Embarc District Configuration Options

These are the customizable district options available to you in Embarc. After this process, your security, curriculum templates, and reports will be ready for use. If at any time you need to adjust these features, a user level of system administrator may log in to adjust them.

Log into the administrative website, select Administrative Functions - District Options and adjust the options as desired based on the definitions provided below.

Security Configuration

View\Copy curriculum from other districts and allow them to do the same – allows other districts to see your district’s curriculum also allows your district to see their curriculum.

 Allow Attachments at the Course Level – allows educators to attach an additional document to the curriculum. For each attachment the user will have the ability to specify who has access based on the options selected at the Topic Level (explained below).

 Allow Attachments at the Unit Level – allows educators to attach an additional document to the curriculum. For each attachment the user will have the ability to specify who has access based on the options selected at the Topic Level (explained below).

Allow Attachments at the Topic Level – allows educators to attach an additional document to the curriculum. For each attachment the user will have the ability to specify who has access based on the options selected at the Topic Level (explained below).

Allow additional External attachments – allows users uploading documents at the course, unit, or topic level as defined above, to specify that the documents will be visible to the general public.

Allow additional Educator attachments – allows users uploading documents at the course, unit, or topic level as defined above, to specify that the documents will be visible to any educator using Embarc.

Allow additional Internal attachments – allows users uploading documents at the course, unit, or topic level as defined above, to specify that the documents will be visible to educators from your district only.

Allow Dept/Grade Level attachments – allows users uploading documents at the course, unit, or topic level as defined above, to specify that the documents will be visible to educators from your district associated with the course’s department and grade level only. Please Note: Turning on this option requires you to specify departments and grade levels for users of type Educator on the User Maintenance portion of Embarc.

Allow Departmental Curriculum Coordinators to Change the Course Status – by default once a course status is published it can no longer be changed, and the only people that can change the status are users of type Curriculum Coordinator or System Administrator.  This option allows Departmental Curriculum Coordinators to change the course status and effectively change the course.

Allow Courses, Units, and Topics to be copied – provides the capability for Curriculum Authors to copy courses, units, and topics between courses.

Allow Departmental Curriculum Coordinators to perform cross district copies –allows user level Departmental Curriculum Coordinators to copy courses from other districts.  Otherwise, only users with Curriculum Director or System Administrator level have this ability.

Course Configuration Options

Track the Course Code – adds a small text field at the course level for recording your course code. This information is also included in the XML extract available in Embarc.

 Show the Course Code on the Public Site – allows the Course Code to be seen by the general public.

Use Course Level (CTE, Fine Arts). Set at the Department – adds a field on the Department Details screen where a district can check the CTE course level. The CTE course level then shows up on the General Course Information screen.

 Use Course Durations – adds a drop-down menu at the course level to record the course duration.

Track the Course Type (Elective/Required) – adds a required field at the course level to record whether the course is a required or elective course.

Track NCAA Course Approval - allows the district to mark whether the course is an approved course by the National Collegiate Athletic Association or if this is not applicable to this course.

Track the Primary Author of the Course – adds a text field at the course level where the district can record the primary author of the course. This field is not visible to the general public.

Track Course Approval Date - allows the district to enter a date for when the course was approved.   Also allows the district to supply a title for this field.

Course Overview Title – allows the district to specify the title they would like for the Course Overview field. The Lock option will disallow the editing of the course overview field.

Course Optional Fields – There are 9 optional fields available for a district to use at the course level. Each of these fields:  

• can contain 25,000 characters of information  

• has a corresponding “Display Order” dropdown menu so that the order the fields are displayed can be adjusted

• has a corresponding “Public” switch which allows you to control whether the fields are visible to the general public or not

• has a “Lock” switch - this will disallow the editing of the content in this field

  • If a field is not given a title, the field will not be available on the edit pages

  • If no content is in a field, it will not show on the public site or on reports

PLEASE NOTE: Once you have started putting content into Embarc be very careful changing the titles of these fields because you could create a situation where the content does not match the title.

District Defined Course Switches – allows the district to use checkboxes on the Course Details Edit page to represent items such as Dual Credit, Weighted, Summer School, CTE Course, etc. and will appear on the Course Summary report.

Course View Mode – this allows a district to choose the default view of what they see when they click on a course. There are two choices, the Scope & Sequence view and the Course Detail view.

Unit Configuration Options

Unit Overview Title – allows the district to specify the title they would like for the Unit Overview field. “Lock” option will disallow the editing of the unit overview field. Defaults to “Unit Description” for new districts.

Unit Optional Fields – There are 19 optional fields available for a district to use at the unit level.

