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Welcome to the SIMnet Release Notes. This space is dedicated to announcing new features, important tips, and other important topics.
SIMnet will be unavailable on Sunday, June 2nd, from 5:00am – 5:30am US/Central time. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
McGraw Hill Product Team
Maintenance notification.
SIMnet will be unavailable on Saturday, March 2nd, from 4:00am – 7:00am US/Central time. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
McGraw Hill Product Team
Learner LMS Integrations Now Open in New Window
Due to newly released browser security features the SIMnet Learner experience will now open in a new browser tab instead of being embedded within the Learning Management System.
The SIMnet experience will open automatically in a new window if pop-ups are allowed by the browser. If the automatic pop-up is blocked click the Open SIMnet button to continue.
Once SIMnet has been launched in a new browser tab Learners will see the SIMnet is launched message embedded within their LMS.
SIMnet will be unavailable on Sunday, August 6th, 2023 from 4:30am – 6:00am US/Central time. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
McGraw Hill Product Team
System Maintenance - July 23rd, 2023
SIMnet will be unavailable on Sunday, July 23rd, 2023 from 5am – 7am US/Central time. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
McGraw Hill Product Team
Improved student purchase experience with McGraw Hill Shop
As May 10th, 2023 the SIMnet team has migrated all US SIMnet schools to a new ecommerce purchase experience powered by McGraw Hill Shop. Students will continue to enjoy the ability to purchase SIMnet directly from their student account and receive online, instant access upon a successful purchase.
For details on the new purchase experience, please visit the Buy Online help topic.
Assign an incomplete grade to zero based on a course level preference.
The Assign Zero Grade On course preference allows control over when grades are converted from an incomplete (dash) to a zero. By default, SIMnet will convert all grades without submissions to a zero at the due date. The new preference allows additional control over when to assign a zero for incomplete work:
Do Not Assign Grade: Incomplete assignments will not be converted to a zero grade.
Assignment Due Date (default): Incomplete assignments will be converted to a zero grade after the Due Date.
Assignment End Date: Incomplete assignments will be converted to a zero grade after the End Date.
Course End Date: Incomplete assignments will be converted to a zero grade after the Course End Date.
Hint: Only assignments using date schedules are automatically converted to a zero.
365/2021 Advanced Content Available Now
SIMnet Office 365/2021 Advanced Content is now available in SIMnet. SIMnet Advanced books include the Complete books for
Access 365/2021 Complete
Excel 365/2021 Complete
PowerPoint 365/2021 Complete
Word 365/2021 Complete
Access 365/2021 Complete
Excel 365/2021 Complete
PowerPoint 365/2021 Complete
Word 365/2021 Complete
Each advanced book comes complete with all SIMbook chapters released; all Exam questions available; accompanying Test Bank questions and 2 auto-graded projects available now. An additional graded project for each chapter will be released on a rolling basis througout the Spring semester.
SIMnet now offers a built-in text reader that will read your assignment text without the need to download or install any additional software. The text reader is available in SIMbooks, Lessons, Projects, Exams and the Exam and Lesson portions of SIMpaths.
For SIMbook and Lesson assignments, the text reader will read all SIMbook text or individually selected text as desired. For Project assignments, the text reader will read all instructions. For Exam assignments, the text reader will read all question text.
SIMbooks and Lessons also have the added Translation feature. Selected text can be translated into 22 different languages using Google Translate.
The New User registration has now been streamlined into a single button. Rather than creating an account or purchasing online access or registering for Courtesy Access as separate steps, students can complete these steps in one combined, streamlined effort.
After creating a SIMnet Account students will be lead through Course Enrollment and Licensing to gain full access to their SIMnet materials.
The Course Manager refresh is now available for all users. It provides a familiar, modern user experience that includes a number of features and improvements:
The navigation has been streamlined and condensed, allowing you to see more of your SIMnet content at a glance.
You can search for students and instructors without leaving the screen you are viewing.
Starring courses allows you to view and edit your favorite courses without needing to view all courses and refine your search.
SIMstudent can now be activated by course, so you can navigate to the SIMstudent view that corresponds with your class directly
Administrators can now make new 2021 SIMnet content available to their school. Making 2021 content available will allow your instructors to view and assign the 2021 content that has been published and will continue to be published throughout the fall.
To make 2021 content available, administrators will need to navigate to the Admin Settings section and select Products. In the Available Products section on the left, select SIMnet for Office 2021 and click Add.
To make 2021 textbooks avaiable, administrators will need to navigate to the Admin Settings section and select Textbooks. In the Available Textbooks section on the left, select the desired Office 2021 textbooks and click Add.
#announcements #instructors
The SIMnet Course Manager has been refreshed with a familiar, modern user experience that includes a number of features and improvements. All Administrators and Instructors will be able to opt-in to the new site design by visiting their SIMnet Dashboard and toggling the "Course Manager New Look" to "ON."
Note: All SIMnet Instructors and Administrators will automatically be opted into the new site design in late May 2022. At that time, the old site design will no longer be available.
To learn more about the Text To Speech feature view our Text To Speech help topic.
To learn more about Student Self Registration view our Self Registration help topic.
To learn more about Course Manager Navigation, visit our help topic here
The refreshed Course Manage includes many design improvements including: reogranized left navigation, SIMstudent directly into the Library or a Class, starred classes, student search, and much more! View the deisgn update help topic here.
Blog posts for 2021
#announcements #instructors #new-content
UPDATE: 3/29/21 The 365/2019 MOS Access Expert book has been released and is now available alongside the other MOS books.
SIMnet is introducing new SIMbooks organized specifically for students to prepare for the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exams. Microsoft Office Specialist exams are a well-recognized certification. Microsoft offers Associate level exams in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint (but not Access). Microsoft offers Expert level exams in Access, Excel and Word (but not PowerPoint).
SIMnet now offers the 365/2019 MOS Office SIMbook complementary with all 365/2019 Office Level licenses. The 365/2019 MOS Office SIMbook includes content for the three Microsoft Office Specialist Associate level exams (Excel, Word, and PowerPoint) and for the Access Expert level exam.
SIMnet also offers individual SIMbooks for each Office Application that come with each edition of the Complete book series:
365/2019 Access comes with the MOS Access Expert SIMbook
365/2019 Excel comes with the MOS Excel Associate SIMbook
365/2019 PowerPoint comes with the MOS PowerPoint Associate SIMbook
365/2019 Word comes with the MOS Word Associate SIMbook
SIMnet 365/2019 – MOS Office Book Chapter List
#new-features #students #tips-tricks
SIMnet users can now review Windows, Mac, Chromebook and Mobile shortcuts and commands that are used throughout Microsoft Office products while in SIMbook, Exam, and SIMpath questions. These Device Tips show users how to use their hardware and software setups to answer SIMnet questions correctly.
These Device Tips can be accessed at any time while answering simulation questions in an Exam, SIMpath or SIMbook. In the upper right corner of the question window there is a ? icon. Click the icon to view the Device Tips.
The ? icon in the upper right corner
The Device Tips are automatically set to display the tips for your current operating system. You can view other setups by clicking on their corresponding tab.
Device Tips displayed onscreen
#instructors #announcements
SIMnet will be unavailable on Sunday, January 2nd, 2022 from 4am – 11:59pm US/Central time. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
McGraw Hill Product Team
#announcements #instructors
McGraw Hill announced that it has acquired Triad Interactive, Inc., the software developer of the widely-used SIMnet product for undergraduate computer and information technology courses, as well as the affiliated company Deca Software, LLC, which runs the ecommerce site for the sale of SIMnet.
The Acquisition follows 20 Years of partnership between the companies and shows McGraw Hill’s continued investment in Digital Learning tools and content
View Press Release:https://www.mheducation.com/news-media/press-releases/mcgraw-hill-acquires-triad-interactive.html
#instructors #new-features
Instructors can use a new report to view how their students are doing on each Student Learning Objective all on the same screen. This report displays their student’s percent score on each Student Learning Objective (SLO) from each time that objective has been scored in a project across as many projects as the instructor chooses.
For Example, you may want to know how well students did on the SLO IP19-WD-02.1, Format a document by customizing margins, page orientation, paper size, vertical alignment, and page movement across the project assignments in your course. The Project Objective Analysis Report per Student report provides this information.
In the report result, each SLO in each project you select for your report will be displayed in its own column. Each student in each course you select for your report will be displayed in their own row. The percent score represents the total number of times that the student got the question right out of the total number of times that SLO was used in any project that was used to generate the report.
Project Analysis Report per Student result
To create a new Project Objective Analysis Report per Student, navigate to the Reports section of the course manager and select Create on the left navigation. In the Type drop-down menu, select Project Objective Analysis Report per Student. Create your report title. Select the desired Class, Campus, and Project options. Select the Group All Sections of Selected Class Yes radio button if you would like to group the results by class. Selecting this option will display the results of the selected course in all campuses, and will therefore remove the Campus option. Select a specific date range if your course has old sections that you would like to filter out of your results.
Project Objective Analysis per Student report options
Note: This report displays results from each student attempt at each relevant SLO. If a student submitted a project with mistakes multiple times before submitting a project with the correct answer, each submission counts toward the SLO percent score. This may make the SLO score in this report lower than the student’s grade on any relevant project.
#announcements #instructors #new-content
SIMnet has released its new updates for Office 365/2019 users. These updates match SIMnet content with the current Microsoft Office July 2021 Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel update. Microsoft releases their Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel updates in January and July. SIMnet catalogs the relevant changes, determines which portions of SIMnet must be updated, and completes those updates.
Updates to SIMnet include changes to all Microsoft Applications and include visual updates, new organization, new names, and new features. All Exam, SIMbook and Lesson questions are updated as well as all Projects.
Note: SIMnet does not provide updates to Office 2016 content.
For a comprehensive look at update in the past month view or Current Changelog
To learn more about Microsoft Office Update Channels, visit our blog post on the topic.
#announcements #instructors #new-content
SIMnet has released its new updates for Office 365/2019 users. These updates match SIMnet content with the current Microsoft Office January 2021 Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel update. Microsoft releases their Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel updates in January and July. SIMnet then must catalog the relevant changes, determine which portions of SIMnet must be updated, and then complete those updates.
Updates to SIMnet include changes to all Microsoft Applications and include visual updates, new organization, new names, and new features. All Exam, SIMbook and Lesson questions are updated as well as all Projects.
Note: SIMnet does not provide updates to Office 2016 content.
For a comprehensive look at update in the past month view or Current Changelog
To learn more about Microsoft Office Update Channels, visit our blog post on the topic.
#announcements #instructors #new-features
Administrators will see a new option in the Administration section of the left menu in the Course Manager. The new section is called Branding.
Branding Heading
This section allows for two new custom branding options for your school to add its logo to the SIMnet login page and to all Digital Credentials earned by your students in SIMnet.
By editing the Custom Homepage Logo, your school’s logo can appear in the upper right corner of the SIMnet login page. Here, the Custom Logo is displayed next to the school name, “University of Triad.” (Note: to edit your school’s name, please contact your McGraw-Hill representative with the specifics of your desired edits)
SIMnet homepage with custom logo
To add your Custom Homepage Logo to SIMnet, navigate to the Branding section of the Administration Settings section of the Course Manager. Select the Yesradio option for Include Custom Logo. Once the option has been selected, the Upload Custom Logo (.jpeg or .png) button will become available. Click the button to upload your image to the image window.
Custom Homepage Logo options
Your custom logo must be able to fit within one of the pre-defined aspect ratios provided in the Crop Image window. You may crop your image by dragging within the image window or by entering precise height or width values within the Crop Image window. The aspect ratio will automatically keep your height and width pixels the right size to meet your selected aspect ratio. You may click the Link button, next to the Height and Width text boxes to break the locked aspect ratio for your height and width. Doing this will cause the final logo to stretch to meet the requirements of the homepage logo.
Crop Image window
Your custom logo will be resized during saving to the required dimensions to display on the SIMnet Homepage.
The Digital Credentials earned by your students can now display your school logo, your school name, and the name of the course in which the student earned the credential. To enable custom branding, click the Enable Custom Branding Yes radio button. Clicking the radio button will enable the Include Custom Logo and Include School Name radio buttons. If you elect to include the school name, the Enable Course Name radio button appears.
Digital Credential Branding options
You will need to set up a separate Custom Logo for the digital credential regardless of whether or not you have set up a custom homepage logo.
Below is an example of a Digital Credential Branding for Triad University. The logo is in the lower left corner, accompanied by the School Name, “University of Triad,” and the Course Name, “CIS102 – Introduction to Computer Information Systems.”
Digital Credential Sample with branding
For MH Campus Classic integration users (not Deep Integrations) there is a new LMS Sync option in the SIMnet Gradebook. This option allows the instructor to control which category SIMnet sends to the LMS upon assignment sync.
By default SIMnet will use the Group Title the assignment belongs to. The new option, Default Title, will allow instructors to send SIMnet as the category for all assignments, regardless of organizer groups.
Gradebook Sync Options
#announcements #instructors #new-features #students #tips-tricks
SIMnet has released an upgraded Help System for both instructors and students. The new help system has more in-depth articles that cover both the How and the Why of using SIMnet features.
In the Instructor help, view the Best Practices section before you set up your course for next semester, or read the topic on the ins and outs of Integrity Violations before you set your Project Assignment preferences.
In the Student Help, share with your students the nuances of using SIMnet outside of Windows and the Common Mistakes that students run into when doing Project Assignments.
New SIMnet Help System
To access the new SIMnet Student Help, click the SIMnet Instant Help link at the bottom of the sign in page, or click the ? icon when logged in as a student and click either the relevant link that is available or click the All Topics button.
To access the new SIMnet Course Manager Help, log in as an instructor and click the Help buoy icon. Select the context-specific help topic or click the All Topics button.
#instructors #new-features
SIMpath Personal Assignment grades can now be automatically transferred into a student’s SIMpath grade in the course gradebook. Previously, Personal Assignment grades had to be manually adjusted by instructors upon completion.
SIMpath Personal Assignment transfer options
To assign a Personal Assignment SIMpath, find the SIMpath in the SIMpath section of the left navigation and select Edit/Assign from the actions menu. Click the Student Assign tab and select the desired student. Fill out the desired preferences. In the Post-Test Gradebook Options section, ensure that the **Transfer student results to:**drop-down list shows the desired course.
#instructors #new-features
Instructors can now set their Project assignments to delay Incorrect Feedback in results provided to students. By default, Incorrect Feedback shows up under each scored step in a project and informs students exactly which steps they got wrong and why they got each step wrong.
Project Assignment Incorrect Feedback
For example, in step 5 above, the student got step 5.b incorrect because they did not appropriately space the noted paragraphs. The student can use this feedback to carefully edit their submission for their next attempt.
Instructors can now decide when to allow students to see Incorrect Feedback. By default, the Delay Incorrect Feedback value is set to after 1 attempt. This means that students will be able to see the Incorrect Feedback immediately after they submit their file for grading. Instructors may change that value to any attempt number, so long as it is within the total number of attempts allowed for the assignment.
Project Assignment Preferences
In the example above, the student will not be able to see any Incorrect Feedback until after their second attempt. Because the assignment is only set to allow for 2 attempts, the student will not be able to use the information in the Incorrect Feedback to edit their attempt.
Project Assignment Incorrect Feedback Delayed
When the Incorrect Feedback option is set to not display for a given attempt, the student receives the message, Feedback is not available for this attempt.
Incorrect Feedback will be displayed for all attempts regardless of the Incorrect Feedback setting after the assignment End Date has passed.
Note: Personal Assignment SIMpath Post-test grades will only transfer to the gradebook once the first Post-test attempt is complete. Any additional Post-Test attempts that are available may be taken in the course assignment after the transfer is complete.
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable on Sunday, August 2nd, 2020 from 4AM – 8AM US/Central time. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
McGraw Hill Product Team
#announcements #instructors #new-content #new-features #students
The new SIMnet Instant Help site is here! help.simnetonline.com/students/ is now available for SIMnet students to review and get the most up-to-date information they need to successfully complete their SIMnet courses.
New Instant Help view
The new SIMnet Instant Help site is organized by topic area instead of broken by individual help questions. Students will be able to get focused information about each topic in one place. New pullouts and tabs allow students to view potential pitfalls and see information targeted directly to their computer setup.
Help tabs organized by browser
The new SIMnet Instant Help system is being updated in stages. At this time the student help section is live. The Instructor and Administrator help system is being brought online next. The links inside SIMnet to the current SIMnet Instant Help site, activated by clicking the ? icon, are being updated on July 17th.
**Note:**The new help system will have a different organization and setup than the old help system. Therefore, old links to the help system will no longer work. Instructors are encouraged to update any links at this time.
#help #instructors #students #tips-tricks
Microsoft recently announced changes to the update channels for Office 365 Apps on Windows. A new update channel has been introduced and previous channels have been renamed.
Microsoft 365 Apps is the locally installed version of Office that’s available through many Office 365 plans and includes all of the Office apps. Microsoft 365 Apps is updated regularly. These updates occur at a different pace depending on the update channel you select.
Update Channels allow users to choose how they want to receive updates to Microsoft Office. Selecting a more active schedule of releases like Current Channel (Preview) gives users the newest updates as they come available. However, those updates may not be fully tested and may not remain in the program for the long term. The Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel gives users the fewest updates after the longest schedule of testing,
Update channels are essentially different versions of Office 365 Apps. Most students will likely have the Current Channel installed by default. However, because SIMnet follows the Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel for releasing new features, this could cause a discrepancy between what a student sees on their own version of Office 365 and what they see in SIMnet. We advise that you avoid any channels named “Preview” as they may contain features that are not supported in Projects.
Update channels are specific to the device being used and is set when Office 365 Apps is installed. For example, lab computers may be set to run on a different channel than a student’s personal computer. Each Office 365 subscription is subscribed to a default update channel but can be changed. Refer to Microsoft for more information.
In SIMnet, the simulation interactivities such as Exam Questions, Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try exercises are updated following the Semi-Annual Enterprise channel releases in January and July. For projects, alternate instructions are added for changes that appear in the current channel but have not yet been released in the Semi-Annual Enterprise channel.
If you are unsure which version of Office you have, open any Office file (or create a new blank file). Click theFiletab to open Backstage view. ClickAccountorHelpfrom the list at the left of the screen. Your Office installation information will be listed on the next screen. Click the Update Options button to show the available options and select the right choice.
For more information about reviewing your Microsoft Office version, view our help topic https://help.simnetonline.com/students/assignments/projects/your-office-version
Mac users have fewer update channels but they follow the same basic structure as Windows users.
To view your Mac Update Channel, open an application, like Word. Click Help in the top menu. Select Check for Updates and click the Advanced button. Select your channel from the Update Channel drop-down menu.
Channel Name | Channel Info |
---|---|
New Name
Previous Name
Release Schedule
Current Channel (Preview)
Monthly Channel (Targeted)
No set schedule, updates released as they are available
Current Channel
Monthly Channel
No set schedule, updates released as they are available
Monthly Enterprise Channel (Preview)
NONE
Once a month, second Tuesday of the month
Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview)
Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted)
Second Tuesday in March and September
Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel
Semi-Annual Channel
Second Tuesday in January and July
Production
Infrequent, fully tested updates
Insider Slow
Monthly updates with fully supported features
Insider Fast
Frequent updates that are not fully supported
#announcements #instructors
The Chromium Project announced that starting with Chrome 80 they will require specific cookie flags in order for 3rd party cookies to be honored. Chrome 80 is scheduled to release on February 4th, 2020. SIMnet released full support for these changes as of January 24, 2020.
Please note, this change only relates Canvas and D2L users coming from the McGraw-Hill Campus Deep Assignments integration because they load “inside” of the LMS and are considered a 3rd party.
#uncategorized
SIMnet Exams and SIMnet Practice Exams are now SIMnet Exam – Scenario A and SIMnet Exam – Scenario B. Scenario A questions and Scenario B questions cover the same content in the same manner but are distinct from each other and from SIMbook Let Me Try simulation questions. Exam questions may reflect all or part of a Let Me Try. SIMnet Exams are divided into two groups of questions, A and B, so that instructors can design exams, study materials, and SIMpath Pre-test and Post-tests without needing to check if they’ve used a question before.
This change clarifies a misconception among some of our SIMnet users: that the Assessment Exams and Practice Exams were designed with different difficulties or were designed for a different setting. SIMnet Exam questions are alike in difficulty and content across exam scenarios and may be used interchangeably.
All current SIMnet Exams will now be SIMnet Exam – Scenario A.
All current SIMnet Practice Exams will now be SIMnet Exam – Scenario B.
#announcements #instructors
SIMnet will be unavailable on Saturday, April 11th, 2020 from 2:30AM – 3:00AM US/Central time. Additionally, LMS integrations will be unavailable on the same day and time until 3:30AM US/Central time. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
McGraw-Hill Product Team
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable on Sunday, January 5th, 2020 from 4AM – 6AM US/Central time. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
McGraw-Hill Product Team
#announcements #instructors #students
Some SIMnet users were unable to load Exam assignments that covered 2016 PowerPoint content. This issue is resolved as of 12:00 noon, Eastern time on Monday December 9th.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only).
