2.3. Managing Students

The basic operations of student management are included under the students menu. Most adding/removing of students should be done through the sync feature, but occasionally it is the case that an instructor finds need to manually add or remove students.

2.3.1. Adding a New Student

Although most adding and removing of students from the roster will be completed through synchronization of the roster with the server, sometimes adding a student manually is necessary. In this case, the instructor can add a student to the roster by selecting "Add New" on the student menu.

Figure 2.3.1a


Adding a new student to the roster consists of filling out the text fields named "first", "middle", "last", "nickname"," phone number", and selecting a photo from a standard file-choose dialog after selecting "Add Photo" to represent the student. These fields comprise the information included in a "student profile".


Figure 2.3.1b


Above is an example of a filled-out window adding a student. Once the text fields have information, the grayed-out background text specifying the box disappears. Once a photo is selected, the photo avatar will be replaced by at thumbnail of the student being added, and the text option below it will change to "Change Photo" which again opens the file-choose dialog to edit the chosen photo.

Something important to note is that although students are also identified by their unique, university-assigned student ID number, this is not something that can be entered as a field when adding a new student. A student's ID may only be assigned when performing a synch with the server.


The instructor can select "Save" to finalize the addition of this student to the roster once the first and last name fields are filled out. The "first name" field is the only optional field to identify a student. The instructor can select "Cancel" or close the window at any time to exit the process without saving any information.


Figure 2.3.1c


As shown in Figure 2.3.1c, the result of adding a student is reflected in the gradebook. "Cody Sears" in now a member of the class and appears in the correct alphabetical position among other students on the gradebook.



2.3.2. Edit the Roster

Just as an instructor may find the need to manually add students to the class, so may an instructor find the need to manually remove a student or edit student information fields. An instructor can edit the current section roster at any time by selecting "Edit Roster"from the student management menu.

Figure 2.3.2a


As shown above, if an instructor attempts to edit the current section roster before having synchronized with the server to pull enrollment data, the result will be a window that displays the message "No students currently enrolled. Please navigate to the Admin menu to import students, or add students manually below" with the options to either enter the "Server Setup"from their or to "Cancel" the process.


Figure 2.3.2b


When there is at least one student in the class, student information will be displayed according to the three column headers "Student Name", "ID", and "Phone Number". Once there are enough students to fill the window, a scroll-bar appears to allow access to all currently enrolled students.


Figure 2.3.2c


Once a student's horizontal strip is selected, it is highlighted which allows certain operations to be performed on it. From this window, the instructor can decide to add another student manually with the "Add Student" button, edit info after selecting a student with "Edit Info", and remove a student manually after selecting a student with "Remove". The instructor may select "Cancel"or close the window at any time to stop editing the roster, but any modified information will already be saved at the confirmation of the data being entered.



Figure 2.3.2d


Opting to remove a student will produce a dialog box to confirm the choice and then remove the student from the roster if confirmation is given. Students removed through this option can be re-added through the synchronization feature. When a student's information is edited through the "Edit Info" button, the window shown above is displayed with the information. The instructor can then edit any of the fields "First Name", "Middle Name", "Last Name", "Nickname", "Phone Number", and change the student's photo with "Change Photo". In Figure 2.3.2d is an example of student's information being edited, specifically, "Daniel" is getting the nickname "Danny". The information can then be saved with the "Save"button or the instructor can either select "Cancel", or close the window to exit the editing without saving any information.


Figure 2.3.2e


The result of adding the nickname in Figure 2.3.2d is the updated Roster in Figure 2.3.2e above. Notice that the text in the name field for the modified student grew smaller to accomodate the added information.

2.3.3. Adding a New Group

Instructors often find it necessary to divide their students into teams which can be done through the student management menu by selecting "Create Group". Creating groups within a class section is composed of two main fields of information: the "group name" and "group members".

Figure 2.3.3a


Figure 2.3.3a demonstrates the "Add New Group" window once the option has been initially selected from the Students menu. The "Search Roster" field has a grayed-out text "Student Name", prompting the user to type in the name of a student to be added to the current group from the Roster. There is a default group name of "Team 1" which, if not overwritten, will name the current team being created.


Figure 2.3.3b


An example of a partially-completed "Add New Group" window is shown above. Members are added to the current group individually by typing student names in the text field labeled "Search Roster", which searches through the current section roster and auto-suggests names based on currently typed letters. Typing in this field also replaces the grayed-out default text of "Student Name". Shown above, the instructor has typed "Daniel" which auto-suggests names of students from the current section roster which also have a part of their name containing "Daniel". As students are added to the group, a thumbnail containing the student's portrait followed by their name appears in the box below the group name, through which the instructor can scroll once enough students are added to necessitate scrolling. A student can be removed from the current group in this window by double-clicking the photo representing them.



Figure 2.3.3c

The group can be named according to instructor preference by typing into the appropriate text field for "Group Name". At this stage in the creation of a group, the group name "Team 5" has been chosen.


Once group members have been selected, and the name and domain fields have been set, the instructor can select "Add Group" to create the group under the specified domain. "Cancel" or closing the window may be selected at any time to exit the process without saving the information.



Figure 2.3.3c

Figure 2.3.3d shows the gradebook result of sorting the current roster into groups. The group name shows up in the "Group" column to the left of each student included in a group. In this specific example "Daniel", "Myra", and "Katelyn" have all been added to Team 5 and the rest of class has been sorted into other teams.