Personal Trainer 3.0 – Instructor Orientation and User Guide
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 2
HOW DOES PERSONAL TRAINER 3.0 WORK? 3
INSTRUCTOR’S “STEP BY STEP” USE OF PERSONAL TRAINER 3.0 4
I. Instructor Personal Trainer Registration 4
II. Instructor Course Setup 6
III. Creating Assignments 9
IV. Grading Assignments 11
V. Using the Gradebook 11
VI. Previewing Personal Trainer 3.0 using the Live Demo 12
VII. Previewing the “Student View” 13
VIII. Monitoring the Student Registration Process 13
IX. Student Personal Trainer Registration 14
X. Student Section Registration 16
XI. Subsequent Student Course Access 18
XII. Personal Trainer 2nd semester setup instructions…………………………19
PREPARED BY:
SCOTT R. COLVIN, CMA, CVA, CPA
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, ACCOUNTING
NAUGATUCK VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
WATERBURY, CT 06708
INTRODUCTION
As an instructor, you know how important it is for your students to be prepared for class. The “link” between advance preparation and successful classroom performance is irrefutable. Unfortunately, we all find it difficult to get students to subscribe to this proposition. You have heard the explanations frequently. They include:
· “I got lost halfway through the problem and spent the remainder of the evening “spinning my wheels”.”
· “I couldn’t envision the framework to solve the problem and got lost in the details.”
· “Your lecture covered this topic, but the exercise presented the data differently and I had difficulty locating the text material addressing the matter.”
The list goes on and on. However, there is a common theme. Students like and need:
· A structured format for their homework assignments.
· A view of how the topic being covered fits into the “bigger picture”.
· Feedback on how they are progressing.
You can address such needs by:
· Developing special instructional materials, and
· Evaluating homework submitted to you.
However, such efforts reduce the time you need to prepare for classroom discussion and interaction. In addition, your feedback on homework will be “after the fact” and doesn’t allow you to address areas of misunderstanding until the following class meeting.
The above difficulties are also compounded by the fact that your students are likely balancing a number of other important priorities with their classroom pursuits and do not work the traditional “9 to 5” shift! As a result, even employing tutors can prove problematic since they may not be available during student study hours.
So where can your students find help any time of the day or night? Personal
Trainer 3.0, the homework assistant. As you will see in the coming pages, Personal Trainer 3.0 offers computer based feedback on student homework efforts, including problem orientation, hints, chapter references and spreadsheet attachments.
In addition, the software grades student efforts, giving them an appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses. As a result, they will:
· Know what areas need additional work as well as those that do not, and
· Become more efficient in the use of their valuable study time.
Also, this feedback can be particularly useful in your next classroom session, since it will enable them to ask questions in areas where they had difficulty and contribute to classroom discussion in areas where they were successful.
HOW DOES PERSONAL TRAINER 3.0 WORK?
Personal Trainer 3.0 includes templates for all of the exercises and problems in your Thomson textbook. Each of these utilizes a variety of computer assisted tools to solicit student responses to a question, including:
· Drop down menus,
· Fill in the blank responses, and
· Multiple choice questions.
Importantly, the above are designed to minimize data input. As a result, students will:
· Not create incorrect responses due to spelling or capitalization errors, and
· Better utilize their class preparation time.
The Personal Training 3.0 learning process is straightforward and is summarized in the following steps:
1. After students read the exercise or problem in their textbook, they can review its requirements in the Personal Trainer 3.0 template. The layout of the template parallels the textbook requirements for an easy transition. Prior to starting work, they can get an orientation on how this material fits into the chapter’s context by clicking on the “Warmup” button.
2. Students start responding to the requirements using one of the computerized tools mentioned above (e.g., pull down menus) as well as a calculator (one is available in Personal Trainer 3.0 below the “Help” icon). NOTE: This mechanized format does not eliminate the need for students to document computations for future reference.
3. Students click on the “Submit” button to get feedback on how they did. A “green” checkmark indicates a correct response and a “red” x indicates they need to look at their answer again.
a. If further assistance is needed on a “red” response, they can click on the “Hint” button on the main toolbar at the top of the template. This provides further guidance and direction that can lead them to a correct answer. Three hints are provided for each exercise or problem.
4. Steps 1 through 3 are repeated until all requirements are completed.
5. Again, students should be sure to make notes on the topics they had difficulty with so they can mention them to you in the next class.
INSTRUCTOR’S “STEP BY STEP” USE OF PERSONAL TRAINER 3.0
I. Instructor Personal Trainer Registration
1. To begin the instructor registration process, access the Personal Trainer 3.0 homepage at http://personaltrainer.swlearning.com/
NOTE: WebTutor users will have access to this URL directly from their
course home page.
2. On the right hand side of this page, click on “New Instructor
Registration”. This will generate the following screen on your
computer:
3. Click “Register” and fill out the form. You will be e-mailed an URL with your own unique username and password, which you know and will remember. If you already have a username/password for the instructor site for your adopted accounting text, it usually will work, as a Personal Trainer username/password and this separate PT registration may not be necessary.
