The start of the new academic year can be a hectic period. To help make the Sowiso setup as easy as possible, we created a checklist for you. Follow the 5 steps to make sure that you have everything ready for the new academic year!
Create a new class
In the new Teacher environment
Go to Settings-Overview, and under "Manage classes" choose "New class".
Fill in the class name and the end date. Additionally, you can copy over users, groups, course materials, tests or settings from your old class. This will save you some time, so try to reuse what's possible.
2. Review the course material
You might want to keep exactly the same course material you had the year before. In that case, you can skip this step. If you would like to review your course material, go to Teacher-Course material.
On the left side of the screen you will see all the chapters that are currently in your class, so all the chapters that your students will see once they start logging in. On the right side are all the materials that are available to you. These aren't necessarily all the Sowiso materials, you can always check our website for the most recent information.
❗Please note: if you add more materials to your class this might result in a price increase.
❗If you are using products: your course material needs to be set up well before the start of your academic year. Changing the setup in the course material tab might lead to your students not having access to the new chapters you added after we have created the products. Visit this article to learn more about how the store and products work.
3. Set up your tests and assignments
If you copied over your tests and assignments from the previous year, all the date settings will stay the same as they were in the previous year. Make sure to change the time settings on all your tests and assignments so that your students can access them during the relevant academic year.
Read this article for detailed instructions, or watch a quick video:
4. Share the access code with your students
If you are ready to start inviting your students to the new class, first decide if you wish to sort your students into groups. If you create groups first, you can easily invite your students into specific groups within your class. To create groups, go to Teacher-Groups-New group. For detailed instructions on how to create and manage your groups, visit this article.
Watch a quick video:
To start adding your students, go to Users-Add user. Here you can add users:
Manually (use the search bar on the left to search for names one by one).
By using a "short" Access code (for users who already have a Sowiso account and need to be added to the new class).
By using a "long" Access code (for users who still need to create their Sowiso account and need to be added to the new class).
When using the long Access code, you will have a few options to choose from.
Self-registration link - this link allows students to log in directly on the cloud, using their email and password they chose. If you don't have any integration in place, please use this option.
SSO (Single Sign On) registration link - this option allows students to sign in either by using an LMS (Moodle, Brightspace, Canvas, Blackboard, etc) or by using SURF Conext.
Note: It is not possible to have a link to an LMS and a link to SURF Conext active at the same time.
Example of an LTI Access code
Example of a SURF Conext Access code
Whether you are using groups or not, you can add the access code to your email or the learning management system (LMS, such as Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace, etc). Make sure to always use the access code consistently so that your students all log in using the same access code.
5. Archive your old classes and links
Now that your new class is set up, you can clean up the old classes that you won't be using anymore. By archiving your old classes, you will remove them from your menu view, but you won't permanently delete them. If needed, you can recover the classes in the future.
Learn how you can archive a class in the new teacher environment by reading this article, and for the old teacher environment, visit this article.
❕Tip: Remove the old access codes from your LMS, to avoid confusion.