NYC Department of Education
iLearnNYC Admin Console
How-To User Guide
School Year 2011 – 2012
If you have questions or concerns that are not addressed in this document, please call the iLearnNYC Help Desk, open 24/7 every day, at 718 935 3075. You can also email the Help Desk at or visit the wiki page dedicated to Admin Console resources and ongoing support: http://nycizone.wikispaces.com/Admin+Console

Contents

Introduction and Overview 3

Gaining Access to the Admin Console 3

Accessing the Admin Console 3

Admin Console Landing Page 4

Landing Page Properties 5

Setting Up an Online Class 8

Step 1: Name Your Class 8

Step 2: Select Content 12

Step 3: Select Staff for Class 19

Step 4: Select Students for Class 27

View or Edit Current Online Classes Section 32

Cross-School Work / Assign Classes to Others 33

Cross-School Work 33

Assign Classes to Others 35

Frequently Asked Questions 36

Resources 36

Introduction and Overview

The iLearnNYC Administrative Console (“Admin Console”) was built specifically to enable iLearnNYC schools to enroll students, teachers and other school staff into online classes. The information in the online classes created in the Admin Console is critical to your school’s students, teachers and administrators gaining access to the iLearnNYC online platform at www.ilearnnyc.net and using the learning management system we have customized for them. The platform is hosted by the vendor Desire2Learn and has integrations with 14 different content vendors.

Access to the platform and online curriculum and content is dependent on what you enter into the Admin Console. Thus, we have created this guide to ensure you are comfortable using this dedicated web application.

If you were unable to attend the trainings held this summer, please contact the iLearnNYC Help Desk to request an on-demand webinar for Admin Console functionality. You may also visit the iLearnNYC Admin Console wiki page here for updates on training, upcoming releases and helpful resources.

Gaining Access to the Admin Console

Each school in the iLearnNYC Program has designated certain staffers as the primary users of the Admin Console. A school’s Principal has access by default; s/he should have indicated to the iLearnNYC team who would be his/her designee. If you are unsure if you are your school’s designee, please first consult with your principal and then request access via the iLearnNYC Help Desk. Because Admin Console users can directly use up a school’s licenses, we have a limit on the number of designees per school who can access the Console.

Accessing the Admin Console

If you are a Principal or school designee, you will be able to access the Admin Console by:

1.  Ensure you are on the DOE Administrative network (sometimes known as VLAN-2), not your school’s instructional network. Although the Admin Console is solely web-based, it contains student and teacher information that must stay on a secure network. If you are unsure what network your computer is accessing, contact the iLearnNYC Help Desk.

2.  Navigate to www.ilearnnyc.net

3.  Click on the “Admin Console” link that is below the large orange LOGIN button.

  1. Note: this link’s direct URL is also accessible and it is http://www.nycboe.net/iLearnNYC/AdminConsole/Default.aspx
  2. If you are on the Administrative network and have been authorized as your school’s designee, you will either:
  3. Be taken to the “Central DOE Login Page” where you should put in your DOE username and password (same as your Outlook email account credentials).
  4. If you are already logged in to a DOE system, you will see the Admin Console Landing Page without having to login.
  5. If you are on the Administrative network but have not been provisioned by iLearnNYC staff to access the Admin Console, you will be shown an error message that informs you to gain proper access and lists out the iLearnNYC Help Desk contact information.
  6. If you are not on the Administrative network, you will get an error message from your browser that says it cannot display the page. You may get a similar error if you try to access other internal DOE sites from your home computer or in a class room.

Admin Console Landing Page

If you have successfully accessed the Admin Console landing page, you should see a screen similar to Figure 1 below.

Figure 1 – Landing Page

Landing Page Properties

The following explains the main properties of the Landing Page:

1.  Login/Logout – you should see your DOE username in the upper-right hand corner of the screen. Above this information you will find an option to logout. If you do so, the tab or window that was housing the Admin Console in your browser may close automatically.