Each of these fields:

• can contain 25,000 characters of information

• has a corresponding “Display Order” dropdown menu so that the order the fields are displayed can be adjusted

• has a corresponding “Public” switch which allows you to control whether the fields are visible to the general public or not

• has a “Lock” switch - this will disallow the editing of the content in this field

  • If a field is not given a title, the field will not be available on the edit pages.

  • If no content is in a field, it will not show on the public site or on reports.

PLEASE NOTE: Once you have started putting content into Embarc be very careful changing the titles of these fields because you could create a situation where the content does not match the title.

District Defined Unit Switches – allows the district to use checkboxes on the Unit Details Edit page to represent district decided items and will appear on the Course Summary report.

Topic Configuration Options

Topic Optional Fields – There are 10 optional fields available for a district to use at the topic level.

Each of these fields:

• can contain 25,000 characters of information

• has a corresponding “Display Order” dropdown menu so that the order the fields are displayed can be adjusted

• has a corresponding “Public” switch which allows you to control whether the fields are visible to the general public or not

  • If a field is not given a title, the field will not be available on the edit pages.

  • If no content is in a field, it will not show on the public site or on reports.

PLEASE NOTE: Once you have started putting content into Embarc be very careful changing the titles of these fields because you could create a situation where the content does not match the title.

District Defined Topic Switches – allows the district to use checkboxes on the Topic Edit page to represent district decided items and will appear on the Course Summary Report.

Show the Duration of Topics on the Public Site – allows parents and students to see the duration of topics.

Key Concept / Learning Target / Knowledge & Skills Configuration Options

Refer to the lowest level (key concept) as – allows you to configure the term “learning target” to a district-defined term.

Switches – Allows districts to use checkboxes at the learning target level to capture additional information. For example, knowledge vs. skill.

Learning Depth – Tracks the level of alignment between the learning target and a standard. Some examples include introduced, reinforced, mastered, or assessed. Some districts use these fields to identify Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels.

Allow Learning Targets to be prioritized for certain topics – this option allows you to specify which learning targets are priority targets in a topic of study.

Allow Curriculum Authors and Departmental Curriculum Coordinators to generate targets from standards – the exact language from a standard is copied into a learning target.

Specify by department who can generate targets from standards – creates a checkbox on the Department Details page to “Allow Curriculum Authors and Department Curriculum Coordinators to generate targets from standards for this department”.

Hide the option to allow Curriculum Authors and Departmental Curriculum Coordinators to write targets and THEN choose standards - checking this option will hide the New Learning Target button on the Learning Target Edit page.

Track a short version of the lowest level (learning targets) – adds a field on the learning target page to store an abbreviated version of the concept.

Allow for the entry of assessment information at the lowest level – adds a field on the learning target level for the documentation of how the item will be assessed.

Assessment Selection List – in addition to allowing staff to enter assessment information, districts can provide a selection list of common formative assessments to save them from repetitively typing the same thing.

Reporting Configuration Options

Curriculum Map Fields – Embarc can create a Traditional Curriculum Map report with 5-7 columns.

• The last two columns of the report are pre-set as standards organized by topic, and topics with their associated learning targets.

• Use the Curriculum Map report dropdown menus to specify what values your district would like in the first 3 to 5 columns.

• Use the save/refresh button after making changes to this page or to repopulate the field selection choices below.

Please note, these are just defaults, individual teachers may choose to override this information when printing a map.

Help Configuration Options

There are five locations where a district can enter text to provide help for those using Embarc. If text is entered in this area, a question mark will be displayed on the page. Hovering over this question mark will show the help text to the user.  Help text can be found on the following pages:

• Course Edit

• Unit Edit

• Topic Edit

• Learning Target Edit

• Activity Edit

General Options

Use the Course/Schedule Projector – this option projects an individual course’s scope and sequence based on the district calendar and a daily schedule (block, elementary, periods, etc.) defined for the course.

Use the Interventions Database – Embarc allows for a searchable catalog of interventions used throughout the district. Please note: this system is not designed to track what interventions have been applied to specific students.

Enable Google Drive for attachments - This option allows a district to add Google Drive documents as an attachment to a course, unit, topic, or activity. The document is only housed on Google Drive and if deleted from there it will no longer be accessible from the curriculum.

Mark some Standards as “Power Standards”/District name for Power Standards – this feature allows a district to highlight certain standards. These standards are bolded on pages and can be filtered.

Track a short version of the standard - adds a field on the Standard page to store an abbreviated version of the concept.

Show Preselect Standards on the Public Site - allows the district to publish preselected standards on the public site.

