Student User Guide. higherl, LLC Page 1

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1 Student User Guide higherl, LLC Page 1

2 higherl LMS Student User Guide Version K, 10/15 Introduction... 3 System Requirements... 3 Homepage... 4 Registering with the higherl LMS... 4 Course Code... 5 Logging In... 5 Account/Course Management... 5 Course Organization... 7 Content... 8 Course Navigation Assignments & Tests Assignments Tests Taking Tests Practice Quiz Viewing Test Results Types of Tests Types of Test Questions Grades Copyright 2010 higherl higherl, LLC Page 2

3 Introduction The higherl LMS is an online, affordable, hands-on assessment and training tool designed to engage you through a visually appealing and intuitive interface. The higherl LMS complements your printed textbook and helps ensure that you master the skills taught. This guide is designed to help you use the higherl learning platform. It provides an overview of the higherl LMS, as well as detailed information on content, assignments/tests, and grading. System Requirements The higherl LMS is completely web hosted, so you can access it from any web browser on any computer. The following table lists the programs required for viewing the various files and content. higherl LMS System Requirements Requirement Web browser Adobe Acrobat Reader or Pro Adobe Flash Player Microsoft Word 2003 or Word 2003 Viewer (or higher) Details Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or higher Apple Safari 2.0 or higher Google Chrome 4.0 or higher America Online 7.0 or higher Netscape Communicator 6.0 or higher Needed to open the overview PowerPoint presentations, which are saved as PDF files for optimal viewing regardless of web browser Needed to view simulation, hotspot, sequence, and matching questions, as well as video tutorials Needed to view various supplementary files, such as instructor handouts The optimal screen resolution for the higherl LMS is at least 1280 x 768 pixels. This setting will allow you to view the test questions without having to scroll. If you choose a different resolution, you can still view the test questions, but you may have to scroll down to see any given question in its entirety. Tip! Set your resolution as high as possible for optimal viewing. higherl, LLC Page 3

4 Homepage Access the higherl LMS by going to The higherl LMS homepage has been carefully designed to be as easy to use as possible. Registering with the higherl LMS You register with the higherl LMS so you can access the course material. Registering with the higherl LMS is easy and only takes a few minutes. Your account will be activated immediately after you register. If your instructor provides you with a link to their course, click the link to go to the higherl LMS homepage to begin the registration process. Tip! Your instructor will give you the course link or a course code. Choose Student/Learner as the Account Type. higherl, LLC Page 4

5 Note the mandatory fields. Your form will not be accepted until all mandatory fields are filled in. Tip! Choose a password that you will remember and that is between five and sixteen characters. Click the Create My Account button after you have filled out the form completely. Next, click the click here link to add your course. The next screen to appear is the Add Courses screen. Enter the course code provided by your instructor and click Submit. Information about your course will appear, such as the course name, course ID, course section, and course instructor. A box to enter your license key will also appear. Type or paste in your license key (purchased or provided by your instructor) and click Add Course. Course Code Your instructor will give you your course code, perhaps in the form of an message. Contact your instructor if you do not have your course code. Tip! If you have already registered your account, simply log in to the higherl LMS and click the click here link to add the course code and license key. Logging In Once you have registered with the higherl LMS, you can log in to access your course at any time. After you click the Submit button, you will be sent to the My Courses page. Any course(s) for which you are registered will appear in the main content window. Account/Course Management Enter your address and password, and click Submit. Notice the Account & Course Management options on the left hand navigation bar. Here, you can edit your personal profile, change your higherl LMS account password, and view, add, or drop courses. higherl, LLC Page 5

6 Updating Your Account/Course Management Information Details Task View your courses Click the My Courses link under Account Management. A list of all the courses for which you are registered in the higherl LMS will appear in the main My Courses window. Add a course Click the Add Courses link under Course Management. Enter the course code provided by your instructor. Click Submit. Enter the license key you purchased or provided by your instructor. Click Add Course. Drop a course Click the Drop Courses link under Course Management. Follow the prompts. Update your profile Click the My Profile link under Account Management. Click the Edit button. Update the information as necessary, making sure to complete all mandatory fields. Click Update to commit your changes, or click Cancel to return to the My Account/Course Management page. Change your password Click the Change Password link under Account Management. Enter your current password. Enter your new password in the two indicated boxes. Click Submit to commit your changes, or click Cancel to return to the My Account/Course Management page. higherl, LLC Page 6

