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Barronsregents.com Teacher Tutorial

Welcome to Barronsregents.com! This tutorial will show you how to set up your classes, create exams and assign them to classes. It is a good idea, if you have not already, to print out this page and let us guide you through this site as you learn.

INDEX

Initial Setup
Logging into Website
Creating Your Profile

Creating Your Exams
Creating Your First Sample Exam
Selecting Questions From the Database
Editing Database Questions
English Exams: Special Instructions
Adding Questions of Your Own
Deleting Questions
Shuffling Question Order
Making a Copy of an Existing Exam
Renaming an Exam
Printing Your Exam
Deleting an Exam

Classroom Accounts
Creating Your Own Classes
Registering (and dropping) Students for a Class
Assigning Your Exam To Your Class(es)
Removing an Assigned Exam From Your Class
Dropping a Class
Reviewing Your Class's Performance
Logging Students in the First Time

SETUP

Open your Internet browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc. Note: America Online users who use AOL as their primary Internet connection should open either Internet Explorer or Netscape independently once they have connected to AOL to ensure proper operation of BarronsRegents.com) and enter the URL for our site - http://www.barronsregents.com. After you arrive at our homepage you are ready to begin.

It is a good idea to Bookmark the main page in your web browser so that you may quickly return to this site at any time.

For Internet Explorer, select Favorites-->Add to Favorites.
For Firefox, select Bookmarks-->Add Bookmarks.

LOGGING INTO WEBSITE

Click on "Login Here" in the upper right corner of our Home page.

Click in the "User Name" box and type in your user name.
Click in the "Password" box and type in your password. ****** will appear when you type your password, this is a normal security measure.
Click "Login".

CREATE YOUR PROFILE

On your very first visit to the site, you are asked to complete your user profile. Click in each field and enter the appropriate data. Be sure to enter a new user name and password. Use something you will remember. When the profile form is complete, click "Create Profile" and your personal menu, or home page, will now appear

[Please note: Your personal information will never be given to anyone else. Barronsregents.com does NOT SELL LISTS! Your privacy is very important to us.]

Ok, you're logged in. Now what can you do?

A teacher subscription to Barronsregents.com allows you to do several powerful things. For example, you will be able to:

Search our database and put together custom exams by Topic.
Pull up entire exams by the Regents exam dates.
Create your very own custom exam questions and answers.
Edit existing Regents questions to target the weaker areas your students need to concentrate upon.
Once you have selected questions for your exams, you can then print them out as handouts, quizzes, or exams for your students.
You can even use Barronsregents.com to assign them to registered students online , and monitor and keep track of their progress.

CREATE YOUR FIRST SAMPLE QUIZ

From your Home screen, click "Create a Custom Exam". Then click in the "Test Name" box, and type a test name such as "Sample Quiz". Now click the button marked "Create Exam".

The Test Creating Navigator appears. Now we can add questions to the quiz.

Special Note: It should be mentioned here that if you assign an exam (more on this later) to your students who have subscriptions to BarronsRegents.com, when taken online, each student will be given the questions in random order.

SELECTING QUESTIONS FROM THE DATABASE

The screen will now say "Test Creator". Here you have several options in creating an exam for your students. For this example, we will create an exam with questions from our Master Database. Click the radio button ()that says, "Search the Master Database", then click "Next."

Click the pull-down menu of Regents Courses and choose a course to search from which you will select questions. Then, select the type of questions that you would like to search for, either "Multiple Choice or Short Answer Type Questions," or "detailed-response/essay type questions." Click "Next".

You are now taken to the Database Search screen. On this screen you decide how to select questions for your custom exam from Barronsregents.com's on-line master database. You may either search by Topic, Exam Date, or perform a Text search.

Searching by Topic allows you to concentrate your questions on a particular area of the chosen subject. By clicking on the drop down menu, you will see sub headings for the selected exam from which you can choose questions.
Searching by Exam Date will bring up an entire section of a Regents exam for the specified date (Part I, Part II, Part III, etc.), from which you may choose specific questions.
A Text search will search the entire database under the chosen subject for EXACT TEXT STRING MATCHES. For example, say you are searching for topics associated with World War II. You can enter the text string "World War II" and the questions shown would be those containing the EXACT words/characters that make up "World War II". Entering "WWII" as a search string would most likely result in no matches since most questions would not contain the abbreviation ""WWII"." Also note that while text string searches are not strictly case sensitive, it will speed your search if you type your text string as close as possible to how you would expect to see the words within the question.

Note:

Because of the unique nature of the Regents English exams, they are searchable by date only.

Now, select a method of searching. You can select more than one method, but you MUST choose at least one. The program will search for the criteria selected from this menu, then display the results on the "Query Results" page. While using multiple search methods can, in some cases, provide a more specific search, it is advisable to start with a general search and if you get too many questions you can always return to this screen.