Show Standards Aligned to Learning Targets on the Public Site Course Detail page – allows the district to show a list of actual standards being covered in the course on the public site.  This list is determined by summarizing the standards linked to the course’s learning targets.

Content to Show on Public Site - allows the district to choose which levels of the course they would like to be seen on the public site.

Default View for Learning Targets on Public Site – allows the district to choose from 3 options on how they’d like their learning targets to show up on the public website. 

Public Site Disclaimer – Embarc has a standard disclaimer on the bottom of each public page. If you would like to override our standard disclaimer enter your disclaimer here.  Default Language: The curriculum information displayed on these pages is an example of the sequence and timeframes for a class.  The actual sequence and timeframes may vary based on the actual students in a class and resource constraints.

Public Site – Rows per List Page / Admin Site – Rows per List Page – allows the district to specify how many records are returned per list page.

Public Site – General Public Starting Page – allows you to choose between 3 basic page layouts for the default view parents will see when viewing curriculum. (By Grade Level, By Department, Course Search)

Primary Time Zone – identifies what time zone the district conforms to and adjusts the time displayed throughout the system accordingly. Also, indicate whether the time should be adjusted for Daylight Saving Time (DST).

Show Classroom and Assessment Configuration

Use Lesson Plan component – this option activates Embarc integrated lesson planner and gives you access to all the other classroom configuration options.

Use Basic Assignments – this option allows educators to define their classes and publish assignments.

Use Classroom features (with enhanced assignments) - allows the district to use all the features of Classroom, which include announcements, events, discussions, and enhanced assignments.

Allow assignments to be linked to KCGs – allows the district to have learning targets linked to assignments.

Allow student or guardian to email teacher – allows students or guardians to directly email a teacher from within the student or parent portal.

Allow parent access to the parent portal – allows parents to connect with their child’s classroom information and see assignments, announcements, events and discussions.

Allow teachers to invite parents to the student portal – this option gives the teacher an invite button to send a parent request to their student’s portal.

Use Assessments - allows the district to use the assessments portion of Embarc.

Link to the Course Assessment – Allows you to choose an assessment from a drop-down menu from the Course View page and tie it to the course. This assessment will be visible to your district’s educators only as a PDF document.

Link to the Unit Assessment – Allows you to choose an assessment from a drop-down menu in and tie it to the course at the unit level. This assessment will be visible to your district’s educators only as a PDF document.

Lesson Plan Setup Options

Show All Lesson Plans by Unit –Adds a link at the unit level in the administrative site to view all the lesson plans associated with that unit, arranged by topic. Lesson plans can also be added from this location.

Predefine Lesson Plan Schedules – Allows you to define time periods so that your teachers can select a period instead of inputting actual times for lesson planning.

• A district can define multiple schedules

• Duration based schedules can be created at the elementary level

Allow Curriculum Development on Some Templates While Lesson Planning – This option allows the district to create units and topics as they are lesson planning

Lesson Plan Name – the lesson planner can be renamed if your district would prefer a name other than “Lesson Plan”.

District Plural Name for Lesson Plans - enter in the plural for your district's lesson plan name.

District Abbreviated Name for Lesson Plans - enter in the abbreviation for your district's lesson plan name.

Lesson Plan Template Setup Options

These options are accessed by clicking the “Add Template” button located in the Lesson Plan Options section of the District Options page.

Template Name – Districts can have multiple lesson plan templates – this option allows districts to name specific templates.

Lesson Plans are viewable by the public – checking this option will allow the district to have the option to have their lesson plans on their public Embarc site.

Lesson Plans are non-curriculum – checking this option will allow the district to use the lesson planner as a tool for scheduling, without attaching the lesson plan to a course.

District name for Lesson Plan Text Areas – a lesson plan can have up to 10 district defined fields on it. Each field can be

• required

• shown on the public website

• shown in the lesson plan book

The show course, unit, and/or topic fields can be displayed to educators as they edit their lesson plans. You can select which of these fields, if any, are displayed.

Require Lesson Plans to be Approved – This feature enables a process where the author submits lesson plans for review and the approvers either accept or provide comments on the lesson plan. A comment history is displayed at the bottom of the lesson plan for both the author and approver to see.

Approver – the primary individual assigned to review lesson plans associated with this template.

Backup Approver – the backup individual assigned to review lesson plans associated with this template.

Allow Sharing of Lesson Plans – Districts can allow lesson plans to be shared. This adds an option on the Lesson Plan Edit page where the author can choose to share their lesson plan.

Allow Attachments on Lesson Plans – allows the user to attach electronic files directly to their lesson plans.

Default Learning Targets from Activities - Allows a user to select an activity for their lesson plan and bring in all the learning targets that have been assigned to that activity.