#announcements #instructors #new-features #tips-tricks
The Dashboard view in the Course Manager has been updated to give instructors more information about their students and courses at a glance. Instructors will be able to quickly determine which of their students are earning digital credentials in the Credentials Earned section and which of their students may be in danger of a poor result via the Past Due Assignments,Integrity Violations, andStudent Activitysections.
The default view for instructors is to show all assigned courses. However, instructors can select the desired course from the Classdrop-down menu.
The Past Due Assignments and Integrity Violations sections may both be tailored only to show the desired date range, showing data within a set number of days, weeks, months, or all time. Users can edit that setting by clicking the gear icon in each section. Clicking on existing Past Due Assignments or Integrity Violations notifications will show all current students who have a late assignment or have been flagged for uploading a file that did not include their unique signature in a project.
The Credentials Earned section displays the number and type of credentials earned by students enrolled in the selected courses. Clicking View All brings up a list of all credentials earned by students in that course. Clicking on the legend or corresponding section in the pie chart will display a list of all students who have earned a specific credential type.
The Student Activity section shows the number of students who have accessed SIMnet in the previous week, have been idle for more than 1 week but fewer than 2, have been idle for 2 weeks or more, or who have not logged in at all. Clicking on each text link or on the pie chart in the desired area brings up a separate view showing a list of students who fit that criteria.
The Assignment Schedule section provides a view at the last 10 Past Due assignments, the top 10 Current assignments or the next 10 Upcoming assignments, based upon the selected tab.
#instructors #new-content #release-notes
icrosoft Office 365/2019 Complete content is being released to SIMnet on a weekly basis. Here is what has been released this week, on Friday November 1st:
Skills PowerPoint Chapter 5 SIMbook and questions
In Practice Access Chapters 9 and 10 SIMbooks
Skills Word Chapter 9 Projects
In Practice Integrated Capstone Projects
The 2019 content that has been released to date:
All Office level content for the A Skills Approach and In Practice book series
Capstones – Level 1, 2 and 3 for Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
Computer Concepts – with all new LMTs, assessment, and practice questions
Technology at Your Service 3e custom Lesson and Exam mappings for Computer Concepts
A Skills Approach Excel – Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9 SIMbook and exam questions
In Practice Excel – Chapter 5, 7, 9 and 10 exam and Custom Lesson Mappings In Practice Access – Chapter 5 Exam Question and Custom Lesson Mappings
A Skills Approach Word – Chapter 6, 7 and 8 SIMbook and exam questions
In Practice Word – All SIMbook Chapters
In Practice Word – Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 Projects
In Practice Word Chapters 9-12 Exam Question and Custom Lesson Mappings
In Practice Excel – All SIMbook Chapters
In Practice Excel – Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 Projects
In Practice Access – All Chapters Projects
In Practice Access – Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8 SIMbooks
In Practice PowerPoint Chapter 4, 5 and 6 SIMbook
The Ribbon, gallery icons, and submenu icons for all SIMbook Interactivities and Exam questions have been updated per the July Office release.
Computing Essentials custom lesson and exams mappings for Computer Concepts
#instructors #new-content #release-notes
Microsoft Office 365/2019 Complete content is being released to SIMnet on a weekly basis. Here is what has been released this week, on Friday October 25th:
A Skills Approach Excel – Chapter 8 SIMbook and questions
A Skills Approach Excel – Chapter 9 SIMbook and questions
In Practice Excel – Chapter 5, 7, 9 and 10 exam and Custom Lesson Mappings
In Practice Access – Chapter 5 Exam Question and Custom Lesson Mappings
Access Level 1 and Level 2 capstones
PowerPoint Level 1 and Level 2 capstones
The 2019 content that has been released to date:
All Office level content for the A Skills Approach and In Practice book series
Capstones – Level 3 for Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
Capstones – Level 1 and 2 for Excel and Word
Computer Concepts – with all new LMTs, assessment, and practice questions
Technology at Your Service 3e custom Lesson and Exam mappings for Computer Concepts
A Skills Approach Excel – Chapters 6 and 7 SIMbook and exam questions
A Skills Approach Word – Chapter 6, 7 and 8 SIMbook and exam questions
In Practice Word – All SIMbook Chapters
In Practice Word – Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 Projects
In Practice Word Chapters 9-12 Exam Question and Custom Lesson Mappings
In Practice Excel – All SIMbook Chapters
In Practice Excel – Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 Projects
In Practice Access – All Chapters Projects
In Practice Access – Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8 SIMbooks
In Practice PowerPoint Chapter 4, 5 and 6 SIMbook
The Ribbon, gallery icons, and submenu icons for all SIMbook Interactivities and Exam questions have been updated per the July Office release.
Computing Essentials custom lesson and exams mappings for Computer Concepts
#instructors #new-content #release-notes
Microsoft Office 365/2019 Complete content is being released to SIMnet on a weekly basis. Here is what has been released this week, on Friday November 8th:
A Skills Approach PowerPoint Chapter 6 SIMbook and exam questions
A Skills Approach Access Chapter 9 SIMbook and exam questions
In Practice PowerPoint Chapter 7 SIMbook (All In Practice PowerPoint SIMbooks are now available)
In Practice PowerPoint Chapter 4 projects
The 2019 content that has been released to date:
All Office level content for the A Skills Approach and In Practice book series
Capstones – Level 1, 2 and 3 for Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
In Practice Integrated Capstone Projects
Computer Concepts – with all new LMTs, assessment, and practice questions
Technology at Your Service 3e custom Lesson and Exam mappings for Computer Concepts
A Skills Approach Excel – Chapters 6 and 7 SIMbook and exam questions
A Skills Approach Word – Chapter 6, 7 and 8 SIMbook and exam questions
In Practice Word – All SIMbook Chapters
In Practice Word – Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 Projects
In Practice Word Chapters , 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 Exam Question and Custom Lesson Mappings
In Practice Excel – All SIMbook Chapters
In Practice Excel – Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 Projects
In Practice Access – All Chapters Projects
In Practice Access – Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 SIMbooks
In Practice PowerPoint Chapter 4, 5 and 6 SIMbook
The Ribbon, gallery icons, and submenu icons for all SIMbook Interactivities and Exam questions have been updated per the July Office release.
Computing Essentials custom lesson and exams mappings for Computer Concepts
#announcements #instructors #students
On Friday, November 22, from 2:03 to 2:23 PM Eastern Time, SIMnet users were unable to login to their SIMnet accounts. This issue has been resolved and all users can login at this time.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only).
#instructors #new-content #release-notes
Microsoft Office 365/2019 Complete content is being released to SIMnet on a weekly basis. Here is what has been released this week, on Friday September 13th:
In Practice Access – Chapter 5 SIMbook
In Practice Word – Chapter 8 SIMbook
In Practice Word – Chapter 8 Projects
A Skills Approach Excel – Chapter 7 Exam questions
The 2019 content that has been released to date:
All Office level content for the A Skills Approach and In Practice book series
Capstones – Level 3 for Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
Computer Concepts – with all new LMTs, assessment, and practice questions
Technology at Your Service 3e custom Lesson and Exam mappings for Computer Concepts
A Skills Approach Excel – Chapter 6 SIMbook and exam questions
A Skills Approach Word – Chapter 7 SIMbook and exam questions
In Practice Word – Chapters 5, 6, and 7 SIMbooks
In Practice Word – Chapters 5, 6, and 7 Projects
In Practice Word – Chapter 5 Lesson and Exam mappings
In Practice Excel – Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 SIMbooks
In Practice Excel – Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 Projects
In Practice Access – All Chapters Projects
The Ribbon, gallery icons, and submenu icons for all SIMbook Interactivities and Exam questions have been updated per the July Office release.
Computing Essentials custom lesson and exams mappings for Computer Concepts
#announcements #instructors #release-notes
UPDATE: 5/18/2020
As of May 18th, 2020 the McGraw-Hill Higher Education Tool for SIMnet Blackboard single-sign-on integration has been fully deprecated and is no longer available.
Original Post:
The McGraw-Hill Higher Education Tool for SIMnet Blackboard single-sign-on integration is being deprecated. In late 2019 the integration will no longer accept new course pairings. Existing user pairings will remain active until the integration has been fully deprecated on May 18th, 2020.
If your school is using the deprecated integration please consider migrating to the Partner Cloud Integration as it offers a full featured integration that includes single-sign-on, grade sync, and deep assignment links.
The deprecated integration is located in Blackboard –> Tools –> Higher Education –> McGraw-Hill SIMnet:
#instructors #new-content #release-notes
Microsoft Office 365/2019 Complete content is being released to SIMnet on a weekly basis. Here is what has been released this week, on Friday October 4th:
In Practice Word – Chapters 11 and 12 SIMbook (All SIMbook chapters for In Practice Word are available)
In Practice Word – Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 Exam Question and Custom Lesson Mappings(All Mappings for In Practice Word are available)
A Skills Approach Word – Chapter 9 SIMbook and exam questions
A Skills Approach Word – Chapters 7 and 8 Projects
The 2019 content that has been released to date:
All Office level content for the A Skills Approach and In Practice book series
Capstones – Level 3 for Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
Computer Concepts – with all new LMTs, assessment, and practice questions
Technology at Your Service 3e custom Lesson and Exam mappings for Computer Concepts
A Skills Approach Excel – Chapters 6 and 7 SIMbook and exam questions
A Skills Approach Word – Chapter 6, 7 and 8 SIMbook and exam questions
In Practice Word – All SIMbook Chapters
In Practice Word – Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 Projects
In Practice Excel – All SIMbook Chapters
In Practice Excel – Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 Projects
In Practice Access – All Chapters Projects
In Practice Access – Chapters 5 and 6 SIMbook
The Ribbon, gallery icons, and submenu icons for all SIMbook Interactivities and Exam questions have been updated per the July Office release.
Computing Essentials custom lesson and exams mappings for Computer Concepts
#announcements #instructors #new-content #release-notes
Microsoft Office 365/2019 Complete content is being released to SIMnet on a weekly basis. Here is what has been released this week, on Friday September 6th:
Word 2019 In Practice – Chapter 7 Projects
Word 2019 In Practice – Chapter 7 SIMbook
The 2019 content that has been released to date:
All Office level content for the A Skills Approach and In Practice book series
Capstones – Level 3 for Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
Computer Concepts – with all new LMTs, assessment, and practice questions
Technology at Your Service 3e custom Lesson and Exam mappings for Computer Concepts 2019
A Skills Approach Excel 2019 Chapter 6 SIMbook and exam questions
A Skills Approach Word 2019 Chapter 7 SIMbook and exam questionsIn Practice Word Chapter 5 and 6 SIMbook and autograded projects
In Practice Word 5 custom lesson and exam mappings
In Practice Excel Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 SIMbooks
In Practice Excel Projects chapters 6, 7, 8, 9
In Practice Access Projects
The Ribbon for all SIMbook Interactivities and Exam questions has been updated to the UI from Microsoft’s July 9th semi-annual release. Additional gallery icons and submenu icons are updated.
Computing Essentials 2019 custom lesson and exams mappings for new Computer Concepts 2019 content
#announcements #instructors #new-content #release-notes
Microsoft Office 365/2019 Complete content is being released to SIMnet on a weekly basis. Here is what has been released this week, on Friday August 30th:
Excel 2019 In Practice – Chapter 8 and 9 Projects
Word 2019 In Practice – Chapter 6 Projects
Excel 2019 In Practice – Chapter 10 SIMbook
A Skills Approach Excel 2019 Chapter 6 SIMbook and exam questions
A Skills Approach Word 2019 Chapter 7 SIMbook and exam questions
In Practice Office Book – end of chapter interactive exercises
The 2019 content that has been released to date:
All Office level content (including the Word Mail Merge addendum chapter) for the A Skills Approach and In Practice book series
Capstones – Level 3 for Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
NEW Computer Concepts – with all new LMTs, assessment, and practice questions (80 skills, over 125 assessment questions, and over 125 practice questions)
In Practice Word Chapter 5 and 6 SIMbook and autograded projects
In Practice Excel Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 SIMbooks
In Practice Excel Projects chapters 6 and 7
In Practice Access Projects
In Practice Word 5 custom lesson and exam mappings
The Ribbon interface for all SIMbook Interactivities and Exam Assessment and Practice questions has been updated to the new fluent UI that was part of Microsoft’s July 9th semi-annual release
Technology at Your Service 3e custom Lesson and Exam mappings for Computer Concepts 2019
Skills Approach Office level Test Bank questions
Fluent UI Update — Phase 1 of gallery and submenu icons
Computing Essentials 2019 custom lesson and exams mappings for new Computer Concepts 2019 content
#announcements #instructors #new-features
Instructors can now set an assignment in the SIMnet Gradebook to be graded on a Pass/Fail criterion. The Pass/Fail option can be set for Exams, Lessons, Projects and SIMbooks. It cannot be used on other assignment types, such as SIMpaths and cannot be used on calculated columns.
To set a Pass/Fail grade type the instructor should select the Pass/fail Calculation method in the gradebook or from the Calculation Type drop-down menu when assigning the object to a class. When selecting a Pass/Fail criteria, instructors must then set a Pass/Fail Threshold. The default setting is 90%.
Students who achieve the threshold will receive full credit for the assignment, to be displayed as the instructor desires. Users who do not achieve the threshold will not receive any credit for the assignment.
For the example below, the user achieved 4/8 points for their Exam. Since the threshold was set to 49%, the user achieved the criterion. Therefore, the user receives 8/8 points for the assignment. Since the instructor set the Display as setting to Percent the user has a 100%.
When the instructor changes the settings for the Pass/fail threshold (%) to 51, the student, having achieved a 50% does not get credit for their assignment. They receive 0 points.
#instructors #new-features #students #tips-tricks
The first time students open an Office 2019/365 project assignment, they will automatically be shown the SIMnet Project Best Practices guide. The guide contains instructions for how to complete project assignments in SIMnet, and how to use the features that are available to help students complete a project successfully.
Before students can attempt their 2019/365 project assignment they must review the SIMnet Project Best Practices guide and then click the I acknowledge that I have read the Best Practices guide. button.
Users can view the Best Practices guide at any time by clicking the Best Practices tab when in a 2019 project assignment.
To print the Best Practices guide, click the Printbutton in the upper right corner of the Best Practices guide. The 2019/365 guide will no longer be offered as a PDF. However, it can be saved as a PDF by clicking the Printbutton and selecting Save as PDF.
#instructors #new-content #release-notes
Microsoft Office 2019 Complete content is being released to SIMnet on a weekly basis. Here is what has been released this week, on Friday August 9th:
In Practice Excel Chapter 7 SIMbook
In Practice Excel Chapter 8 SIMbook
The Ribbon interface for all SIMbook Interactivities and Exam Assessment and Practice questions has been updated to the new fluent UI that was part of Microsoft’s July 9th semi-annual release
Technology at Your Service 3e custom Lesson and Exam mappings for Computer Concepts 2019
The 2019 content that has been released to date:
All Office level content (including the Word Mail Merge addendum chapter) for the A Skills Approach and In Practice book series
Capstones – Word Level 3, PowerPoint Level 3, and Excel Level 3
In Practice Word Chapter 5 SIMbook and autograded projects
In Practice Excel Chapter 5 SIMbook
NEW Computer Concepts – with all new LMTs, assessment, and practice questions (80 skills, over 125 assessment questions, and over 125 practice questions)
#announcements #instructors #new-features #release-notes #students #tips-tricks
The 2019 Project Assignment view has been updated to make completing Project assignments simpler. This update includes five improvements that streamline submitting your project for grading smoother and require less navigating from one page to another.
Instructions are now all on the same page as the project assignment. The instructions do not need to be downloaded and viewed in a separate window. Switching between Windows and Mac instructions is as simple as the click of a button.
As you complete each step in the Project process, that step is highlighted. As you move from Step 1, Download, to Step 2, Upload, that step becomes highlighted in yellow.
As you make the changes to your file in each instruction, you can check off that instruction as complete. The next unfinished instruction is highlighted in yellow to make it easier to find. Once you have reached the bottom of the instructions, a handy button allows you to scroll Back to top. If you would like to start your project again, click the Reset Progress button to clear all check marks.
Once you have completed your project you can use the Upload my file button as before, or you can simply drag and drop your file to upload it.
You can also view your previous attempts at a project from this same page by clicking the Previous Attempts button.
#announcements #instructors #new-content #release-notes
Microsoft Office 365/2019 Complete content is being released to SIMnet on a weekly basis. Here is what has been released this week, on Friday August 23rd:
In Practice Excel SIMbook chapter 6
In Practice Word SIMbook chapter 6
In Practice Excel Projects chapters 6 and 7
In Practice Access Projects chapters 7, 8, and 9 (all In Practice Access projects are now available)
The 2019 content that has been released to date:
All Office level content (including the Word Mail Merge addendum chapter) for the A Skills Approach and In Practice book series
Capstones – Level 3 for Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
NEW Computer Concepts – with all new LMTs, assessment, and practice questions (80 skills, over 125 assessment questions, and over 125 practice questions)
In Practice Word Chapter 5 SIMbook and autograded projects
In Practice Excel Chapter 5, 7, 8, 9 and 11 SIMbooks
In Practice Access 5 and 6 Projects
In Practice Word 5 custom lesson and exam mappings
The Ribbon interface for all SIMbook Interactivities and Exam Assessment and Practice questions has been updated to the new fluent UI that was part of Microsoft’s July 9th semi-annual release
Technology at Your Service 3e custom Lesson and Exam mappings for Computer Concepts 2019
Skills Approach Office level Test Bank questions
Fluent UI Update — Phase 1 of gallery and submenu icons
Computing Essentials 2019 custom lesson and exams mappings for new Computer Concepts 2019 content
#announcements #instructors
We have fully restored all services as of 6:15PM Central time.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely, McGraw-Hill Product Team
#announcements #help #instructors #new-features #students
The way users navigate SIMbooks has been updated to provide more information, options, and flexibility to all users.
The SIMbook Navigation and Control bar includes new options to improve the SIMbook viewing experience. The left side of the Navigation and Control bar has the option to view the Table of Contents, peruse the Glossary, or Bookmark the current page.
The right side of the bar has the option to Search the SIMbook, change the Font size, Line height, and enable or disable High Contrast via Accessibility Options, Print the current page, or Exit the SIMbook.
The Forwardand Backwardbuttons now show the page title for the next and previous pages before you click them.
#instructors #new-content #new-features #release-notes
Microsoft Office 365/2019 Complete content is being released to SIMnet on a weekly basis. Here is what has been released this week, on Friday August 16th:
In Practice Excel SIMbook chapters 9 and 11
Access Level 3 Capstone Project – Yellow Belt Credential
In Practice Excel 5 Project
In Practice Access 5 and 6 Projects
In Practice Word 5 custom lesson and exam mappings
Computing Essentials 2019 custom lesson and exams mappings for new Computer Concepts 2019 content
Fluent UI Update — Phase 1 of gallery and submenu icons
Skills Approach Office level Test Bank questions
The 2019 content that has been released to date:
All Office level content (including the Word Mail Merge addendum chapter) for the A Skills Approach and In Practice book series
Capstones – Word Level 3, PowerPoint Level 3, and Excel Level 3
In Practice Word Chapter 5 SIMbook and autograded projects
In Practice Excel Chapter 5, 7 and 8 SIMbooks
NEW Computer Concepts – with all new LMTs, assessment, and practice questions (80 skills, over 125 assessment questions, and over 125 practice questions)
The Ribbon interface for all SIMbook Interactivities and Exam Assessment and Practice questions has been updated to the new fluent UI that was part of Microsoft’s July 9th semi-annual release
Technology at Your Service 3e custom Lesson and Exam mappings for Computer Concepts 2019
#announcements #instructors #new-features #release-notes
Instructors can now select and move multiple assignments at once in the Class Organizer view. This update assists instructors in quickly organizing their courses.
To use this new feature, navigate to the Organizesection of the Classesmenu on the left navigation of the Course Manager. Select all desired assignments or groups individually or select all assignments in a single group by selecting the group check box.
Click and drag the assignments to the desired location. All of the assignments will be moved at the same time.
Note: Each Group has unique Sorting settings. If you are moving multiple items and would like to see them in the order you placed them, be sure to select the Custom Order selection in the Sort by drop-down menu.
#announcements #instructors #new-features #release-notes
Auto, copy, and pair (ACP) is a learning management system (LMS) integration technology to create and integrate SIMnet classes based on a pre-configured master class.
By creating a single master class in SIMnet you can create all of your sections and integrate them at the same time.
ACP is available for all Canvas, Desire2Learn, and Blackboard assignment level integrations through McGraw-Hill Campus. At this time, Blackboard integrations do not automatically deploy assignment links into Blackboard. This feature is forthcoming.
To see more about how to create a master class and use ACP, click here.
#announcements #instructors #tips-tricks
Making sure all of your school’s settings are up-to-date and don’t include any unused content smooths the transition to a new school year. Fewer available options ensures that instructors and students alike do not provide the wrong materials or buy the wrong registration codes.
To control the eCommerce options available to your students, go toAdministrative****Settings, clickeCommerce and then add or remove products as appropriate. The products available for eCommerce are controlled by theProductssettings. If your school is moving to SIMnet for Office 2019be sure to switch the ecommerce offers to the new version or request any custom offers from your McGraw-Hill local representative.
