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Exploring the Student View of Mastery Connect    Student Assessment Experience Students can easily access their assessments through Mastery Connect or through Canvas, once the teacher has made the assessment available to them.  Mastery Connect Users Students can go to masteryconnect.com or use the school/district single-sign portal to access Mastery Connect.  The home page will display a stream of assessments from all of the student’s current courses. Any assessment a student has not started or completed will be noted as Start Assessment. Clicking Start Assessment will take the student directly to the assessment. In the assessment, students can easily toggle between questions and access any test tools that have been enabled. When the student completes the assessment, they select Finish in the upper right hand corner. Canvas + Mastery Connect Users Students can go to instructure.com or use the school/district single-sign portal to access Canvas. When using the Canvas + Mastery Connect Integration, each Canvas course has its own mastery tracker. After opening a Canvas course, students can select Assignments from the course navigation bar. Locate the Mastery Connect assessment and click it. This will direct the student to the assessment within the Canvas experience.  In the assessment, students can easily toggle between questions and access any test tools that have been enabled. When the student completes the assessment, they select Finish in the upper right hand corner. Features in the Student View  Students can view their progress towards mastery in each of their courses. This is a great way to get students involved in their learning, as well as keeping parents informed. Mastery Connect Users Select the Classes tab. Click a class from the list of trackers. From the sub navigation bar click Progress. This will display student’s progress towards mastery on each standard in the course. On the right-hand side the student will see what percentage of the standards assessed they have mastered, as well as be able to view reports.  Students can expand each standard to preview their progress across several assessments. Select an assessment, and if the teacher has enabled the student to see the assessment, they can toggle between the Assessment, Student Answers, and Item Analysis tabs.  Canvas + Mastery Connect Users Select Mastery Tracker from within a Canvas course’s navigation bar. This will display student’s progress towards mastery on each standard in the course. On the right-hand side the student will see what percentage of the standards assessed they have mastered, as well as be able to view reports.  Students can expand each standard to preview their progress across several assessments. Select an assessment, and if the teacher has enabled the student to see the assessment, they can toggle between the Assessment, Student Answers, and Item Analysis tabs.  Student Access to Assessments  Teachers control what pieces of assessments the students have access to after submitting. They also control when students gain access. Mastery Connect users and Canvas + Mastery Connect users adjust the settings the same way. However, Canvas + Mastery Connect users can also change this setting in a secondary way, described below. All Users: Changing Privacy Settings from the Mastery Tracker From the main tracker screen locate the assignment you would like to change the access to. Hover over the name and select View from the drop down menu. Select the Privacy tab. The teacher can choose to adjust access to the Assessment, Answer Key, Item Analysis, and Student Answers here. Click Save. Canvas + Mastery Connect Users: Changing Privacy Settings from the Assignment Select Assignments from the Canvas course navigation bar. Click the assignment you wish to change the privacy settings for. Select the Privacy tab. The teacher can choose to adjust access to the Assessment, Answer Key, Item Analysis, and Student Answers here. Click Save. PRO TIP: After a class or group of students have completed an assessment, give your students access to the assessment and their answers. Have students review the assessment and their answers. Ask students to look at the questions they answered incorrectly and analyze the questions and answers. Challenge them to determine the correct answer and their misconception.    FINAL THOUGHTS To truly leverage the full capability of Mastery Connect, we must involve our students in the data process. Within Mastery Connect, students have access to monitor their own progress towards mastery. Providing students the opportunity to see their growth generates student agency, while also giving them specific areas to focus on.  Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you! Our Mastery Services team provides expert professional development, strategic consulting, and alternative options designed to support the vision, goals, and adoption of Mastery products. If you would like to learn more about our services check out our Professional Development Options and contact your CSM for more information! Also don't forget to watch the Video Blog about this post as well!      ... View more