If using a period-based schedule, display times instead of period names – checking this option will allow the district to show the times on the lesson plan instead of the names of the periods.

Date/Time Configuration

No Dates/Times – no dates or times noted on lesson plans

Require Dates/Times –Requires each lesson plan to be for a particular date and time.

Allow teachers to specify times – typically used at the elementary level where time schedules are not predefined.

Use Predefined time schedules – typically used at the middle and high school levels.

Time Schedule – if “Use Predefined time schedules” is selected above, select one of the time schedules defined for your district.

Tie to School Calendar – this option allows you to choose from one of the school calendars your district has set up to reflect the non-teaching days in your lesson plan.

Lesson Plan Help – template specific help that will be available to users of this template.

Rarely Used Options

Lock Course Setup Fields such as Department, Credits, Grades – This option will lock the key course fields at the course level once a course is published the first time. These fields will not be editable by Curriculum Authors.

Only show 'Published' courses to educators on the public site – This option will limit the courses shown on the public site to only include those with a status of “Published”.

Show Unit and Topic numbers (on pages only) – This option shows the unit or topic number in numerical order to the left of the unit or topic name.

Don't show the 'Being Revised' message for courses in a status of Being Revised on the Public site - allows a district to remove the 'Being Revised' message behind a course name that is on the public site when the course is in a status of Being Revised.

Filter Courses by School – allows a district to specify the schools in their district and exclude courses from certain schools. Typically applies to multi-high school districts or districts where facility differences impact what courses are available at what schools.

Track the number of weeks into a course that a Learning Target should be addressed – This option adds a field at the learning target level to track the number of weeks into the year that the item should be covered by.

Restrict Educators from Editing KCGs – This option disallows Curriculum Authors from editing Learning Targets.

Show Key Concept/Generalization Details (Extended Description, Assessment, and Switches) on the Public Site – This option gives districts the choice to show Learning Target details on the public site.

Show Key Concept/Generalization Summary List on the Public Site – adds a button to the Course Details page on the public site that provides a summary of all the Key Concepts/Learning Targets for a course.

Allow emails on the Public Site – Allows districts to choose to receive email regarding the Embarc public website related to their district, and to enter an email address for that correspondence.

Hide 'Copy' function when assigning Learning Targets – This option hides the “Copy Selected” functionality when assigning Key Concepts/Learning Targets to a Topic, which prevents the creation of multiple versions of the same Learning Target. The “Share Selected” functionality will still be available.

Preselect Standards at the Course/Unit Levels – This option allows Curriculum Authors to review and select standards at the beginning of the course and unit development process. Those standards then become the default list to choose from as Learning Targets are aligned later in the process.

Document Suggested Assessments at the Standard Level – provides a field at the Standard level where a district can document how they will assess that standard.

Grades taught at the district - allows the district to select which grade levels they are teaching at their district, this impacts the grades available when creating users, courses, and the public website.

Allow HTML mode for text editors: Allows districts to change the text mode

Activity Setup Options (Separate Tab under Administrative Functions)

These options are accessible by clicking the “Activity Options” button located under the Administrative Functions menu item.

District Name, Plural Name, and Abbreviation for Activities – Allows a district to use an alternate naming convention for “activities”.

Require Learning Target Alignment - Will require the Curriculum Author to align at least one learning target when creating an activity.

Show Expectations and Measures - The previously completed topic-level “expectations and measures” fields can be displayed to the educator as they create their activity.

Require Expectations and Measures - The “expectations and measures” fields can be displayed to the educator as blank fields while they create their activity – and required for them fill in.

Activity Field Definitions - There are 10 optional fields available for a district to use at the activity level. Each of these fields:

• can contain 25,000 characters of information

• has a corresponding “Display Order” dropdown menu so that the order the fields are displayed can be adjusted

  • If a field is not given a title, the field will not be available on the edit pages.

  • If no content is in a field, it will not show on the public site or on reports.

PLEASE NOTE: Once you have started putting content into Embarc be very careful changing the titles of these fields because you could create a situation where the content does not match the title.

Teaching Concepts/Styles – Turning on one of these features will display a list of the concepts at the bottom of the Activity Edit page. Educators will be prompted to align their activity to the appropriate concept. Activities are searchable by concept.

Default all Activities to 'Shared Internally' - activity security settings will default to 'Shared Internally.'

Forward Activity Comments via email to the author - when a comment is entered on an activity, the comment will be emailed to the author of the activity.

Show Activities on the public site –Turning this option off will remove all references to activities from the public website.

Categorize Activities – Allows activities to be classified as “Required”, “Model”, or “Educator Submitted”.

