Frequently Asked Questions

Technical Issues that Explain why my Student Cannot Move On

1. If the student was idle and was logged off they would not be able to move on.
2. If there was a loss to their internet connection, they would not be able to move on.
3. If a question was added to a Bright Thinker lesson and the lesson’s HTML frame was not also updated, the student might receive a message to answer a question that they cannot see. For example, if the HTML question frame allows 7 questions to be seen and an 8th question was added, the student could not view the 8th question to complete the assessment. If the 8th question is deleted or the question frame is updated, the student will be able to successfully complete a new attempt. The setting to Answer All Questions can also be temporarily turned off to allow the student to advance.

Other reasons why my Student Cannot Move On

Gated Assessments:  When lessons are gated (meaning, students must complete lessons in order to move on) students must adhere to different completion rules.

• If an auto-scored assessment’s completion is set to passing score and the student does not earn the set passing score, they cannot advance. The teacher can click Override Complete or Allow Retry in the gradebook for the student to move on or redo the assessment.
• If an assessment contains teacher-graded questions and its completion is set to passing score, the assessment must be graded by the teacher. If the student does not earn the set passing score, they cannot move on. The teacher can click Override Complete or Allow Retry in the gradebook for the student to move on or redo the assessment.
• If the assessment’s completion is set to Any Score and it contains teacher-graded questions, the assessment needs to be graded by the teacher for the student to move on. The teacher can still click Override Complete or Allow Retry in the gradebook for the student to move on or redo the assessment.

Assignments with Dropbox for Submission

• If an assignment is set to Submission, the student should type in the DropBox/comment box and/or attach a file(s) then click the submit button to move on. 
• If the assignment is set to Passing Score. The student should type in the DropBox/comment box and/or attach a file(s) then click the submit button. The student can move on after the assignment is graded by the teacher and earns a passing score. The teacher can click Override Complete or Allow Retry in the gradebook for the student to move on or redo the assignment.
• If the assignment is gated and set to Any score. The student should type in the DropBox/comment box and/or attach a file(s) then click the submit button. The student can move on after the assignment is graded by the teacher and earns any score. The teacher can click Override Complete or Allow Retry in the gradebook for the student to move on or redo the assignment.
• If a gradable assignment was set to Submission yet no Dropbox is provided the student cannot move on until the submission option is changed from None to any other option.

Non-gradable Assignments

• If the non-graded assignment is gated and completion is set to minutes, the student will be required to be in the assignment for the allotted time in order to move on. If the time is set to 0 minutes, students should be able to click and move on. If the assignment is set to 1 minute, the student needs to be in the assignment for at least 30 seconds to move on. The system rounds up and 0.5 minutes will count as a minute. If the assignment is set to 2 minutes, 1.5 minutes will round up.
• If the non-graded assignment is gated and completion is set to Mark as Complete, the student will be able to scroll to the bottom of the assignment and click the Mark as Complete button on the bottom-right to move on.

How do parents access the child’s grades?

To view your child’s progress, click the box “Log in as Parent”, then log in with the student’s credentials.  

Parents may click on any course title to view a list of all activities in a course, when each item’s pace date occurs, etc. When using the parent log in option, the user will not be able to message the instructor or access any coursework.

Is there an 'app' for SchoolsPLP?

There is no “app” to download. Students can access their coursework as long as they have internet acccess. Please make sure to use a modern browser such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or MS Edge. 

Why does the screen look strange/why can’t I click on links?

SchoolsPLP is not compatible with the Internet Explorer browser. If you’re seeing an unusual interface, please make certain that you are using an updated, modern browser such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari.

How can I view what a student still needs to complete? 

If you notice a student’s list is not complete and would like to know what they still need to access or complete, look at their assignment details by clicking on the course name. Anything that is light grey needs to be completed or accessed to trigger completion which will turn to black text when complete. 

My student is locked out due to too many failed login attempts.

If a student enters incorrect log in credentials more than three times in a minute, the student will see a message stating the account is locked out.To allow a student to make another attempt, allow 60 seconds to elapse, at which time the student will be able to log in again.

How do I change a student’s log in or password? 

SchoolsPLP will never display any user’s log on/password credentials. If a student cannot recall their sign in credentials, the instructor should click on the course in question, and then click the Course Setup link in the upper right.

To change a student’s credentials, click the name of the student and then click the marked Edit option.

Enter any new log on names or passwords, then Save.

How Do I Change a Student’s Enrollment Status? 

Access Course Setup by clicking the link at the top-right. 

Scroll down to the student and click Edit to the right of the student’s name to change their enrollment status or due date. Note: Students cannot access a course after 11:59pm on the due date. 

Students can only access their course when they have an active status. A suspended or incomplete status will show students this message when they click on Work on this course. 

A complete status will activate a completion certificate in the report card tab and the student will no longer be able to work on the course. Students will disappear from the gradebook view with an incomplete or complete status. 

Students with any archived enrollments will disappear from the student list, gradebook view, and all reports except the Past Enrollment report. 

My student has been automatically marked as complete, but I would like the student to be able to go back and work on previous assignments. How can I make them active? 

Some courses are set up such that when a student has completed all activities, the course will automatically be marked as complete. If your student’s enrollment is complete, follow these steps to make the student active again.

Click on the course, and then click Course Setup in the upper right. Click the link to launch the course editor in a new tab.

Mouse over the tool icon in the upper right and select Course Settings.

Scroll to the Enrollment Completion tile and make sure the following setting is enabled:

Remember to save in the upper right before you exit.

How do I archive a course?

1. Click on School Setup

2. Click the Courses tab or the Courses box.

3. For any course you'd like to archive, check the box to the left

4.Scroll to the top and click the Archive Selected button.

Time Tracking in SchoolsPLP - How It Works

There are various reports available in SchoolsPLP that show student time spent. Here is some additional information on how time tracking works:

• Daily Activity Tab/Minutes Worked is logging time with a lesson open in some course. It doesn’t count time sending and receiving messages or moving between courses. This can include idle time if a student walks away from the computer or goes to a different site with the lesson open. In that case, work time will be counted until the idle timeout kicks the student off.
• Daily Activity Tab/ Login Sessions show the time from logging into the system until logging out or being timed out from inactivity. Suppose a student finishes working on one course and takes a bathroom break before starting another course. The student is still logged in, but won’t be earning Minutes Worked since no lesson is open during the break.
• Daily Activity Tab/ Hours Logged In (total at the bottom of the chart) sums up the total time in Login Sessions, so it should always be larger than the total of Minutes Worked.
• Assignment Details Page / Total Minutes is like the Minutes Worked under Daily Activity in that it counts time when that particular assignment is open. But it shows all time with that lesson open on any day, so it may not match any single day’s Minutes Worked.

Some things to note are that the time totals in the Assignment Details can include time from multiple days if a student works on an activity over several days. For instance, if a student works on an assignment on the 18th and 19th, then finishes it on the 20th, the Assignment Details will give a total number of minutes that assignment was accessed over all three days, not just the time that it was actually finished on the 20th.

If you have further questions about the time tracking reports or need assistance with a particular issue, please contact support@schoolsplp.com.