The Guidelines

We have created some guidelines to make it easier to get students working online. These are published in full at the bottom of this post and also available in the publications area of eWorkspace.

Use eWorkspace

By far the safest and easiest way to get students working online is by using the eWorkspace. It is a very no-frills functional platform for creating forums, wikis, blogs faqs and so on – and you don’t have to create users at all because the students are already on it!

Privacy Issues

For privacy reasons, students should not be asked to publish their full names online. In other words don’t ask them to (or let them) set up an account where the username is Joe Bloggs of their name is Joe Bloggs. The formula to create a username for the students is in point 4 of the guidelines.

Publishing using their own names

If they do want to publish stuff themselves and put their name to it, if they have taken a nice photo and want to share it on flicker for example, they must do so outside of school hours and make sure that what they publish complies with the Electronic Services Acceptable Usage Agreement. Note that point 8 of the Agreement states: Publishing of unauthorised material that identifies or depicts Aitken College students, staff or activities, or reflects badly on the School’s image and reputation is not permitted.

How to create usernames

When using third party websites, whenever possible, create a teacher account that allows you to set up their usernames and passwords. When you do so, in order to avoid confusing them, use this format: tim15979 (first name student number). When you can’t set up their names for them, get them to follow the same formula and make sure they do so by building it into the assignments assessment criteria (eg. Successfully set up a correctly formatted username and password: X marks).

Some other (very important) things to consider

Do not use or allow the students to use their Aitken College password; make sure anything they publish complies with the Electronic Services Acceptable Usage Agreement; and, make sure that you and your students comply with the terms and conditions of the website that you are using especially regarding the use of copyright material and age requirements.

The Guidelines:

1. When possible, use the applications available on eWorkspace (blog, wiki, projectspace, etc).
2. Students should not be asked to publish work or create accounts online that reveal their full names.
3. If a student desires to publish work online using their full names (to add that work to an online portfolio, for example), they can do so in their own time.
4. Teachers should create accounts for their students whenever possible. This is often available when a site offers an educator subscription. When doing so, teachers should use the following format: student number, first name (tim15979). If this is not available, add a letter or number to the end. This will help to identify the student and avoid the students having to remember too many usernames.
5. In the event that a student needs to create their own username and password the same format should apply (this can be easily built into the marking rubric for the task by adding a criterion such as ‘Created a username and password successfully – x marks’). Students should not use their personal accounts for the purpose of schoolwork.
6. Students should not use their Aitken College password when creating accounts.
7. At all times staff and students must comply with the Aitken College Electronic Services Acceptable Usage Agreement.
8. Staff and students must comply with the Terms and Conditions of each website, particularly when these dictate the minimum age of the user.

Hope this helps!