2.  Get Started – this section is where you will do most of your work in the Admin Console.

  1. Set Up Online Class – this is how you will start the process of creating a new online class for your school.
  2. View or Edit Current Online Classes – this will take you to a maintenance screen for classes you have already submitted to the iLearnNYC platform. If you want to further edit this information, you will do so through this section.
  3. Note: If your school has chosen to have more than one staffer access the Admin Console, you will see all of your school’s online classes in this section, not just the ones you may have created.
  4. Note: if you click on any of the 4 “Edit” Buttons on the detailed page of the online class, this online class will now show up under YOUR “Work in Progress” list and not the original creator of the class. Make sure that if you do this, that you either finalize this course eventually or “assign” it back to the original creator.

3.  Work In Progress – this section shows the following types of online classes:

  1. Online Classes that only you (and not other admin console users at your school) have “Saved for Later” (an action you can perform any time while creating an online class).

b.  Online Classes that do not have students in them yet and thus are still considered “In Progress” as only student licenses are counted against a school’s license amounts. Even if you finalize an online class, if you have not added students it is still considered “In Progress.”

  1. When you click on any online class in this list, you will be directed to the last part of the workflow that you worked on.
  2. To the right hand of each online class under “Work In Progress” is the “Assign To” task. This should only be used if you want to send the online class you have set up to another user in the Admin Console.
  3. Note: You should only assign an online class in progress to another user after communicating with that user and letting him/her know he/she will need to finish the work.
  4. Note: If your school has partnered with one or more schools to share teachers or resources, you will need to use the “Assign To” task to send the online class work flow to a partner school so that their Admin Console user can add their associated teacher(s) or student(s).
  5. If you are unsure if your school is participating in cross-school work, you should contact your Implementation Manager or call the iLearnNYC Help Desk who will notify your Implementation Manager so s/he can work with you on this.
  6. For more information on policies regarding cross-school classes, please see the “Cross-School Work / Assign Classes to Others” section later on in the document.
  7. Note: If your school has chosen to have more than one staffer access the Admin Console, you will still only see all your particular work in progress, even if other classes were created by other designees at your school.

4.  Shared Workflow – this section will show very specific online classes:

  1. Online Classes that another user in the Admin Console has “assigned” to you will appear here.
  2. For more information on policies regarding cross-school classes, please see the “Cross-School Work / Assign Classes to Others” section later on in the document.

5.  Tools – Right now, there is one section that is critical for you in the Tools area: View Licenses.

  1. As seen in Figure 2, all Admin Console users will have access to the “View Licenses” tab.

Figure 2 – View Licenses

  1. Click on the “View School Licenses” tab that will take you to a page where you can VIEW (not edit) the current amount of licenses associated with your school.
  2. As seen in Figure 3 (showing a “test” school’s licenses), the “View School Licenses” page will show you:
  3. Each Vendor
  4. Note: “iLearnNYC” licenses are also known as “D2L” licenses and will be elaborated on in the “Step 2” Section.
  5. Per Vendor –
  6. Licenses Allocated by the iLearnNYC team - this is the initial amount that was emailed to your Principals by Liz Azukas, and cannot be changed unless you communicate directly with her
  7. Licenses Assigned to Students – the number of student licenses currently assigned (aka used)
  8. Licenses Available to Assign – the number of student licenses still available to assign in the Admin Console
  9. If you click on any of the columns, it will sort by that column.
  10. Example: click on vendor column, it will sort it alphabetically
  11. Click on Licenses Allocated by iLearnNYC, it will sort it by lowest to highest number.
  12. If you have questions regarding the amount of licenses allocated to your school, you should call the iLearnNYC Help Desk and ask to open a ticket up for license requests. You will then work with Liz Azukas to discuss the numbers directly.

Figure 3 – your school’s license allocations and assignments (note: this is test data and does not reflect “actual” data for any school).