In the U.S., eCommerce settings can be further controlled at the class level.The eCommerce options that are available to the campus can further be reduced for each class.
In the Course Manager, go toSettings, clickProducts, and then add or add or remove products, likeSIMnet for Office 2016 or SIMnet for Office 2019, as needed.
To manage the textbook filters available to instructors when creating lessons and exams, go toSettings, clickTextbooks, and then add or remove textbooks as needed. If you use campuses, be sure to select the correct campus from the drop-down list at the top of the page.
If your school has inclusive access, please review the number of available codes at your school to ensure that there will be enough for the semester. To review the number of available codes go toAdministrative****Settings and clickDetails.
#announcements #instructors #new-content #new-features
The SIMnet Black Belt Credential is now available for Office 2016 applications. Black Belt exams targeting Office 2019 applications are forthcoming.
Black Belt credentials are available for each of the 4 main applications in SIMnet: Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Word. The Black Belt Credential is earned by completing the corresponding Black Belt Exam. Black Belt Exams test students’ mastery of each application. Each Black Belt Exam contains a random set of 60 questions that must be completed within 90 minutes with a score of 90% or higher to earn the Black Belt credential.
The content for each Black Belt exam has already been curated across SIMnet to ensure that the Black Belt credential represents the mastery of a complete application. Instructors have a limited ability to make changes to exam preferences – the number of allowed attempts and whether or not the Exam Timer is visible. As with other Credentials, individual Course or Personal assignments can have a custom threshold between a 90% and a 100% score.
The 2019 Black Belt exam will be available once all Advanced level content for each application has been released.
Learn more about Achievement Credentials here.
Learn more about Completion Credentials here.
#announcements #instructors #new-features #release-notes #students
All McGraw-Hill Campus (MH Campus) integrations now use a SIMplified, streamlined account creation workflow. Depending on the information shared from the Learning Management System (LMS) with SIMnet instructor and students may be required to input fewer details to complete the pairing process.
For many schools the new user pairing process consists of a single step where clicking the Create Account button results in SIMnet automatically creating their account based on the data shared from the LMS.
In cases where the LMS doesn’t share enough details, SIMnet will prompt the user to input the information.. Users continue to have the ability to pair with an existing SIMnet account by selecting the “Yes, sign in now” option:
#announcements #new-content #new-features
SIMnet is proud to debut a new look to highlight its identity as a part of McGraw-Hill Education. This new look is available throughout SIMnet, including new sign in pages and loading screens.
In part of the SIMnet effort to roll out digital credentials, the student profile page became more difficult for users to successfully navigate. In order to make it easier for students to view their login information, the products they’ve purchased, the courses they are enrolled in and the credentials they’ve earned, each of these sections have been given their own tab.
The Profile tab shows the student name, email, username, user ID, and Student ID. On this page students can change their password or enable a high-contrast theme to make SIMnet easier to view for some users.
The Products tab shows each user the products that they are currently licensed to use. They can use this section to buy additional licenses online or register with a product they’ve purchased separately.
The Courses tab allows students to see which courses they are registered for. Depending on the campus settings users can add a course or remove themselves from a course.
The Credentials tab displays the credentials that students have earned. By viewing the student credit wallet, students can elect to display the credentials they have earned in various social media settings, even adding their earned credentials to their resume via LinkedIn.
#announcements #instructors #new-features #tips-tricks
Instructors can now review exams to determine how well students did on each question in two new report types.
The SLO Report by Objective report shows each Student Learning Objective (SLO) in an exam and calculates the Number Correct, Total Attempts and Percent Correct for each question. The SLO Report by Objective displays information about how well students have learned each learning objective.
The SLO Report by Question report breaks out each student learning objective into its individual questions. This provides more granular detail about how well students are answering each question in an exam. While some SLO may have only a single associated question, others have many. This view provides detail about where within an SLO students are being confused.
When setting up the SLO Report, instructors determine the desired campus and classes that should appear in the report. In the example below, the user wanted information about the 2016 Access 1 Exam for all classes at all campuses. Instructors can select the SLO Type to show: 2016 or 2019 Skills Approach, In Practice or Microsoft Office Specialist. Exam Status options allow results to show for Completed Exams, Saved Exams, In Progress Exams, or All. Selecting the Enable Date Range allows instructors to narrow the time frame for results.
Each of these options can be changed after running the report by clicking the Edit button in the upper right corner of the Report.
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable Sunday, December 30th, 2018 from 3AM-9AM Central time. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Sincerely,
SIMnet Product Team
#announcements #instructors #new-features #release-notes
Instructors can now view each of the Credentials earned in a particular class or by a particular student in the Course Manager.
To view all of the credentials that students have achieved in your course, select the course in the Classessection on the left navigation. In the actions menu select either Class Report or Snapshot. On the top of the page, select the Credentials tab. Each credential will be listed in alphabetical order by student. You can filter the credentials by student. Click on the Credential in the Credentialcolumn to view the credential with Accredible. Click the student’s name to view the student snapshot with the Credentialstab open. If the credential is an Achievement Credential earned from a project submission, you can click the link in the Issued From column to view the particular submission that earned the credential.
To see the credentials that a student has earned, either select the desired student from the Last Name, First Name column in the Course Snapshot; or select the student from the Students section on the left navigation and select the Credentials tab.
Clicking on the Credential brings the user to the Accredible page bearing the credential. Clicking on a Project submission in the Issued From column views the submission that earned the credential.
Learn more about Achievement Credentials here.
Learn more about Completion Credentials here.
#instructors #new-features
2016 Level 3 Capstone Projects can now be set by instructors to earn Digital Credentials.
Credentials are a digital certificate of achievement that students can post through social media or add to their resumes to display their mastery of Microsoft Office applications to future employers.These credentials can be used to display general mastery in an application, like Excel, or specific mastery through a Learning Object, like PivotTables.
To enable Digital Credentials in SIMnet, a school administrator should navigate to theSettingssection underAdministrationon the Left Navigation. On the settings page they should select theEnable Credentials Onradio button and click theSavebutton.
Once an administrator enables Digital Credentials for their school’s SIMnet URL, instructors may elect to set a threshold for achieving a Credential between 90% and 100%. If a student achieves the required score, they may then display that information publicly through their Profile page for their classmates or future employers. When they opt-in to sharing that information, the credential earned, and the performance on the individual skills earned may be viewed by the public. Students may also elect to opt-out at any time by Deleting their Credential.
These capstone projects can earn users a Yellow Belt in each Office application, Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. We will be releasing additional credentials for students to earn, from additional assignment types. Students will be able to earn and share White Belts, Purple Belts, and Black Belts in coming months.
To view the current list of credentials in SIMnet, go tohttps://certificates.simnetonline.com/
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable Sunday, June 9th, 2019 from 3AM-9AM Central time and Sunday, August 4th from 3AM-9AM Central time. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
SIMnet Product Team
#instructors #new-features
TheStudentsview in the Course Manager has been updated to include more data at a glance. New columns include:
Paired, which denotes whether or not a student has been paired to your school’s LMS
Type,to easily note the type of access each student has, includingFull,Courtesy,Single Module, Proficiency, andUnregistered.
*Last Name, First Name,*this column is a consolidation of theLast NameandFirst Name columns, which were previously separated.
Missing Licenses, this column requires clicking theShow Missing Licenses Columnat the top of theStudentssection. If a student is missing licenses, the column will display a link,Details, that will bring you to a page with more specific information. If the column is blank, the student is not missing any information.
On the Actions menu, you can now quickly break Blackboard or MH Campus pairings.
The Drop-down filter menus for each column type have also been improved to include selections in the PairedandTypefilter menus for an easier exact match.
The Left-hand navigation has been enhanced to streamline navigation within the Course Manager. The Right Arrows on the edge of the Left-hand navigation allow you to expand the submenu and navigate directly to the desired location.
Previously, to view the Class Organizer, users would need to load theManagesection and then load theOrganizeselection once the Manage selection had loaded. Now, clicking theManage right arrowexpands the selection and allows users to click directly on theOrganizeselection.
Users can now tell at a glance if a Resource submission is late with the newSubmitted Latecolumn. Resource files that have been submitted late have a clock icon in theSubmitted Latecolumn.
#announcements #instructors #new-content #new-features
SIMnet for Office 365 (2019 Edition) is nearing its full release date. SIMnet is prepared to make this transition smooth for you and your students. Starting today, instructors can preview our Office 2019 content, live, alongside all your other SIMnet content.
The live preview includes introductory Office level content for Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint, including SIMbooks, graded Projects, and simulated exam questions. Throughout the coming weeks, you will see additional content added to the live preview, chapter-by-chapter.
Project instructions are now provided in HTML5 instead of a PDF download. These instructions are shared directly with the SIMbook to ensure consistency. Users will no longer be able to lose points on their submission by following the wrong set of instructions.
The relevant instructions, either for Mac or Windows, is automatically selected based on the user’s computer. Each project’s instructions includes the ability to switch between the two versions at any time.
SIMnet for Office 2019 introduces improved Show Me and Guide Me interactivities whichintegrate more closely with the full Office simulation used in the Let Me Try. This ensures consistency across interactivities when implementing changes to support Microsoft Office 365 updates and improve the accessibility of Show Me and Guide Me interactivities.
Credentials are a digital certificate of achievement that students can post through social media or add to their resumes to display their mastery of Microsoft Office applications to future employers.These credentials can be used to display general mastery in an application, like Excel, or specific mastery through a Learning Object, like PivotTables.
Please review our competency-based digital credentials here.
In the coming weeks, stay tuned for more details on our achievement-driven badging enhancements.
To activate SIMnet for Office 2019 content to begin your instructor review, your site administrator needs to add SIMnet for Office 2019 to the Assigned Products window in the Products section of the Administration Settings on the left hand navigation in the course manager.
All LIVE PREVIEW content is open for instructors preview only. This content is NOT available for students at this time. Class testing/pilot support will be available later this spring.
#announcements #instructors #students
This issue was resolved as of 1:00PM Central time.
As of 10:50AM Central time on 10/25/2018 students began receiving a timeout error when trying to upload project and resource submissions. This issue is ongoing and we are working with our hosting partner to resolve this issue ASAP. We do not have an estimated time to resolution available at this time.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only).
Sincerely, SIMnet Product Team
#instructors #new-features
Instructors can now review, grade, provide feedback for, and upload a response file to a student submission in a single step.
To review resource submissions, navigate to theSubmissionssection of theResourcesmenu option on the left hand navigation. Submissions are organized by course and section. They can then be filtered by assignment using theItem drop-down menu and by feedback status in theFeedback Provideddrop-down menu.
To grade a student submission and provide feedback, click theActionsdrop-down menu for the desired student submission and clickGrade Submissionto bring up theGrade Submission and Provide Feedbackwindow.
From this screen instructors can download the desired file by clicking theSubmissionlink; grade the file by filling in theGradebook Gradeblank; provide feedback in theFeedback Commentblank; and upload a feedback file usingChoose Filebutton in theFeedback Filesection. ClickSave All Changesto complete the window.
Submission grades automatically apply to all attempts made by a student for that assignment.
#announcements
On September 24th, Microsoft announced that it is making Office 2019 available to a limited set of customers today, and to all customers in the coming weeks. Office 2019 will be available to Mac and Windows users simultaneously.
Office 2019 is Microsoft’s newly available “on premises” version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, and other applications. This means that Office 2019 does not include access to any cloud-based applications or storage. Office 2019 is a one-time purchase that will not receive any updates outside of security patches. The new features available in Office 2019 that were not included in Office 2016 are updates that are already available to Office 365 subscribers.
The “on premises” label contrasts with Microsoft’s primary Office version, Office 365. Office 365 is a subscription service that receives regular feature upgrades and new functionality. Office 365 offers cloud based services to edit and save Office files from multiple locations. Users pay monthly or annual fees to access Microsoft’s products and receive ongoing support and investment.
SIMnet will continue to support both the on-premises offerings from Microsoft and Office 365.
To learn more application-level specifics from Microsoft, please visit their announcement athttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2018/09/24/office-2019-is-now-available-for-windows-and-mac/
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable Saturday, January 12th, 2019 from 3AM-9AM Central time. Due to an unexpected issue during the previous maintenance window we need to finalize the maintenance plan to ensure performance, reliability and security.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
SIMnet Product Team
#announcements #instructors #students
An unexpected issue occurred with the content origin that supplies SIMbook and Lesson content. This issue occurred from 7:50 AM – 9:10AM Central, Wednesday, September 5th. Students may have received a blue screen or a 404 not found message.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only).
Sincerely, SIMnet Product Team
#announcements #instructors #students
RESOLVED. The Buy Online option in SIMnet regained full functionality around 6:15PM Eastern on September 4th. Currently, Microsoft Azure is still reporting there is a potential for service disruption, but our monitors indicate all services remain online and available.
A weather related event caused an issue with the hosting provider that powers the Buy Online option in SIMnet. This issue will prevent students from buying access for their accounts until services have been restored. All courtesy access students have received a 2-day extension if their courtesy access expired after August 30th.
Please monitor the Microsoft Azure Status page for the US South Central Region for status updates:https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/status/
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only).
Sincerely, SIMnet Product Team
#announcements #instructors #students
Due to an unexpected issue some students may have incorrectly received a “missing modules” error from on Tuesday, September 4th, 2018 from 4:30PM – 5:10PM Eastern time. This issue would have prevented students from completing SIMnet 2016 assignments during this timeframe. Students may need to logout of SIMnet prior to attempting another assignment.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only).
Sincerely, SIMnet Product Team
#help #instructors #tips-tricks
Making sure all of your school’s settings are up-to-date and don’t include any unused content smooths the transition to a new school year. Fewer available options ensures that instructors and students alike do not provide the wrong materials or buy the wrong registration codes.
In the Course Manager, go toSettings, clickProducts, and then add or remove products, likeSIMnet for Office 2016, as needed.
To manage the textbook filters available to instructors when creating lessons and exams, go toSettings, clickTextbooks, and then add or remove textbooks as needed. If you use campuses, be sure to select the correct campus from the drop-down list at the top of the page.
To control the eCommerce options available to your students, go toAdministrative Settings, clickeCommerceand then add or remove products as appropriate. The products available for eCommerce are controlled by theProductssettings.
In the U.S., eCommerce settings can be further controlled at the class level.The eCommerce options that are available to the campus can further be reduced for each class.
If your school has inclusive access, please review the number of available codes at your school to ensure that there will be enough for the semester. To review the number of available codes go toAdministrative Settingsand clickDetails.
#announcements #instructors #new-features #students
The SIMnet sign in page has been updated to make signing into- and signing up for- SIMnet simple. New students will be able to gain access to SIMnet and all users will access SIMnet Support more easily.
The new design divides the sign in page into three main areas. TheExisting Userssection, on the left, is for standard sign in for users who are registered and have the codes that they need.
TheNew Userssection has been created to make it clearer to new users how to get access to SIMnet. This section allows users to buy codes online, register using a code purchased previously, or temporarily register using courtesy access as best fits the needs of the new user.
TheHelp & Supportsection brings the links included in theSupportarea below the main window and makes them more accessible to all users. This section helps new and returning users determine if their computer meets SIMnet requirements with theSystem Requirementslink. TheTechnical Supportoption links SIMnet users with support personnel while theSIMnet Instant Helpoption allows users to search through an array of SIMnet topics.
#instructors #new-features
You can now access data on the cumulative time students have spent on task categories. This information gives instructors a simple snapshot of how much time the student has spent in SIMnet.
This information can be cumulative for all courses that a student has taken in SIMnet or it can be divided by Course and by Group within a course.
There are multiple ways to view the Time on Task data.
On the Left Navigation, selectStudents. Locate the desired student and, in the actions menu, selectSnapshot,Print Snapshot,Edit/AssignorStudent Report. Select theTime on Tasktab to view the report.
On the Left Navigation selectReports. Either select a previously createdStudent Overviewreport type from theFilter by Report Typedrop-down menu or selectCreatefrom the Left Navigation and create a new Student Overview report.
You can export this data from the Student Overview Report to Excel. View the Student Overview Report and, in theActionsdrop-down menu, selectExport Time On Task.
Note: Time spent on Projects and Resources calculates the time spent between downloading the project and uploading the completed file. This data is an accurate accounting of time spent by students who complete their project or resource in a single sitting. However it will show a large total number if the student completes their project or resource over multiple days which is less likely to accurately reflect time actually spent working on the file.
Instructors can now create new Lessons, Lesson Templates, Exams, Exam Templates, Practice Exams, and Practice Exam Templates directly from individual projects. Content created using this method contains all of the required skills to complete the project and only that material.
To create content from the Student Learning Objectives within a particular project, navigate to the desired project in theProjectssection on the Left Navigation. In theActionsmenu, select the desired option from the drop-down menu.
Once you have selected the desired content, you will be prompted to save the content under a unique name. After saving the content you can review the content to add or remove individual Student Learning Objectives before assigning the content to courses or individual students.
This feature is available with all projects that havestudent learning objectives identification.
#instructors #new-features #students
Skill Set Navigation allows students to move directly from one interactivity to the next in SIMbooks, Lessons and SIMpaths. Once the student has opened a new Show Me, Guide Me, or Let Me Try interactivity in a SIMbook, Lesson, or SIMpath, the Skill Set Navigation feature will be displayed in the upper right corner of the window.
Students can move directly from one interactivity to the next without returning to the previous window. Selecting the Show Me, Guide Me, or Let Me Try link will bring the student to that location. Upon completing the Show Me, Guide Me, or Let Me Try, the new interactivity will be displayed with a check mark.
The Left and Right arrows next to the Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try links move the student forward or backward in the assignment. The student can complete the assignment directly from this window.
Skill Set Navigation is available by default. To turn off Skill Set Navigation edit the assignment preferences either from the assignment itself or from the Organizer. Uncheck theEnable skill set navigationcheck mark to disable the feature.
#instructors #new-features #tips-tricks
Instructors can now view the learning objective associated with each scored step in a student’s submitted project. Each scored step will show the student learning object above the step. For example, the following project shows that each scored portion of step 4 in project 1.1 comes from learning object 1.02.
The learning objectives can be viewed from a student’s project submission by selecting the desired student and viewing their submission through the student report or by selecting the desired project and selecting the desired student.
Instructors can view how a student fared on each learning objective within a project by selecting theObjectives Reportlink to view the Student Objectives report. The report lists each Student Learning Objective in the project and scores the student on each objective.
Projects from the Skills Approach series show the Skills Approach learning objects, marked SA. Projects from the In Practice series show the In Practice learning objects, marked IP. Capstones and Integrated projects show both In Practice and Skills Approach learning objects. Capstone projects also can display MOS certification learning objects. To switch between objectives, select theSet of Objectivesdrop-down menu and select the desired learning objects to display.
Instructors may elect to turn off the SLO view by clicking theSet of Objectivesdrop-down menu and selectDo Not Display.
#instructors #new-features
Instructors can now directly download Online Learning Center (OLC) files from the Course Manager without needing to view the SIMbook via SIMstudent.
To download OLC content directly from the Course Manager, open the desired SIMbook by selectingSIMbookson the left navigation and selecting the desired SIMbook. Click theActionsdrop-down menu for the desired SIMbook chapter and selectDownload OLC Content.
You may select individual content types like the Instructor Manual or Let Me Try Data Files or all OLC content by checking the desired box or theSelect Allbox. Once you have selected the desired content, click theDownload Selected Filesbutton.
Instructors can select between downloading the files Nested or Flat. Nested files will have sub-folders for each content type. Flat downloads will have files in a single folder. When you have selected the type of files you would like to download, click theDownload OLC filesbutton.
#uncategorized
Due to an unexpected issue relating to a new feature release, SIMnet was unavailable on Wednesday May 30th from 5:45 AM to 6:30 AM Central time. Also, some students may have received an error message when loading Lessons or SIMbooks until 7:15 AM Central.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only).
Sincerely, SIMnet Product Team
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable on Friday, July 20, 2018 from 11:45PM – July 21, 2018, 8AM Eastern time. Rackspace, SIMnet’s hosting provider, is migrating customers to a new datacenter that opened in 2014. Our current datacenter was opened in 2006 and is scheduled to fully close later this year.
Sincerely,
McGraw-Hill Product Team
#instructors #release-notes
Microsoft Office 365 released an update with changes to Importing files into Access. The following projects have updated instructions based on the changes:
Access 2016 In Practice – Ch 1 Guided Project 1-2
Original text: 6 a. Click the Excel button [ External Data tab, Import & Link group] to launch the Get External Data – Excel Spreadsheet dialog box.
Updated text: 6a. Click the New Data Source button [ External Data tab, Import & Link group] select From File and then select Excel to launch the Get External Data – Excel Spreadsheet dialog box.
Access 2016 In Practice – Ch 8 Guided Project 8-1
Original text: 5a. Click the Excel button [ External Data tab, Import & Link group]. The Get External Data – Excel Spreadsheet dialog box launches.
Updated text: 5.a. Click the New Data Source button [ External Data tab, Import & Link group] select From File and then select Excel to launch the Get External Data – Excel Spreadsheet dialog box.