Allow Activities to be Viewed by Other Districts - allows other districts to see activities your district creates.

Mark all Shared Internally Activities as Shared Externally (Viewed by other districts) – changes the setting on all your district’s activities from Shared Internally to Shared Externally (visible to other districts).

HOW TO: Complete the Configuration Homework 

Homework Overview

There are four to five parts to the configuration meeting homework. First you need to create your district’s departments and bring in the standards you want to align to; second you need to add your schools; third setup your users; including assigning the correct authority status, department, and grades for each user; and finally you need to write your district’s help.  Optionally there is a fifth step which is to create the list of formative assessments you would like to provide your staff to choose from when they create learning targets.

The following documentation will walk you step by step through the process and help you successfully complete your configuration meeting homework. You can also reference the How To-­‐ Maintain User Preferences and How To-­‐ Add Standards training videos on the Embarc website.

If after reading the document you have any additional questions or need additional assistance please don’t hesitate to contact your customer success manager.

Creating your Departments

The first thing you have to do is to create a Department.

• On the left hand navigation bar click on ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS -­ DEPARTMENTS.

• Next, click on ADD NEW to add in a new department or click the name of an existing department to add standards to it.

• If creating a new department, fill in your Department name and the Prefix for the Department name and click save.

Selecting and Adding Your Standards 

Now that you have created or selected a Department in which to house your standards, you must choose which standards will be used in this department. This is done on the same page in which you just created your Department.  School Software Group’s recommendations are to only add standards to a department that your teachers must align to, the more standards you add to a department the more complex the task of alignment becomes for your staff.  Additionally we recommend only adding standards to their primary department, if other departments need to access them they can do so via cross-departmental alignment which is quite easy.  Like our earlier recommendation, the goal of this one is to reduce the number of standards staff is presented with by default, thus making the alignment task easier.

• In the STANDARD PROVIDER dropdown choose the provider you would like to use for this department. A listing of standard sets for the selected provider will be displayed next.

• Once you have chosen your Standard Provider, click the second dropdown to choose your STANDARD  SET.

•  Once you have chosen your Standard Provider and Standard Set, the ADD and PREVIEW buttons will be activated. Click PREVIEW if you wish to view the details of the standards you have chosen. Click ADD to add the standards to the department you have created.

• After clicking ADD, the AREA EDIT box will pop up, where you can give your standard area a name and abbreviation (no more than 5 characters). The name should refer to the kind of standards you are storing in this department -­‐ for example, Common Core Standards or ACT Standards.

  • Keep the "Align Learning Targets to these standards" box checked.  This will ensure that the Standards you are bringing in will be available to align to Learning Targets.

  • Click SAVE.

• Your new Standard Set has now been added to your department for use in aligning standards to your curriculum. You can repeat these steps to continue to add additional Standard Sets to this department.

Setting Up Schools

Before you can import your users into Embarc, you need to add your schools. The schools that you add in Embarc must be an exact match to the schools listed in your import file otherwise the import will be rejected.

For example, if in your import file the school name is Rainbow Elementary, in Embarc it must say Rainbow Elementary, not Rainbow Elementary School.

• Click ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS in the navigation bar on the left hand side of the screen.

• Then click SCHOOLS.

• Then click ADD SCHOOL.

• Enter the school name in the SCHOOL NAME textbox and the school’s common ID in the COMMON ID textbox.  To ease future imports of information, either the School Name or the Common ID should match how the schools are represented in your Student Management System.

• Then click SAVE.

Setting Up Users

In order to setup your users you are going to need to go through a two‐step process. First you need to import your users. After you have imported all your users, you will then need to go into each user individually and edit their authority status and possibly the departments and grade levels they have access to.

• Click ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS in the navigation bar on the left hand side of the screen.

• Then click USERS.

Importing Users

• On the main user page, click IMPORT.

•  To view a sample file in the correct format for importing, click on the CLICK HERE TO VIEW A SAMPLE IMPORT FILE… link.

  • NOTE: If you give this sample file to your technology department they should be able to make you a file of your users in the same format.

  • The file you import must be a “CSV” file and must match this layout.

• Click SELECT FILE… to browse your computer and select the file you would like to import.

• Click IMPORT USERS.

Editing Users

Once you have successfully imported your users you will need to go through and edit each person’s authority status. All of the users that you just imported have Educator as their authority status, if you want a user to be able to write curriculum you will need to change them to Curriculum Author or above.

•  On the main user page, search for the user you would like to edit.

  • You can search for a user using a keyword, role, school (if your district is using schools), or status. Often the best way to search is to enter the first two letters of the user’s last name into the KEYWORD textbox.

