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Self-Registered Teacher Accounts: Providing Access for My Students Help

Self-Registered Teacher Accounts: Providing Access for My Students Help

If your question is not answered here, contact FOSSweb Support.

Help Topics

FOSSweb Help Videos & PDFs

Digital Content (Videos, Multimedia, eBooks, and Weblinks)

Online Assessment Help (FOSSmap)

Self-Registered Teacher Accounts: New User

Self-Registered Teacher Accounts: Existing User

District-Registered Accounts (SIS Teacher)

Administrators

Students and Parents
New User Registration

How Do I Change My Password?

Where can I find my access code?

What is the difference between Basic and Premium Access?
What are the options for student access?

Visit as a Guest (no login)
Guest access is possible if a user enters through the “Visit as a guest” option on the login page. The Home/School Connection, Recommended Books, Recommended Websites, and any associated outside links are accessible as a guest. Guest access does not allow access to multimedia, streaming videos, or eBooks.

K-2 Students
We recommend that a Common Class Login be set up for K-2 classrooms. This simplifies access to FOSSweb for these students. The common username and password, created by the teacher, will allow students to login and access available multimedia, streaming videos, and Science Resources eBooks.

3-8 Students
There are two ways to provide access for 3-8 students: Common Class Login or Individual Student Accounts.

  • Common Class Login: If you do not plan on using FOSSmap, the online assessment system, you can use a Common Class Login. The common username and password, created by the teacher, will allow students to login and access available multimedia, streaming videos, and Science Resources eBooks. You can assign content from FOSS modules, though the assignment is to the entire class and not to individual students.
  • Individual Student Accounts: In order to use FOSSmap, the online assessment system, and assign or differentiate student learning to individual students, you must create a class with Individual Student accounts.
You can learn how to set up a Common Class Account or Individual Student Accounts, by viewing the Walk-Through Videos. There are also available Quickstart PDFs available.

Video: Common Class Account
Video: Individual Student Accounts
PDF: FOSSweb Self-Registered Teacher User Guide
How do I create a class with a common login?

To create a class, you will need to log in and navigate to your Teacher Page. Locate the My Class Pages section of your Teacher Page (the section below the My FOSS Modules section). Click the light green Add a New Class button. A dialog box will appear in which you will need to complete the following:

  • Indicate that you are creating a “Common Class Login.&rdqu; This is the default setting in the dialog box.
  • Class Page Title: This is the title that appears on the top of the page and helps you find a class on your Teacher Page.
  • Class Login Name: This is the username students will use to log in from FOSSSweb.com. This username must be unique in the system. The username cannot contain spaces or special characters. Some examples of good student usernames:
    • [NameOfSchool]science2013
    • [NameOfTeacher]science2013
  • Class Password: Class passwords must be 8 or more characters in length, contain at least one letter and one number, contain at least one upper- or lower-case letter, and contain no spaces. Some examples of good student usernames:
    • Science1
    • 1LuvFOSS
    • Puma1234
  • Modules: You can check off whatever combination of modules your class is using. Once you hit submit, your class will be created! The class username and password will be emailed to you automatically. Save this email and give the user account information to your students.
To learn more, view the Walk-Through Video on setting up a Common Class Login.

Video: Common Class Account
How do I create a class with individual student logins?

After logging in, locate the My Class Pages section of your Teacher Page (the section below the My FOSS Modules section). Click the green Add a New Class button. A dialog box will appear in which you will need to complete the following:

  • Indicate that you are creating “Individual Student Logins” by clicking the radio button.
  • Class Page Title: This is the title that appears on the top of the page and helps you find a class on your Teacher Page.
  • Modules: Check off whatever combination of modules your class is using.
Once you hit submit, your class will be created. Your next step is to add students to the class.

Return to the My Class Pages section and locate the class you just created. You can upload a student roster in CSV (comma-separated values) format by clicking on “Upload roster.” You can learn more about how to upload a roster under the “How do I upload a student roster?” help topic.