Your "Query Results" (questions that can be added to your exam) appear. Note that in addition to the questions are the correct answers, the answer choices (if any), the topic which the question falls under, the date of the Regents exam from which the question was taken, and whether or not the question comes with an accompanying image or diagram. Scroll down the page using the scroll bar on the right to browse the results.

By default, all questions are checked for inclusion in your custom exam. You can deselect a question by clicking on a question's checkbox again and the check mark will disappear, deselecting it. Alternately, you may deselect all questions by clicking "Uncheck All Questions" and then check-off only those you find useful. After deciding which questions you wish to include, scroll to the bottom and click "Add all Checked Questions". Anything with a check mark next to it will be added to your exam.
Note: Any images, including documents referenced in the questions, will not appear on the "Query Results" screen. Once you add questions to your exam, you can review any included images by clicking on the individual question in your "Test Creator" screen.

You are now returned to the "Test Creator" screen. The questions you selected appear in an abbreviated list format on the left under "Custom Questions". Pausing the mouse over the ">>" next to a question will show the complete question text .(Note: Most Math exam questions are stored and displayed on exams as IMAGES, therefore the mouseover will show "****" rather than the question text since the mouseover does not display graphics). Click the first question in the list. The full question with any accompanying images will appear in the right frame.

Feel free to add additional questions by repeating the above steps for choosing questions from our database. Remember, questions of any type, topic, or course may be added to your custom test.

Also of note is the ability at this time to print out an Answer Key for your assistance in grading your custom exams or to distribute as a helpful review sheet to your students. Simply click on "Key" on the bottom of the page and a printable answer key will appear in your browser with the original questions, the correct answers, and an explanation if one is available.

EDITING EXISTING QUESTIONS

You can also edit any question (except Math exams) by selecting questions from the " Custom Questions" list, and then making any changes to the text directly in the form fields. You can also remove or add choices. You cannot remove images. Math exams cannot be edited, since the questions are scanned images due to the complexity of formulas and special characters. Click " Submit Question" after making some changes to the first question.

ENGLISH EXAMS: SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS

The NYS Regents English exams are formatted somwhat differently than other Regents exams and therefore require a slightly different approach when creating practice tests for your students.

The exam is in four parts. The first two parts require the student to listen to or read extended passages of informational text or literary passages and answer multiple-choice questions on those passages. The third part requires the reading of two literary passages linked by a common theme, answering 5 multiple-choice questions, and writing two short Constructed Response questions. Part 4 is an essay of critical analysis and an evaluation of two works of literature the student has read.

When creating your practice exams, you will not have the option of selecting quesitons by Topic - only by exam date. Also, the program will allow you to create a practice exam with just one test part, or "task." If you would like to give your students a complete Regents English exam you can create four separate exams, one with each part. Just be sure to label them appropriately—either when you first name an online exam or from the Printing Options screen when printing them for your students.

Once you select the exam part you want, it is possible to customize your practice exam by deselecting some of the multipl-choice questions to shorten the exam or write your own multiple-choice questions to lengthen the exam. You may also remove any unwanted questions after adding them to your practice exam by clicking on them in the Question List on your Test Creator screen and clicking the Delete button.

In ALL cases be sure to ALWAYS include the very first question given to you from the database search. This initial question includes a link to the listening/reading passage for that exam part plus the instructions necessary to complete the assigned task.

To print the related passage(s) from English Exams either by clicking on the first question (instructions) in the Question List and click "Show/Print Passage" then print the page using your browser''s "print" button, or by clicking "Print Passage" on the Printing Options screen in the Exam Formatting section.

Note:

You may edit these instructions to reflect any changes you've made to the original exam. From the Test Creator screen select the first question from the Question List and edit the content to suit your needs. Just avoid changing any of the HTML tags which are recognizable by the "< >" brackets surrounding them.

Teachers with Classroom subscriptions: The students who have taken your English practice exams online will have their essays stored in the online database along with their responses to the multiple-choice questions. These responses can be reviewed by you in the same manner as you would for their practice exams in other courses. For en explanation of this procedure, see Reviewing Your Class's Performance below. Or, if you prefer, your students have to ability to print their essays from their own computer to be submitted to you.

ADDING QUESTIONS

Let's add a question of our own.

Type a question in the blank question box in the center of the screen.

Click in the Choice "A" box and type a choice. Continue adding choices.

Click on , next to the correct answer.

Type a topic if you wish, and click "Submit Question." The question now appears in the listing of questions on the left.