TRACKER CREATION Mastery Connect provides two primary methods for creating new trackers: From a new standard set From a curriculum map Creating a Tracker From a Curriculum Map Click on the Courses tab in the global navigation Select the published course you wish to link a mastery tracker to Select Mastery Tracker in the course navigation Select Link Mastery Tracker In the Select Source drop-down menu select Create a new Tracker from a Curriculum Map Select the appropriate map Select Link CANVAS ASSIGNMENT SETTINGS Mastery Connect Assessments in Canvas When an assessment is added to your mastery tracker, a Canvas assignment is created automatically. You can adjust the Canvas assignment settings by: Click on the auto-generated Canvas assignment Click Edit Assignment Settings in the top right corner Scroll to the Assign section Assignments can be set to be available to groups of students at different times by using the Add button DUPLICATING COURSE CONTENT A common Canvas practice is to copy course content from a previous course and reuse the content in a new course. However, it is important to check if the course contains Mastery Connect assignments prior to linking the new tracker. If Mastery Connect assignments exist after duplicating the course, we recommend completing the following steps before setting up the new tracker: After course content has been copied into the new course shell, click Assignments in the course navigation menu Look over the list of assignments for any that contain the Mastery logo and delete these assignments To delete these assignments, locate the three dots at the end of each of the Mastery Connect assignments and select Delete Repeat this process until all previous assignments have been deleted Now you are ready to connect the new tracker to the Canvas course PRO TIP: If your Canvas course archives at the change of a semester, you can link a tracker from the first semester course and continue to track your students’ progress towards mastery. In the Select Source drop down, select the Link a Tracker from another Course option. This will provide you a list of trackers to choose from. TEACHER ACCESS In order to make the Mastery Connect + Canvas integration as seamless as possible, teachers should use their district provided email as their Canvas primary email. The Mastery Connect integration currently utilizes this as the method to identify the teacher and connect them to their Mastery Connect account. Confirming Your Canvas Email In Canvas, select Account in the Canvas global navigation Select Settings In Settings, the email will be listed in the upper right corner The primary email will be indicated by the star next to the address ACCESS FOR CO-TEACHERS Previously, co-teachers had to be manually added as collaborators to a tracker. However, now any person listed as a teacher in a Canvas course will automatically have access to the course tracker. In the Mastery Connect + Canvas integration, the teacher of record is the only one who can create the tracker Any new co-teacher users added to the course will automatically be added as collaborators to the tracker If a co-teacher needs to be removed as a collaborator, this can be done by assigning them a different role in the course (observer, etc.) FINAL THOUGHTS Applying some of these best practices can help ensure you are leveraging the Mastery Connect + Canvas integration in a seamless, user-friendly way that will support your instructional goals for your classroom! Our Mastery Services team provides expert professional development, strategic consulting, and alternative options designed to support the vision, goals, and adoption of Mastery products. If you would like to learn more about our services check out our Professional Development Options and contact your CSM for more information! Don't forget to watch the Blog Video about this post and we would love to hear from you, so please comment below! ... View more

TEACHER REPORTS IN MASTERY CONNECT | FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT DATA In the Mastery Tracker, teachers will see formative assessment data as well as Mastery View Predictive Assessment (benchmark) data.  All the colors you see are from students’ progress towards mastery of standards on the most recent formative assessment given.  We can dive more into this data by viewing assessment level reports. PRO TIP: Show your students the Item Analysis Report for an assessment and have them consider why a wrong answer was selected by multiple students. What was their misconception? Make the students become data analysts!   ACCESSING ASSESSMENT DATA | REPORTS Single-Standard Click the standard you wish to view data for to open the standard Hover over the assessment you wish to see a report for Click on Reports Multi-Standard Hover over the multi-standard assessment you wish to view a report for from the main Tracker view Click on Reports MVPA (Benchmark) Hover over the MVPA (benchmark) assessment you wish to view a report for from the main Tracker view Click on Reports PRO TIP: If multiple teachers in your school deliver the same formative assessment, consider using the “Teacher Comparison” tab under reports in your planning meetings to exchange strategies and ideas!    Benchmark Compare Tool Accessing the Benchmark Compare Tool  The Benchmark Compare Tool allows teachers to view mastery levels from formative assessments and Benchmark assessments side-by-side. This is a quick way for teachers to monitor student progress in their class and on the MVPA (benchmark). Hover over the MVPA (benchmark) assessment you wish to turn on the compare tool for from the main Tracker view Click on Compare Turn off the Compare tool using these same steps PRO TIP: Use the Benchmark Compare feature to ensure students’ mastery levels are consistent across your own formative assessments and the Mastery View Predictive Assessments. If you see a discrepancy for a student, dive in and see why there is a disconnect.   FINAL THOUGHTS Using Mastery Connect reports to supplement Mastery View Predictive Assessment reports can help teachers to make informed instructional decisions to meet the needs of their students! Doing so provides teachers with great insights into students’ progress towards mastery of the standards, helping to target instruction and interventions in the classroom.  Please comment below. We’d love to hear from you! Our Mastery Services team provides expert professional development, strategic consulting, and alternative options designed to support the vision, goals, and adoption of Mastery products. If you would like to learn more about our services check out our Professional Development Options and contact your CSM for more information! Also don't forget to watch the Video Blog about this post as well!  ... View more