To add students manually, or correct student information after uploading a roster, click “Manage Students.” For each student, enter the following information:
  • First name
  • Last name
  • Email Address (all lowercase)
  • Password
We recommend using school-assigned email addresses as student logins. If your school does not assign student email addresses, we recommend creating an email-style username using your district domain (Example: @conval.k12.nh.us). This username does not need to be a valid email, but should the standard email format [something]@[something].[something]. Once created, usernames cannot be changed as this is how your students are identified in the FOSSmap online assessment system.

To learn more, view the Walk-through Video on setting up Individual Student Accounts.

Video: Individual Student Accounts
How do I upload a class roster to my class with individual students?

Self-registered teachers can upload class rosters of up to 150 students with a simple CSV file. Required fields are: first name, last name, email, password. The file MUST have a header row. You can download a sample CSV template here. When creating your file...

  1. Fields must not include commas (Harry Potter, Jr. should be listed as first name = Harry and last name = Potter Jr)
  2. Names are not required to be accurate. For security reasons you might wish to use “Student A,” "Anna B." or "P. Rodriguez."
  3. Emails are not required to be functional but they must follow the [something]@[something].[something] format and are NOT case-sensitive. If your students do not have district-provided email addresses we recommend using your district domain to create “fake” addresses (harry.potterjr@hogwarts.edu).
  4. Passwords must be a minimum of 8 characters.
After upload, individual students can be added, edited, or deleted through the “Manage Students” link for each class, as noted above.

To learn more, view the Walk-through Video on Uploading a Student Roster.

Video: Uploading a Student Roster
When I try to upload a class roster, I am getting the following error: “Error: There was an error processing the file upload. Details follow.” What is the error and how do I fix it?

If you attempt to upload a class roster and get a processing error, it is likely that the file has been saved in an incorrect format. This often happens in Microsoft Excel after you saved your file as a CSV and upon quitting the program you are asked if you want to save the file. This save function, if selected, will overwrite the CSV format and render the file incompatible to the FOSSweb upload function. We recommend that you click “Don’t save,” or, if you want to save the file in Excel format, that you do so under a different filename or in a different folder.

What if my students do not have email addresses?

If your school does not assign student email addresses, we recommend creating an email-style username using your district domain (Example: @conval.k12.nh.us). This username does not need to be a valid email. Once created, usernames cannot be changed as this is how your students are identified in the FOSSmap online assessment system. In order to change the username, you need to delete the student and add them again with the corrected username/email address.

Can students be in more than one class on FOSSweb?

Student usernames must be unique. Only in SIS-districts (districts set up by School Specialty using their Student Information System) can a student be associated with multiple classes. For self-registered users, if a student is associated with another class, as you add the student, you will get a warning that indicates the student cannot be added.

If the username is an email address assigned by the district to the student and you cannot add the student to your class, you will need to determine which other teacher has a class with the same student information and have them delete the student from their class or delete the class, if the student is no longer participating in that class. If the username is one that you have created, you can simply create a different username in order to save the student into your class.

In order to minimize conflicts with future classes for the students in your class, you should delete your Class with Individual Students, or at least delete the students from the class, when you are finished with the school year. School Specialty will purge all classes at the end of the school year, but it is best that you manage your students, rather than rely on the system to delete the students. After deleting students, you will still have access to the reports in FOSSmap.

Can I delete a class after I’ve created it?

Self-registered teachers may delete a class after they’ve created it. To delete a class, go to the My Class Pages section of My Teacher Page. Find the class you wish to delete and click the Manage Class Page button. At the bottom of the pop-up dialog, click on the Delete Class button. You will receive a warning dialogue confirming you want to delete the class.

If you used FOSSmap with the class, it will be “termed out” or archived in FOSSmap. This will prevent the class from showing up on the list of classes to which you can assign assessments while still giving you read-only access to any assessment data in the reports. If you have open assignments for a deleted class, you must go into FOSSmap and manually deactivate the assessment, otherwise this assessment will continue to show up in your active assessments. It will also appear on any students’ “Take Assessment” pages, if those students’ same usernames are entered into other classes. This can be done in FOSSmap by going to Online Testing > Review/Grade Online Tests and then scrolling down to the assessment in question and clicking the red and white "deactivate" icon.

