Overview | Elementary Dashboard and Mastery Connect
Common Use Cases
Elementary Dashboard is most often used in K-12 education in grades K-3 and can be used in K-6.
Why Elementary Dashboard?
- The Elementary Dashboard, also known as Canvas for Elementary or C4E, most closely reflects the learning environment that younger students experience - a homeroom (1), and “subjects” (2) (3) instead of content/period courses.
- The design helps focus student attention on important areas, removes unnecessary obstacles, and streamlines the teacher and student experience for younger grades.
For further information, check out the Canvas Guides on the Elementary Dashboard:
- Canvas For Elementary FAQ’s
- Canvas for Elementary Summary Doc
- Canvas For Elementary Instructor Guides
- Canvas for Elementary Feature Comparison
Courses, Homeroom & The Mastery Tracker
- In elementary grades, you have one Mastery Tracker per subject area that you teach and in most cases, a Homeroom course that serves as your “hub.”
- In the Elementary Dashboard, you will also follow this same workflow for Mastery Trackers - one per SUBJECT that you teach.
- You will NOT have a Mastery Tracker for the Homeroom course, since it does not have the ability to leverage content such as assignments, modules, or pages.
- Linking the Mastery Tracker to each subject allows you to have standard-specific assignments that link to that content area
- Having one tracker for all content areas is not ideal for managing assessments and does not provide the granularity of data, just like having one Canvas course for all subject areas would not be an ideal way to manage learning content.
PRO TIP:
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It is a best practice to utilize the Homeroom course for students to have a more organized experience.
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Utilize Homeroom or Subject Announcements to make students aware of their mastery of assessments, by linking directly to the Mastery Tracker course navigation. This will take them to the student dashboard for Mastery Connect and allow them to see their Student Mastery Report.
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You will need to locate the Mastery Tracker in Course Navigation, right-click and “Copy Link Address” as shown below, then insert the link as an external link.
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The Mastery Tracker | Linking to Your Subject Courses
Creating a Mastery Tracker
- First, click on Subjects and locate the first subject you wish to link to.
- Then, click Manage Subject in the top left corner.
- Find the Mastery Tracker course navigation link and click on Link Tracker.
- Determine if you are using a Curriculum Map or not (this should be communicated by your administration prior to this process) and then select the appropriate section of students.
- Note: It is important that you link the correct SUBJECT section to your Mastery Tracker, not your HOMEROOM section. If any student changes occur in a SUBJECT then the Mastery Tracker and Canvas Subject Course will automatically apply those enrollment changes.
- Once you have the section and information filled out, click Link and you will now have a Mastery Tracker linked to your Canvas course.
- See the Mastery Connect + Canvas Integration Guide for more information
For more information on creating trackers in Canvas, there are Mastery Connect Guides available to walk you through the various steps, with screenshots! Keep in mind that these are not elementary specific, but the steps are the same once you locate the Mastery Tracker in Course Navigation.
PRO TIP:
- Pay close attention to the sections and courses you link. Ensuring these are accurate will ensure enrollment changes will automatically apply.
- Utilize the automatic name provided when you link the Tracker, which is the same as your Course Name. This makes it easier to identify when switching between Mastery Trackers or looking at report data.
Best Practices | Making Access to Mastery Easier for All
Creating Quick Access to the Mastery Tracker for Instructors & Students
- The Mastery Tracker Course Navigation link is by default not shown to students and appears in the Resources section of the Homeroom course and Subject courses.
Default Homeroom Course View
Selecting Resources then Mastery Tracker in the Student Applications section as a teacher will then bring up a modal that asks which Mastery Tracker you want to access.
Default Subject Course View
The subject-specific view will have the Mastery Tracker course navigation available after clicking "Manage Subject."
Creating a Link to Mastery Tracker Using Icons
One option to make accessing the Mastery Tracker easier for both students and teachers is to create a link to it using either the new RCE Icon Maker or an existing graphic, like this one. Feel free to use this!
Creating an icon and linking the course navigation link:
- Provides direct and easy access to the Mastery Tracker for everyone.
- Allows students to access their Student Mastery Report.
Feel free to copy this image to use in your course, also provided here.
PRO TIP:
- You can utilize the important date feature to flag Mastery Connect assessments and bring them to the forefront of your Homeroom course if desired.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Elementary Dashboard provides a visual and organizational experience that supports young learners with a specific layout and subject-specific course organization. With Mastery Connect’s Tracker linked specifically to each subject course, and using icons to make access even easier, it allows students to have more visibility and ownership of their learning, and teachers easier access the Tracker to create standards-driven assessments and teaching.
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Also don't forget to watch the Video Blog about this post as well!