• Click on the name of the user you would like to edit.

• To edit the user’s Embarc Role use the EMBARC ROLE dropdown to select the correct authority status.

• For Curriculum Authors and Department Curriculum Coordinators you must specify the department and grade range they should have access to.

  • This is important because if a user needs access to a certain course, their authority cannot just be changed, the grade level range and the department may need to be changed as well.

• Once you are finished, click SAVE.

Adding the Course/Schedule Projector

The Course Schedule Projector takes an individual course and projects it onto a calendar based on the district calendar and a schedule defined for the course.

•  Click on ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS on the left-hand menu, then click on DISTRICT OPTIONS.

•  Now click on GENERAL CONFIGURATION under District Options.

• Under General Configuration, check the checkbox next to USE COURSE/SCHEDULE PROJECTOR.

• Then click SAVE.

• Two new options will show up under Administrative Functions, CALENDARS and PROJECTOR SCHEDULES.

Calendar

A calendar is designed to show the non-teaching days in your school year. In most cases one calendar is all you need, however if different schools in your district have different schedules you may want multiple calendars.

• Click on CALENDARS.

• Click ADD NEW.

• In the CALENDAR NAME textbox, enter the name of your calendar.

• In the SCHOOL YEAR dropdown, select which school year the calendar is for.

• If you wish for this calendar to be the default calendar, check the box next to "This is the default calendar for the district."  For Embarc districts, the dates on the default calendar will appear on the student calendars.

• Click SAVE.

• Specify any non-teaching days. Select the date or range of dates for your district’s non‐teaching day(s) in the DAY OFF & EVENTS textbox. Then select or enter the reason for the non‐teaching day under REASON.

• Then click ADD DAY. Continue this process until you have added all of the non‐teaching days for the school year.

Projector Schedule

The Projector Schedule is used to determine how many days a week, how many periods a day, and in some cases what days of the week a course should be projected for.  It is important to remember that this is simply a projection of the pacing for a course and may not be 100% accurate due to a variety of reasons.  Often for rotating block type schedules the focus of the projection needs to be for an accurate number of days per week for pacing purposes, but not necessarily the actual days of the week.

• Click on PROJECTOR SCHEDULES under ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS.

A schedule works with the calendar to specify what days a course occurs. The calendar defines what days school is in session, whereas the schedule defines what days a specific course occurs for a class.

• Click ADD NEW.

• Enter your schedule’s name in the SCHEDULE NAME textbox.

• Select the calendar that applies to the schedule from the CALENDAR dropdown.

• Enter the beginning and end dates for the schedule in the START DATE and END DATE Text boxes.

• Select what days the class occurs under CLASS IS HELD ON:

• Enter how many class periods per day the class occurs in the CLASS PERIODS PER DAY textbox. For example, an accelerated class might occur two periods a day.  Most classes will occur once per day.

• Enter how many buffer days you would like between units in the BUFFER DAYS BETWEEN UNITS textbox. Buffer days are days you can build into the schedule so that there are extra teaching days available between units or topics, in case teachers plan more than they can accomplish in the time allotted.  Most districts leave this at zero.

• When you have entered the appropriate information in the fields click SAVE.

Once you have entered your calendar and set up at least one projection schedule, you will be able to see calendar dates next to your units on the Scope and Sequence page:

Writing Help Documentation

• Click ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS in the navigation bar on the left hand side of the screen.

• Then click DISTRICT OPTIONS.

• Next click SHOW HELP CONFIGURATION.

•  The Help Configuration section is broken into fields for each level of the curriculum. In each field enter descriptions or help that will assist your staff in knowing and understanding what belongs in each of the fields you created during the configuration meeting.

  • NOTE: It is often helpful to add examples to your help

• When you are finished click SAVE located at the bottom of the screen.

Formative Assessments

If your district would like to capture assessment information at the Learning Target level, you can create a list of frequently used formative assessments for your authors to choose from.  In creating this list we recommend that it be a list of items you would like them to do versus anything that they possibly might do.

• To do this, under District Options click on SHOW KEY CONCEPT/LEARNING TARGET/KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL CONFIGUARION link.

• Then select the check box next to ALLOW FOR THE ENTRY OF ASSESSMENT INFORMATION AT THE LOWEST LEVEL (KEY CONCEPT)

•  You can create a list of commonly used assessments by manually entering assessments in the ASSESSMENT textbox and then clicking ADD ASSESSMENT.

• You can also create a list of commonly used assessments by selecting from a list of all the assessments ever used in Embarc by clicking ADD FROM LIST.  Please note that this is a list of all items districts have ever created.

