There are 2 ways to set up course structure in itslearning:
- Incorporating the use of Plans (recommended)
- Building materials in the resources tab only
Using Plans
The customizable Plans (commonly known as the planner tool) is designed to support effective instructional strategies and provide transparency for the learner as well as the parent/guardian.
Plans saves teachers' time when designing experiences for students, and guides the students through their learning. Additionally, Plans has the potential to replace teacher-created web pages, academic newsletters, or absentee folders. Both students and parents can view Plans, which clearly provides a summary of learning goals, links to important resources, notes, and much more.
Benefits of Using Plans
Plans isn't a traditional schedule of events, but more of a roadmap for learning. It gives your students a better overview of what they are learning with a clear order and sequence.
Plans is designed to streamline course organization by automatically building materials within the resources tab and allowing teachers to create lessons that are aligned to standards/learning objectives quickly and effectively.
Teachers, parents, students, and administrators can have access to plans, so that everyone clearly understands how learning will be generated, supported, and assessed.
Plans can be customized (by adding fields) and reused year after year. When dates are aligned with plans, the plan and activities are automatically activated and populate on the course overview page. Students will not only have access to the day's plan, but can also open Plans to view previous plans and activities.
Notice that standards/learning objectives have been added to the plan above, so any resources added to this plan will automatically be aligned with these standards - saving teachers a lot of time.
Note: If Plans has been deactivated within your Course, navigate to Course settings >> Course properties and features >>, and then enable Plans in the Functions segment >> Click Save.
Course Resources
The alternative way (where schools have opted not to use Plans) is to use the resources tab to navigate through course materials. This section is like a filing cabinet and can be organized in a way that best fits the needs of the teacher and their students.
Resources can be linked to announcements, but this is not recommended as announcements are primarily meant as an information and update tool, and not a repository for distributing teaching materials.