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SIMnet - Course Manager

Course Manager - Instant Help

Computing Skills and Microsoft Office Training and Assessment Made SIMple.

McGraw Hill's SIMnet is an easy-to-use online training and assessment solution for Microsoft Office. It provides students with life-long access in their personal Library and unlimited practice on Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Outlook in addition to browsers, file management, and operating systems content.

Get started by reviewing the help topics below

Getting Started

The Home Page

Signing in to your SIMnet Administrator or Instructor account and accessing Help and Support

Accessing the SIMnet Course Manager starts with the SIMnet Home Page. On the Home Page you can sign in to your Administrator or Instructor account, and access help & support.

Warning: Each school has a different SIMnet website, so be sure to confirm you are visiting your school's SIMnet Home Page by reviewing the browsers address bar and school name displayed on screen.

Administrators and Instructors - Viewing your school's website and signing in

Every school has its own unique SIMnet website that follows the format https://yourschool.simnetonline.com. Your school's name should be displayed in the upper right hand corner of the website. If this name doesn't match your school, ensure you are visiting the correct website.

Enter the username you were provided by your school. This field is not case sensitive.

Help and Support

The Technical Support option will allow you to open a support case with the McGraw Hill Customer Experience Group.

Exploring SIMnet

The Exploring SIMnet sections include top-level topics including basic navigation, common controls, and important concepts.

Quick Start Guide

Welcome to SIMnet, please review the Quick Start Guide to get started with SIMnet.

Welcome to using SIMnet as your learning and assessment solution for Microsoft ® Office, Windows, browsers, file management, and computer concepts. SIMnet is a completely online, simulated Microsoft Office and Windows environment with custom content that correlates to many popular textbooks. Projects in SIMnet are live-in-the-application, automatically graded assignments to supplement your course content.

SIMnet Technical Requirements

Since SIMnet is 100% online there are very few actual requirements to run SIMnet successfully. Be sure to run the Systems Requirements Test to ensure optimum performance. The most up-to-date requirements can always be found at System Requirements Check.

Project assignments have additional software requirements depending upon whether your students are using SIMnet for Office 2016, Office 365/2019 or Office Online. Project assignments require that the user's Operating System Region is set to English (US) or English (CA). To view more detail on Project Assignment vist the Project Requirements.

Many SIMnet users access SIMnet via Mac or Chromebook. Some users access Microsoft Office content, like the Access application via Windows Virtual Machine. For more information about using SIMnet outside of Windows visit Getting Started Guide.

Getting Started

This guide will help you understand the basics of using SIMnet as an instructor. First, let’s explore where you can access vital information as you use SIMnet.

After logging in to the Course Manager, you will see the SIMstudent, Help, and Blog links in the top right corner of the screen.

SIMstudent

Instant Help

Help includes detailed help topics including animated videos. Instant help is contextual so that you can easily access information regarding the process you are using at the time you access help.

Changelog

Only Administrators and Campus Administrators can create, edit, and delete instructors. Other account types do not see the Instructors option in the navigation menu.

Instructor Roles and Permissions

There are five instructor roles in the SIMnet Course Manager. Each of these roles provides different access and capabilities. For example, Administrators create other Administrators and Instructors and have full access to all classes, lessons, and exams. Full Instructors can do everything an Administrator can do except modify administrative settings, create other instructors and edit other instructors' materials. Limited Instructors can only create lessons and exams from templates. The types of instructor roles are listed below.

Administrator and Campus Administrator
Full Instructor
Limited Instructor
Assistant
Inactive Instructor (Prevents login to Course Manager)

To create a class, click the Classes section on the left side of the Course Manager and click create. Name the class, assign the appropriate instructors, and your class is created. Be sure you are consistent when naming classes and be sure you include the school term, the name of the class and the course number.

Class Management Best Practices

Each class in SIMnet has a unique class title. A section title may be added as well as a campus assignment. It has its own set of assignments and schedule independent of the other classes. To ensure consistency for multiple classes, or multiple sections of the same class, a class may have already been created with assignments and exams for you to use as an instructor.

Creating and Assigning Lessons, SIMbooks, and Projects

In general:

If you created the object, you can edit, copy, and delete it.
If you did not create the object, you cannot edit or delete it, but if your account has proper permissions, you can make a copy which is then yours.
If you did not create the object, and it is not assigned to one of your classes, it does not appear in your list of lessons or exams.
You can only create lessons from exams if you have the right to create lessons and vice versa.

In SIMnet, students can learn from Lessons, SIMbooks, Projects, Exams and Resources. For an overview of all SIMnet content types,

Lessons and SIMbooks

Lessons contain instructional, interactive, simulated exercises with content that is mapped to modules or textbooks. Each lesson includes exercises called Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try. These contain generic content addressing specific skill sets, but they do not exactly match a textbook. Lessons must be created based on a module, textbook, template, or another lesson before being assigned to a class. Completion of each lesson can be linked to a gradebook column.

SIMbooks are electronic versions of some McGraw-Hill book series that include chapters with links to Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactive, simulated exercises. These exercises directly correlate with the skill set addressed in each portion of each chapter of the textbook. Instructors that use SIMbooks do not need to add simulated, interactive training… it is already included in each chapter. Completion of each SIMbook chapter can be linked to a gradebook column.

Projects

With projects, students download files, complete assignments live in the application, and submit them for grading. SIMnet automatically grades projects based on a rubric. Projects are included in SIMnet and can be assigned to a class.