DELETING QUESTIONS

If you change your mind about a particular question in your custom exam and want to remove it, you can do so by clicking on the question in your "Custom Exam" list and then clicking on the "Delete Question" button below the displayed question

SHUFFLING QUESTION ORDER

It is possible to take an existing practice exam from your Exam Library and randomly shuffle the question order, then save the questions as a new practice exam while keeping the original exam as is. This gives you two or more versions of the same exam. Remember that when practice exams are givien to the students online, as is possible with a Classroom account, each student is already given the questions in a random order to prevent them from checking answers over the phone when taking these exams at home.

Select an exam from your Exam Library by double-clicking on the title.
With the exam in the Test Creator screen, click on "Shuffle Question Order" at the top of the question list.
The question order will be randomly shuffled and you'll have the options of saving the new exam with a new exam title, re-shuffling the questions, or canceling the shuffle and returning ot the original exam.
After clicking "Save" give the new exam a unique title.
You can then choose to either begin adding more questions or saving the exam in your Exam Library.
If you want to immmediately print the new exam, click "Add Questions or Print" first and then select "Print" from the red navigation bar near the top of the screen.

MAKING A COPY OF AN EXISTING EXAM

You can also create a duplicate of one of your existing exams. This can be useful if you want to create an alternate version of an exam by adding or subtracting questions without changing the original exam. This is also the only way to change the name of an existing exam. You would do this by making a copy of an exam, giving it a new name, then deleting the original exam.

Select an exam from your Exam Library by double-clicking on the title.
With the exam in the Test Creator screen, click on "Create Copy of Exam" at the top of the question list.
A new exam will be created with the same questions and in the same order as the original exam. Now give the new exam a unique title and click "Create Exam."
You can then choose to either begin adding more questions or saving the exam in your Exam Library.

RENAMING AN EXAM

To rename an exam, make a copy of the exam as descibed above, give the duplicate a new name, then delete the original exam.

PRINTING YOUR EXAM

From the Test Creator screen, or after selecting the exam from your Exam Library, click the "Print" link in the red navigation bar. First you'll see the Printing Options screen. Here you can customize the format your exam with options for the exam heading, adding special instructions for your students, and adjusting the layout of the exam questions using 1 or 2 columns and/or changing the font and image size. When done, scroll to the bottom of this screen and click .
Your quiz/exam will be shown in its entirety and is now formatted for printing from your browser.

Use the print function on your browser if you wish to print a copy. When finished, click "Cancel Print" to return to the "Test Creator."

To print the related passage(s) from English Exams, click on the first question in the Question List and click "Show/Print Passage" then print the page using your browser''s "print" button.

For Printing Tips and help with printing problems, click "Printing Help" on the Print Options screen after clicking the "Print" link on the Test Creator screen.

DELETING AN EXAM

Click next to the exam you wish to permanently delete.

If you have a Classroom subscription and an exam is assigned to one or more classes, you will not be able to delete it until you drop all the classes to which the exam is assigned. For instructions on deleting an assigned exam see Dropping a Class.

[The following applies mainly to classroom subscriptions]

CREATING YOUR OWN CLASSES

Now that you have mastered the ability to create exams, customize them, and print them out, you should become familiar with one of the most powerful features of Barronsregents.com...the ability to assign exams...online!

If you or your school has signed up for a classroom subscription, then your students should have been assigned user accounts and passwords to access Barronsregents.com. Or, any students that have their own Barronsregents.com account and attend your school can also access your virtual "classes!" Or course, for any of this to occur, you will need to create a Class.

This will allow you to assign Regents exams and any of your own custom exams to students to take online, be graded on, and saved in your very own progress report for each student. The only way to assign exams is to create a Class.

Click "Create Class Lists". Enter a salutation (example: Ms. Allen). In the first class box, type a class name such as "Biology Period 1". Click on "Create Classes." You will now be returned to your home page menu.

ASSIGNING YOUR EXAM TO YOUR CLASS(ES)

When you are satisfied with your customized exam, click the "Assign" link in the red navigation bar (from the Test Creator screen). If you're back on your Home screen, click on the Class to which you want to assign the exam. On the next screen (Class Performance) scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the chalkboard icon with "Assignment" written on it. On the next screen you will see an "Exam List" and then ...
(Please remember that once you assign an exam it can no longer be edited!)

Select the class you would like to assign this quiz to and click "Submit. " Select the due date for the assignment. Click "Assign to Class".

You should now be sent to your Class Performance screen (which has no students because you don't have any yet). The message in red tells you that when your students login they will be able to take your exam once they register for one of your classes (more on this below).

Click the "Home" link in the red navigation bar to return to your Home screen. If you wish to assign this exam to other classes you may have created, click on the classes' name from your Home screen. Click on and select an exam to assign to this class.

To reassign an exam to another Class, click on the name of the Class to which you want to assign an exam. On the Class Performance screen click on then select the exam from the Exam List (if the exam is already assigned to this Class it will not appear in the list). Now choose a due date and click "Assign to Class."