Original text: 8. a. Click the Text File button [ External Data tab, Import & Link group]. The Get External Data – Text File dialog box launches.
Updated text: 8.a. Click the New Data Source button [ External Data tab, Import & Link group] select From File and then select Text File to launch the Get External Data – Text File dialog box.
Access 2016 In Practice – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-4
Original text: 4.a. Click the XML File button to import a file.
Updated text: 4.a. Click the New Data Source button [ External Data tab, Import & Link group] select From File and then select XML File to launch the Get External Data – XML File dialog box.
Original text: 7.a. Click the XML File button to import a file.
Updated text: 7.a. Click the New Data Source button [ External Data tab, Import & Link group] select From File and then select XML File to launch the Get External Data – XML File dialog box.
Access 2016 In Practice – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-6
Original text: 5.a. Click the Text File button to import a file.
Updated text: 5.a. Click the New Data Source button [ External Data tab, Import & Link group] select From File and then select Text File to launch the Get External Data – Text File dialog box.
Access 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 4 Skill Review 4.2
*Original Text:*12 a. On the External Data tab, in the Import & Link group, click the Text File button.
*Updated Text:*12a. (Alternate image) On the External Data tab, in the Import & Link group, click the New Data Source button, point to From File and select Text File.
Excel 2016 In Practice – Ch 2 Guided Project 2-3 – The instruction text for step 6a is corrected.
Original text: Click cell B13. The beginning balance is the total cost of the loan.
Corrected text: Click cell B13. The beginning balance is the loan amount.
Excel 2016 In Practice – Ch 4 Guided Project 4-3 – Alternate instructions have been added to the instructions for using the Advanced Filter option.
[ Alt Icon ] In some versions of Office, the above instructions to create an Advanced Filter may not work. If you experience this issue, complete instructions 6. a-e as listed below, then continue with instruction 6.f-l above.
Create an Advanced Filter.
Click the Criteria sheet tab.
Type >Dec 2016 in cell A3 to find records after 2016.
Type mri in cell B3.
Type >Dec 2014 in cell A4 to find records after 2014.
Type ct scan in cell B4. This criteria will find records dated 2017 or later for MRIs and records for CT scans after 2014.
Excel 2016 In Practice – Ch 6 Independent Project 6-5 – An alternate answer string for the Comma style with zero decimals is added to the grading.
PowerPoint 2016 Capstone – Level 3 Creating a Company’s Presentation – Due to a recent update for the Mac version, the Retrospect theme is no longer available with variants. The project has been updated to use the Badge theme.
#instructors #new-features
When you are copying a class you can now shift each individual learning object by a specified number of days instead of updating each assignment type by a single specific date. This feature allows you to copy a class using the same schedule and order of assignments.
To shift the dates in a copied class, selectManagein the left-hand navigation. Locate the class to be copied and in theActionsmenu selectCopy to Class.
In theSchedulingsection, deselect theEnable Schedule by Datescheck box and select theShift Schedule by Number of Daysbox. Select the number of days to shift the course by in theNumber of days to update dates for learning objectsbox. You shift the dates of the copied course forward or backward by 730 days, equivalent to 2 years.
#announcements #instructors #new-features
Instructors can now update all grades within a class for a single assignment at once. Instructors canAddas many points as they like, with or without a point cutoff. Instructors canSubtractas points up to a zero result. Instructors can change grades to beSet toa specified amount. All selected grades can automatically be set toMaxorZeropoints as well.
In addition, all grades that have had changes applied to them can beResetto unlock the grades or reset all grades to adash. These two options will not automatically apply to all selected students but only students who meet the criteria of having a grade changed and locked or having an automatic process reset the grades from dash to zero. Resetting the dash back to a zero is especially useful if an instructor needs to change the due date of an assignment that has already passed its original due date.
To apply bulk updates, select theGradebookfrom the left navigation and select the desired class. From the loaded gradebook select the desired column and click theView Detailsbutton on the right pane.
Once the button is selected each of the students in the class will be listed vertically.
Select the desired students individually, or all students in the class by clicking theNamecheckbox. Once names are selected, theAdjust Selected Gradesbutton will become available to select.
Click theAdjust Selected Gradesbutton to bring up theAdjustmentwindow.
Select the desired change and clickApply.
Once you selectApplya message will ask you to confirm adjustment and then inform you as to how many of the selected grades will be changed. All grades will be changed except for the last two selections which are context dependent.
Selecting the columns involved in a column calculation has been improved. You can now select columns from a list and more easily see which ones have been added.
To view which columns are involved in a calculation, from the gradebook, click theGradebook Actions & Settingsbutton to view theColumnsin the gradebook. Select a calculated column or click theCreatebutton and selectCalculated.
To view the new options click theView/Editbutton in the lower right corner of theEdit Columnssection.
Select the columns on the left menu and clickAddto add them to the calculation, on the right. Select the columns on the right and clickRemoveto remove them from the calculation. Once you have added the desired columns, clickSaveto complete the changes. You will be taken back to theEdit Columnssection to complete the calculated column preferences.
#announcements #instructors #release-notes #students
Update: As of February 1, 2018, this issue has been fully resolved.
On January 18, 2018, Microsoft began rolling out the latest update for Mac Office 365 subscribers. This update may take as long as a week before it’s fully available to all subscribers.
Unfortunately, with this update, Mac Word no longer includes information in the document to differentiate which platform (Mac or Windows) was used to edit it. This causes a grading issue for a subset of graded Word Projects for Office 2013 and 2016 because SIMnet does not know which grading instructions to use (Mac or Windows).
The SIMnet Projects team is hard at work developing a solution to differentiate between Mac and Windows for these graded projects. We are targeting February 9 as the release date for the resolution of this issue.
Until the fix is available, all projects submitted with the latest version of Mac Word will have theApplication Usedlisted as Microsoft Windows Word instead of Microsoft Macintosh Word. Furthermore, students using Mac Word may not receive appropriate credit on some instructions in the affected projects.
The following projects may experience inconsistent grading when submitted with the latest version of Mac Word:
2016 Projects: Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 3 Skill Review 3.2 Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 3 Challenge Yourself 3.4 Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 3 Challenge Yourself 3.4 ALT Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 3 Fix It 3.6 Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 5 Skill Review 5.1 Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 5 Challenge Yourself 5.3 Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 5 Challenge Yourself 5.3 ALT Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 5 Fix it 5.6 Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 7 Skill Review 7.1 Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 7 Challenge Yourself 7.4 Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 9 Skill Review 9.1 Word 2016 Skills Approach – Ch 9 Challenge Yourself 9.4 Word 2016 In Practice – Ch 2 Guided Project 2-1 Word 2016 In Practice – Ch 2 Independent Project 2-4 Word 2016 In Practice – Ch 3 Guided Project 3-1 Word 2016 In Practice – Ch 3 Independent Project 3-5 Word 2016 In Practice – Ch 3 Independent Project 3-5 ALT Word 2016 In Practice – Ch 3 Independent Project 3-6 Word 2016 In Practice – Ch 5 Guided Project 5-3 Word 2016 In Practice – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-4 Word 2016 In Practice – Ch 9 Independent Project 9-4 Word 2016 In Practice – Ch 10 Independent Project 10-4 Word 2016 In Practice – Ch 10 Independent Project 10-6 Word 2016 Project Learn – Ch 2 Review Project 2.3 Word 2016 Capstone – Level 1 Formatting a Document Word 2016 Capstone – Level 2 Writing a Research Paper Word 2016 Capstone – Level 3 Writing a Research Paper
2013 Projects Word 2013 Skills Approach – Ch 3 Skill Review 3.1 Word 2013 Skills Approach – Ch 3 Challenge Yourself 3.4 Word 2013 Skills Approach – Ch 5 Fix it 5.6 Word 2013 Skills Approach – Ch 7 Challenge Yourself 7.3 Word 2013 Skills Approach – Ch 9 Skill Review 9.1 Word 2013 Skills Approach – Ch 9 Challenge Yourself 9.4 Word 2013 In Practice – Ch 2 Independent Project 2-4 Word 2013 In Practice – Ch 3 Improve It Project 3-7 Word 2013 In Practice – Ch 8 Guided Project 8-1 Word 2013 In Practice – Ch 8 Independent Project 8-4 Word 2013 In Practice – Ch 9 Independent Project 9-4 Word 2013 In Practice – Ch 10 Independent Project 10-4 Word 2013 In Practice – Ch 10 Independent Project 10-6 O’Leary Word 2013 – Lab 2-1 Creating a Handout O’Leary Word 2013 – Lab 2-2 Dog Park Rules O’Leary Word 2013 – Lab 3-1 Improving a Report Word 2013 Capstone – Level 1 Formatting a Document Word 2013 Capstone – Level 2 Writing a Research Paper Word 2013 Capstone – Level 3 Writing a Research Paper
Sincerely, SIMnet Product Team
#instructors #new-content #release-notes
SIMnet has been updated to reflect Microsoft’s January 9 Office 365 Semi-Annual channel update. For more information on the update,visit our previous blog post.
Microsoft updated the following features slightly with updated color or style names. Where appropriate, SIMbook learning content, simulated exam question hints, and autograded Project instructions been updated to reflect the new names.
SmartArt colors
WordArt names
In general, SIMnet’s Office simulation was updated to match the following changes to the Office interface. Where appropriate, SIMbook learning content, simulated exam question hints, and autograded Project instructions were updated as well.
Insert tab, Illustrations group > Icons button (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
References tab, Research group (new group) (Word)
View tab, Page Movement group(new group) (Word)
Spelling task pane >Ignorebutton changed toIgnore Once(Word)
Grammar task pane >Ignorebutton changed toIgnore Once(Word)
Insert tab, Charts group > Maps button (Excel)
Data tab, Get & Transform Data group (new group) (Excel)
Data tab, Queries & Connections group (new group) (Excel)
Home tab, Font group > Text Highlighting button (PowerPoint)
Insert tab, Links group > Summary Zoom button (PowerPoint)
The following feature updates have been made to SIMbook learning materials (including Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try exercises), simulated exam questions, and autograded Projects.
SIMbook Page
Overview 2016 In Practice – Guided Project Intro-2
Overview 2016 A Skills Approach – Skill 1.7 Using Help
Project Assignment
No Changes Required
SIMbook Page
Overview 2016 A Skills Approach – Skill 1.8 Using Smart Lookup
Word 2016 In Practice, Chapter 1 – 1-7 Using Smart Lookup and Proofreading Tools
Word 2016 In Practice, Chapter 1 – Pause & Practice: Word 1-3
Word 2016 In Practice, Chapter 1 – Guided Project 1-1
Word 2016 In Practice, Chapter 1 – Independent Project 1-4
Word 2016 In Practice, Chapter 1 – Independent Project 1-6
Project Assignment
Word 2016 In Practice, Chapter 1 – Independent Project 1-4
SIMbook Page
Word 2016 In Practice, Chapter 2 – 2-9 Using Borders, Shading, and Hyperlinks
Word 2016 In Practice, Chapter 2 – Pause & Practice: Word 2-4
Word 2016 In Practice, Chapter 2 – Guided Project 2-3
Word 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 3 – Skill 3.13 Inserting Hyperlinks
Word 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 3 – Skill Review 3.2
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 5 – 5-7 Inserting Hyperlinks in a Worksheet
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 5 – Chapter Summary 5-7
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 5 – Pause & Practice: Excel 5-3
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 5 – Guided Project 5-1
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 5 – Guided Project 5-2
Excel 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 9 – Skill 9.11 Inserting Hyperlinks
PowerPoint 2016 In Practice, Chapter 5 – 5.2 Adding Hyperlinks and Action Buttons
PowerPoint 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 5 – Skill 4.5 Adding Hyperlinks to Slides
PowerPoint 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 5 – Skill Review 4.1
PowerPoint 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 5 – Skill 5.5 Adding Hyperlinks to a Web Site
PowerPoint 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 5 – Skill Review 5.2
PowerPoint 2016 ProjectLearn, Chapter 3 – Objective 3 Apply Hyperlinks
Project Assignment
Excel 2016 Skills Approach, Chapter 9 – Skill Review 9.2
SIMbook Page
Word 2016 In Practice, Chapter 4 – 4.5 Working with Graphics
Word 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 4 – Skill 4.3 Inserting Online Pictures
Word 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 4 – Concept Review question #8
Word 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 4 – Skill Review 4.1
Word 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 4 – Skill Review 4.2
Word 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 4 – Challenge Yourself 4.3
Word 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 4 – On Your Own 4.5
PowerPoint 2016 In Practice, Chapter 2- 2.3 How To: Search for and Insert a Picture or Illustration
PowerPoint 2016 In Practice, Chapter 2 – Pause & Practice: PowerPoint 2-1
PowerPoint 2016 In Practice, Chapter 2 – Chapter Summary 2.3
PowerPoint 2016 In Practice, Chapter 2 – Guided Project 2-2
PowerPoint 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 2 – Skill 2.14 Adding Online Pictures
PowerPoint 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 2 – Skill Review 2.2
Project Assignment
No Changes Required
SIMbook Page
Word 2016 In Practice, Chapter 7 – 7-4 Working with Pictures
Word 2016 A Skills Approach, Chapter 8 – Skill 8.17 Changing Pictures
PowerPoint 2016 In Practice, Chapter 4 – 4-5 How To: Change a Picture
PowerPoint 2016 In Practice, Chapter 4 – Independent Project 4-5
Project Assignment
No Changes Required
SIMbook Page
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 4 – SLO 4-6 Importing Data
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 4 – Chapter Summary 4-6
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 4 – Pause & Practice: Excel 4-3
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 4 – Guided Project 4-1
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 4 – Guided Project 4-2
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 4 – Guided Project 4-3
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 4 – Independent Project 4-4
Excel 2016 Skills Approach, Chapter 9 – Skill 9.1 Importing Data from Access
Excel 2016 Skills Approach, Chapter 9 – Skill 9.2 Importing Data from a Text File
Excel 2016 Skills Approach, Chapter 9 – Skill Review 9.1
Excel 2016 Skills Approach, Chapter 9 – Skill Review 9.2
Project Assignment
Excel 2016 In Practice, Chapter 4 – Guided Project 4-3
Excel 2016 Skills Approach, Chapter 9 – Skill Review 9.2
#announcements #instructors #new-features
Schools based in the U.S. have the ability to control the ecommerce products students are allowed to purchase directly from the SIMnet homepage or the SIMnet Student Profile. SIMnet Administrators can control the availability of direct ecommerce products by visiting the Administrative Settings –> eCommerce page within the Course Manager.
SIMnet now supports the ability for Administrators and Full Instructors to limit the availability of ecommerce products based on content required for their course. Follow these steps to limit the direct ecommerce offers in your course:
Login to the Course Manager
Click Classes, Manage
Find your class, click Edit/Assign from the Actions Menu
Click the eCommerce button at the top of the page
To limit the list of products, place one or more check marks next to each product you would like available to your course. If the product required for your course isn’t listed please contact the SIMnet Administrator.
Click Save.
Note, the direct ecommerce feature is only available for schools located in the US.
#announcements #instructors #new-content #release-notes #students
Update, January 11: The release of SIMnet materials for the Office 365 Semi-Annual update will occur next week.
Today, Microsoft Office 365 subscribers received the first Semi-Annual update for Office 365. The Semi-Annual change updates all Office 365 subscribers who had not previously updated their systems.
What is Microsoft Office 365
Office 365 is a subscription service from Microsoft that gives you the most up-to-date versions of the Office applications. Office 365 is not limited to the free Office Online apps. You use your Office 365 subscription to download and install the full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and, depending on your subscription, Access. There are Office 365 plans available for home and personal use as well as school and business. Depending on the type of Office 365 subscription you have, you will receive feature updates monthly or twice a year.
Microsoft also sells Office 2016 as a one-time purchase that allows you to install Office on a single computer. If you purchase Office 2016 this way, you will not receive feature updates.
What Features have been updated?
The updates to Microsoft Office 365 include:
This icon indicates that there are changes to the content of the SIMbook page and to the affiliated interactive parts on that page including the Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try questions. SIMpath and Exam questions that cover this content are updated as well.
Further Reading
To read more about the Semi-Annual and other update channels, refer to Microsoft formore information. For SIMnet users, we recommend using the Semi-Annual update channel.
#announcements #instructors #new-features
SIMnet now supports the same style ofAcademic Integrity DetectionforResourcefiles as Project assignments. Academic Integrity Detection is available for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access files from Microsoft Office 2013 or newer. With this feature instructors can determine if students are submitting their own file or another student’s; or if students have inserted portions of another student’s work into their own file.
To use the SIMnet Academic Integrity Detection for resource files, first upload your resource file to SIMnet from theCreateoption in theResourcessection. Academic integrity detection is only available forFiles, notLinks. When assigning the resource to a course there is a new section in theAssignment Detailspane for resources:
In theAssignment Preferences section, select theEnable Student Submissionscheck box to enable the Academic Integrity Detection options further down in the same section. Select theEnable Integrity Detection for the Start Fileto enable Academic Integrity Detection in your Resource file. If you would like to block students from uploading a file if they are submitting another student’s file or a file containing portions of another student’s work, leave theAllow Student Submissions with Integrity Violationcheck box blank. If you would like to allow students to submit a file with work that is not their own, check theAllow Student Submissions with Integrity Violationcheck box.
To view Resource submissions, click onResourceson the left menu and selectSubmissions. In theClassdrop-down menu select your class. You can view all submissions from this view or further filter by the individual resourceItemor by theFeedback Provided. This view now includes an additional column,Integrity Violation Status:
Files that only include the submitting students data are markedOK. Files that include data that does not belong to the student are marked with the Integrity Violation shield icon. Click on that icon to view theAcademic Integrity Violation Report. This report details where the data that does not belong to the submitting student originated.
Instructors may elect toSuppressan Integrity Violation. Clicking theSuppressbutton in theAcademic Integrity Violation Reportcauses the Integrity Violation icon in the Submissions section to become gray and theIntegrity Violationicon in the gradebook to be removed. Suppressed integrity violations can be flagged again at any time by viewing the violation report and clicking theFlagbutton.
Instructors can nowDownload All Submissionsfor resource files with the click of a button. In theSubmissionsview of theResourcessection, select the desired class. In the top right corner of theResultssection click theDownload All Submissionsbutton to download all of the submissions in the current view, including any appliedItemorFeedbackfilters.
TheBulk Download window guides instructors through downloading currently submitted resource files. To view each file organized in subfolders according to assignment and then student, select theNested (with folders)radio button and clickDownload Submissions. Files downloaded in this manner are named according to their attempt number, student ID, student name, and submission name.
To view each file all in a single folder, select theFlat (no folders)radio button and clickDownload Submissions. Files downloaded in this manner are named according to the item name, student name, student ID, attempt number and submission name.
If you are unsure which version of Office you have, open any Office file (or create a new blank file). Click the File tab to open Backstage view. Click Account or Help from the list at the left of the screen. Your Office installation information will be listed on the next screen.Refer to Microsoft formore information.
Triad will be updating the relevant SIMnet content on Friday, January 12th. The two day interval allows us to review the Microsoft Office update to ensure that stated changes have successfully been incorporated for all Office 365 users. When SIMnet users come across a SIMbook page that contains content from the Office 365 update, the following icon will be displayed at the top of the page:
For users who are using the non-Office 365 version of Microsoft Office 2016, Project instructions will contain alternate instructions that those users should follow. Each step that has an alternate instruction contains the following logo and the alternate instruction directly below the primary instruction.
#announcements #instructors #new-content
New, enhanced OneDrive simulation is coming to SIMnet on Friday, September 29th. OneDrive-based Let Me Try interactivities in SIMbooks and Exam questions will feature a simulation of the OneDrive environment.
All Let Me Try questions will be replaced automatically on the 29th without any disruption. Students who have completed SIMbook questions will not need to repeat them and their grade will not change. Students who have yet to complete the questions will need to answer the new questions to get credit for their assignment.
All currently assigned Exam questions will not change. The assigned multiple-choice questions for exams will continue to be assigned to students. Instructors have carefully designed their evaluations and SIMnet will not change those evaluations. In addition to the currently available questions, a new set of simulated OneDrive questions will be available to assign in Exams. Like other simulated environments (e.g. Excel), the questions will correspond with steps in the Let Me Try environment. Starting next semester the multiple-choice questions will not be able to be assigned to new exams so that they can be slowly phased out.
#announcements #instructors #release-notes #students
In Practice Excel Independent Project 5-4 was updated on Friday, October 20th. This update will require students who downloaded their instruction file and start file before that date to download a new start file and new instruction file in order to successfully complete the project. Students who downloaded their start file and instruction file after Friday, October 20th will not experience any issues.
To determine if a start file or instruction file was downloaded before the change, the student should view theCreated field by right clicking the file and selectingProperties. They can also view the date of the instructions by looking for the Last Updated date in the footer of their instruction file.
#announcements #help #instructors
SIMnet will complete its transition to the new gradebook onFriday, July 28th. After the 28th the old gradebook view will no longer be available to any users. The Results section on the left-hand menu will no longer display theGradebookandGradebook (new)options. The only option will beGradebookwhich will navigate to the improved gradebook.
