Self pace confusion



Question:   I use google classroom.  Students do the assignments from classcraft which links to GC.  However, I am seeing a lot of students somehow moving onto quest objectives without actually completing assignments.  Does the self-paced mode actually check to see if the assignment is submitted, or does it let them move on at their own discretion? 

 

Idea:  Any plans to set filters on self-paced?  E.g. Grade thresholds for pass/fail of the quest objective.  I know I have asked that before, but the squeaky wheel gets the oil.  The game feels clunky and awkward like this.  Students keep asking, "When will you let us move onto the next quest objective," if I don't use self-paced, but if I do, they either give me crappy work to move on or they seem to submit without actually doing the assignment.  I love the motivation of quest mode, and so I will continue struggling through it, but please please please give us a pass/fail threshold.

  In my head, I can see myself designing a massive quest tree for each chapter/subject.  There will be direct quest lines that require pass/fail thresholds to continue, and side quests when students don't meet that threshold.  The side quests reinforce material that students struggle with, giving them a second shot at continuing.  Students that work quickly get rewarded with side quests that give them bonus points.        


I have been thinking about how to handle this as well.  I want to have kids use Schoology and pass a quiz with a minimum score before they can go on to the next part of the quest.  The problem is they can go through the whole quest without doing anything on Schoology.  I'm thinking it would be nice if they had to have a password or something attached to an objective that they can only receive from the teacher, or from my Schoology self-paced stuff.  Some sort of feature like this would be nice, still can be self-paced, but not just clicking ahead with turning in anything.

Hi Scott and Jeff,

To answer your first question, although the game won't let the student progress through a self-paced objective without submitting work, if the Classcraft assignments are turned on, if you have students that are rushing through the objectives to complete the Quest, you will always run the risk of students handing in work that is essentially blank. Something that other teachers have suggested doing in the past, if you want to use the Self-paced feature more extensively, is to have "checkpoints" every few Self-paced Quest objectives. If you find that the student has rushed through the Objectives to reach that checkpoint, you could mark their work with the red x, and have them do the objectives again. I hope this makes sense and can be helpful!

I will certainly be sharing this situation with the team for their consideration.

What do you mean, more precisely, when you say a "pass/fail threshold" ?

 

Jeff! Thanks for sharing the password idea to unlock Quest objectives! I will be sharing that with the team for their consideration.

Hey Andrew. I found out today that students can't move ahead without doing assignments from Google classroom first. So that is nice! The pass/fail threshold would test to see if a student had met a pre determined grade % . If they pass that % they move down a check path. If not, down the x path. This would greatly improved differentiation, allowing students who scored poorly to automatically be guided down a path that reviews missed material. The only way to currently differention in self paced mode is between students who finish work and students that don't. Would be nice to differentiate on performance automatically as well

If I understood correctly, Scott, you would expect Classcraft to give them a grade on their work and then depending on that grade assign a green checkmark, or red x and have them follow the appropriate path.

Is that correct?

So in other words, instead of just being self-paced, it would also be self-grading? 

No. Just check Google CR for it's grade.

That would be cool, though I use Schoology, not Google Classroom.  Kind of wish we did.  :(

Hey, everyone!

Thanks for sharing all this. I have sent it up the chain! 

For Schoology, this is an integration that is often asked for, and so the team already has this under consideration. I will let them know that we have another vote to add to the tally! :)

 

Hi Folks,

I'm still new to classcraft and have only been using it for about a week. But one of the features I have been looking for that I believe would be a huge benefit is the concept of a "password" as Jeff mentions above. Prior to my discovery of classcraft I was building questline type lessons for my students using WIX. [each page was a different step in the quest and each new page was password protected - very much like a breakout.edu type game] 

I feel a feature like this would be super motivating to my middle school math students. I imagine various steps of the quest would involve solving some puzzle type math problem that revealed a password to them when solved correctly. 

Scott, I also noticed that students were 'harvesting' gold from the trial quest, so I got rid of it.

Here's another vote for Schoology integration. The entire public school system for the state of Delaware uses Schoology. It integrates with our online gradebook, as well. It would suck to have to try and set up Google Classrooms to be able to integrate those types of assignments in the quests. 

Hi everyone, I want to contribute one more viewpoint as I am among thounsand of teachers who teach in a rural area in Vietnam where email, schoology and google classroom is something too much for the primary and even rural secondary students. Long story short, I have failed so many time to engage my class with class dojo, quizizz and quizlet until Classcraft appear and naturally inspired 2/3 of my student to create account and do quest at home which I never thought they can as grade 4 students. Now that, I have the same problem with Scott (student just submit empty assignment) to pass. 
I would love to recommend one of these feature:
1. Teacher can choose between options whether: Student can submit empty assignment or not. 

2. Or even a bigger feature: Quiz included in quest. So the ideas is: student have to do a quiz (multiple choice) with answers are set. So if they get a number of correct answer. (eg. 5 out 10 correct answers) they can proccess to another quest. Or if they get it lower than will go another path. 

Thank you for considering the idea. 

Hi Tran, 

We will bring forth your feedback the next time we have a discussion about this topic. Thank you very much for helping us improve Classcraft!

Here's another vote for Schoology integration. I use Schoology with my students, being a great tool to work with and share with Classcraft. I would need to integrate the Quest with Schoology as well, not only with Google Classroom.

Another vote for Schoology integration! We don't use Google Classroom and I'm just introducing Classcraft and have a lot of interest. I didn't do quests last year because they seemed to be too much work for me to have to go back and forth. I have quizzes in Schoology I'd love to use here. 

One more vote for Schoology integration!  I have been using Classcraft for years and love my Google Classroom integration.  With my district moving away from Google Classroom to Schoology because of the more robust features, I will miss being able to pull assignment information into Classcraft.

Here is another vote Schoology integration!  Our district is moving away from Google Classroom.  It is going to be harder to work from two different platforms. Specially in this COVID times teaching online only.  Too much screen time.  

I use Schoology and Classcraft.  

My "Alpha Quest" in Classcraft would have like 15 tasks.  I use the story mode and have the students go to Classcraft to see what they need to accomplish and how many XP/GP it is worth.  From there they are told "Submit your assignment in Schoology and then come back here to claim your reward"   Then all my assignments and quizzes are in Schoology.  This isn't the best, but how I have been using it. 

Hi Jeff... Question for using Classcraft and Schoology together. I like your idea but I'm a newbie at Classcraft. (At the beginning of this school year we were forced to leave Google Classroom and use Schoology.)

I don't understand what you mean by, "Submit your assignment in Schoology and then come back here to claim your reward?" Come back where? In Classcraft? And, how do they claim their reward? Maybe once I really get into using Classcraft it will make sense but right now ... it does not.

Thanks.

My students loved using Classcraft and begged for more quests.  This has been an exhausting school year, needless to say. 

Our district is shifting to Schoology this fall.  So next year, I'll continue setting up quests that are self paced with checkpoints set up at the end.  To insert a check point, make sure to uncheck the box "enable assignments" in the settings of the objective point on the map. 

I like using the Story Mode--time saver!  At the end of the quest is the assignment that actually goes in the gradebook, a Schoology assignment. For the self paced assignments that lead them there, I set up brief assignments, exit tickets, etc., directly in each objective--not Schoology assignments.  I can give the assignments in the objective more meaningful feedback for their work in Classcraft.  I'll choose 1 assignment for each class and provide meaningful feedback on a rotating schedule.  I'm a 2nd year teacher and what I learned most this year is that you can't grade everything. There are other ways to assess students that are less time-consuming to prep and way less stressful. 

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