7 Course Organization On the My Courses page, each course for which you are enrolled appears surrounded by a rectangular box. Within each course box are five default links: Info, Content, Assignments, Tests, and Grades. This section of the user guide will explain these five areas of the higherl LMS. Tip! The first time you click one of the last four default links, a new browser window will open. This is the only time this will happen. higherl, LLC Page 7

8 Content The Content area is designed to complement and enhance your printed book. First, notice the navigation pane on the left side of the screen. Click the blue Button links to view associated lessons and their content. When you click a Button link on the navigation bar, the associated lessons will appear in the main window. Click the icon or the lesson title to expand the lesson content, which may include some or all of the following items depending on what your instructor makes available to you: Files: PowerPoint presentations, Handouts, spreadsheets, videos, and audio. Web resources: If applicable, links to helpful and interesting information on the web. Quizzes and Assignments higherl, LLC Page 8

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10 Course Navigation The Content area of the higherl LMS features breadcrumb-style navigation. You can always navigate back to the main content of a course or to the higherl LMS homepage using the breadcrumbs in the top, orange bar. Return to the unit content page, with no lesson content expanded. Return to the unit content page, get help with elab, or log out of your current session. Return to the unit content page, with the current lesson content expanded. Once you enter the Assignments, Tests and Grades area, the higherl LMS switches to tabbed navigation. Tabs Here, Grades is the active (blue) tab. higherl, LLC Page 10

11 Assignments & Tests Clicking on either the Assignments or Tests link will allow you to access various assignments, practice exercises, homework tasks, tests, and quizzes. Assignments You can sort the Assignments tables by any column in either ascending or descending order. In the preceding figure, assignments are listed in ascending order by the Heading column. Notice that the table lists the assignment title and type, the date you can begin submitting the assignment (but you can view the assignment and begin working prior to that date), the date it is due from you, and any late submission date allowed. It also indicates whether or not you have submitted your work and your grade (when it is available). Tip! Begin working on an assignment as soon as it is posted. Only submit beginning on the Date Available date. Take a look at the Submit Assignment column. The Missed notation indicates that the due, late, or resubmission date for this assignment has passed. If you see the Missed note, you can no longer submit your assignment. The Submit Assignment notation indicates that an assignment can be submitted. Click the blue link under the Assignment Title column to view details about your assignment. Finally, the View Submission notation indicates that the assignment has been submitted by you. The Grade column will show you your grade or display an NG, indicating that the assignment has not been graded. You may resubmit an assignment already submitted if your instructor has not graded it and the due date or late submission date has not passed. To access your assignments, click the blue hyperlink in the Assignment Title column. Tip! In the higherl LMS, all blue text indicates a hyperlink. higherl, LLC Page 11

12 All assignments posted by your instructor will appear in your Assignments list. Pay attention to the Date Available column. While you can fully access an assignment before the date specified, you cannot submit it to your instructor prior to the Date Available. Assignment details This assignment has two files attached, as you can see in the Assignment Files section in the preceding illustration. Up to five files may be included with your assignments. Click the link to access (open or download) the file. To begin work on the above assignment, student Wayne clicks the blue text (hyperlink) under the Assignment Title column. This gives him a description of the assignment and access to any attached files. Wayne can choose to type his answer(s) in the Student Notes box and/or upload his prepared solution files. higherl, LLC Page 12

13 Type your response here. Upload files. If he chooses to upload files, he selects the number of files from the drop-down menu, clicks the Browse button, and locates the file. The default name in the Filename box will be the exact name of the file. Wayne can change this filename if he wishes. When he s ready, he clicks Save to upload his assignment submission. Assignments are graded by your instructor, not automatically in the higherl LMS. However, your instructor may set the system to give you the default number of points just for completing an assignment. In this case, you will receive credit automatically. Your instructor may also choose to give you personal feedback on your work. For this assignment, Wayne s instructor set the higherl LMS to give the default number of points. As soon as he uploads his files, the higherl LMS awards him the points. higherl, LLC Page 13

