(Instructor) Manage Labs

Instructor- Manage Labs

Manage Labs allows instructors to create individual and batch labs, add a batch-graded lab, and edit labs for the classes they are assigned to as an instructor. Creating an individual lab allows you to set up a single lab, while a batch involves creating many labs at once with the same settings. In both cases, instructors can assign students to the labs or students can sign up for them. Batch-Graded labs allows instructors to create, document, and grade student documentation as a group.

Note: Options and displays mentioned in this article will differ for users depending on their profession, class associations, and permissions assigned to their instructor role within Platinum Planner.

Info: (EMS) We have a guide that provides step-by-step instructions for this task. To begin, simply click the lightbulb icon on the right side of the screen. Please note that Planner Guides is currently in a trial phase and is only available to EMS users.

To locate Manage Labs, click the Labs tab in the red toolbar and select the first option, Manage Labs.  

Contents: 

A. Adding an Individual Lab 

B. Adding a Batch of Labs

C. Adding a Batch-Graded Lab

D. Editing an Individual Lab

E. Editing a Batch of Labs

F. Editing a Batch-Graded Lab

G. Manage Labs Data Tables

A. Adding an Individual Lab: 

Adding a singular lab allows an instructor to create one lab for students to be assigned to or sign up for. The lab will then be completed through the lab's documentation. 

1. Click the + Add New Lab button. 

2. Fill out the details for the Lab.  

• Name: The name of the lab.
• Location: The location the lab will be taking place. 
• Description: (Optional) Any additional details you would like to add to the lab for the students.  
• Class(es): The class(es) that you would like to be able to sign up for this lab or the class that the student is in that is being manually assigned. 
• Start Date/Time: The date and time the lab begins. 
• End Date/Time: The date and time the lab ends. 
• Allow students to signup for this lab?: Click Yes or No. Clicking No will automatically assign current students from the associated classes to the lab. Clicking yes will allow students to sign up for the lab. Yes will also cause more settings to appear. 

• 

  Automatically accept student sign-up requests?: Click Yes or No to determine whether students should be added to the lab when they sign up for a lab through their student role. Clicking no will require the instructor to approve every student sign-up request. 

• Sign Up Starts: When students can begin signing up for the lab.  
• Sign Up Ends: Students must sign up for the lab on or before this date.
• Maximum Students: The maximum number of students allowed to attend the lab. 

3. Click Create when you are satisfied with the details you added in step 2. This will prompt more settings to populate. 

4. Skills tab: (Optional) Select any skills you want to appear in your students' documentation. Students will still retain the ability to add any additional skills they need. 

• Note: For these skills to count toward your student's progress, they must add skill attempts to their documentation. Adding skills only adds the option to document the skill. 

5. Students tab: (Optional) Adding students to the lab before lab creation. This will circumvent the need to later assign students to the lab or students needing to sign up.

• Click the gold Modify Students button on the right.
• Select the checkbox next to the student(s) being assigned to the lab, then click Save Changes.

6. Documents Tab: (Optional) Select or upload any documents you would like included in the student's documentation.

7. Forms Tab: (Optional) Checkbox where the form should appear to be filled out.  

Note: You are selecting where the form should appear, not necessarily who fills it out. If the instructor fills out the form while the student documents (before the student submits), then Student should be checked. If the form is filled out after the documentation is submitted, then Instructor should be selected. If the form has sections filled out at both stages, then Shared should also be selected. 

8. Click the blue Save button when finished. 

B. Adding a Batch of Labs: 

Adding a batch of labs allows an instructor to create multiple sessions for students to be assigned to or to sign up for. These labs are then completed by documenting the session, which can be done by either the student or the instructor.

1. Click the Batch Create/Edit button. 

2. Click the + New Batch button. 

3. Name and Description: 

• Name: The name of the labs.
• Description: (Optional) Any additional details you would like to add to the labs for the students.  
• Allow students to signup for these labs?: Click Yes or No. Clicking No will require student(s) to be manually assigned to the lab. Clicking Yes will allow students to sign up for the lab. Yes will also cause more settings to appear. 
  • Automatically accept student sign-up requests?: Click Yes or No to determine whether students should be added to the lab when they sign up for a lab through their student role. Clicking No will require the instructor to approve every student sign-up request. 
  • Maximum Students: The maximum number of students allowed to attend the lab. 