Ourpost on May 18covers more information about the new gradebook.
#announcements #instructors #students
**Update December 21, 3:30 pm EST:**As of 12:00 noon, December 15th the intermittent outage to SIMnet was fully resolved. We have been continuously monitoring the web site and there are noongoing issues related to this problem.
Original Post:SIMnet is fully operational, however, there continues to be intermittent slowness and the possibilityfor a short outage remains. We are monitoring the system 24×7 and continue to work with our hosting provider and database vendor with the highest priority available.
#announcements #instructors #students
On Monday August 28th from 2:03 to 2:34 PM, EDT SIMnet was unavailable or experienced longer than normal load times in some North American regions. Users who were effected by this outage would have experienced long load times or been unable to load SIMnet.
This outage occurred due to technical issues experienced by our Content Delivery Network (CDN) provider. We are working with the CDN provider to ensure the continued stability of the SIMnet platform for all of our users.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only).
Sincerely, SIMnet Product Team
#announcements #instructors #students
The SIMnetcommunity.com blog wasbriefly forwarding users to another web site. Many WordPress.com powered sites experienced this issue. We have increased the site’s security to prevent this from occurring in the future. We do not anticipate that this had any effect on user’s computers however, a up-to-date antivirus program should reliably catch any resulting issues.
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable Sunday, August6th, 2017 from 4:00AM – 8:00AM Central. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Sincerely,
McGraw-Hill Product Team
#announcements #instructors #students
Beginning at approximately 12:30 P.M. ET on 12/1/16 students would have experienced an issue saving answers in SIMnet exams. The symptoms of this issue would cause the exam to not advance to the next question and the exam timer would freeze. This issue was fully resolved as of 5:15 P.M. ET 12/1/16.
If a SIMnet exam or SIMpath Pre-Test or Post-Test was scheduled during this time we recommend considering the impact of this issue on the exam.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group.
Customer Experience Group (CXG) Hours of Operation:
Sun: 11am – 1am Mon-Thurs: 7am – 3am Fri: 7am – 8pm Sat: 9am – 7pm (All times Central)
By Phone you can reach us toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only).
Sincerely, SIMnet Product Team
#help #instructors #students
Due to recent changes to the Chrome browser, students are having issues with accessing theTeach Meportion of 2007- and 2010-based lessons. The Chrome browser has slowly made changes to the way it displays Flash content. The Chrome browser will no longer allow off-screen Flash content to load without an explicit exception from the user. Chrome browser also requires a 1-time approval of Flash content in use by the Office 2013 simulation.
The simplest way for students to access the Teach Me portion of 2007 and 2010 Lesson content is to use a different browser. Firefox, Edge, and Internet Explorer successfully load 2007 and 2010 content without additional intervention.
Please follow the followinginstructions to approve Flash content in Chrome browser:
Click theCustomize and Control Google Chromemenu button, shaped like 3 vertical dots, in the upper right corner of the browser window.
Next, selectSettingsfrom the drop-down menu.
On theSettingsmenu select the**Show advanced settings…**link at the bottom.
In thePrivacysection of the expanded menu, click the**Content settings…**button.
On theContent settingsmenu, in theFlashsection click theManage Exceptionsbutton.
Type**[*.].simnetonline.comin theHostname patternbox and clickDone**.
Once you have completed these steps you can close theSettingstab.
For2007 and 2010 Lessons, you will need to click thePuzzle pieceicon in the upper right corner of the browser and select theRun all plugins this timelink.
Once you move forward one topic, all additionalTeach Mecontent will load for that browsing session. Each time you open a new lesson or reload the lesson content you will need to click thePuzzle pieceicon and theRun all plugins this timelink.
Unfortunately, the System Requirement Check is only able to detect if Flash Player is installed, not if the plugin will be available to SIMnet.
#announcements #instructors #release-notes
Test Bank questions can now be assigned to SIMnet exams for the Computer Concepts module.Instructors can now create a single exam that incorporates both Test Bank questions and SIMnet Exam questions at the same time.
To add Computer Concepts Test Bank questions to a SIMnet Exam:
Create a new exam using the 2016 content (or edit an existing exam).
In the Available Questions list box, select the Module radio button and select SIMnet 2016 – Computer Concepts Assessment Exams (or Practice Exams). You can also filter by Text Book and selectSIMnet 2016 – Computer Concepts.
In the Question Text filter box (at the top of the list of questions), type Test Bank.
You will see the available test bank questions that you can add to any simulation exam.
#announcements #instructors #students
Update Dec 15, 3:30 pm EST:We have switched to updating SIMnet Status Update for the latest information on this issue. While students and instructors should be able to access their content as desired going forward, please check the new post for the latest information.
Update Dec 14, 12:00 noonEST: The SIMnet system is up and running. It has been functioning properly since 11:30 pmEST yesterday evening, Dec 13. We are continuing to actively monitor the system for any ongoing issues. There remains a potential for short periods of intermittent slowness today as we continue working on final resolution. We will update this blog with more information as it becomes available.
Previous Updates: 11:30 pmEST: Conditions are improving and there remains potential for intermittent issues that we are working to fully resolve.10:30 pm EST: We continue to work around the clock to restore SIMnet to its full functionality. When we are able, we will share all of the details related to this issue.9:30 pm EST: The SIMnet outage is not resolved. We continue to work to make SIMnet fully available.8:30 pm EST:We have yet to resolve the SIMnet outage. We continue to work to make SIMnet fully available.7:20 pm EST:We have not yet resolved the outage. We will continue to work through the night to make SIMnet available.5:25 pm EST:We have not yet resolved the outage. We believe that we are close to having a solution and will continue to work through the night to make SIMnet available.1:30 pm EST: We know this is a critical time for instructors and students to finish final exams. We are working quickly and diligently with our team and vendors to get SIMnet up and running as quickly as possible. We apologize for the delay.
Original Post: Starting at approximately 10:00 amEST Dec 13th, students may have experienced difficulty loading SIMnet. At 11:45 am EST Dec 13th, it was determined that the fastest way to return SIMnet to optimal function was to restart the system. We will update this post with further details once the outage has been fully resolved. Once services have been fully restored, a root cause analysis RCA will be completed.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group.
Customer Experience Group (CXG) Hours of Operation:
Sun: 11am – 1am
Mon-Thurs: 7am – 3am
Fri: 7am – 8pm
Sat: 9am – 7pm
(All times Central)
By Phone, you can reach us toll-free at800-331-5094(US Only)
#announcements #instructors
Beginning at approximately 7:00 A.M. EDT a small set of schools may have instructor’s login rights switched to student roles. We are currently in the process of restoring the affected accounts to their appropriate instructor roles.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group.
Customer Experience Group (CXG) Hours of Operation:
Sun: 11am – 1am
Mon-Thurs: 7am – 3am
Fri: 7am – 8pm
Sat: 9am – 7pm
(All times Central)
By Phone:
You can reach us toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only)
#instructors #new-content #release-notes
In Practice – Excel Chapter 8
In Practice – Excel Chapter 9
In Practice – Excel Chapter 10
Skills Approach – Excel Chapter 9
Excel 2016 In Practice – Ch. 7 Guided Project 7-3
Excel 2016 In Practice – Ch. 7 Independent Project 7-6
Excel 2016 In Practice – Ch. 8 Guided Project 8-3
Excel 2016 In Practice – Ch. 8 Independent Project 8-5
Excel 2016 Skills Approach – Ch. 9 Skill Review 9.2
Excel 2016 Skills Approach – Ch. 9 Skill Review 9.4
2016 Capstone Level 1 – improved grading of label width on a form
2016 In Practice – Project 3-7 – corrected start file name error
2016 Skills Approach – Challenge Yourself 5.3 – improved grading of PivotTable
201 6 In Practice – Project 4-4 – updated instruction text for step 11 to include worksheet name
2016 In Practice – Project 3-7 – Updated to match Microsoft changes to color sets for charts
2016 In Practice – Project 4-3 – Updated to match Microsoft changes to color sets for charts
2013 In Practice – Project 2-5 – updated note in instruction file regarding named ranges
2013 In Practice – Project 2-5 – Replaced grading feedback for step 8a with a different formula
2013 In Practice – Project 8-4 – Updated to match Microsoft changes to color sets for charts
2013 Skills Approach – Challenge Yourself 4.3 – Updated instruction 15 concerning width of a column
2016 In Practice – Project 1-2 – updated instructions for Mac version for steps 6c, 11b and 12c
2016 In Practice – Project 1-5 – updated instruction text regarding inserting new slide
2016 In Practice – Project 2-3 – updated instructions for Mac version for steps 5c, 6c, 9c and 9d
2016 In Practice – Project 3-1 – added note to instruction regarding selecting text box versus text
2016 In Practice – Project 5-6a – added note to instructions for Mac version clarifying import
2016 Skills Approach – Ch. 5 Fix it 5.6 – removed grading for page break on step 9
2013 GA State Standards – Work It Out 4A-E1 – improved grading tabs and text after line breaks
Integrated Projects
2016 Integrated Applications – Project 2 Word, Access, Excel – updated instruction for step 11k
#uncategorized
Between approximately 6:30 P.M. Sep 29th and 4:30 P.M. EDT October 3rd, students may have had difficulty loading simulations for Microsoft Office 2013 content within SIMnet. This includes Let Me Try simulations and SIMpaths. This issue has been resolved and all access to simulations has been restored.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group.
Customer Experience Group (CXG) Hours of Operation:
Sun: 11am – 1am
Mon-Thurs: 7am – 3am
Fri: 7am – 8pm
Sat: 9am – 7pm
(All times Central)
By Phone, you can reach us toll-free at800-331-5094(US Only)
#announcements #instructors #new-features #tips-tricks
Use the Course Manager to View Your Student’s Licenses
The beginning of the semester a hectic time for SIMnet instructors. This is especially true when a new version of Microsoft Office has been released. With the release of the SIMnet Microsoft Office 2016 product, there are more options for instructors and students than ever – and more opportunity for a student to end up with the wrong materials to start class.
In response, we’ve made it easier than ever to ensure that your students have access to all of the content you have assigned for a particular class. Directly in the Course Manager you can view an individual student or browse an entire class to determine of you have any students who are missing the licenses they need.
When you view the students in your class, or search an individual student, you will be able to see the student’s ID, Last Name, and First Name as before, and now, in addition, you will be able to determine if they are missing any licenses through the Missing Licenses column.
If the student is missing any licenses, they will display a link in the Missing Licenses column that says Details.
Clicking on that link will display the following information. First, you will be able to determine the Licenses that the student has purchased. Then you will be able to determine all of the books currently available to the student in the Student Library.
Finally, the Missing License Modules (based on class assignments) will display any modules that the student requires to complete all of their class assignments.
Reviewing this information at the beginning of the semester can keep your students from missing critical deadlines down the road because they cannot access advanced content or have the wrong books entirely.
You can access this information for your entire class by clicking on the Manage link in the Classes section of the Course Manager. Select the desired class and click the Actions drop-down menu. Select Edit/Assign and then the Students tab. On the left, look at the Assigned Students section and determine if any students are missing licenses. If there are no links, your students are ready to learn!
You can also search individual students. Select the Students link in the Users section. Search for the desired student and select Snapshot from the Actions menu. Click on the Licenses tab to view the student’s information.
#instructors #tips-tricks
SIMnet Administrators …
Did you know you can manage the SIMnet content that appears in your account?
In the Course Manager, go to Settings, click Products, and then add or remove products (SIMnet for Office 2013, SIMnet for Office 2016, etc.) as needed.
To control the eCommerce options available to your students, go to Settings, click eCommerce and then add or remove products as appropriate. The products available for eCommerce are controlled by the Products settings.
To manage the textbook filters available to instructors when creating lessons and exams, go to Settings, click Textbooks, and then add or remove textbooks as needed. If you use campuses, be sure to select the correct campus from the drop-down list at the top of the page.
#instructors #release-notes
The Library view for students has been updated to show each book in your library more clearly and efficiently.
Each book also includes search directly from the library view, without navigating inside of the book itself.
Word 2016 Capstone – Level 1 Formatting a Document
Word 2016 Capstone – Level 2 Writing a Research Paper
Word 2016 Capstone – Level 3 Writing a Research Paper
Excel 2016 Capstone Project Level 3 Working with Sales Data
Excel 2016 Capstone Project Level 3 Working with Sales Data with VLOOKUP
PowerPoint 2016 Capstone – Level 3 Creating a Company’s Presentation
Access 2016 Capstone – Level 3 Working with a Sales Database
Improved grading of table field properties to include column width; field caption; field description; use of AutoFit on column; order of fields in a table; format of a field; input mask applied; and text alignment
Improved grading for table data with variance and exact match
Improved grading of controls and formatting in headers and footers in reports
Improved grading of grouping and sorting in reports
Improved grading of form control widths
Determine table properties and values
Determine if a record source for a form has the correct table
Compare lookup field properties for a value list lookup field (type your own values)
Compare lookup field properties for a lookup from a table field (get values from a table)
Determine if a report has a Stepped, Block or Outline group layout.
Determine if the correct properties have been applied to group total controls.
Compare a query’s fields order.
Improved grading for sheet names
Improved grading for cell values
Improved grading of multiple chart types in a sheet
Improved grading of cell number formatting
Improved grading of chart elements
Determine if column is sized using AutoFit
Determine data label position in a chart
Improved grading of Animations
Improved grading of bullets and number formatting
#instructors #new-content #release-notes
Newly released Advanced level content includes:
A Skills Approach Word Chapter 7
In Practice Excel Chapter 6
In Practice Excel Chapter7
All currently released Advanced level chapters are:
A Skills Approach Word Chapter6
A Skills Approach Word Chapter7
In Practice Word Chapter5
In Practice Excel Chapter5
In Practice Excel Chapter6
In Practice Excel Chapter7
NEW Integrated Application Projects
Integrated Application Projects combine skills from multiple Microsoft Office Applications. For example, import data from an Access query into an Excel file, then generate a chart from the data in Word
Integrated Application Projects:
Office 2016 Integrated Applications – Project 1 PowerPoint, Word, Access, Excel
Office 2016 Integrated Applications – Project 2 Word, Access, Excel
Office 2016 Integrated Applications – Project 3 PowerPoint, Word, Excel (Mac Supported)
NEW Projects
Excel 2016 In Practice – Independent Project 6-5
Excel 2016 In Practice – Independent Project 6-6
#announcements #instructors
Between approximately 3:00 P.M. and 5:00 P.M. EDT students may have been unable to load Lesson assignments within SIMnet. This issue has been resolved and all access to Lesson assignments has been restored.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group.
Customer Experience Group (CXG) Hours of Operation:
Sun: 11am – 1am
Mon-Thurs: 7am – 3am
Fri: 7am – 8pm
Sat: 9am – 7pm
(All times Central)
By Phone:
You can reach us toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only)
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable Tuesday, July 26th, 2015 from 3:00AM – 5:00AM Central. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
SIMnet will be unavailable Sunday, August 14th, 2015 from 4:00AM – 6:00AM Central. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Sincerely,
McGraw-Hill Product Team
#announcements #instructors #new-features
The left-hand navigation of the Course Manager has been changed in two ways. First, theClassessub-heading, formerly underUsershas been movedto its own heading to better house the newOrganizerfeature. Second, theLearningsub-heading has been split to displayLessonsandSIMbooks.
The Classes section has the Manage sub-heading which contains all of the previous Classes options: Search, Create, Import, and Archive. In addition to these options there is the new Class Organizer feature.
The Class Organizer feature allows you to manage the way your students see class materials. Many instructors elect to organize their course around dates – like midterms or breaks – or around modules – like Word or Access. The Class Organizer allows you to manage your class by creating groups of similar materials. Once you have grouped desired materials together you can control how that group is presented to your students.
For example, one option would be to group the Office level books by module. If all of the Word assignments – SIMbooks, Lessons, Exams, SIMpaths, and Projects – are grouped together, you can control how that group is displayed all at once. You can elect to hide the entire group from students if they should be focusing elsewhere, or show students assignments that aren’t yet available so that they can plan their study calendar.
The Class Organizer also allows you to make changes to each assignment individually, changing the Scheduling, Gradebook Options and Restrictions as you would from the individual content sub-headings all on one screen!
After you have used the Create sub-heading to add your assignments to a new class, navigate to the Organize sub-heading under Classes to access the Class Organizer. Once you have navigated to the Class Organizer, you will see a screen like the following. This class has been created as an example class named SIMnet Blog Class:
On the left you will see all of the assignments for the class, and, shortly, all the groups for the class. On the right, you will see a Settings menu. This menu changes based on what you have selected on the left. Currently, the entire SIMnet Blog Class has been selected. You can make changes to the group description, sorting, and whether or not students will be able to see unavailable assignments. At this point, students will see the same view that they do today – all of the available assignments based on start and end date on their Assignments page.
Now it’s time to create a group! Click the Create Group button in the lower right corner of the Groups box. The following dialog opens:
Type the name of the desired group and click Save. In this case, the new group is named Word Module. It’s highlighted on the left. The group title and settings are visible on the right.
Now you can populate the group. Simply click and drag all of the desired items into the group.
Once that’s completed, you’ll note that all of the assignments under the Word Module have been indented to show that they are under the Word Module group.
Let’s take a look at what students are seeing at this point. We’ve created a single group and added assignments to that group.
We can see the new type of tile: the gray Group tile, displaying the title Word Module and all of the other tiles with assignments that are not part of a group. If you click on the group, you can see what’s in it:
Also of note in this view is the bread crumb bar atop the tiles, in yellow. You can see that the student has navigated from the class home to the Word Module group. This can be useful if the instructor has created a number of nested groups. For example, we could create a group for all of the SIMbook assignments in the Word Module.
Back on the instructor side, if we make changes to the Word Module group settings, we can see what they do to the student view. First, let’s add a group description to the Word Module. An example of a group description is below. Click Save when you are finished making changes.
On the student side, that change occurs under the breadcrumbs for the group:
The Settings area for groups also includes options to sort assignments. You can sort by Title, Start Date, Due Date, End Date, and Custom. Each of these sort options changes the way that assignments are sorted on the left and the way that those assignments are sorted in the student’s view. If you elect one of the date-based options on the sort, the date will show on the left in front of each assignment (but won’t show on the student’s view).
You can also change Student Visibility settings for entire groups. You can elect to Show Unavailable Assignments which displays assignments that have not met their start date, are past their end date, or have used up all of their attempts. This option only displays the assignment but does not allow the student to take the assignment when these requirements have not been met. You can also toggle the Show Group option which you can use to hide groups and their assignments entirely. If you elect to hide a group, the group and all assignments on the left become gray.
The final product is to create a group for all of the available assignments. Here it has been done by module:
Now the student will see the module groupings instead of the entire list of assignments for the class:
If we hide the other modules that the students aren’t focusing on yet, we can see them grayed out on the left side of the Class Organizerscreen.
And those same groups will be removed from the student’s view.
The Class Organizer feature allows instructors to organize the assignments in their class all from one screen. This can be in the form of grouping similar assignments by type, content, or date (or other!) or by making changes to the assignments within any group.
This change will be particularly important in those inevitable moments when a class schedule changes. Instructors will easily be able to see that all of the assignments in a module have been effectively changed and grouped and that all subsequent assignments have been updated as well.
The Class Organizer and the changes to the navigation on the left side of the Course Manager will be available in the next week or two.
#instructors #new-features #tips-tricks
SIMnet now hosts Resource files for 2016 content directly in the Library.
Instructors have access to Instructor-only files, like the Instructor Manual, as well as the student files, like project data files. To access resource files for 2016 content, instructors should view thelibraryby clicking on the SIMstudent link onthe top bar of the Course Manager and select the Library link.
In the library, select the desired book. Book level resources, like the Capstone Projects are available from the Resources tab next to the book title.
Chapter level resources, such as the chapterInstructor Manualor InstructorPowerPointpresentations are available by chapter. To access them, select the 2016 book, such asIn Practice – Office 2016 then select the desired application, such asWord from the drop-down list then select the desired chapter. Once you have selected the desired chapter, click theResources tab.
This update applies to 2016 content. Previous OLC files are still available through the previous methods. If a book does not have OLC files available through SIMnet the Resources tab will not be visible.
#announcements #instructors
SIMnet is announcing the release of its Microsoft Office 2016 content this week!
This release includes Office-level content for all four applications: All Office-level SIMbook chapters for both the A Skills Approach and In Practice book series, brand new projects, and new simulations built with HTML5 and JavaScript.
Additional content to round out the SIMnet Office-level offerings will be released on a weekly basis throughout the summer. Instructors can begin creating their classes immediately after the release of 2016 content. Any Show Me, Guide Me, or Let Me Try content marked Coming Soon will automatically slot right in to created courses as soon as it is released.
Once the content has been released, administrators can add the new textbook to their campus by logging in to the SIMnet Course Manager and clicking on the Settings link at the bottom of the left-hand menu. Then click Productsfrom the Settings menu. On the left menu select SIMnet for Office 2016 and click Add.Then click on the Textbooks option in the Settings menu. Select the series of your choice in the left menu and click the Add button to add the textbook to your campus.