14 Tip! If you see NG under the Grade column, then your instructor has not yet graded your assignment. NG stands for Not Graded. Wayne can click the View Submission link to see if his instructor has left feedback. No feedback higherl, LLC Page 14

15 Instructor feedback Your instructor may attach your file with feedback entered directly in the file. If she did so, this file will be located in the Instructor Files field. You will have a record of the file you submitted and a marked up file by your instructor for each assignment attempt. Did you notice the Resubmit button in the preceding illustrations? Your instructor may allow you to resubmit your assignment in certain cases, and she may allow you to resubmit more than once. To resubmit an assignment from the Assignment Information page, choose the number of files to upload, browse to your saved files, and click the Resubmit button. higherl, LLC Page 15

16 Accessing Assignments Task Details Access an assignment Click the hyperlink in the Assignment Title column. Read the text and follow the instructions in the Description section. If files are attached, download them by clicking the blue hyperlinks. Click the Back button to return to the assignment list. Submit an assignment Access the assignment using the above procedure. Select the number of files to be uploaded (up to five) from the drop-down list. Click the Browse button to navigate to the location on your computer where you saved your files. Enter a name for each of your files in the Filename field. Click the Save button. The higherl LMS will leave you a note at the top of the page when your submission is successfully uploaded. View a submitted assignment Click the View Submission link in the Submit Assignment column of the Assignments table. Read the text; your grade is listed at the bottom of the table. Your grade is also listed in the Grade column of the Assignments List. Access your original submission file and the instructor s marked-up version of your submission (if applicable). Click the Cancel button to return to the assignment list. If resubmissions are allowed, upload your files and click Resubmit. higherl, LLC Page 16

17 Tests The Tests table functions much like the Assignments table. It is where you access your tests and your test results. In the preceding figure, Wayne has sorted the tests in ascending order by test name. Wayne has already taken several of the tests, and has done quite well. To start the Lesson 3 test, he would simply click the Start Test link. Notice the View Attempts links. Wayne can click these links to get details about his performance on the individual tests. See the Viewing Test Results section for more details on this feature. Taking Tests When you click the Start Test link for a test, you are taken to an opening page that describes the details of the test. You can read the description and decide if you want to begin the test at that time or at a later date. For fixed duration tests (tests with a time limit), time begins as soon as you click the Start button. Tip! Only click the Start button when you re fully ready to begin taking a test. At the top of every test question page is a series of navigation buttons. Use these buttons to move from question to question, to save answers, and to submit your tests. This test has four questions and the student is currently viewing question number two. Notice the GO TO button. Clicking on this button opens a box and displays all of the questions in the higherl, LLC Page 17

18 test. To go to a specific question, click on its title. There is also a legend which explains the status of each question. If you want to view only the questions that were not answered yet, you can select that choice under the legend. Move through the test and complete each question in sequential order by clicking the Next button after answering a question. The higherl LMS will automatically save your answer. If you choose to skip around in the test, you can either click Next/Previous as desired, or you can click the GO TO button and click the title of the question. When you get to the last question (which might be a True/False or Multiple Choice type), select your answer and when you are ready to submit the test, click the Submit Test button. Important! You must click Submit after completing a hotspot, simulation, matching, or sequence question. If you do not click Submit and instead click Next, you will be allotted zero (0) points for the question regardless of your performance. higherl, LLC Page 18

19 Practice Quiz To help you get acclimated to taking tests in the higherl LMS, your instructor may have created a practice quiz. It is located under the Tests link. This practice quiz includes each one of the available test question types and it asks very simple higherl-lms-related questions. This quiz is designed to get you comfortable in taking tests in the LMS and not to test your knowledge on computer-related subjects. You can take this practice quiz as many times as you like and whenever you like. Your results do not affect your course grade. Viewing Test Results Depending on how your instructor sets up your tests, you will receive different information about your tests. You may receive this information immediately or after all students have taken the test, depending on your instructor s preference. At the top of the screen, you get a recap of the test details. Below that is a table that shows the number of attempts, total possible/total earned points, as well as the percentage grade. You can get even more information by clicking the View link. Here is just a portion of a test answer table for students. For True/False and Multiple-Choice questions, the correct answer is identified. The Feedback column shows the page in the book wherein the topic of the question was discussed. higherl, LLC Page 19