Where is my class from last year?

The previous year’s classes are “termed out” of FOSSweb before the beginning of the next school year.

If you used FOSSmap with the class, it will be “termed out” or archived in FOSSmap. This prevents the class from showing up on the list of classes to which you can assign assessments while still giving you read-only access to any assessment data in the reports “Can I see my student’s data from previous years?”]. If you have open assignments for a deleted class, you must go into FOSSmap and manually deactivate the assessment, otherwise this assessment will continue to show up in your active assessments. It will also appear on any students’ “Take Assessment” pages, if those students’ same usernames are entered into other classes. You can deactivate open assessments for a deleted class in FOSSmap by going to Online Testing > Review/Grade Online Tests and then scrolling down to the assessment in question and clicking the red and white “deactivate” icon.

Does FOSSweb have a time out period?

Yes, FOSSweb will time out after 60 minutes of inactivity. This time limit meets mandatory security requirements from some FOSS districts and follows information security best practices. Two minutes before the end of the session, you will receive a warning banner that allows you to extend your session. If your session has timed out, the warning banner will have a link to the login page. Note that the banner will not appear if your computer was asleep when the time-out occurred.

For most activities that open in a new tab or window from FOSSweb, including multimedia, the PDF-based flipping books, the interactive student resources book, and some videos, you will not be able to continue working after you've been logged out of FOSSweb. You will need to return to the main FOSSweb window to log in again. When you or your students are using FOSSmap, which opens in a new window, you will be able to continue working even if you have timed out of FOSSweb because the FOSSmap time out is separate from FOSSweb. FOSSmap will time out for teachers after 30 minutes of inactivity. The student test-taker interface will time out after 90 minutes of inactivity.

Can I see the student view from my teacher account?

Yes, you can view the student pages by going to Assign Content in the My Class Pages section of your Teacher Page. You can do this for both classes with common credentials and classes with individual students.

On your Teacher Page, scroll down to My Class Pages. Find the "Assign Content" link and click on it.

On the next page, click on the cover of the module you wish to view from the student side.

The page below shows the student view of the module selected, in this case Environments. You can click on any resource to view it. For the modules that have an online assessment in FOSSmap (grades 3-8), teachers do not have access to it through this view. Note that students will not see the green, yellow, or red icons indicating who the resource is assigned to.

For more information on assigning content to students, please see the Assigning Content to Classes or Students walk-through video.

How do my students access the multimedia?

Teachers and students need to log in with a FOSSweb account to access multimedia; this can be via a Common Class Login or an Individual Student Login. Visit our FOSSweb Walk-Through Videos to learn about creating a Class Page and a Common Class Login or Individual Student Accounts.

Video: Common Class Account
Video: Individual Student Accounts
PDF: FOSSweb Self-Registered Teacher User Guide
Can I assign or differentiate content for my students?

The “Assign Content” option allows you to show or hide select pieces of FOSS content to the entire class (Common Class Login) or to individual students (Individual Student Accounts). Click “Assign Content” and select the module or course for which you would like to show or hide content. Content is always shown by default, indicated by a green student icon next to the word “ALL.”

Common Class Login: To toggle selected content off from the class view, click the green student icon next to the word “ALL.” The icon will turn red and “ALL” will change to the number “0.” This means that this content will not display on the class page for students. To toggle the content back on for the class, click the red icon again and it will turn green.

Individual Student Accounts: To hide content from all students or to assign content to one or more individual students, click the green icon next to the selected piece of content. In the Assign Students pop-up window, select the student(s) to whom you wish to assign content and click “Save.” The student icon will turn orange and display the number of students who have access to that content. Click the icon again to see the list of students with access.

If the class has multiple modules associated with it, select which module you are teaching by clicking on the cover image of the module. From the resulting module page, you will see the links to content in two different formats: basic links in black or gray that cannot be assigned and assignable links with an associated green, yellow, or red assignment icons.

For a quick overview, please view the Walk-through Video: How to Assign Content or download the Quickstart PDF.

Video: Assigning Content
PDF: How to Assign Content
Why can’t my students access the Science Resources eBooks?

