolled again (third example).

If a message comes up alerting you that another student has the same student ID as a student you tried to enter, double-check the spelling. Look for removed spaces and apostrophes. If in doubt, choose Do not Register. Then contact Steve Hiner.

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Moving students from one class to another (all teachers)

It’s easy for teachers to move students from one of their classes to another. Moving to another teacher will require the ALEKS admin in your building.

Select the class to which the student belongs.

Hover over “Class Administration” and click on “Class Roster”.

Click on the name of the student you wish to move.

Hover over “Student Administration” and select “Move/Unenroll”.

Select the new class to move the student.

Under no circumstances should you select “Unenroll”.

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Removing a student from a class

Click on “Class Administration”, “Class Roster”.

Place a checkmark next to the name of the student(s) to “remove” from the class. Note: students will actually be hidden, not removes. While hidden, their data will not be used in class reports.

Click on “Hide”.

Do NOT choose UNENROLL – this can cause the loss of all data for that student.

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How to move a student from one teacher to another teacher (ALEKS admins only)

ALEKS admins can move a student from one teacher to another teacher. Follow the steps below. Please note that in order to move a student from one building to another building, you will need to contact Steve Hiner or Terra Baker.

Select the name of the teacher currently showing the student in his/her class.

Select the class to which the student belongs.

Hover over “Class Administration” and click on “Class Roster”.

Click on the name of the student you wish to move.

Hover over “Student Administration” and select “Move/Unenroll”.

Select the new instructor and class.

Note that you can also click the check box next to a student name then select “Move” from the menu above the student list.

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How a teacher can share a class with another teacher

Navigate to the class you want to share. Then click “Class Administration”, “Class Summary”.

Scroll to the bottom right. Click “Share Access to this Class”.

You will see a list of instructors. Click on “Access Level” and choose the level of access you would like to provide that instructor. Once you select access, it automatically saves changes.

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How to enter an entire class into ALEKS by copying and pasting from CiMS/MS Excel

* Begin this section after completing Page 5, Step 6: How to enroll students in a class. *

First log into your CiMS account by going to http://www.ccsoh.org, clicking on Staff, then CiMS.

1. Click on the “Classrooms” button.

2. Select the class.

3. Click on “Student Analysis”.

4. Select “create your own report”.

5. For the “Analyze by” dialogue box, select “Personal”.

6. For the “Analysis group” dialogue box, select “Student ID”.7. Click “Add column”.

8. Click “Go to spreadsheet”.

9. Next to Tools, click on “Export to Excel”.

10. The spreadsheet will download to your computer. Sometimes the file appears in the browser in the bottom left corner. Clicking on it causes MS Excel to start and load the file. Alternatively, you can start Excel yourself and open the file. Look in the Downloads directory or on the desktop.11. Once the file loads in MS Excel, click on the 1 in the top left to select Row 1. Then, right click and select “Delete”. This removes the first row, leaving only names.

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12. Click on the B to select the entire Column B.

13. Right click and select “Insert”. This creates a blank column between Column A and Column B.

14. Click on A to select Column A.

15. At the top of the screen at the menu bar, select “Data”, then “Text to Columns”.

16. Make sure the radio button next to “Delimited” is checked. Click “Next”.

17. Uncheck “Tab” and instead check “Comma”.

18. Hit “Next”, then “Finish”.You will now see the last names and first names have been separated into Column A and Column B.19. You can now highlight all the names and IDs. Press Ctrl-C (or Command-C on a Mac) to copy the data into memory.

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20. When enrolling names in a class in ALEKS, you can now select “Copy and Paste”.

21. You will see a screen like this asking you to copy and paste names and IDs into the box. Press Ctrl-V (or Command-V on a Mac) to paste the data inside.

22. Click in the top row of boxes and change the text to, in order, “Last Name”, First Name”, and “Student ID”.

Return to Page 6, step 9.

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Common Errors

Problem: Students sometimes get kicked out of ALEKS

When a student makes a mistake on a question twice, the program will display the correct answer. If the student then tries to go back and answer the question correctly (using ALT-left cursor), ALEKS will display the following message:

“Session ended! You have already seen the answer to this problem. Please log back in to continue learning.”

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Resetting a student’s initial assessment

When would you want to do this?

The student used outside resources during the assessment or had help The student consistently clicked “I don’t know” during the assessment

Basically, you can reset the student’s initial assessment if you feel the assessment did not truly measure the student’s capabilities. Here’s how to do that.

1.       Login to the class2.       Select the student from the drop-down menu3.       Under the Assignments menu, select “Schedule Assessment”

4.       Since you want to replace his initial assessment, select the Comprehensive Assessment option.5.       Confirm

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