Stay tuned to the SIMnet blog for more information in the coming days including a complete rundown of the new 2016 content and a look at our brand-new 2016 simulation technology.
#uncategorized
TechRepublic has gone and created what basically amounts to a “Microsoft Office 365 For Dummies.” It’s an article that goes deep into what the service is, what it costs, what apps it gets you access to, and a whole lot more. If you have any lingering questions about the somewhat unintuitive service, it’s likely that this article has the answers.
From TechRepublic:
**What is it?**Microsoft Office 365 provides users with the basic productivity applications necessary to get work done in the modern enterprise. It includes applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, and OneDrive, just to name a few.
**Why does it matter?**As the standard for productivity suites, competing products are generally measured against applications from the Office 365 suite.
**Who does it affect?**In the modern mobile-centric enterprise, Office 365 provides the tools used to get work done. This makes Office 365 important to just about every working individual.
**When is it available?**The latest version of Microsoft Office 365 is available right now. The current subscription includes Office 2016 applications.
**How do you get it?**Enterprises can purchase a subscription to Office 365 via the Microsoft website. Subscriptions range from $8/user/month to $35/user/month.
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable Sunday, June 12th, 2016 from 4:00AM – 2:00PM Eastern. We are performing database upgrades. This maintenance is part of our continuous effort to improve performance, reliability, and security.
Note: The maintenance “rain date” will be Saturday, June 18th 2016 if unforeseen issues arise.
Sincerely,
McGraw-Hill Product Team
#announcements #instructors #new-content #release-notes
SIMnet is pleased to announce that Microsoft Office 2016 Office-level content has been released! New lessons, simulated exams, SIMbook chapters, and Projects are available today. The new content is for SIMnet Core Content, theA Skills Approachbook series and theIn Practicebook series. Take a look below to see all of the content out now!
This release includes lessons (including Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try exercises) and simulated exams (both assessment and practice scenarios) unless otherwise noted:
Overview – Chapter 1 – Essential Skills for Office 2016
Word – Chapter 1 – Getting Started with Word 2016
Word – Chapter 2 – Formatting Text and Paragraphs
Word – Chapter 3 – Formatting Documents
Word – Chapter 4 – Working with Pictures, Tables, and Charts
Word – Chapter 5 – Working with Reports, References, and Mailings
Excel – Chapter 1 – Getting Started with Excel 2016
Excel – Chapter 2 – Formatting Cells
Excel – Chapter 3 – Using Formulas and Functions
Excel – Chapter 4 – Formatting Worksheets and Managing the Workbook
Excel – Chapter 5 – Adding Charts and Analyzing Data
Access – Chapter 1 – Getting Started with Access 2016
Access – Chapter 2 – Working with Tables
Access – Chapter 3 – Working with Forms and Reports
Access – Chapter 4 – Using Queries and Organizing Information
PowerPoint – Chapter 1 – Getting Started with PowerPoint 2016
PowerPoint – Chapter 2 – Adding Content to Slides
PowerPoint – Chapter 3 – Formatting Presentations
PowerPoint – Chapter 4 – Managing and Delivering Presentations
Windows 10: An Overview (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
File Management Basics (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Using OneDrive (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
This release includes the SIMbook chapters (with Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try exercises), Projects, and “By Textbook” option for creating custom lessons and simulated exams (both assessment and practice scenarios) unless otherwise noted:
Overview – Chapter 1 – Essential Skills for Office 2016
Word – Chapter 1 – Getting Started with Word 2016
Word – Chapter 2 – Formatting Text and Paragraphs
Word – Chapter 3 – Formatting Documents
Word – Chapter 4 – Working with Pictures, Tables, and Charts
Word – Chapter 5 – Working with Reports, References, and Mailings
Excel – Chapter 1 – Getting Started with Excel 2016
Excel – Chapter 2 – Formatting Cells
Excel – Chapter 3 – Using Formulas and Functions
Excel – Chapter 4 – Formatting Worksheets and Managing the Workbook
Excel – Chapter 5 – Adding Charts and Analyzing Data
Access – Chapter 1 – Getting Started with Access 2016
Access – Chapter 2 – Working with Tables
Access – Chapter 3 – Working with Forms and Reports
Access – Chapter 4 – Using Queries and Organizing Information
PowerPoint – Chapter 1 – Getting Started with PowerPoint 2016
PowerPoint – Chapter 2 – Adding Content to Slides
PowerPoint – Chapter 3 – Formatting Presentations
PowerPoint – Chapter 4 – Managing and Delivering Presentations
Windows 10: An Overview (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
File Management Basics (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Using OneDrive (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
This release includes the SIMbook chapters (with Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try exercises), Projects, and “By Textbook” option for creating custom lessons and simulated exams (both assessment and practice scenarios) unless otherwise noted:
Intro Chapter: Windows 10, Office 2016, and File Management (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Word – Chapter 1 – Creating and Editing Documents
Word – Chapter 2 – Formatting and Customizing Documents (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Word – Chapter 3 – Collaborating with Others and Working with Reports (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Word – Chapter 4 – Using Tables, Columns, and Graphics (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Excel – Chapter 1 – Creating and Editing Workbooks (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Excel – Chapter 2 – Working with Formulas and Functions (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Excel – Chapter 3 – Creating and Editing Charts (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Excel – Chapter 4 – Formatting, Organizing, and Getting Data (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Access – Chapter 1 – Creating a Database and Tables (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Access – Chapter 2 – Using Design View, Data Validation, and Relationships (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities coming soon)
Access – Chapter 3 – Creating and Using Queries (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities and Projects coming soon)
Access – Chapter 4 – Creating and Using Forms and Reports (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities and Projects coming soon)
PowerPoint – Chapter 1 – Creating and Editing Presentations (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities and Projects coming soon)
PowerPoint – Chapter 2 – Illustrating with Pictures and Information Graphics (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities and Projects coming soon)
PowerPoint – Chapter 3 – Preparing for Delivery and Using a Slide Presentation (Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactivities and Projects coming soon)
To access SIMnet 2016 content at your school, your administrator needs to add the new textbook to your campus. Log in to the SIMnet Course Manager and clicking on the Settingslink at the bottom of the left-hand menu. Then click Products and from the Settingsmenu. On the left menu select SIMnet for Office 2016 and click Add, Then click on the Textbooks option in the Settings menu. Select the series of your choice in the left menu and click the Addbutton to add the textbook to your campus.
#instructors #release-notes
In Practice – Independent Project 6-5 (Mac Supported) – Added alternate acceptable answers for the nested IF function.
In Practice – Independent Project 7-5 – Improved grading to ignore blank spaces after the text in the Data Validation function.
O’Leary – Lab 1-2 Promoting Celebrate Bikes Sunday – Improved grading for deleting text.
#announcements #instructors
Students are beginning to come to class with Microsoft Office 2016 installed on their Macs and PCs. SIMnet is currently hard at work creating new educational content for Microsoft Office 2016. The good news: right now, students with the newest version of Office can work seamlessly with SIMnet for Office 2013.
If your students are unsure whether or not they are using Office 2016, the Best Practices document, available in SIMnet Instant Help and at the beginning of each project, outlines the best way to tell which software they are using.
Every 2013 project will work with Office 2016 on PC. A limited number of projects, like Word 2013 In Practice Guided Project 1-2 or Word 2013 A Skills Approach Challenge Yourself 7.3 have extra instructions where menu names have changed or small changes like theme names require a different selection. If a student with Office 2016 follows these notes they can get every project 100% correct.
All SIMnet for Office 2013 Mac Projects are fully compatible with Microsoft Office 2013 and 2016 Mac versions. Mac projects have been released through blogs and release notes previously. Below is the comprehensive list of Mac supported projects, in one place, for your convenience.
Excel
Fix It 1.6 (Mac Supported)
Challenge Yourself 2.3 (Mac Supported)
Fix It 3.6 (Mac Supported)
Challenge Yourself 4.4 (Mac Supported)
Skill Review 5.2 (Mac Supported)
Skill Review 6.1 (Mac Supported)
Challenge Yourself 7.4 (Mac Supported)
Challenge Yourself 8.4 (Mac Supported)
Challenge Yourself 9.4 (Mac Supported)
Skill Review 10.2 (Mac Supported)
PowerPoint
Challenge Yourself 1.4 (Mac Supported)
Fix It 2.6 (Mac Supported)
Fix It 3.6 (Mac Supported)
Fix It 4.6 (Mac Supported)
Challenge Yourself 5.4 (Mac Supported)
Challenge Yourself 6.3 (Mac Supported)
Skill Review 7.1 (Mac Supported)
Word
Skill Review 1.1 (Mac Supported)
Fix It 2.6 (Mac Supported)
Challenge Yourself 3.4 (Mac Supported)
Fix It 4.6 (Mac Supported)
Fix it 5.6 (Mac Supported)
Skill Review 6.2 (Mac Supported)
Challenge Yourself 7.3 (Mac Supported)
Skill Review 8.1 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Skill Review 9.1 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Excel
Independent Project 1-5 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 2-4 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 3-4 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 4-5 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 5-4 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 6-5 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 7-4 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 8-4 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 9-6 (Mac Supported)
PowerPoint
Independent Project 1-6 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 2-5 (Mac Supported)
Guided Project 3-1 Part A (Mac Supported)
Guided Project 3-1 Part B (Mac Supported)
Guided Project 4-2 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 5-5 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 6-4 (Mac Supported)
Word
Independent Project 1-6 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 2-6 (Mac Supported)
Improve It Project 3-7 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 4-5 (Mac Supported)
Guided Project 6-1 (Mac Supported)
Guided Project 7-3 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 8-4 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 9-4 (Mac Supported)
Independent Project 10-6 (Mac Supported)
Excel
Level 1 – Working with Sales Data (Mac Supported)
Level 2 – Working with Sales Data (Mac Supported)
PowerPoint
Level 1 – Creating a Company’s Presentation (Mac Supported)
Level 2 – Creating a Company’s Presentation (Mac Supported)
Level 3 – Creating a Company’s Presentation (Mac Supported)
Word
Level 1 – Formatting a Document (Mac Supported)
Level 2 – Formatting a Document (Mac Supported)
Level 3 – Formatting a Document (Mac Supported)
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable Sunday, December 27th, 2015 from 4:00AM – 6:00AM Central. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Sincerely,
McGraw-Hill Product Team
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will no longer support Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer 10, Safari 6, or Safari 7.SIMnet requires using Chrome version 47 or newer; Firefox version 46 or newer; Internet Explorer 11 or newer; or Safari version 8.0 or newer. For the best browsing experience, SIMnet recommends using Google’s Chrome browser.
The SIMnet team will be evaluating support for Microsoft Edge browser in July, 2016.
To get the latest version of Google Chrome go to https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html and click the blue Download Chrome button.
To get the latest version of Firefox, go to https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ and click the green Free Download button.
In January of 2016, Microsoft announced that they willno longer be supporting versions of Internet Explorer 9 and 10. This means that Microsoft will no longer fix security issues with the browsers. SIMnet is committed to providing its users with a secure learning environment. Since IE9 and IE10 no longer provide a secure learning environment the decision was made to discontinue support for these browsers.
Also, in order to support a consistent and reliable test taking experience using advanced features of HTML5 it’s important to be using a secure, modern browser.
SIMnet will no longer support Internet Explorer 9 or 10 or Safari 6 or 7 starting May 2016.
#announcements #instructors
There was an unexpected issue with the native Access Project assignments between 8:50am-11:15am Central time on 11/30/2015. During that time, students would have experienced issues with downloading the Start File or submitting the completed Access Project for grading. As of 11:15am Central time, the issue was resolved.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group.
Customer Experience Group (CXG) Hours of Operation: Sun: 11am – 1am Mon-Thurs: 7am – 3am Fri: 7am – 8pm Sat: 9am – 7pm (All times Central)
By Phone: You can reach us toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only).
#instructors #new-content #new-features #release-notes
Testbank exams now have two new updated settings.The first option now allows students to Save and Exit their exam without ending the exam. The second option allows instructors to display the correct answer in the results.
Support for Mac 2016 has been added for the following PowerPoint projects:
Capstone – Level 1 – Creating a Company’s Presentation Mac Supported 2016
Capstone – Level 2 – Creating a Company’s Presentation Mac Supported 2016
Capstone – Level 3 – Creating a Company’s Presentation Mac Supported 2016
In Practice – Guided Project 3-1 Part A (Mac 2016 Supported)
In Practice – Guided Project 3-1 Part B (Mac 2016 Supported)
In Practice – Guided Project 4-2 (Mac 2016 Supported)
In Practice – Independent Project 5-5 (Mac 2016 Supported)
In Practice – Independent Project 6-4 (Mac 2016 Supported)
2013 Skills Approach – Fix It 3.6 – Updated project summary
2013 Capstone – Level 2 Working with Sales Data – Updated instruction text for step 13c.
2013 In Practice – Independent Project 1-6 – Feedback now clarifyies font theme versus worksheet theme.
The following Excel projects were updated with improved grading of chart titles:
2013 GA State Standards – Ch. 3 Work It Out 3B-E1
2013 Project Learn – Ch. 3 Work It Out 3B-E1
O’Leary 2013 – Lab 1-3 Work Mileage Analysis
O’Leary 2013 – Lab 1-2 Animal Rescue Foundation Housing Cost Analysis
#instructors #new-features #release-notes
Instructors now have the option to make any shared custom rubric the default rubric for a course, even if that custom rubric is owned by someone else. However, the custom rubric is still controlled by the owner. If you use a custom rubric and you are not the owner you will not be able to edit it. Here is how to set up and share a custom rubric.
We’ve made the following usability improvements and fixes to the Course Manager:
Improved the file upload process for Resource files and Supplemental Resources. Validation rules such file size less than 10MB and file name length less than 120 characters now occur prior to waiting for the file to be uploaded to the server.
Improved the Academic Integrity Violation Report – If a student copies a PowerPoint slide from another student’s file, the Academic Integrity Violation Report now displays a message that the slide was copied rather than listing the elements on the slide.
Fixed a problem with the count of available questions not updating correctly when questions were added or removed from an Exam, SimPath, or Test Bank.
Improved error handling and feedback message when a report has been deleted.
Skills Approach – Ch. 2 Fix It 2.6 – updated with improved grading of borders
Skills Approach – Ch. 2 Skill Review 2.1 – updated with improved grading of conditional formatting
Project Learn Ch 3 Work It Out 3B-E1 – Corrected the label for a figure in the instruction file.
In Practice – Ch 3 Guided Project 3-3 – Added the following note to the instruction file: IMPORTANT: Be sure to select the Chart Area when completing the following steps, and not the smaller Plot Area.
In Practice – Ch 6 Independent Project 6-4 – Additional acceptable formulas for steps 9.b and 10.c.
Improved grading of number formats in the following projects:
Capstone – Level 1 Working with Sales Data (Mac Supported)
Capstone – Level 2 Working with Sales Data (Mac Supported)
Improved grading of number formats and updated instructions clarifying step 15 in the following projects:
Capstone – Level 3 Working with Sales Data (Mac Supported)
Capstone – Level 3 Working with Sales Data Alternate with VLOOKUP (Mac Supported)
Improved grading of number formats and updated instructions clarifying steps 3 and 5 in these projects:
GA State Standards – Ch. 1 Work It Out 1B-E1
Project Learn – Ch. 1 Work It Out 1B-E1
Improved grading of absolute references in the following projects:
Skills Approach – Ch. 1 Skill Review 1.1
Skills Approach – Ch. 1 Challenge Yourself 1.3
When searching for text, applied a standard variance amount of 10% (i.e. 1 in 10 characters may be incorrect).
Updated the following projects with improved grading of chart data:
In Practice – Ch. 2 Guided Project 2-3
GA State Standards – Ch. 3 Work It Out 3A-E3
Capstone – Level 2 Creating a Company’s Presentation (Mac Supported)
Capstone – Level 3 Creating a Company’s Presentation (Mac Supported)
Improved grading for numbered lists styles.
Capstone – Level 2 Creating a Company’s Presentation (Mac Supported)
Capstone – Level 3 Creating a Company’s Presentation (Mac Supported)
Updated the following projects with improved grading of hyperlinks:
Skills Approach – Ch. 3 Challenge Yourself 3.4 (Mac Supported)
In Practice – Ch. 2 Independent Project 2-6 (Mac Supported)
In Practice – Ch. 3 Independent Project 3-4
In Practice – Ch. 3 Improve It Project 3-7 (Mac Supported)
Added a note regarding spell check to the following project instructions:
Capstone – Level 1 Formatting a Document (Mac Supported)
Capstone – Level 2 Formatting a Document (Mac Supported)
Capstone – Level 3 Formatting a Document (Mac Supported)
Improved grading of watermarks to check for layout options such as horizontal or diagonal.
O’Leary – Lab 1-1 Asking For Input Flyer
Skills Approach – Ch. 3 Challenge Yourself 3.4 (Mac Supported)
Skills Approach – Ch. 3 Fix It 3.6
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable Saturday, November 14th, 2015 for up to 15-minutes between 12:00AM – 7:00AM Central. We are performing a high priority patch related to a denial of service vulnerability on the firewall. This maintenance is part of our continuous effort to improve security.
Sincerely,
McGraw-Hill Product Team
#instructors #new-content #release-notes
Capstone – Level 3 Working With Sales Data Alternate with VLOOKUP (Mac Supported)
Support for Mac 2016 has been added for the following projects:
Excel 2013
Capstone Level 1 – Working with Sales Data (Mac Supported)
Capstone Level 2 – Working with Sales Data (Mac Supported)
In Practice – Independent Project 7-4 (Mac Supported)
Skills Approach – Challenge Yourself 9.4 (Mac Supported)
Skills Approach – Skill Review 10.2 (Mac Supported)
Word 2013
Capstone – Level 1 Formatting a Document (Mac Supported)
Capstone – Level 2 Formatting a Document (Mac Supported)
Capstone – Level 3 Formatting a Document (Mac Supported)
PowerPoint 2013
In Practice – Independent Project 1-6 (Mac Supported)
In Practice – Independent Project 2-5 (Mac Supported)
Skills Approach – Challenge Yourself 1.4 (Mac Supported)
Skills Approach – Fix It 2.6 (Mac Supported)
Skills Approach – Fix It 3.6 (Mac Supported)
Skills Approach – Fix It 4.6 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Skills Approach – Challenge Yourself 5.4 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Skills Approach – Challenge Yourself 6.3 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Skills Approach – Skill Review 7.1 (Mac 2016 Supported)
We improved the response time for getting Instruction PDF files, Solution PDF files, and Resource Files ready for download. Note that some browsers automatically open PDF files in a browser window. Edge, version 12 is one example. To download and save PDF files in Edge, right click while viewing the PDF file in the browser, select SAVE AS, navigate to a folder where you would like to save the file, and press Save.
Font properties and text alignmentgrading now checks for properties at the slide layout or slide master level.
O’Leary PowerPoint 2013 – Lab 2-3 Enhancing the ASU Presentation – Updated grading for finding and replacing text in a presentation
Formula grading to ignores extra parenthesis. If extra parenthesis do not alter the evaluation of the expression, the formula will now grade as correct. Order of operations, and nested formulas are taken into account.
Project Learn – Work It Out 2A-E2 – Improved solution images.
Project Learn –Work It Out 2B-E3 – Improved grading of chart categories and cell range values.
Project Learn – Work It Out 3B-E1 – Improved feedback for headers; Updated grading for chart cell references.
Project Learn – Work It Out 4B-E1 – Improved grading for sheet tab colors.
GA State Standards – Work It Out 2A-E2 – Improved solution images.
GA State Standards – Work It Out 2B-E3 – Improved grading of chart categories and cell range values.
GA State Standards – Work It Out 3B-E1 – Improved feedback for headers; Updated grading for chart cell references.
O’Leary – Lab 2-2 Airline Baggage Fees – Improved grading of chart categories and cell range values.
#instructors #new-features #students
For all Office 365 subscribers with the latest version of Excel installed and updated, the CONCATENATE function has been replaced by CONCAT.
To accommodate students with Office 365 subscriptions, all SIMnet for Office 2013 projects now accept the CONCAT function in all places where the CONCATENATE function is used.This change affects the following projects:
Excel 2013 Skills Approach – Ch 3 Skill Review 3.1
Excel 2013 Skills Approach – Ch 3 Fix It 3.6 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 In Practice – Ch 6 Independent Project 6-5 (Mac Supported)
The CONCATENATE function is still available in Excel 2016, but it has been moved to the Compatibility category (Formulas tab, Function Library group, More Functions button, Compatibility).
#instructors #new-content #release-notes
SIMnet has been rolling out the ability to detect if a student has copied from another student’s file and pasted into theirsthroughout the summer.This feature now available for all PowerPoint 2013projects.This is in addition to detecting if a student submits another student’s file for grading. Details about copied elements are available in the Academic Integrity Violation Report.
