I am so excited to tell you about what’s happening with campuslearning.com! Not only is it already a place for teachers to get all kinds of important information, but it is just gonna keep getting better.
Just for teachers
Infinite Campus does a lot. Teachers use just a part of it. Counselors, administrators, office staff, lunchroom staff, and others use the other parts. If you want information on posting grades, for example, you don’t want to sift through information for all the different parts of Campus. You just want stuff for teachers. That’s what campuslearning.com is all about. It’s a place for teachers to find what they need to make the most of Campus, fast. Because it’s way more important that you spend as much time as you can with your students instead of looking for the Campus info you need.
Share with your colleagues
When you find information important to your work, it should be easy to share it with your PLC or other colleagues – and it is! You have quick access along the left side to share what you find on campuslearning.com through social media, email, and other ways. If a question comes up during a meeting and you find the documentation to show the whole team how to answer it, you can share it right from the page!
What’s there
The site is organized into six major sections. I’ll explain what they each do plus show you a few other features.
Understand Campus
This is the big one! It’s so big, there are two places on the main page to access it – from the Understand Campus section and from the Header.
This is where you can learn how to use Campus. Whether you have a specific question or just want to learn more about what Campus offers you, this is the place to go.
When you click on Understand Campus, you go right to a search menu. From the search menu, you can choose a tool from the drop down list or simply type some keywords and review the results. Say you want to learn how to create a discussion. When you type in “create discussion,” 13 results come back.
Notice the icons that appear with each result. You can choose how to learn about the topic. The icons represent:
Simulation
Video
Documentation
Notice also that you can change the results to only show older records to reflect functionality for older versions of Campus.
If you are running an older version of Campus, it might be frustrating to see results that aren’t applicable. Using the dropdown, indicate the version of Campus you are using to get the best results. Not sure what version you are on? Click here to learn how to find out.
Release Notes
The other thing I want to draw your attention to in the Header is the link for Release Notes.
When something new comes out in Campus that affects teachers, it will be listed here. When you click Release Notes, you will see the most recent version’s update at the top and older Notes below.
Each entry is identified both by date and version number. You can scroll down to see the release notes in order from most recent or you can navigate by clicking on specific dates along the left side. Each entry gives a summary of the changes and the title of most will be a link for more information.
Events and Opportunities
We always want your feedback, which is why there are several places within Campus where you see a feedback button. If you like giving feedback, usability testing is another way to do it. Usability testing takes a few different forms, but generally speaking, you are scheduled into an appointment and are shown something new. You are asked to complete a few tasks using the new software and talk through your thinking as you do so. This can be done remotely, so you can be anywhere it is quiet and has an internet connection, and still participate. These sessions normally take up to an hour and you are compensated for your time with a gift card. More information is available at the link, including a FAQ section.
If you are interested in usability testing, sign up. When a development team is ready to test something with teachers, they look through the list of people who have registered. Sometimes they are looking for specific types of teachers – say elementary. Or maybe they want a mix so they look for a couple from elementary, a couple from middle school years and couple high school teachers. The team then sends out invitations to participate. If you are available and interested, they will get you scheduled.
It is possible to be invited more than once – depending on the needs of the development teams.
What’s new?
The What’s new? section is just what it sounds like. There are several topics to look through and click on for a video or more information.
Teachers On Campus blog
That’s a link to this blog. It’s an easy place to go to share the link out to your colleagues or to check in every couple of weeks if you haven’t subscribed yet. (Or you could just subscribe and then you don’t have to worry about it!) On average, I post something every other week. You will only get an email when something posts – I promise this blog will never spam you!
Social Media
Check Infinite Campus out on Facebook and Twitter to see company updates, announcements, events and other happenings.
Campus Community
There’s also a quick link to Campus Community. In addition to all the resources available in the Understand Campus section, you can visit Campus Community. Here, you can access all resources in the Knowledge Base – for teachers AND counselors, administrators, office staff, lunchroom staff, etc. – everything. Plus you have access to Forums and news.
Campus Community is chock–full of information. It is a great place if you want to know the ins and outs of all parts of Infinite Campus, or if you wear multiple hats in your district and you need to know about more aspects of Campus than what you use in your teaching role.
More is coming
There’s a lot to investigate at campuslearning.com – and there’s more to come! We are already planning more resources for teachers but could use your ideas too. What do you need? How can we make this site better for teachers? Leave a message on this post or use the Contact tab to send me your feedback. I look forward to hearing from you!