Setting Up an Online Class

The main work you will do in the Admin Console is creating or “setting up” an online class. This work is broken down into 4 distinct steps for ease of use and in case you want to save your work at a certain phase.

Step 1: Name Your Class

The first step after clicking on “Set up Online Class” will lead you to the Class Information or “Step 1” Page (see Figure 4 below).

Figure 4 – Step 1 aka Name Your Class

Instructions for Step 1:

1.  The Course Name is an open field that you should use to easily name and identify the online class.

  1. The Course Name does not need to correspond to the name of a STARS course section. Many online classes may combine multiple STARS course sections, or only incorporate some of the students from a STARS course section. We recognize that every school will set up online classes differently, so this field should be used to identify the online aspect of a class.
  2. The Course Name will display prominently to teachers and students when they login to the iLearnNYC Platform and start to navigate to their online classes, so please name online classes so users will easily recognize them. At this time, you cannot change the name of an online class once you “finalize” – see #4 below.
  3. During training, participants gave the following suggestions of how they may name an online class:
  4. “AP English Sections 1 and 2” – if you are combining two sections of AP English into one online class, this may be an easy way to let the teachers and students know who is participating in the online class.
  5. “Algebra 1 with Ms Smith” – since the Course Name may be one of many online classes set up for a teacher or student within the iLearnNYC Platform, you may want to name the teacher who is delivering the course.
  6. You will get the following error message below (see Figure 5) if you:
  7. Start a Course Name with a Number (example: “1 ST Section of Algebra” will not be accepted; we suggest you use “First Section of Algebra” instead)
  8. Use certain special characters such as quotes, commas, dashes or ampersands (&).

Figure 5 – Unacceptable Course Naming

2.  “Host School” – this will by default show your school or in the case of cross-school work, the “Host School” that started the online class work and assigned it to someone else.

3.  NEW! Course Type – due to some schools wanting to use licenses as credit recovery only and other requests, we have added a “Course Type” drop down to Step 1. Selecting a course type identifies the type of student access licensing that will be required for the instructional aspect of the class. It is a mandatory field.

  1. As seen in Figure 6, there are three types of courses you can select from, and there is detailed help information in the blue (?) button shown in Figure 7. Here is that information in detail:
  1. Default -- Full iLearnNYC Class: – select this course type if the teacher(s) and student(s) in this class will be using the full suite of features on the iLearnNYC Platform provided by the Desire2Learn (D2L) software for a non credit recovery courses. Examples of platform features include new course creation / course management, online rooms, content management, e-portfolio and many others.
  2. Most schools should select this course type if they want to use the features in the D2L platform.
  3. You should select this if you are creating a NON credit recovery (i.e. core, elective, language, etc) course.
  4. Credit Recovery Class – select this course type if the teacher(s) and student(s) in this class are participating in a credit recovery only course.
  5. Only select this if every student in the course will be using the course as a credit recovery class.
  6. Pass Through Class – select this course type if teacher(s) and student(s) in this class will notrequirethe full suite of features on the iLearnNYC Platform provided by the Desire2Learn (D2L) software. Users will still need to access the courses through the platformbut the features will be disabled.
  7. Only select this if every student in the course will not be using the D2L platform tools and will simply be using the iLearnNYC platform to access a third-party content vendor. An example would be access to an Apex or Compass course, as those vendors use their own Learning Management Systems.
  8. Keep in mind that you still need to create an online class in the Admin Console for this type of access, and users will still need to go to www.ilearnnyc.net and login to the D2L platform to go to a course “shell” that then takes them to an external vendor’s site.
  9. The user path to that other system will be seamless because we have instituted single-sign-on (SSO) which means the users will not have to login again to the next system.
  10. Please note: all course type selections will currently deduct a full student license or “D2L” license. Credits fornon full student license use will beappliedon or aroundlate Septemberand will be real timeafter then. You will receive further information on this in late September, but for now please select a course type so we can credit you later.