4. Once you have received the URL and created your own unique
Username and password , go back to the homepage, and click “Log In”
Enter your username and password when prompted. (IGNORE “course key”. Only students enter a course key so their grades are linked to a particular class or section.)
You are now at the Instructor Side view.
II. Instructor Course Setup
1. You are now on the instructor’s page for Personal Trainer 3.0. Note
that there is also a student view, which will be discussed later. As you
can see from the screen above, you have two choices available to you
at this point: Manage Course or Manage Students. We will first look at the Manage Course option.
2. Manage Course allows you to add, view, or edit course information. Highlight the radio button next to Manage Course and then click “Continue.” This will bring you to a page where you can establish the parameters of your course and subsequently monitor the registration and progress of your students.
3. You can now set up your course by clicking the “Add New Course”
button. This will lead you to the following screen:
On this page you can:
· Choose the title for your course.
· Choose your textbook by using the drop down menu.
· Select appropriate meeting days and times by clicking the
appropriate buttons. A pop-up calendar can be used to enter the dates of your academic period.
After completing this page, click “Submit” to set the descriptive items
for your course.
4. You are once again on the Course Page where your new section has
been established.
If you need to change any of the course information you have entered,
just click on the “Edit” icon to the left of your course title.
NOTE: Your course has now been assigned a “Course Key” . This appears immediately to the right of the “Section” header. Be sure to keep a separate record of the “Course Key” provided as your students will need it to register for your class!
III. Creating Assignments
1. You are now ready to make specific assignments for your course by
using the “ASGN” icon on the far left of the Course Page.
Click the “ASGN” icon and you will be directed to the “list of chapter
titles” page for the Thomson text you are using.
Click the “EDIT” button to the left of the chapter title for which you want to make assignments. This will direct you to the “Setup Assignment” page for the selected chapter, which follows:
2. Choose “Required” or “Excluded” to change the default “Optional” setting.
By selecting Required, students will be required to complete that
assignment to earn a grade. By selecting Optional, students can
work that problem on their own and get feedback, but it will not affect
their recorded grade. By selecting Excluded, the students will never
see that activity.
3. To help you review a particular exercise/problem during the assignment process, click on the “Student” icon. This will direct you to the Personal Trainer 3.0 template for a selected problem or exercise and assist you in deciding whether or not to make it a requirement.
4. For multiple sections of the same course, click the box next to “Copy this assignment to all other courses with the same textbook.” This will enter your choice of “Required”, “Optional” or “Excluded” as well as grading preferences (See Section IV of the manual) in other sections you have established.
5. Note that there is an “Add Hint” link available to the left of each
activity. This allows you to enter your own hint for each activity. Your
hint will always be displayed as the final hint in the series. Each
activity can have up to 3 hints and the 4th can be added by the
instructor.
IV. Grading Assignments
1. After you have completed making assignments on the “Setup
Assignment” page for the selected chapter, (See Section III, parts 1 and 2.) you can also choose a date and time for the assignment to be automatically graded and entered in your grade book.
At the top of the “Setup Assignment” page, just select a “time” using
the drop-down menu and the “date” using the pop-up calendar. Click
the box next to “Auto record grade at this time” to utilize this feature.
2. Alternatively, you can grade student assignments by using the
“Camera” icon located in the far right column of the “list of chapter titles” page. (See Section III, part 1.)
3. When you record grades in Personal Trainer, it will “freeze” the
student’s most recent attempt on homework in the grade book—thus a “snapshot” in time.
It is important to realize that Personal Trainer is tied directly to the end of chapter exercises and problems from the student’s Thomson text. Students will need to have their book open in front of them to read the instructions for completing the activity in Personal Trainer. They are never given the answers!
V. Using the Grade book
1. After you’ve assigned your homework, you can review student progress by using the “GBK” icon. To access the grade book, click “Course List” from the “breadcrumb” listing of pages at top or from the Left Navigation Bar.
Click on the “GBK” icon to access this tool.
2. The grade book feature allows you to see what your students know,
what concepts are being mastered, and what concepts need
reinforcement based on performance. You can then adjust your
lectures to reflect student needs.
3. In the grade book, you see a list of all the students within this course.
You can quickly and easily scan their recorded grades on required and
optional activities. To see results from a particular chapter, select it by
using the pull-down menu under the “Filter by Chapter” heading at the top of the page.
4. As you can see, the grades are broken down by “% Required,” “%
Optional,” “% Total,” and “% Recorded.”
· % Required is the student’s total % on all required work. Zeros are entered for problems that have not been attempted.
· % Optional is the student’s total % on the optional activities.
· % Total is a combination of the two.
· % Recorded is the most recent grade at the time of recording.
5. To see the individual student’s work, click on one of the student’s
names who have some grades showing. These will appear as students self-register with the course key for their section. This creates the roster for the class.
NOTE: The registration process will be discussed further in the
Section IX. When students begin doing homework and grades begin
appearing, select one with grades – do not click on a student who has
no grades reported at all).
6. To see the student’s work on individual activities, click on the chapter
title (one with some grades showing). You can view a list of all the
exercises and problems from the text with the number of attempts the
student made on each activity, along with the grade indicated on each