• Then select the assessment you would like in your list and click SAVE.

Data Import Overview 

In order to utilize Embarc’s classroom and assessment features, several pieces of information must be loaded into the system. School, teacher, student, and classroom roster details are typically exported from a school district’s Student Information System (SIS) and provided to Embarc using a series of data files.  These data files are then imported into Embarc allowing teachers to easily select currently enrolled students when creating a class or giving an assessment using familiar course and section information (ie. Algebra, 1^st Period).  

The data files that are required by the system are uploaded in a comma separated value (.csv) file format and should not contain a header row. Data files may be imported into the system manually using the Embarc Administrative website’s “Import” feature or automated using the Embarc Import Utility program. The data files represent the following entities: School, Teacher, Student, Course/Section, Student/Class, and Course and Learning Target. Following is a detailed explanation of each file and their respective fields. 

School Data File 

The school data file represents a current listing of schools/buildings for a district.   

Teacher Data File 

The teacher data file represents current educators in the district, and may include teachers with assigned classes/students as well as curriculum and assessment support staff.  

Student Data File 

The student data file represents current students in the district, and may include optional demographic information for reporting purposes.  

Course/Section Data File 

The course/section data file represents current courses and sections being offered in the district, and indicates the primary teacher assigned to each section of the course.  

NOTE: The combination of the Course Code, Section Code, and School (if provided) must be unique within the district and is used to identify each section of a course when assigning students in the Student/Class data file. 

The student/class data file represents a current roster of students assigned to a section of a course.   

NOTE: The combination of the Course Code, Section Code, and School (if provided) must match an existing record from the Course/Section data file and is used to assign a student to a section of a course. 

Course & Learning Target File 

The course and learning target file allows you to import new courses and learning targets, just new learning targets, or update course descriptions. 

Introduction

In Embarc, curriculum is aligned to standards via your learning targets. Education Advanced provides a library of state and national standards that your district can utilize as a foundation for your curriculum. In this document you will learn how to setup your district’s departments with your desired standards. As you can see in the image below, in order to align curriculum to standards, you must first create a department to house the standards and then add in the specific Standards to that department.

Creating your Departments

The first thing you must do is to create a Department.

1. Next, click on ADD NEW to add in a new department or click the name of an existing department to add standards to it.

2. If creating a new department, fill in your Department name and the Prefix or abbreviation for the department and click save.

You have now created a Department in which to house your standards.

Selecting and Adding Your Standards

Now that you have created or selected a Department in which to house your standards, you must choose which standards will be used in this department. This is done on the same page in which you just created your Department.

1. In the STANDARD PROVIDER dropdown choose the provider you would like to use for this department. A listing of standard sets for the selected provider will be displayed next.

2. Once you have chosen your Standard Provider, click the second dropdown to choose your STANDARD SET.

3. Once you have chosen your Standard Provider and Standard Set, the ADD and PREVIEW buttons will be activated. Click PREVIEW if you wish to view the details of the standards you have chosen. Click ADD to add the standards to the department you have created.

4. After clicking ADD, the AREA EDIT box will pop up, where you can give your standard area a name and abbreviation (no more than 5 characters). The name should refer to the kind of standards you are storing in this department -­‐ for example, Common Core Standards or ACT Standards.

   1. Keep the "Align Learning Targets to these standards" box checked.  This will ensure that the Standards you are bringing in will be available to align to Learning Targets.

   2. Click SAVE.

Your new Standard Set has now been added to your department for use in aligning standards to your curriculum. You can repeat these steps to continue to add additional Standard Sets to this department.

How to Make a Standard a Power Standard

1. Go to ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS – STANDARDS.

2. Use the SEARCH OPTIONS to filter which standard set you would like to make power standards.

3. Click on the standard name you would like to make a power standard.

4. Check the box THIS STANDARD IS A POWER STANDARD and click SAVE.

5. Now the standard will show up in bold on the STANDARDS page.

6. When you check the POWER STANDARDS ONLY filter, it will display all standards that have been marked as a power standard.

7. You can also see power standards when you create a new learning target.

8. Check the POWER STANDARDS ONLY box to display all the power standards. Then click REFRESH. Now you will see all your power standards. 

NOTE: Only system administrators are able to adjust the curriculum template.

Navigating to the Curriculum Templates

• Click on ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS in the navigation bar on the left hand side of the screen.

• Click on DISTRICT OPTIONS.

Template Consistent Fields

Templates determine the fields in your curriculum. There are four basic templates, one for each level of curriculum. In this section, we are going to look at fields that are present and work the same in all template levels.

•  On the DISTRICT OPTIONS page, you will see all the different configuration templates that you can adjust. Click on the template you would like to edit.

