MHC Interactive: GED

Integrated Online Solution

Purchaser Administrator Manual

Welcome to the GED Integrated Online Solution. This manual will introduce you to the usage of the system so that you can use the program to its greatest potential. You should have an installation CD-ROM, which also contains “Getting Started Instructions” that will walk you through the installation process. You will need to complete that installation to begin using the program and this manual. Also, you should have a username and password to access the GED Integrated Online Solution product. You will need that login information after your installation of the program.

STEP 1: LAUNCHING THE PROGRAM

After the program is finished installing on your local hard drive, you will need to navigate to your Windows Start button to locate the program executable in order to launch the program.

Highlight the programs button and locate and point your mouse over the MHC Interactive menu option. Then select GED Online, and then click on the GEDONLINE program executable.

Doing so will launch GED Integrated Online Solution.

STEP 2: SIGNING ON AS A PURCHASER ADMINISTRATOR

Once you select the programs executable, you will need an active and open Internet connection. If you aren’t active on the Internet GED Integrated Online Solution may launch your default Internet connection.

The program automatically launches your Internet browser and navigates to the GED Integrated Online Solution sign-on page.

The Purchaser Administrator username and password should have been emailed or supplied to you. The Purchaser Administrator username and password provides the ability to set-up institutions, teachers, and allocate seats to those teachers.

STEP 3: THE WELCOME SCREEN

This welcome screen provides you with some important information. Your first name, last name, user type, number licenses, and the license disposition.

The screen indicates the number of institutions licenses and how many licensed student seats have allocated.

The license distribution level can be set to either TEACHER or CLASS. This indicates how you as a Purchaser Administrator will allocate seats – to the teacher or at the class level.

The Notice Board displays any global messages that you or any instructors may have posted.

This screen will also indicate if there are any private messages sent to you. If there are messages, a yellow “New Message Found” bar will be present over the Notice Board. To access that message simply click on the New Message Found yellow button to enter into the messaging system.

STEP 4: CHECKING NEW MESSAGES

From the Welcome screen, you can access the Message System two ways. First, if you have a new message simply clicking on the yellow New Message Found bar will open the \Message Center. Second, the Message Center may be accessed from the Messaging System menu located at the top of the Welcome screen.

The Message Center displays new messages as well as old messages. If there are new messages, a New Message Found alert will appear upon opening the Message Center. To open, read, and reply to any message, simply select the Select button to the left of the message.

Please note that each message has an expiration date and will automatically be deleted from the system on that date.

STEP 5: RESPONDING TO MESSAGES

When selecting a message, the message detail screen appears. From this screen, the entire message can be read, replied to, expiration date modified, or deleted.

To reply to a message, simply click the reply button and type your message in the message body box.

To delete a message, click the Delete This Message button.

As long as you are connected to the Internet, this window may be kept open and minimized. Every 30 seconds the messaging system will automatically check for new message and alert you if one is present.

As a Purchaser Administrator, you can post a message on the Notice Board. The Notice Board is designed to place global messages for groups of GED Online users to read. The Notice Board is always available on the left side of the screen.

To post a message on the Notice Board, select the Message Center menu, then select Post Notice. The Post a Notice screen appears and displays the institution that the notice will be post for. You can also select the target audience for this message. Choose either Students, Teachers, Institutional Administrators, Purchaser Administrator, or All. The message will only be available to the target audience you select.

You can select an expiration date for this message. The message will automatically be deleted on that date. Click submit when finished typing your notice and your notice will appear on the Notice Board.

STEP 6: NOTICE BOARD

STEP 7: MANAGEMENT MENU

The Management menu is where you can add institutions, add users, manage class information, allocate seats, and search the database.

STEP 8: MANAGE USERS

Under the Manage Users menu option, you have the ability to access, institution, teacher, and student records. For students, you can view individual Performance Summaries, add new students, assign students to classes, list all students in the database, and delete students from the database.

For teachers, you can add new teachers, allocate seats to teachers, or list all teachers in the database.

The Purchaser Administrator sets up Institutions and the Institutional Administrator. Then the Institutional Administrator usually sets up teacher records in the database, and then allocates a block of seats to each teacher. Teachers then sign on, create classes, create students, and then assign students to those classes. The Institutional Administrator does have the ability to control the same student and class functions as the teacher from this menu. This manual addresses adding teachers not students and classes. For more information on controlling student and class records, please see the Teacher Manual.

STEP 9: ADDING A TEACHER

To add a teacher, select Manage Users from the Management Menu, and then select Add Teacher. This screen will appear. The user type should automatically default to teacher. Your institution should also be displayed.

The Permitted to Login can either be set to Yes or No. If you select No, this teacher will not be able to log in until this flag is set back to Yes.

Type in the teacher’s first name and last name. A Unique Login ID will automatically be generated, however, you may change it. A password will also be automatically be generated that can also be changed. To view the password, simply click the View Password button.

Type in the teacher’s phone number and email address. The Administrative Notes field has been provided for general information. This is not a required field. If set to Yes, The View Lists on Entry Forms provides a list of entered users at the bottom of the screen. If you would like the teacher to automatically be sent their login information via email, select Yes to the Email Login and Password field.

Click Add when finished.

STEP 10: SEAT ALLOCATION

Once Add has been selected from the Add a Teacher screen, the teacher seat allocation will automatically appear. This screen can also be accessed by selecting the Management menu, and then select Allocate Seats, then select Teacher.

