To remain relevant and engaging, all eAcademyPLUS courses are required to be continually updated. Think of these courses as living and breathing things that continue to grow just as you do. Creating high-quality eAcademyPLUS courses allows us to provide an outstanding educational experience to eAcademyPLUS students.

The eAcademyPLUS Course Design Review Form, paired with the eAcademy Teacher Self-Review Form and Teacher Feedback Form, has been designed as a dialogue tool, allowing the WIU to support eAcademyPLUS teachers as they develop digital content that is academically rigorous, highly engaging, and supports student success.

Below are the eAcademyPLUS™ Course Requirements, which will be used to identify where required items need to be added, deleted, or altered in your active course and in your Program Master in Buzz. For each category, teachers will be provided with their strengths, required actions, and suggestions.

For a consistent look and feel in Accelerate Education courses taught by eAcademyPLUS teachers, use the Teacher Introduction Template, which is a set of Google Slides you need to edit for your course.

Requirements

Embed the Teacher Introduction presentation to the Landing Page of your Accelerate Education course that includes the following items:

~ All About Me: Include your biography and teaching history. You are encouraged to also include photos.

~ Expectations: Include your student and grading expectations.

~ Contact: Include your contact information (WIU email address) and when you are available. Also include how to contact the eAcademy Help Desk. The link for the eAcademy Help Desk is https://support.wiueacademy.org/.

~ Live Sessions: Include the dates and times of your live synchronous sessions and one-on-one opportunities. Also include the URL to join your sessions.

Grading periods allow you to view the Activities, Gradebook, People, and Editor by specific grading periods. This allows you to view your students’ quarter grades. Semester grades will not be visible.

Requirements

Activate grading periods in your Accelerate Education course. Grading period names include the following: Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. Each course includes two grading periods.

~ Semester A courses: Q1 and Q2

~ Semester B courses: Q3 and Q4

Once grading periods are activated in a Semester A course, all modules and their associated activities are assigned to Q1 by default. In a Semester B course, all modules and their associated activities are assigned to Q3 by default. Always take the time to confirm the correct grading periods for your modules.

Requirements

Associate your course modules and their associated activities to the correct grading periods.

Since due dates in a Range course are hard due dates, you must allow late submissions for all gradable activities so that students are able to move forward in your gated course. Gradable activities include Assignments, Assessments, Discussions, Custom activities, and Journals.

Requirements

Follow the steps to “Allow late submissions” for all your gradable activities.

Requirements

Follow the steps to set due dates for all your gradable activities.

You must password protect the Participation module so that students do not complete the End of Course survey. The survey has caused course completion issues, which is why the module must be password protected.

Never hide or delete the Participation module. This adversely affects student completion and grades.

Requirements

Access the Editor in Buzz and password protect the Participation module.

Examples of files that you may want to include in your courses are PDF files, Word documents, PowerPoint slides, Google Docs, and Google Slides. Remember, if you didn't create the materials, make sure you have permission to use them or find Open Education Resources through OER Commons.

Requirements

Since our students use a variety of devices to access their course materials, provide two versions of uploaded files for accessibility (e.g., Google Doc, PDF file).

TIP: When using Google files, change the hyperlink from /edit to /copy so students make their own copy of the file. Students will need to share the copied file with you.

For accessibility, it is a best practice to underline all hyperlinks and state that they open in a new window.

Requirements

Ensure links to files and web pages are working and open in a new window. Otherwise, students may accidentally exit the course when closing a file or web page.

Requirements

Ensure spelling, grammar, and capitalization are correct throughout your course.

If you find any spelling, grammar, capitalization, or content errors in your Accelerate Education course, or if the content may be objectionable to students and families, please submit a ticket to the Accelerate Education Support Center.

In your ticket, provide as many details as possible regarding your issue: student name, teacher name, course name, module number, lesson title, activity title, screenshot of the issue, etc.