Student access: Creating groups
An important feature of this site is the ability to give students access to the materials available on this site. This includes critical thinking activities, writing samples, and revision materials.
You can choose to make content on the site available to your students as you like. The textbook and the key studies for the core are automatically available to all students - there is no need to select these pages for students to view.
To give them access is pretty simple. Just follow the steps below.
Giving students access to the Inthinking site
Step 1: Go to the homepage. Click on "Student access." Then click on the purple "my groups" icon on the left-hand side.
Step 2: Click the green button in the top right corner that says "new group." Give your group an appropriate name and description and then press next.
Step 3: Invite students to the page.
When you finish selecting materials for the site, you will be able to invite students to your site. Simply give them the link that is generated. You should also check "Send active assignments" so that any assignments from the site that you would like them to complete will be sent to their email address. You can return to the group and retrieve the link at any time by clicking on "invite or manage students".
You should now have a web link to give your students. They will use this link to set up their account and join your class.
Step 4. In order to assign pages, there are two options.
Before you start to think about what to share with students, remember that the textbook and all of the core "key studies" under student resources are already available to them without having to select anything. As schools choose different options and different topics within the options, these pages are not all available to students. This is done to keep the site manageable for students.
In order to share pages, one way is to use the page manager. This is available when you open the group in student access. Click on student manager and you will see all of the pages you could share with your students.
The resources in grey (e.g. teacher resources) are not sharable with students. Sometimes you will find marking guidance for a quiz under teacher resources; there will be a copy of the quiz under student resources for their access.
The blue pages are automatically shared with students. You do not need to do anything. Finally, all of the orange pages are sharable.
Once you have selected some pages, press "save."
You can always come back and add more pages.
The second way that you can share pages is not on the student access page, but on the page you want to share.
Let's say that I want to share the presentation on health promotion strategies with my students. If you look at the top right-hand column, you will see an orange box called "Student access tools." Click on the arrow to open the box.
You will see a list of all of your classes. If the lock is red, that means that the page is not shared with that group. If there is an x in the first box (see "test"), that means that no students are yet enrolled in the group.
Simply clicking on the red lock makes it available to the group. In addition, the symbol to the right of the lock allows you to copy the link for your students to post for homework. You may also click on "set as task" which will automatically send out the task for your students to complete. In this case, the task would simply be to read through the presentation.
What does it look like for students?
When students navigate to the group invitation URL, they first see this page.
If they have a Thinkib.net account already because your school subscribes to another subject, students can log in with their existing account. It will add Psychology to their list of groups. Otherwise, students fill in a bit of information to create a new account.
Once students have joined the group there is only one URL to remember. This will get students to their student dashboard with links to all Inthinking sites in which they are enrolled.
Common questions
What if I have already created a group but forgot the link?
If you have forgotten the link, go back and open the group. When you do this, you will see a list of students in your class. Click on Manage Students and then on "invite students." You will see the link again.
What if I want to add more content for students?
To change the settings of a group or manage the students simply click "student access" at any time and click the group name. Click on "Add/Edit Content." Then select more pages and choose "save."