Support for Mac 2016 has been added for the following projects:
Excel 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 4-5 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 5-4 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 6-5 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 8-4 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 Skills Approach – Skill Review 6.1 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 Skills Approach – Challenge Yourself 7.4 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 Skills Approach – Challenge Yourself 8.4 (Mac Supported)
Word 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 4-5 (Mac Supported)
Word 2013 In Practice – Guided Project 6-1 (Mac Supported)
Word 2013 In Practice – Guided Project 7-3 (Mac Supported)
Word 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 8-4 (Mac Supported)
Index grading now includes the index style
Improved grading of sub-entries in a document
Feedback now correctly distinguishes between an endnote and a footnote
In Practice – Independent Project 2-4 (Mac Supported) – Updated grading requiring absolute references for steps 8, 9a, and 9b. No partial credit will be given for a correct result with a formula using a relative reference instead of an absolute reference.
Skills Approach – Skill Review 8.1 – updated grading for Advanced Filter
GA State Standards – Work It Out 1A-E2 – Updated grading for cell value including variance for spelling
Project Learn – Work It Out 1A-E2 – Updated grading for cell value including variance for spelling
GA State Standards – Work It Out 2A-E2 – Revised instruction text for step 7 clarifying steps for completion
ProjectLearn – Work It Out 2A-E2 – Revised instruction text for step 7 clarifying steps for completion
#instructors #new-content #new-features #release-notes
We have added a new chapter to the Computer Concepts module titled Introduction to Web Development! The chapter includes these skills:
Introduction to Web Development
Web Hosting
FTP
Creating a Web Site
Creating HTML Documents
Page Layout Elements
Working with Graphics and Media
Hyperlinks
Styles and CSS
Introduction to JavaScript
Using JavaScript Frameworks
Support for Mac 2016 has been added for the following projects:
Excel 2013 Skills Approach – Ch. 4 Challenge Yourself (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 Skills Approach – Ch. 5 Skill Review (Mac Supported)
Word 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 1-6 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Word 2013 In Practice – Improve It Project 3-7 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Word 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 8-4 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Word 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 9-4 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Word 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 10-6 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Word 2013 Skills Approach – Fix it 5.6 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Word 2013 Skills Approach – Skill Review 6.2 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Word 2013 Skills Approach – Challenge Yourself 7.3 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Word 2013 Skills Approach – Skill Review 8.1 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Word 2013 Skills Approach – Skill Review 9.1 (Mac 2016 Supported)
Grading of tables of contents can now handle all methods of inserting the table of contents. Checking the style of the table of contents has been improved.
Grading symbols such as registered trademark and copyright now accommodates the multiple ways that symbols are represented in the underlying files.
2013 In Practice – Independent Project 4-4 – Improved grading of pivot table elements and filters.
2013 In Practice – Independent Project 5-5 – Removed document formatting from the start file and added grading for step 9b.
2013 In Practice – Independent Project 7-5 – Added a check for the existence of a password when grading protect sheet options.
2013 In Practice – Independent Project 8-5 – Improved grading of chart style and pivot table.
2013 Skills Approach – Skill Review 4.1 – Added a note to the instructions regarding step 21.
O’Leary Word 2013 – Lab 3-1 Improving a Report – Fixed a problem when checking font size when font size was applied through a style and other font formatting was applied directly to the paragraph
SIMnet now has been rolling out the ability to detect if a student has copied elements of a document from another student’s file and pasted the elements into their own file . This is in addition to detecting if a student submits another students file for grading. Details about the copied elements is available in the Academic Integrity Violation Report. This feature now available for PowerPoint 2013 Skills projects and PowerPoint 2013 In Practice projects.
#instructors #students #tips-tricks
Whether you’re new to SIMnet or have been around for a while, take a moment to familiarize yourself with our new features. You can now create notes, highlights, and links directly in your SIMbook; navigate between SIMbooks without going back to the library; and directly search the contents of your SIMbook. All of these updates are aimed at making your experience smoother and more powerful. Check it out!
Users can now interact with SIMbooks directly, leaving notes, highlights, and even links to other important content. This will help students to reinforce content and apply that learning more effectively.
Tohighlightcontent, simply click and drag over the words you would like to highlight. That text will be highlighted blue. This highlight will remain in place between sessions, reminding students of the information that they felt was important.
To remove a highlight, simply click the highlight and select theTrash Can Icon.
There are two ways tocreate a Note. The first way is to highlight the desired text by clicking and dragging. Then click theNotepad Iconin the center of the dark blue popup. The note will be associated with the desired text, replacing the highlight. Text with a note appears as dark blue. To review the note, simply hover over the note text or click theNote Icon.
The second way is to click the grayNotepad Iconat the right side of each paragraph. Notes added in this manner are associated with the entire paragraph and are reached by clicking theNotepad Iconagain.
When you click theNotepad Icon, using either method, theAdd a Notebox appears. Type your desired note in the box and then pressEnteror clickAcceptto complete the note.
Once a note has been created, theNotepad Iconat the right of each paragraph fills in and a number to the right of the icon displays the number notes associated with that paragraph.
To view a note, click theNotepad Icon. TheNotepad Iconexpands to display all notes associated with that paragraph.
To Edit a note, left click thenote textor theNotepad Iconand then select thePencil Icon. When you have finished editing a note, clickAcceptor clickEnter.
To delete a note, left click thenote textor theNotepad Iconand then select theDelete Icon.
To create aLink, highlight the text you would like to become a link. Click theLink Iconon the right side of the dark blue popup. TheAdd a Linkwindow appears. Type the link that you would like to use or copy/paste the link into the text box. ClickAcceptor pressEnterto create the link.[note: in some browsers users may have to type http:// in order for the link to function]
Tofollow a link, left click the link and click theRight Arrow Icon. Toedit a link, click thePencil Icon. Todelete a linkclick theTrashcan Icon.
Note: All highlights, notes, and links are associated with individual paragraphs. This is to keep notes from being lost on the page and to keep the content that a paragraph-wide note is associated with clear. At times some paragraphs are broken into multiple selections because the paragraphs is too large or other formatting concerns.
Users can now switch books from within a SIMbook! Instead of exiting a book and going back to the Library users can now click on theBook Iconin the upper left corner of the App bar.
When users click on the icon they will be able to view their books in the newBookshelfview. Users can click on any book to view it, or hit theBackbutton to return to the original SIMbook.
Users can now search the text in SIMbooks to find that topic they are looking for instead of flipping through page after page to find the required information. To use theIn-Book Searchclick the magnifying glassSearch****Iconin the upper right corner of the App bar.
Clicking theSearch Iconcauses theSearch Barto appear. Type the desired text into theSearch Barand click theMagnifying Glassor pressEnterto initiate a search.
All of the results of a search will appear in a column on the right hand side of the SIMbook screen. The results are in order by chapter. Scroll through the results to find the required result and click on that result to be taken to that SIMbook page.
#instructors #students #tips-tricks
Did you know about SIMnet’s built in fraud detection? SIMnet projects have the technology to determine when one student passes off another’s work as their own! When a student downloads a project start file, that file includes the student’s name and data within the file make it unique. If 13th century English monarch and mother to two kings Cecily Neville took the SIMnet Excel 2013 Capstone Level 1 project, her start file would look like this:
Cecily could not share her file with King Edward IV so that he could pass it off as his own.
New for Fall 2015, SIMnet can now detect if elements within a file have been copied and pasted from other files. In the past, attempting to upload another student’s file would cause an academic integrity violation. In other words, trying to pass another student’s work off as your own would be caught as cheating. Now even sharing parts of a file will be caught as cheating. Details about Copied Elements is available in the Academic Integrity Violation Report. This feature now available for Word and Excel Projects.
#instructors #new-features #students
As the fall semester begins, we would like to familiarize you with the new projects start screen. After you’ve navigated to your project, you’ll see a screen that looks a whole lot like this:
It outlines the three major steps to successfully completing a project – downloading your files, saving your files back to SIMnet, and grading your file. Other than actually doing your project, that’s about it!
There are two basic ways you can go about completing step 1.
Under 1. Download Files you will see the link, open the File Download Wizard. Click this link to open the Download Wizard. The Download Wizard will automatically download your start file. This is the file that you will do your work on. Make sure you actually know where your browser sends your files! It’s typically to your Downloads folder. If the start file doesn’t download, click the click here link to download it.
If you’re using a Mac this will look a little bit different for projects that support Office for Mac 2011 and/or Office for Mac 2016 . The Download Wizard will detect if you have downloaded your file on a Mac, and offer you the option to selectOffice for Mac 2011 if you have Office for Mac 2011 on your computer. Select Office for Mac 2016 if you have Office for Mac 2016 installed on your computer. If you need help deciding which version of Office for Mac you have, just check the Determining your Mac for Office Version section at the bottom of this post!
On any machine, after you’ve downloaded your start file, click the Download Instruction File button to download the Instruction File, which tells you how to work on your start file. ALWAYS follow the directions that you download in the instruction file instead of following the instructions in the printed book.
Sometimes a project requires Resource Files. On projects that require you to insert an image, or import a file, the next step will be to click the Download Resource Bundle button. This will download a .zip file filled with important resource files. Check the Best Practices document to learn how to use .zip files.
Then download the Solution File, (if your instructor makes it available) and Best Practices documents if you’d like to use them. Click the Solution File button and the Best Practices button. We strongly recommend reading theBest Practices before doing your first project. After that you should be a pro!
If you don’t want those files, click the Skip button. If you’ve downloaded all the available files, that button turns to Next before you click it. Click Close and now you’re ready to open your files.
As you can see below, there are also a number of links besides the open the File Download Wizard. links in the 1. Download Files section. You can use these instead of the wizard if you prefer!
All you need to do is select the links for you to download the files you’ll need. Select the optional files that you’d like to view. The Solution File can always be helpful. The Best Practices file is a must read before you start your first project.
Select the correct instruction file for your machine. If you are working on a Windows computer, select Office for Windows. If you’re working on one of the many projects approved for Office for Mac, and you are using a Mac, select the link for you. If you have Office for Mac 2011 click the Office for Mac 2011 link. If you have Office for Mac 2016, click Office for Mac 2016. If you are using a Mac and need help determining which version of Office for Mac you’re using just scroll to the last section in this post!
Next, click the All office versions link in the Start File (required) section to download your start file.
Sometimes a project requires Resource Files. On projects that require you to insert an image, or import a file, the next step will be to click the All office versions link in the Resources (required) section. This will download a .zip file filled with important resource files. Check the Best Practices document to learn how to use .zip files.
Open your downloaded files. Follow the Instructions to edit your Start File. Use any Resources as instructed. Complete all instructions carefully!
Once you have finished your project, you need to upload & save it to SIMnet. Click the Upload my file button, select your file, and click Open. This will replace any file that was previously uploaded for this project. The Submit Uploaded File? wizard lets you grade your file immediately by clicking Yes, submit the file. You can also use the Upload & Save feature to save your work online, to retrieve later. Click No, I’m not ready. Once you’ve uploaded your file, download it again from the Current File section.
If you selected No, I’m not ready. in step 3, click the Grade my file button to submit your project for grading. After your project has been graded, look for the eye icon for results that are available. Click the Attempt link to view past results.
If you are using a Mac, some of the 2013 projects have been adapted for use with Office 2011 for Mac and Office 2016 for Mac. For Mac supported projects, follow the correct version of the project instructions for your version of Office for Mac. To check your version, open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. To see your version, choose the Word menu and click About Word; the Excel menu and click About Excel; or the PowerPoint menu and click About PowerPoint.
If the number after Version is less than 15, select Office for Mac 2011 when downloading instructions. If the number after Version is 15 or greater, select the instructions for Office for Mac 2016.
#help #instructors #new-content #new-features #students
As you you may have seen, Microsoft has released Office 2016 for Mac users. This is the first update to Office for Mac since 2011. Now you’ll have the latest upgrades to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (also Outlook and OneNote).
We’re excited about these new versions – they’re slick, smooth and powerful. So SIMnet has made sure that a number of our projects are compatible with Office 2016 for Mac. They’re ready for you to use today!
Here are the projects that are compatible with Office 2016 for Mac:
Excel 2013 Skills Approach – Fix It 1.6 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 Skills Approach – Challenge Yourself 2.3 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 Skills Approach – Fix It 3.6 (Mac Supported)
Word 2013 Skills Approach – Skill Review 1.1 (Mac Supported)
Word 2013 Skills Approach – Fix It 2.6 (Mac Supported)
Word 2013 Skills Approach – Challenge Yourself 3.4 (Mac Supported)
Word 2013 Skills Approach – Fix It 4.6 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 1-5 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 2-4 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 3-4 (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 9-6 (Mac Supported)
Word 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 2-6 (Mac Supported)
You can upgrade your own Mac Office with a 365 subscription.
To check your office version, open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. To see your version, choose the Word menu and click About Word; the Excel menu and click About Excel; or the PowerPoint menu and click About PowerPoint. If the number after the word Version is greater than or equal to 15, you have successfully installed Office 2016 for Mac. If the number after the word Version is less than 15, you are using Office 2011 for Mac.
#announcements #instructors #new-features
Students will see a new information window before they take a SIMnet Exam, SIMpath Exam, Test Bank Exam, or Timed Project assignment. The information on the screen includes the Student Name, Student ID, Assignment End Date, the Length of the Assignment and other assignment details as applicable. The details visible to the student and the information within those details vary by assignment type and instructor selection.
For example, if the instructor selects the Allow to Pause Exampreference when creating an exam, the notification for students will say, You may pause or exit this exam and continue at a later time. If the instructor deselects the Allow to Pause Exam preference, the exam notification will say, You must complete this exam attempt in one sitting. If you exit or leave it will automatically be submitted.
For example, if the assignment is organized by dates, the student will see a Complete By line with the End Date. If the assignment is not organized by dates, this line will be absent.
Students will need to check the box to confirm that they have read available student integrity details at their school before they can start their assignment.
Exam Information View
The available details that appear in the exam launcher depend upon the settings for the exam.
For more information on Exam Preferences https://help.simnetonline.com/manager/content/exams/simnet-exam-assignment-prefs
For more information on Timed Projects: https://help.simnetonline.com/manager/content/projects/project-assignment-prefs#2-assignment-preferences and SIMnet Community blog post
The options available to students during an exam have been updated for clarity.
The iExam Info button, or i button, displays the exam details, including the length of the exam, attempts at each question and whether the exam can be paused.
The Submitbutton ends the exam and submits the exam for grading. This button replaces the previous xbutton which had the same function but was not as clear for student users.
If the instructor has selected the Allow to Pause Exam option in the exam preferences, the Pause button will appear. Using this button stops any applicable timers and exits the exam. The exam can then be resumed at a later time by opening the assignment and clicking Take Exam. A paused exam is not submitted until the student submits the exam or the Due Date for the assignment is met.
New Exam Buttons
#announcements #instructors #new-content
SIMnet is releasing a suite of Microsoft Office Online compatible projects. These projects have been designed and tested using Microsoft Office Online, the free online version of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. These projects can be used by any subscriber to Office 2019/365 in their web browser.
Assigning an Office Online Project is the same as assigning any other project in SIMnet. However, the Office Online Projects are collected in a separate textbook. Navigate to Projects on the left navigation and select the A Skills Approach – Office Online 365/2019 – Manning Swinsonor In Practice – Office Online 365/2019 – Nordell, Graves, Stewart depending on which book series you are using or would like to assign to your students.
The following Skills Approach series projects have been adapted to Office Online Projects:
Challenge Yourself 1.3
Challenge Yourself 2.3
Challenge Yourself 3.4
Challenge Yourself 4.4
Challenge Yourself 5.3
The following In Practice series projects have been adapted to Office Online Projects:
Independent Project 1-4
Independent Project 2-6
Independent Project 3-6
Independent Project 4-4
Please review the specific features that are not available in Word Online and which steps have been removed accordingly in the Office Online Projects PDF above.
The following Skills Approach series projects have been adapted to Office Online Projects:
Challenge Yourself 1.3
Challenge Yourself 2.4
Challenge Yourself 3.3
Challenge Yourself 4.3
Challenge Yourself 5.3
The following In Practice series projects have been adapted to Office Online Projects:
Independent Project 1-6
Independent Project 2-5
Independent Project 3-4
Independent Project 4-5
Please review the specific features that are not available in Excel Online and which steps have been removed accordingly in the Office Online Projects PDF above.
PowerPoint projects are currently in development. They will be available in time for the Spring 2021 semester.
There is no Office Online version of Microsoft Access.
Note: The Office Online Projects use the same base project as the previously available projects that were designed for the fully installed version of Office for Windows and Mac but they are not the same projects. Online Office does not have the full suite of options available with the locally installed version. Therefore the Office Online Projects have fewer points and do not include all of the same steps. You will need to assign Office Online Projects separately. To view the exact changes involved in each project, view the .
#announcements #instructors #new-features #release-notes
SIMnet has improved your control over when your students can enroll for your courses and how and when students can access materials. When creating a class, you can elect to note the dates when the course becomes available and is no longer available. Instructors can then use those dates to restrict enrollment to the course and ensure that no students are viewing materials ahead of time.
Create a new class using the Create option in the Manage section of the left navigation of the Course Manager. Fill in the details of the course. Fill in the Class Available From text box with the desired start date and time for the course. This value defaults to allowing the class to be immediately available. If you select a Class Available From date and time that is in the future, selecting the Restrict enrollment before start date check box will keep students from being able to enroll in the course before the start date. You may alternatively elect to allow students to enroll in the course by leaving the Restrict enrollment before start date check box blank. If you allow students to enroll in the course, you may stop students from viewing assignments before your course begins by selecting the Restrict viewing of class assignments before the start date check box.
The Create Class view
Fill-in the To text box to select an end date and end time for the course. Once you select an end date and time for the course, two additional restriction options become available.
Select the Restrict enrollment after end datecheck box to keep students from inadvertently enrolling in a course that has ended.
Select the Restrict viewing of class assignments after the end date check box to keep students from re-accessing their course materials after the course has ended. Restricting the viewing of class materials will not keep students from being able to review their SIMbooks after the course is complete.
There is a new Report available to Instructors to analyze their course materials. This report works like the Exam Question Analysis Report but uses questions from SIMpath Exams.
To create a SIMpath Exam Question Analysis Report, select Reports and Create on the left navigation in the Course Manager. In the Type drop-down menu, select Simpath Exam Question Analysis.
The SIMpath Question Analysis Report view
When creating a new SIMpath Exam Question Analysis Report, you may filter the results by Class, Campus, SIMpath, and a Date Range. You can have results automatically grouped or grouped by sections when applicable.
The LMS re-linking process automatically pulls assignment details and dates from the LMS into SIMnet. We have added an option to push SIMnet assignment details and dates to the LMS. This feature is available on the class level cover sheet for Canvas and D2L and on the Integrate feature for all Learning Management Systems.
The Deep Integration Relink buttons
#announcements #instructors #new-features
SIMnet has a new and improved Course Manager Dashboard which makes it easier than ever to know if one of your students has been flagged for an Integrity Violation.
The improved Integrity Violation interface now allows you to receive email notifications regarding new integrity violations at the time(s) of your choice.
By default, you will begin to receive one email per week, at 8:00 AM Monday whenever there have been new integrity violations since your last email. You can edit your preferences to receive more emails, fewer emails, or no emails.
To turn off Integrity Violation Notification emails, click the Gear Icon in the upper right corner of the Integrity Violations section to view the Integrity Violation Preferences window. Click the I want to receive the Integrity Violation Notification email checkbox to deselect it.
To edit the time(s) you receive Integrity Violation Notification emails, click the Gear Icon in the upper right corner of the Integrity Violations section to view the Integrity Violation Preferences window. Click the I want to receive the Integrity Violation Notification email checkbox if it has been deselected. Click the desired days of the week you would like to receive an email when there has been a new violation submission. You may select as many days of the week as you would like. Finally, set the desired time you would like to receive the email. You may only select a single time to receive your email(s).
When there has been an integrity violation, you will receive the following email:
#announcements #instructors
Update, February 5th, 2020
SIMnet continues to keep our instructors and students prepared for the end of browser support for Flash Player in the coming months. As SIMnet Administrators and Instructors open SIMnet, they will see the following warning regarding Office 2007 – 2013 content:
Lessons, Exams, SIMpaths, and Projects that use 2007-2013 content will have a warning icon before their title. As of May 31st, 2020, no new class assignments will be allowed for Office 2007-2013 content. This content should be replaced with Office 2016 or Office 2019/365 content and then archived.
Schools or courses that are using 2007-2013 content may need to update their ISBN orders and should contact their local McGraw-Hill representative for help selecting a new ISBN.
Original Post, October 1st, 2019
SIMnet has come a long way since 2007 when the simulated content for Exams, Lessons, and SIMbooks was first built with Flash Player. It took several Office versions for HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to finally eclipse the capabilities of Flash when we rebuilt the simulated content with HTML5 for Office 2016.
SIMnet 2007 Lesson
In 2017, Adobe announced that the official end-of-life for Flash Player will be in late 2020. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla have all released similar timelines to no longer support Flash Player in their browsers as well.
As Flash Player nears its end-of-life, so does SIMnet for Office 2007, 2010, and 2013. All SIMnet for Office 2007-2013 textbooks and assignments will no longer be available after August 5th, 2020.
If your school or class is using content from any of these SIMnet versions, now is the time to begin planning your move to SIMnet for Office 365/2019. The latest SIMnet version has never been more SIMple, responsive, or accessible than it is today.