20 Types of Tests There are two types of tests in the higherl LMS: open tests and fixed-duration tests. Open tests are always available and may or may not have a time limit set. Fixed-duration tests are available at a specific date and time, and must be completed within the time limit set by your instructor. A note about time limits is important here. If the end time of a one-hour test is, for example, 5:00 pm, you may begin taking the test as late as 4:59 pm and still have the full sixty minutes to complete the test. If an unforeseen occurrence happens (for example, a lost Internet connection or a computer stall) while you are taking a test, you cannot restart the test from the beginning. However, you can pick up where you left off later. If the test has a time limit, note that the timer will still be running despite the fact that you were ejected from elab. If you do not have enough time to complete the test in such a situation, your instructor can reset the test for you. Types of Test Questions The higherl LMS includes five main types of questions: True/False and Multiple Choice Sequence Matching Hotspot Flash Simulation True/False and Multiple Choice: You have one attempt to complete each of these questions types, but you can change your answers multiple times before committing your final answers. higherl, LLC Page 20

21 Sequence: In sequence questions, you drag and drop the steps needed to complete a task into the proper order. You have one attempt to complete these questions. Once you click the Continue button in the Task Description window, you must complete the question in its entirety. You cannot skip to another question and then return to the previous question. Remember to click Submit after you have completed each of these questions. Tip! Click the Continue button in the Task Description window only when you are truly ready to complete the question. higherl, LLC Page 21

22 Matching: In matching questions, you match the items in the two columns by dragging and dropping the item in the left column to the appropriate item in the right column, or by entering the item letter in the right column to the appropriate box in the left column. You have one attempt to complete each of these questions. Once you click the Continue button in the Task Description window, you must complete the question in its entirety. You cannot skip to another question and then return to the previous question. Remember to click Submit after you have completed each of these questions. Tip! Click the Continue button in the Task Description window only when you are truly ready to complete the question. higherl, LLC Page 22

23 Hotspot: In hotspot questions, you complete a short task in an application. Hotspot questions are designed to give you a realistic computer environment. You click buttons, menu items, etc. on the screen just as you would in the application. Unless specifically stated otherwise in the Task Description, you can use any path available in the application to complete the task (for example, menu commands or keystrokes). You have two attempts per step or task within each question. Once you click the Continue button in the Task Description window, you must complete the question in its entirety and cannot change your answers. Remember to click Submit after you have completed each of these questions. Tip! Click the Continue button in the Task Description window only when you are truly ready to complete the question. higherl, LLC Page 23

24 Simulation: Simulation questions are designed to give you a realistic computer environment. You click buttons and menu items, select text, etc. in the simulation just as you would on your computer. Unless specifically stated otherwise in the Task Description of how to accomplish the task, you can use any path available in the application to complete it (for example, menu commands or keystrokes). You have three opportunities to complete the task presented. Once you click the Continue button in the Task Description window, you must complete the question in its entirety and cannot skip to another question and then return to the previous question. In simulation questions, the Task Description window can be moved around or minimized to give more visibility to the screen. Remember to click Submit after you have completed each of these questions. Tip! Click the Continue button in the Task Description window only when you are truly ready to complete the question. higherl, LLC Page 24

25 Grades Click the Grades link to access your grades on assignments and tests, and your final course grade if your instructor chooses this option. Tests are graded automatically in the higherl LMS. Assignments, however, are graded by your instructor. Your assignment grades will be posted as soon as your instructor inputs them, if she decides to post them for students. Following is a sample gradebook for a student (Wayne) still taking a course. In this course, there are 7 Concept Review Quizzes, one extra-credit assignment, three homework assignments, one lab assignment, three lesson tests, and one unit test. Assignments and tests that have not been completed yet are marked with dashes (---). NG stands for Not Graded. Notice that Wayne can see his average for each category, as well as his current grade for the course. Clearly Wayne wants to complete the Concepts Review quizzes to up his final grade! Tip! You can print your gradebook. Just click the Print button at the bottom of the page. higherl, LLC Page 25