This screen lists the total number of seats that have been allocated to this institution. It then lists all teacher records created and provides you with a field to indicate how many seats each teacher should have. The Currently Enrolled column lists how many students that teacher has enrolled.

Click the Update button when finished.

STEP 11: VIEWING STUDENT PERFORMANCE SUMMARIES

As a Purchaser Administrator, you can view Performance Summaries for all students enrolled within your institution.

To view a Performance Summary for a student, select the Management Menu, and then select Manage Users, and then select Performance Summary. A screen appears with a drop down box that you use to select which student you would like to view. Select a student, and then click Submit.

The Performance Summary screen may take a few moments to load.

STEP 12: USING THE PERFORMANCE SUMMARY SCREEN

The performance summary screen displays all the students lesson information, unit test scores, and pre- and post-test scores. This screen also displays the student Total Time in Program. This time represents the students working time in the program and does not count periods of inactivity.

This screen is an interactive screen. Areas containing progress marks and test scores can be clicked on to view detailed information on that student’s progress.

Clicking on students Lesson Summary progress mark will display each lessons date, time, and lesson quiz mastery information.

Clicking on students Test scores (both unit tests and pre- and post-tests) will provide a skill-by-skill break down of the test as well as the students progress on each skill. You can also review each test question to view the students answer, the correct answer, and an explanation of the correct answer.

You have access to download detailed information from the GED Online database to create custom reports using such programs as Microsoft Excel. The Downloads menu contains all the reports available. As a Purchaser Administrator all students assigned to all teachers at all institutions can be downloaded to create reports. Teacher’s also have access to these reports, but only for their students and classes.

The Lesson Table Spreadsheet downloads a listing of all units and lessons available in the software.

The Teacher spreadsheet and text file downloads a listing of all teachers and their information.

The Class List spreadsheet and text file downloads a listing of all classes, the assigned teacher, how many seats allocated, and how many seats are assigned to students.

The Student List spreadsheet and text file contains a download of all students in the system and their information.

See the next page for a description of the Student Activity Stats report.

STEP 13: REPORTING FEATURES

STEP 14: STUDENT ACTIVITY STATS REPORT

The GED Integrated Online Solution system time tracks student’s activities within the lesson and tests. During periods of inactivity longer than 5 minutes, time-on-task is not counted and will not be recorded by this report.

The Student Activity Report will provide a spreadsheet of all student activity within the lessons and tests and calculate their working time.

When selected from the Downloads menu, this report contains options. You may choose all classes or a specific class to download, and you may choose a specific date range.

The Report Format provides you with some options on the type of information you would like included in the report. The Report Output format provides the option of a spreadsheet or text file download.

For a sample of the report, see the next page.

STEP 15: SAMPLE STUDENT ACTIVITY REPORT - FORMATTED

This sample report shows how you could format the Student Activity Report in Microsoft Excel to show total working time for students. By using the formulas in Excel, you can create a custom report that totals figures on any column.

STEP 16: RESOURCES MENU

The Resources menu provides access to modify the database of prescriptive resources. The Resources database is used to list additional study materials that students can reference for further remediation. Once a student completes a test, these resources are listed by page number for any skill not mastered on the test.

To add a new resource, select Add New Resource. To list and have access to edit any resource already in the database, select List/Edit all.

The Manage Multiple Resources provides the ability to restore resources that have been removed or add/delete multiple resources at a time.

STEP 17: ADDING A RESOURCE

To add a resource, select Add New Resource from the Resources Menu. A series of required fields appears.

Select the subject area of the resource you would like to add. The Category field will default to preset options once the subject area is selected. Once the resources Category is selected, a list of defaulting Content areas will display. Select the Content area, and then select a Description from the populated list.

Type in the Resource Name, and then assign specific pages or sections of the resource that specifically address that skill.

All Subjects, Categories, Content areas, and Descriptions default from the actually listing of GED skills addressed on the GED Test.

STEP 18: MODIFYING AN EXISTING RESOURCE

Resources that already exist in the database can be modified. Select the List/Edit All menu option from the Resources menu.

This displays a listing of all resources that exist in the database. To modify a resource click on the Edit button and to insert a resource into a specific subject area location, click on the Insert button.

STEP 19: MY PROFILE MENU

The My Profile menu provides that option of updating your individual profile or the purchaser profile.

STEP 20: UPDATING YOUR PROFILE

From the update My Profile screen, you can modify your first name, last name, and password. Your email address may also be changed if necessary.

STEP 21: UPDATING THE PURCHASER PROFILE

From the My Profile menu, you can update the Purchaser Profile. The Purchaser name can be changed.

You may also list your institutions’ web site address and a link will be provided to it from the GED Online site. You may also choose not to link students to other Internet sites.

STEP 22: LAUNCHING THE GED SOFTWARE

As a Purchaser Administrator, you have the ability to access the software to view the lessons and tests. To launch the software, click on the Launch GED button from the home page.

STEP 23: ADMIN SOFTWARE FEATURES

As a Purchaser Administrator, when the tests are accessed you can see what the student sees, but also see the correct answer displayed at the bottom left corner of the screen.

STEP 24: EXITING GED INTEGRATED ONLINE SOLUTION

When finished working with GED Online, simply select the Quit menu, and then select Quit Immediately.