Special Tip: The question order of assigned exams are always scrambled for each student when taken online so reassigning an exam to another Class is a good way of allowing students to re-take an exam.

REMOVING AN ASSIGNED EXAM FROM YOUR CLASS

If you change your mind about assigning an exam to a class, you may remove it from that class only if none of your students have selected it from their list of assigned exams.

From your Home screen, select the class from which you would like to remove an exam.

Click on and select an exam to remove from this class, then click "Remove From Class"

If there are no students with this exam in their Practice Area or Exam Library, the exam will no longer be assigned to this class. If at least one student has started or completed this exam, you will be see a notice displayed at the top of your Class Performance screen.

REGISTERING (and dropping) STUDENTS FOR A CLASS

Once you have created a class, your students can then register for that class and take exams online that you've assigned to it.
The best method for registering students is to have the students register themselves.

Have your students log in and select "My Classes". Then have them click "Register for a Class" and choose your class from the list provided. (You will have to create you class list first!). This is quick and easy for you, as the students will appear directly into your class record as soon as they register!

Barron's recognizes that sometimes teachers may want to register a student by hand. If this is the case for you, click on the name of the class for which you want to register a student. At the bottom of the next screen, click on the icon of a student marked "Add" and then follow the directions given.

Conversely, you can drop a student from one of your Classes by selecting the Class name from your Home screen list and then, on the Class Performance screen, clicking on the icon at the bottom of the page showing a crossed out student.

DROPPING A CLASS

At some point you may want to drop a class. While this is possible to do, you must give this action careful consideration before proceeding. Removing a class that students have registered for and to which you've already assigned exams will make a number of permanent changes to the database.

Before permanently dropping one of your classes, keep the following points in mind:

You will no longer have access to the performance analysis of the students in the class unless they're registered for another one of your classes.

Any students who have completed exams or are taking exams as an assignment for the class will have those exams removed from their exam library or practice area. This means that these student will no longer have access to these exams for review. However, if a student has an exam in their library or practice area as an assignment from a different class, the exam will remain intact.

Once you drop a class, you may create a new class using the same name as the dropped class thereby clearing students and exams from a previous school term and starting the new term with a clean slate.

Because any of the exams you create can be assigned to any of your classes, you can always re-assign an exam from a class you dropped to another of your classes or to a class created at a later time.

REVIEWING YOUR CLASS'S PERFORMANCE

Once you have created and assigned an exam you can monitor the progress of your students within a particular class by clicking on the class name in your class list on the home page. While this "performance analysis" focuses mainly on your exams, you also have the ability to review a student's performance on exams of their own creation.

The "Class Performance Screen" shows the names of the students registered for that class, the exams currently assigned and the test scores for each.

By clicking on the various underlined links on this screen you will see additional performance/progress as follows:

CLICK ON...

Student name: get a progress report for this student.
Exam name: get class statistics for this exam.
Test score: get an exam "Report Card" for this student.
Exam due date: Change assignment due date for this exam.

An even more detailed analysis of an individual student is possible by clicking on one of the "Topic" graph bars displayed on the student's progress report. This will display the results by exam for that Topic.

On the next screen, clicking on an "exam" graph bar will display the results by question for that exam within that Topic.
You can also check the performance of any student in your original "Classroom set." From your Home sreen click on "Display My Classroom Info" and then click the student's name on your Classroom list.

NOW HAVE YOUR STUDENTS LOG IN FOR THE FIRST TIME

Distribute the student usernames and passwords (which were sent to you along with your username and password). Have them log in and create a profile just like you did before. Make sure that they (and to be on the safe side, YOU) record the new username and passwords that they create! Have your students refer to the student tutorial page for a walk through similar to this page. They will be able to register for your classes from their accounts and will then be able to take the exam(s) that you created for them.

Congratulations! You've just learned how to administer your own virtual classroom!

ANYTHING ELSE?

The exam you created is stored in your "Personal Exam Library". Click "Personal Exam Library " from the main menu to return to your exams at any time. You can makes changes to the exam if needed, provided that the exam has not already been assigned to a class. Once an exam has been assigned to a class, you may only make a printout of that exam. Otherwise, you will need to create another exam for your class. Your personal exam library will be the place where you can pull up your exams whenever you need them. Should you wish to renew your subscription with us each year, we will gladly continue to save these exams if you notify us that your subscription will be a RENEWAL. This will save you much valuable time rather than always creating new exams each class year!

You may click on "Update Profile/Change Password" to make changes to your profile at anytime.

From your personal menu you can add more classes, remove classes, and edit class names as you need to.

Again, please be sure to keep your E-mail address current so that we may contact you with any updates to your account!

Please contact us at HelpDesk@barronseduc.com if you have any questions or require further assistance.