Here are the key dates as we prepare to sunset SIMnet 2007-2013:
January 1st, 2020: SIMnet for Office 2007-2013 will no longer appear in the Available Products section for Admin Settings. If these products are already enabled, they will remain enabled until August 1st, 2020
May 31st, 2020: No new class assignments will be allowed for Office 2007-2013 content.
August 5th, 2020: Office 2007-2013 products will be disabled, and all class and student assignments will be removed. At this point, no students or instructor will be able to assign or take any content related to a sunset version.
Sincerely,
McGraw-Hill Product Team
#instructors #new-features
Instructors can now assign Projects that must be completed in a set time. Once the student begins an attempt of their assigned project, a countdown timer will begin. The student must submit that assignment before the timer has run down. This feature is available with all 2016 and 2019/365 projects.
To assign a Timed Project, go to Projects on the Left navigation, select the desired project, and assign it to a class or student. In the Assignment Preferences section of the Project Assignment Details pane, select the Enable Timer check box.
Once the Enable Timer check box has been selected, two new options will appear. The Minutestext box and the Attempt drop-down menu. Set the number of minutes you would like the assignment to last in the Minutes text box. The number of minutes must be a whole number.
In the Attempt drop-down menu there are two options, Each Attempt and All Attempts. Selecting All Attempts creates a single timer that begins to run at the start of the first project attempt and continues to run until all attempts have been used, or the time has run out. If the student uses all of the time in any one attempt, they will not have time available for subsequent attempts. The timer in All Attemptsassignments continues to run from the beginning of the first attempt until there is no time remaining or no attempts remaining. The timer will continue to run even if the student is between attempts or is not logged in to SIMnet.
Selecting Each Attempt means that each single attempt will have the total amount of time in the Minutes text box. If they use all of the time on any one attempt, they will still have all of their minutes available on subsequent attempts.
All ADA multiplier settings are automatically applied to all students who are using timed projects.
When students select a timed assignment, they will receive a prompt to start the project. With an All Attempts timed project they will receive the following prompt:
With an Each Attempt assignment they will receive the following prompt:
Once the student clicks the Start Project button, their project will be automatically downloaded and their project timer will begin. The timer is visible at all times throughout the completion of the project. If the student cannot find their downloaded file, they may download it again by clicking the Start File link on the assignment page. If the project has Resource files, the student will need to click the link to download those files.
As the student reviews the project instructions on all 2019/365 projects, they will be able to see the timer indicating the amount of time remaining in the project.
With Each Attempttimed projects, the student will receive the timer prompt each time they visit the page and have attempts remaining.
With All Attempts timed projects, the timer begins to count down once the student begins their first attempt and will continue to run between attempts until the timer has run out. The timer will continue to run between attempts and students will not receive a new prompt upon starting another attempt.
IMPORTANT: Once the timer has reached 0:00 students will not be able to upload their project. This timer will continue to run once the student has begun their assignment and cannot be stopped. If an instructor would like to view a student attempt that has gone past the time allotted, the instructor will have to delete the current attempt or provide an additional attempt.
#announcements #instructors #students
SIMnet will be unavailable each morning from 3:30-6:30AM Central time on December 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 and January 1st. This maintenance has been spread across multiple days to avoid a longer, single day maintenance window. We are performing routine maintenance to improve performance, reliability and security.
Sincerely,
McGraw-Hill Product Team
#announcements #instructors
Q: Will there be another Microsoft Office Release and when?
A: YES! As of September 26th, 2017, Microsoft released the following information:https://blogs.office.com/en-us/2017/09/26/the-next-perpetual-release-of-office/. Per this blog post, this next release “is scheduled for the second half of 2018.”
Q: What is Office 365 vs Office 2019 vs “Perpetual Release”?
A:****Office 365refers to the subscription version of Office. Office 365 comes in a variety of versions for home and business. Regardless of the specific Office 365 version, all subscription-based versions receive updates at a minimum of two times a year. These Office 365 versions are kept up to date and will receive the “Office 2019” changes as just another update. As Microsoft has dropped the naming convention “2016” from the current Office 365 offerings, we suspect they will not use “2019” with Office 365.
Office 2019 refers to the non-subscription or “perpetual” version. This version is a one-time purchase. We believe the Office 2019 release will be a roll-up of all the updates Office 365 users have received through July 2018. This new “perpetual” release is a way for users who purchased that type of license to get an updated version of the Office applications at least one more time before Microsoft eventually forces everyone into the 365 subscription model.
NOTE: Office 365 includes both downloaded/installed full versions of the apps and online/limited versions of the apps. Office 365 does NOT refer to the online apps only. Some users may still be confused about this and think 365 = online apps (which is not correct).
Q: Do we know if file extensions will be the same or is this a major upgrade?
A: While we do not know the answer to that for sure, if MS were making a change that large, we would know well in advance. While possible, we do not expect MS to do something to change the file extensions. We are 95% certain this will be a roll-up of all the Office 365 updates to date that the “perpetual” licenses missed out on. (With maybea user interface freshening). To perpetual license users, it may seem like a major upgrade (new features, etc.), but to 365 users who are getting constant updates anyway, it appears to seem like a normal update.
Q: Will current SIMnet users need to do anything when they switch to Office 2019?
**A:**Current SIMnet users will KEEPthe same account URL for usage and implementation.
When Office 2019 content is released, they WILL need to enable the 2019 content via:
SIMnet Course Manager>ADMINISTRATIVE SETTINGS>PRODUCTS> shift SIMnet 2019 to RIGHT.
Additionally, they will also want to enable Office 2019 textbook series options via:
SIMnet Course Manager>ADMINISTRATIVE SETTINGS>TEXTBOOKS>shift appropriate textbooks to RIGHT.
Q: How can I keep up-to-date with McGraw-Hill Education’s SIMnet 365/Office 2019 Development?
**A:**For more information on specific SIMnet 365/Office 2019 development, please continue to visit the SIMnet Blog. We will post updates as we have new information to share.
#announcements #instructors #new-features
Completion Credentials are now available for all users in SIMnet. Completion credentials are badges based on completing each Let Me Try interactivity in a SIMbook. Like our newly introduced competency credentials, completion credentials are a digital certificate that students can use in their social media websites or on their resumes to demonstrate proficiency in Microsoft Office products.
Students can now earn the White Belt credential for completing all of the Let Me Try questions for the introductory chapters, available in the Office level books. The Purple Belt credential is available for students who complete the advanced chapters of each application. For example, students can earn a White Belt for completing Skills Approach Word 2016 Chapters 1 through 5 and a Purple Belt for completing Chapters 6 through 9. These belts are in addition to the Yellow Belts that can be earned for achieving high marks on Project assignments associated with each chapter.
Students can earn progress toward a credential by completing assignments that require a Let Me Try interactivity, including Lessons, SIMpaths, and assigned SIMbooks as well as opening a book directly in the library.
Books that have the credential blue ribbon icon can be completed for a credential.
Completing all Let Me Try interactivities in the Office level of the SIMbook unlocks the White Belt credential.
Completing all Let Me Try interactivities in the advanced chapters of the SIMbook unlocks the Purple Belt credential.
Students can complete either credential without the other.
Students earned credentials are available in the SIMbook or in the Credentialssection of the Student Profile.
Earning a new credential allows users to claim it. Claiming a credential issues the credential so that users can share it on social media, make it searchable at the site, or post it to their online resume.
After claiming the credential, students can click the 4 icons available with each credential to do the following:
View the credential details online with Accredible at credential.net
Set the credential to public or private
Update their credential
Remove their credential from Accredible
The completion credential is set to require the Let Me Try by default. For students who do not use the Let Me Try, or may require other course adaptations, can complete the Show Me or Guide Me interactivities instead. Instructors can change this setting by editing a student’s information and changing the Library Credential Requirement.
To enable Completion credentials in SIMnet, your administrator should navigate to the Optionsmenu under Settingsand select the Enable Credentials On radio button.
#announcements #instructors
Between 7:30 am and 1:30 pm EST, students may have experienced an issue accessing SIMpath assignments or uploading Project files. This issue has been resolved and both SIMpath and Project assignments are functioning properly.
During that time, students attempting to access a SIMpath assignment were able to navigate to the assignment page but were not able to access any of the materials on that page. The links for Pre-test, Lesson, and Post-test were not accessible.
Students attempting to complete a Project assignment were able to access all of the required resources to complete their project but were not able to upload their files or submit themfor grading. Any Project assignments completed during that time can be uploaded properly.
We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Should you or your students experience any other issues, please contact our Customer Experience Group.
Customer Experience Group (CXG) Hours of Operation: Sun:11am – 1am Mon-Thurs:7am – 3am Fri:7am – 8pm Sat:9am – 7pm (All times Central)
By Phone: You can reach us toll-free at 800-331-5094 (US Only)
#new-content #release-notes
Excel 2016 In Practice – Guided Project 9-3 Excel 2016 In Practice – Independent Project 9-4 Word 2016 In Practice – Guided Project 7-3 Word 2016 In Practice – Independent Project 7-4
In Practice Excel Chapter 5 In Practice Excel Chapter 6 In Practice Excel Chapter 7 In Practice Excel Chapter 9
Excel
Updated chart names changed by a Microsoft update for the Mac 2016 instructions:
Excel 2016 Capstone – Level 1 Working with Sales Data VERSION: 1
Excel 2016 Capstone – Level 2 Working with Sales Data VERSION: 1
Excel 2013 Capstone – Level 2 Working with Sales Data (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 Capstone – Level 3 Working with Sales Data (Mac Supported)
Excel 2013 Capstone – Level 3 Working with Sales Data Alternate with VLOOKUP (Mac Supported)
Word
Added improved grading for textbox and shapes in the following projects:
Word 2016 Skills Approach – Skill Review 4.2
Word 2013 In Practice – Independent Project 8-4
#announcements #help #instructors #students
A Flash Player bug has begun to cause issues for some students accessing Microsoft Office 2013, 2010, or 2007 content. When using Exams, SIMpaths, Lessons, or the Let Me Try portion of SIMbooks, the cursor may become invisible, making the content difficult or impossible to complete. This error is caused by the Hardware Acceleration setting of the Flash Player and must be turned off in that environment.
This bug is most likely to occur when users are clicking and dragging content. An example of this behavior isusing the Fill Handle to copy the contents of a cell in Excel.
To remedy the issue with, users should open their desired browser and visit theFlash Player Help Page. If Flash Player is disabled or blocked by your browser, follow the onscreen instructions to enable Flash Player. When the Flash Player is enabled, look for the Flash animation of a growing tree on that page.
Right click the image and selectSettingsfrom the menu.
Deselect theEnable hardware accelerationcheckbox and click theClosebutton. Close the browser and reopen it to complete the changes.
To read more in-depth analysis of the issues that the Flash Player Hardware Acceleration bug has caused, readherefor Firefox orherefor Chrome.
#announcements #instructors #new-features #release-notes
On Friday, October 6th, instructors will be able to combineSIMnet simulation questionsand t**est bankquestionsinto a single exam for 2016 content. This feature is available for any SIMnet exam, SIMnet exam template, practice exam, or practice exam template.
To add SIMnet simulation questions, select the desired Textbook, Module, Exam, or Template and add the desired questions. If you are adding SIMnet simulation questions by Textbook, ensure that theSIMnet Simulationradio button is selected.
To add test bank questions, select the desired textbook and chapter, then select theTest Bankradio button. You can further refine your selection by choosing a question type from theAll Question Typesdrop-down menu.
In a SIMnet exam, test bank questions will each appear on their own screen. Test bank questions can be attempted a single time only, even if the exam settings allow for multiple attempts on other questions.
Instructors can tell whether an exam question is a SIMnet simulation question or a test bank question in theModule Namesection of theAssigned Questionsbox. Test bank questions will be labeled asTest Bank Questions. SIMnet simulation questions will display the specific module they were selected from.
#announcements #instructors #new-features
The new gradebook and current gradebook will be available together between May 19th and July 28th. After July 28th the current gradebook will be removed from SIMnet.
OnFriday, May 19th SIMnet will be rolling out a new and improved Gradebookto all schools. This new gradebook features quicker loading times and an enhanced feature set. We are rolling out the new Gradebook alongside our current Gradebook so that users can get a feel for the new features without throwing their current courses off track.
The new grade book appears directly below the current gradebook on the left-hand menu, with the textGradebook (new).
Simply click the Gradebook (new) option to access it. Select your class from the class list to view all the associated grades.
The first thing that you will notice is that the gradebook loads dynamically. Only information on the screen will load at a given time. Courses with many students and many columns will load significantly faster than before.
The first new feature is the option toFiltercolumns, users, and grades. To access the filter results, click theFiltericon right below the gradebook selection. When you click the filter button the filter options are displayed.
You can filter byUsers(using any of their data – first name, last name, email, username or student ID) to see the grades of a specific student. Simply type the name of the student you want to see. As you type the course list updates with those who are still included in that search.
You can filter byColumnsto view how the whole class did on a particular assignment. Type the name of the column you wish to view. The columns will automatically refresh as you type to only include valid columns according to your search criteria.
You can also filter by grades within a specific column, or columns using theGradesfilter. Click the**+next to the drop down button in the Grades section. Choose a column from the drop-down list; then choose a calculation; then choose points. You may want to filter like this to see students who did poorly on a midterm exam. You can add additional grades to the search by clicking the+button again and adding a new column, calculation and points. If you are searching multiple grades, use themeet ALL conditionsselection if you want only results from students who meet each criterion set. Usemeet ANY conditions**if you want results from students who meet any criterion.
For example, you may elect to search by a PowerPoint and Excel Exam to see students who did well on both. To do this you would add two Grades. First you would select the PowerPoint Exam column. Select the >= calculation and then select 8/10 points. Then you would select the Excel Exam column, select the > calculation and then select 7/10 points. If you had themeet ALL conditionsselected you would see students who got better than 80% on the two exams.
To remove a filter, delete the criteria from the text box or simply click the minus button next to the individual grade filter.
To remove all filters, click theClear Filtersbutton at the top of theFilterssection.
If you have noticed through your filtering that a number of students are doing poorly in your class, you can email them directly from the gradebook. Click the check mark by the student’s name and click theEmail Selected Usersbutton.
The gradebook now provides increased information all from the main view. Each column has the total points available in the assignment displayed to give grades a better context for the instructor.
By hovering over a grade column, you can get statistics about that grade, including the high, low, average, standard deviation and how many students have yet to submit their grade.
For gradebooks with many grades you can click the right and left arrows (in addition to the scroll bar, and arrow key shortcuts) to navigate the gradebook.
Selecting a student brings up their user profile where you can see important information like their email address, recent activity and ADA information. If the student is missing modules for their course, theClick to view missing moduleslink will bring you to the Students section and show any missing licenses based on assigned courses.
Selecting theView Reportlink at the top of the User Settings menu displays the student’s data for the course. This report is now printable so that it is easier to share.
Instructors can make sure that grades go from SIMnet directly to a paired LMS in the gradebook in three different ways.
First, by selecting a single student the LMS Pairing option displays with that student’s data. Click on theSync all user gradesbutton for any paired student to pair all of their grades to the LMS.
Second, an individual grade can be sent to the paired LMS by selecting the desired grade and clicking theRe-sync gradebutton.
Last, instructors can sync an assignment by selecting the entire column. The current status of a synced assignment will display grade sync statistics and inform instructors whether a sync is required. If it is, simply clickRe-sync all grades.
There are a number of new features associated with the options in the top right corner of the gradebook.
The first option isFull Screen Mode. The gradebook will expand to hide the URL and take up the whole screen. This is designed to show more grades and students for large classes.To exit Full Screen Mode hit theEsckey.
The second option willRefresh axes & grades. This option is designed to pull in fresh data from a new filter or calculation without reloading the entire gradebook. This can be useful when students are completing an exam and want to confirm submission.
The third option isExport Data.You can download the gradebook data. This option will download the entire gradebook in CSV or Excel form as you desire. Excel formatting has been updated and improved to work better with newer versions of Excel.
TheHelp & Infoselection will show a legend for icons in the gradebook.The icons are divided between User Icons, which appear next to a student’s name; Column Icons, which appear on a column; Grade Icons, which appear next to an individual grade.There are many icons and keeping them straight can be difficult. Bringing up this cheat sheet makes finding the correct icon simple.
In addition to the Icons, the new gradebook allows forKeyboard Shortcuts, which are available on this screen. Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate the gradebook and make edits to individual grades or columns.
The last button is theGradebook Actions & Settingsmenu. From this menu you can edit columns, scales, scale templates and preferences on a new screen.
Column Order
TheColumn Ordertab contains options to change the order of columns in the gradebook. Columns are listed vertically from 1 to the last column in the gradebook. Click and drag theicon on each column to move it to the desired location in the gradebook. You can click theSelect in gridbutton to move directly to the column in the gradebook. TheSettingsbutton will take you directly to theColumnstab with that particular column’s settings displayed.
You can also use the Column Order tab to pin columns to the left side of the gradebook screen. Set the columns that will be pinned so that they are at the start of the gradebook, starting with column 1 and going through all columns that will be pinned. Then enter the number of pinned columns in the**# of pinned columns**text box. Pinned columns will appear yellow with a pushpin icon on the right of the column.
Columns
TheColumnsselection will let you change how individual gradebook columns behave. Each column is displayed on the menu on the left. Selecting a column displaysGeneral,Display,DataandGridsettings for that column.You can change the title, calculation display, or hide the grade until a certain date. You can also change the calculation based on a certain number of points; make the assignment extra credit; or freeze the column after the due date.
Making an assignmentextra creditis a new feature for the gradebook. The assignment points will increase a student’s grade if they are completed but will not harm the student’s grade if incomplete.
Each of these options is also accessible by clicking the column heading in the gradebook.
You can add new calculated columns which calculate the grades of other columns or custom columns which you can use to enter data manually. To edit column defaults, select the desired column and click theDefaultsbutton. Defaults automatically apply to any column that is the same type. To add a column click theCreatebutton at the bottom of the list of columns. To remove a column, click theDeletebutton.
Scales
Scales allow the gradebook to quickly sort the class into grade ranges. Typical scales are the A, B, C, D, F scale or the Pass/Fail scale. From the Scales menu you can Edit, Create, or Delete a scale.
Scale Templates
Scale templates are scales that are visible across a campus. A scale template starts as an easy jumping-off point for instructors to use when displaying their gradebooks. Create, Edit, or Delete a Scale Template the same way you create a template.
Show Hidden Columns
If you have elected to hide a column in the column’s preferences, it will not show in the Gradebook by default. You can quickly view hidden columns by selectingShow Hidden Columns. This selection will show a check when active.
To create a combined SIMnet simulation and test bank exam, selectExamson the left hand menu of the Course Manager, then selectCreate. Ensure that yourTypeselection isSIMnet Exam,SIMnet Exam Template,Practice SIMnet Exam, orPractice SIMnet Exam Template. On the right select the radio button for SIMnet 2016 content.
To Edit a scale, select the desired scale from the left. The scale’s details are displayed on the right. You can change the name of the scale in theNametext box. Edit parts of a scale by selecting them and entering new values. Remove elements of a scale by clicking theMinusbutton. Click theAdd Itembutton to add a new level to the scale. Remember toSaveyour scale after editing.
#instructors #new-features
The Project Results page now includes an image of the correct complete project along with indicators to show where each step is visible in the file. This view is the same as the view that students have after they submit their project for grading. Note that the image file on the right is an image of the correct solution file and not the student’s file.
In addition to providing only scored steps, instructors can use the View Options button on the right to refine your search further. You can select Expand All which shows all scored steps within an instruction; Collapse All which hides all steps within an instruction; and Toggle Map which hides the image on the right.
Once you have refined the view as you like, you can refine it even further, showing only Correct, Incorrect or Partial steps. Partial steps are those in which the student has gotten some parts of the step correct and other parts of the step incorrect.
As in the past, you can use this screen to edit student grades by editing the number of points that a student receives for a scored step. Simply click on the pencil icon under the score for a single step.
The number in front of the score will change to an editable field where you can enter the new grade. You can only change a grade by half points up to the max value for a grade. For the step below you can edit the grade to be a half point or a full point, for example. Click the green check to accept the change or the red X to reject it.
After editing a student’s score, an additional icon of a person holding a pencil appears to indicate the grade change.
There are a number of different ways to use the Project Results page. This feature is available through the Reports section under Results in the Course Manager. Select the course you would like to see and select View from the drop down menu. Select the Projects tab and search by student or project title and click on the link in the Title column.
You can also navigate to the Project Results page through the Projects section under Content or the Students section under Users.
Once you’ve opened the Project Results page, change the view as you see fit and then view any individual steps either by finding the bubble on the image or finding the step on the left. You can download the student’s submitted file by using the View Submission link at the top left of the page to compare the student file to the results page. Click on the pencil icon to make any changes to the student grade as you see fit.
This change allows instructors to see the same thing that their students see, facilitating instruction and remediation. In addition, this change optimizes the grade editing process for the instructor. Navigating through the project instructions and making edits will happen more fluidly.
This update to the Project Results page will be available Monday, May 16th 2016.