Student access to the Science Resources eBook via a teacher’s Class Page requires Premium Content. Premium Content is available from Delta Education. Once obtained, you would receive a separate Premium Access Code, which when activated, will unlock that resource for your students.

If you think your district has already purchased Premium Access, contact your district or school coordinator for FOSS for the access code.

Why is some content missing for students? (Tutorials and Virtual Investigations)

Content can be removed from student accounts by the teacher through the link on the class page, "Assign Content." If a specific piece of content is missing for students, it is likely that the content has been removed from the class and needs to be added back in. Please see the Help pages on Assigning Content to learn more about assigning content.

If you cannot see the content on your class “Assign Content” page, then it is unavailable to students. Contact us using our FOSSweb Support form for more information.

What options are there for students interacting with the Science Resources eBooks?

Science Resources eBooks contain many interactive features. Students can:

  • listen to audio of the book
  • watch short videos
  • engage with short interactive activities
  • and (with Individual Student Accounts) highlight text and take notes
eBooks are available in English and Spanish. For more information, see the Interactive Student eBook tutorial video.

What access is recommended for K-2 students?

Because there are no online assessments for K-2 FOSS modules, we recommend that a Common Class Login be set up for K-2 classrooms. This simplifies access to FOSSweb for these students. The common username and password, created by the teacher, will allow students to login and access available multimedia, streaming videos, and eBooks (with premium access).

Where do I get help for problems with digital content?

There are a few steps to take to start troubleshooting digital content.

  1. Check the technical requirements. Are you using the recommended browsers?
  2. Make sure your browser is up-to-date. If not, try updating it and testing the content again.
  3. Change your browser. If you are having trouble on one browser, try the same content on another browser. Typically, the Chrome browser is the most reliable.
  4. Verify that your IT group has whitelisted the appropriate sites so that no content from FOSSweb is blocked.
If you continue to have problems, contact us using our FOSSweb Support form.

. Please include in your description of the problem, the name of the activity that you are having trouble with, the browser and operating system you are using, and the nature of the problem.

What digital accessibility options are there for students with special needs?

FOSS and Delta Education/School Specialty are committed to providing students and teachers with content that is accessible for all. As such, we have NIMAS files for all FOSS Science Resources student books available on the NIMAC (National Instructional Materials Accessibility Center). NIMAS source files can be used to create accessible specialized formats (i.e., Braille, audio, digital, large-print, etc.) of print instructional materials. The full set of files includes XML content files, a package file, images, and a PDF file of the title page (or whichever page contains ISBN and copyright information).

In addition, FOSSweb a variety of components that help address accessibility standards, including the following:

  • Audio books for FOSS Science Resources
  • FOSS Science Resources interactive eBooks, which include audio syncing and the ability to zoom in or out on text and images
  • FOSS Science Resources PDF-based eBooks also include the ability to zoom in or out on text and images
  • Closed-captioning for most of the content videos and teacher preparation videos; transcripts may also be available
  • Audio for the FOSSmap online assessment items (to come in September 2018)
  • Many teacher/student resources such as the Interactive Whiteboard (IWBs) slides/teaching slides and online activities can be projected to the class with the ability to zoom in or out on text and images

What Spanish resources are available on FOSSweb?

The following resources are available in Spanish for Next Generation edition modules:

  • student notebook masters
  • teacher masters
  • assessment masters
  • Focus Questions
  • vocabulary (list and definitions)
  • Science Resources eBook (Your school/district would have had to purchase hard copies specifically in Spanish, but you have access to eBooks on FOSSweb. Student access to the eBooks requires premium content, available from Delta Education.)
  • posters and student cards
  • equipment photo cards
  • Interactive whiteboard resources
To access the above resources in Spanish, you’ll need to have a FOSSweb account and have activated the module with an access code.

Other editions also have Spanish resources, but a subset of what is available for Next Generation editions.

How do I use Google Classroom with FOSSweb?

We developed a new FAQ document (4/2020) with support for distance learning using Google Classroom and FOSSweb.

FOSS and Google Classroom FAQ