Focus on Assignments - Educators

The assignments feature of SightReadingFactory.com allows educators to organize their students into classes, create assignments for those classes, and review and grade the assignments submitted by their students.

Note: Students can complete Sight Reading Factory assignments on smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, Chromebooks, and other netbooks using modern versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge. Check out our System Requirements page for more detailed information.

This page describes the following features which educators can use to manage their assignments:

• Classes
• Enrollments
• Assignments
• Organizations

Classes

A class is a collection of students and assignments. Classes are created by individual educators, who can set up any number of classes. Classes may correspond with a real-world class ("4th Period Orchestra"), or it may be more focused ("Beginning Trumpets"). Once a class is established, the educator can add and remove students from the class using 'Enrollments'. When an educator creates an assignment for a class, the assignment is visible to all students who are enrolled in that class.

In addition to helping organize and target assignments, classes can also be used to filter practice reports. When an educator views their reports, they can filter by student code or class.

Enrollments

Once an educator has created a class, they must associate a group of students with that course. We call these "enrollments". Educators can create or delete enrollments at any time. Only students who are enrolled in a class will see the assignments for the class.

To add or remove students from classes you can edit class enrollments. To do so:

1. Go to the 'Classes' tab on the Dashboard
2. Click 'View' by the class for which you'd like to edit the enrollment
3. Click 'Edit' by 'Enrollments'
4. Find the student's name in the table and check the name to enroll the student or uncheck the name to unenroll the student.
5. Click 'Save'

Assignments

Once an educator has created a class and enrolled students, the educator can give the students assignments. An assignment is simply a sight reading exercise that is configured by the teacher for the student to record and submit to their teacher. When creating an assignment, an educator has many options for customizing the experience for the student:

• Max Attempts - By setting "max attempts" on an assignment, you can limit the number of times each student can launch your assignment. If a student launches multiple times, they will always have brand new sight reading generated so they will never see the same music twice.
• Due date and time - After the due date and time have passed, any assignment submissions will be clearly marked as late.
• Configuration - You have the option to pre-configure the level, key signature, and time signature for your students. With pre-configured settings, your students will not have to configure (or be able to change) those settings which you set up for them. You can set all 3 choices or you can set 1 or 2 and let the student choose the other(s). Keep in mind that the key signature that you select will be in concert pitch.
• Measure Count - The educator can set the number of measures of the sight reading assignment
• Tempo - The tempo (beats per minute) the student is expected to perform the exercise.
• Count Down Length - When a student launches an assignment, SightReadingFactory.com gives the student a countdown timer, so that they can study the composition and prepare.
• Metronome Track - The assignment can have just a metronome lead-in before the performance begins, or a metronome accompaniment track throughout.
• Disappearing Measures - This makes the measures disappear after they are played. This encourages the student to keep going and not look back.
• Note Cursor - This displays a cursor that jumps from note to note as it should be played. This can help a student keep their place.
• Note Annotations - This gives you the option to place solfege, pitch names, scale degree numbers, or piano fingerings below the notes.
• Minor Scale Type - This lets you set the type of minor scale that you'd like to be used as the basis for any minor key signature sight reading.

After assignments are completed by students, SightReadingFactory.com helps educators grade the assignments and provide feedback. The 'Assigments' tab on the Dashboard displays a list of assignments and their summaries. The educator can view a grading summary of a particular assignment by clicking the 'Grade' button in the assignment's row. The grade screen allows the educator to listen to the student recording, view the original composition, and save a grade and feedback for the student to review.

For more information on how a student launches an assignment, please see Feature Focus: Assignments for Students

Organizations

An organization is a collection of educators, such as a middle school. Once an organization is created, a student can be shared across all educators and classes in the organization without having to register for each educator. This feature makes student accounts much more affordable, and student registration and tracking much easier. If you are the only educator at your school using SightReadingFactory.com, you are not affected by organizations. If your school has multiple educators using SightReadingFactory.com, contact us today and we'll help you set up your organization.