  • 

4. Labs Tab: Click the gold Add Labs button, then fill out the settings.  

4a. Enter the Settings for the lab batch.  

• Location: Where the labs will take place. 
• Start Time: When the labs are scheduled to begin. 
• Duration: The amount of time the student will be scheduled to stay at the lab. 
• Sign Up By Start Date: When students can begin signing up for the labs.  

• Sign Up By End Date: Students must sign up for the lab on or before this date.

4b. Choose your Schedule type and create the schedule. There are 3 types of scheduler options: Calendar, Repeatable Schedule, or Fire Schedule.

• Calendar: This is more of a "random" schedule. You select the days that the lab is available to the students.
• Repeatable Schedule: A schedule that repeats on certain days of the week at a particular frequency for an extended period. 
  • Select Days of the Week: Days of each week that the lab experience occurs.
  • From: When the schedule will begin.
  • To: When the schedule will end (up to 3 years out). 
  • Frequency: How often the schedule repeats. If this lab is available Monday-Thursday, but only on the third week of the month you can pick 'Every Third Week' From the frequency menu.

  • 

• Fire Schedule: Firehouses frequently use this schedule, which does not follow a set day of the week but rather a pattern of X number of days off, then X number of days on. 
  • From: When the schedule will begin.
  • To: When the schedule will end. 
  • Pattern: The pattern must be typed in the format x,-x. For example, if you want to be 3 Days on and 2 days off, you would write it like this: 3,-2.

  • 

4c. Add Schedule: Once you have chosen a schedule type and added the settings, click the blue Add Schedule button. This will bring you back to the main Instructor: Lab batch edit page. 

•  

5. Check over the labs that were added. 

• Clear All Labs: This button removes the schedule you created.
• Remove: This allows you to remove particular days from the schedule, such as holidays. 

6. Classes Tab: Select the class(es) that you would like to be able to sign up for these labs under Enabled. Check Add All Students if you would like to automatically add all the students for a class to the lab. 

7. Skills tab: (Optional) Select any skills you want to appear in your students' documentation for all labs in the batch. Any skills added will appear in every lab for the batch. Students will still retain the ability to add any additional skills they need. 

• Note: For these skills to count toward your student's progress, they must add skill attempts to their documentation.  Adding skills only adds the option to document the skill. 

8. Documents Tab: (Optional) Select or upload any documents you want included in the student's documentation. 

9. Forms Tab: (Optional) Checkbox where the form should appear to be filled out.  

Note: You are selecting where the form should appear, not necessarily who fills it out. If the instructor fills out the form while the student documents (before submitting), then Student should be checked. If the form is filled out after the documentation is submitted, then Instructor should be selected. If the form has sections filled out at both stages, then Shared should also be selected. 

9. Click the blue Create Labs button when finished. 

C. Adding a Batch-Graded Lab: 

A batch-graded lab enables instructors to create, document, and grade student work collectively for a class, eliminating the need to individually document and review each student's lab work. Once created, the lab will appear in your Batch Graded Labs tab under Manage Labs. You can view the Details or Edit the lab from there if needed (see below for more details).

1. Click the + Add Batch Graded Lab button. 

Note: This button will only appear for instructors with the necessary permissions enabled and who are linked to an active lab class with the batch-graded lab setting enabled in the class. 

2. Fill out the required information about the lab, and once you're finished, click Submit. This will direct you to the Instructor-Batch Graded Lab page. 

3. Skills tab: Add the skills students have completed and award the number of points. You can do this by checking the box for each skill or using the Select dropdown to select all skills, then entering the number of successful skill attempts in the Points box. 

4. Students tab: This will show you the students who have been added to the lab. To add or remove students, click the Modify Students button.  

• Modify Students: Check or uncheck the box for any students you need to add/remove from the lab, and select Save Changes when finished.