•  In each configuration template there are fields that you can create and maintain yourself. These district definable fields appear as textboxes and can hold up to 25,000 characters.

•  To add a district definable field, enter the field’s name in a blank OPTIONAL FIELD textbox.

•  Use the DISPLAY ORDER column to control the sequence that fields appear in reports and on your curriculum website.

NOTE:  Be careful when changing an existing field, not to change the titles in an effort to reorder the fields. The content is linked to a field and not the title, so if you rename a field the content and the title will not match. For example, if you have Key Questions as your first field, but you want to create a new field named Materials and Resources as your first field, do not rename the Key Question field Materials and Resources. Instead, type “Materials and Resources” into a blank field and set the display order to “1” and the display order of Key Questions to “2.”

• Select if you would like the field to be visible to the public.

•  The ability to lock fields is available, but seldom used. Locking a field means that after the course has been published Curriculum Authors, no matter what the course’s current status is, cannot edit the field.

  • Example: If the school board must approve certain parts of your curriculum, you can lock the field once it has been approved so you do not need to continually get approval.

Template Specific Fields

The predefined fields and the district definable fields are present and work the same at each curriculum level template. Now we are going to look at fields within each level that are unique to that specific level.

Course Level

• Click on SHOW COURSE CONFIGURATION.

•  At the course level, you can select if you would like to track the course code. To do this, check the checkbox TRACK THE COURSE CODE.

• If you would like to show the course code on the public website, check the checkbox SHOW THE COURSE CODE ON THE PUBLIC SITE.

• If you want to use course durations, check the checkbox next to USE COURSE DURATIONS.

• If you would like to track the course type (required or elective), check the checkbox next to TRACK COURSE TYPE.

• If you would like to track whether the course is NCAA approved (yes, no, or not applicable), check the checkbox next to TRACK NCAA COURSE APPROVAL.

• If you want to track the primary author of the course, check the checkbox next to TRACK THE PRIMARY AUTOR OF THE COURSE. The primary author of the course is not visible to the public, only internally within your district.

• You can also have district defined course switches, which gives you a check box at the course level with a customized identifying field.

Unit Level

• Click on SHOW UNIT CONFIGURATION

• At the unit level, you can have up to 19 fields. You can also have district defined unit switches, which gives you a check box at the unit level with a customized identifying field.

Topic Level

• Click on SHOW TOPIC CONFIGURATION.

• At the topic level, you can have up to 10 fields. You can also have district defined topic switches, which gives you a check box at the topic level with a customized identifying field.

• At the topic level, you can select if you would like the topic duration to be visible to the public or not. To make the duration visible to the public, check the checkbox by SHOW THE DURATION OF TOPICS ON THE PUBLIC SITE. To have the duration not be visible, un-check the checkbox.

Learning Target Level

Click on SHOW KEY CONCEPT/LEARNING TARGET/KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS CONFIGURATION.

• Enter the name of what you would like to call the lowest level (learning target) of the curriculum in the SINGULAR NAME, PLURAL NAME, ABBREVIATED NAME fields:

• There are up to ten fields, called switches, which you can use to categorize your learning targets. These switches work just like the district definable fields, where you enter the name in the textbox and arrange the order using the order dropdowns.

  • Examples of common switches are: Knowledge and Skills, levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, etc.

• You can also define at what level a standard is being addressed by a learning target. Many districts simply have an option for alignment, however some districts want to take this a step further and determine if the standards are being introduced, reinforced, or assessed. To create the learning depth fields, enter the name of the learning depth in the LEARNING DEPTH TITLE textbox, enter an abbreviation for the depth in the ABBREVIATION textbox, and arrange the order using the ORDER dropdowns.

•  The next two options involve standards and learning targets. Check the box if you’d like to allow curriculum authors and department curriculum coordinators to generate targets from standards. And check the box if you’d like to hide the option to allow curriculum authors and department curriculum coordinators to write targets and then choose standards.

• You can also track a short version of lowest level (key concept) and enter a maximum of 100 characters.

• If you would like to capture assessment information, create a field to capture formative assessments for the learning targets. To do this, select the check box next to ALLOW FOR THE ENTRY OF ASSESSMENT INFORMATION AT THE LOWEST LEVEL (KEY CONCEPT).

• You can create a list of commonly used assessments by manually entering assessments in the ASSESSMENT textbox and then clicking ADD ASSESSMENT.

•  You can also create a list of commonly used assessments by selecting from a list of all the assessments ever used in Embarc by clicking ADD FROM LIST.

•  Then select the assessments you would like in your list and click SAVE.