5. Once you finish grading the batch-graded lab, click Finalize. When prompted with "Are you sure you want to finalize this batch graded lab?" click Submit. 

Finalize: 

Confirm: 

D. Editing an Individual Lab: 

This allows changes to be made to any lab, whether as part of a batch or individually, for just one lab. An individual lab can be edited through the Actions column of the Manage Labs data table. Section F covers the data table and all its functionality. 

1. Begin on the Manage Labs page. 

2.  Locate the Lab in the data table. Use the search options if needed. Any lab that has passed its start date or time will be listed in the History tab. 

3. Under the Actions column, click Edit. 

4. Make the changes needed to the lab. 

5.  Click Save when finished. 

E. Editing a Batch of Labs: 

A batch of labs can be edited to adjust settings if needed. However, all edits will be done for the entire batch. If individual edits are needed, the corresponding lab in the batch will require editing on an individual basis. See section D for directions. 

1. Select the lab batch you would like to edit. 

2. Settings: Change any settings as desired. 

3. Labs tab: Adjust time, location, sign up, or delete any labs as needed.  

• Adjust Start/End time: Setting this value will alter the Start Time for all the labs below. This is adjusted by adding or subtracting hours. 
  • For Example, entering -1:30 would adjust all the labs to begin one hour and thirty minutes before the current start time. 
• Adjust Sign Up Start/End Date: To clear the current sign up start/end date, enter ANY.  
  • Example 1, Positive Number: Enter 3 in the input, if student sign up starts 3 days in advance of the lab date.  
  • Example 2, Negative Number: Enter -25 in the input, if the student sign up starts on the 25th day of the previous month.  Use -31 for the last day of the previous month.  
  • Example 3, Enter a date: The actual date you want for all lab sign-up dates to open/end. 
• Delete: Check the box for any lab you would like to delete. 
• Modify: Click modify to alter the students added to that lab. 

4. Classes tab: Check/uncheck the boxes you would like to correct. 

5. Skills tab: Check the boxes you would like to correct. 

6. Documents tab: Add or check the documents you would like to add. 

7. Forms tab: Check the boxes you would like to correct. 

8. Save when corrections are complete. 

F. Editing a Batch-Graded Lab: 

This allows you to edit a batch-graded lab as a whole. If changes need to be made to a single student, that must be done individually.  

1. Begin on the Manage Labs page. 

2. Select the Batch-Graded tab in the data table. 

3. Locate the batch-graded lab that needs to be changed and click Edit under the Actions Column. 

4. If the batch-graded lab has already been finalized, you will need to click Roll Back at the bottom of the page to make any changes. 

5. Make the changes desired. 

6. Click Finalize when finished. 

G. Manage Labs Data Table:

On the Manage Labs page, you will see a listing of all the labs you have created. This page defaults to the Upcoming tab. 

Lab Search: You can search for labs by entering their name and clicking Search. 

Configure Grid Options: (Sun-shaped button next to Search) This button allows you to control the columns in the grid below. 

• Info: To learn more about how to use this button, click here. 

Export: (Raincloud button next to Search) Click to select the document type you would like to export the grid below into: PDF, XLS, XLSX, RTF, or CSV. 

Tabs: 

• Upcoming: All labs for today or the future. 
• Batch Graded Labs: Group-graded labs. 
• History: All labs in the past. 
• All: All labs, future, batch-graded, and past. 

Actions: 

Details: Information about the lab (When, Where, Sign ups allowed, Slots taken, Students, Batch Instructor, Class). 

Edit: Click to make any changes to the lab. (Sections D and F go over editing individual or batch-graded labs. Section E explains editing an entire batch of labs.)

Students: The students who are added to the lab.  Clicking this option also allows you to change the student(s) added to the lab. 

Cancel: This option deletes the lab.  

• Note: If Cancel is not an option, then students have been added to the lab. Remove the students, then the cancel option will appear.
  • Note: Students cannot be removed from labs if they have already begun documentation. If the student has begun documentation, but you would still like to cancel the lab, you can mark the student absent under Manage Documentation.