Exams

SIMnet exams come in two types - the Exam which uses simulated application environments to ask students to demonstrate practical knowledge of each application and the Testbank Exam which uses multiple choice and True/False questions to ask students to demonstrate the ability to select the correct response. To create an Exam, click the Exam section on the left side of the Course Manager and click Create. Choose the type of exam at the top and name the exam. You will then add content to the exam based on filters such as Module, Textbook, Template, etc. and assign the exam to a class. Please note that instructors have access to test banks from all McGraw-Hill textbooks where test banks are available for that textbook.

Resources

Resource assignments are created directly by the instructor. They may be hyperlinks to instructor materials or a file that can be downloaded and completed like a SIMnet Project assignment.

Lessons, SIMbooks, Projects, and Exams - Best Practices

Provide students with multiple attempts to complete projects. Students should be able to submit a project and, based on the feedback provided by SIMnet, correct errors and resubmit the project for grading. This will alleviate student anxiety and allow for an improved learning experience.
Display the solution PDF on the assignment panel so that students have a visual of what the project should look like when it is finished.
When selecting content for both exams and lessons be sure to filter by both Textbook and Chapter. This will logically sequence the questions or tasks as they appear in the textbook.
Only the SIMnet textbook contains coverage of all questions and tasks. Many SIMnet questions and tasks aren’t covered in all textbooks. If you are creating a lesson or exam and can’t find the skill you want through the textbook filter, try switching to the “by Module” filter.
Filtering by Module provides access to all questions and tasks; however, the questions and tasks are in alphabetical order and not logically sequenced.
The best way to create a Scenario B exam from a Scenario A exam (and vice versa) is to use the Create Scenario B Exam (or Create Scenario A Exam) feature from the Actions menu. This feature creates a one-to-one copy of exam questions from the practice scenario.

There are many methods of viewing student assignments, changing student grades, and tracking student progress in SIMnet. Here is a way to review results to get you started. To view student results, click on Students on the left side of the Course Manager screen. Then search for the student based on the filters at the top of the screen (username, ID, First Name, Last Name). Click the Actions menu to the right of the student’s name and choose Student Report.

The student report displays activity for the student for each type of assignment. Click the tab at the top for the assignment type you want to view.

Lessons and SIMbooks

To view Lesson results, click the Lessons tab. To view SIMbook results, click the SIMbooks tab. Click the underlined result that you wish to view. You will see a list of the tasks as well as the tasks the student has completed and the date and time completed. This view also includes the ability to Preview a task. Instructors can choose Toggle Complete on any task to award or remove credit for each task.

An instructor can also use the right arrow to the left of a task to expand it for more details on the student’s activities. This view includes time spent on each part of the task as well as the number of times the student completed it.

Exams

Click the Exams tab to view a student’s Exams submission. You will be able to view each attempt for each exam as well as the time spent on the exam, the date and time submitted, the points received, the percentage grade, and the status. You can also use this view to delete a student’s project submission. To view details of a particular exam submission, click on the linked (underlined) name of the exam.

Projects

Click the Projects tab to view a student’s Projects submission. You will be able to view each attempt for each project as well as the time spent on the project, the date and time submitted for grading, the points received, the percentage grade, and the status. You can also use this view to delete a student’s project submission.

Clicking on the linked (underlined) name of a submitted project allows an instructor to view details of the submission as well as edit a student’s grade on any step in the project.

SIMnet provides Digital Credentials, a digital certificate of achievement, for completing particular SIMnet assignments either completely or with a particular score. Students can take their digital credentials forth, making them part of their future resume.

The Gradebook provides instructors with tools for viewing student grades, changing the ways in which grades are calculated and displayed, as well as means to change the grades manually. There is one gradebook per class.

Gradebook columns are automatically created as assignments are assigned to classes by checking the Show Column in Gradebook option in the SIMbook Assignment Details dialog box. This option is checked by default.

View a Gradebook: Click Gradebook on the left side of the Course Manager screen and choose a class.
Changing a Grade: Select any grade in the gradebook and key the new grade in the Points text box. Click Apply.
Grade History: Select any grade in the gradebook and click the Click to load grade history button.
Grade Report: Select any grade, click Click to load grade history, and click the Report button. This report allows you to award or deduct points for as well as preview individual tasks/questions.

Gradebook Defaults

Please note that the gradebook defaults to display percentages and averages. Change the default before you assign activities to a class so that all activities assigned automatically display the type of grade you wish. If you wait until after activities are assigned, you will have to change each gradebook column individually.

Reports

In SIMnet, reports are actually saved report queries that will automatically update each time you view the report. There is no need to recreate the report every time you want an update. There is a wide variety of reports available in SIMnet.

Instead of deleting exams, lessons, SIMpaths, and classes at the end of the semester, it is best to archive them instead. Archiving items simply removes them from all lists within the Course Manager. Archived exams, lessons, SIMpaths, and classes can easily be un-archived. Deleting any item cannot easily be reversed.

Course Manager Navigation

Navigating the SIMnet Course Manager Top and Left navigation menus.

The SIMnet Course Manager has two basic control bars for navigation. The Top Navigation Menu provides access to SIMstudent, Your Profile, and logging out. The Left Navigation Menu contains access to all of your Users, Classes, Content, Results, and Administration settings.

2. Profile

Click the Logout button to log out of SIMnet Course Manager.

Note: You will automatically be logged out of the Course Manager after 60-minutes of inactivity.

📑 View Reports

The View Reports section contains the raw grades and attempts for all assignments completed in SIMnet. Visit the 👉Reports help topic to learn more.

🔗Resource Submissions

The Resource Submission section lists submitted resources. Visit the 👉Resources help topic to learn more.

You can also create and bookmark custom reports. Visit the 👉Reports help topic to learn more.

Note: Administrators are able to view and edit all classes in the school URL.

You can Star courses form the View All Courses page. Starred courses will appear automatically in the Courses pane so that they can be viewed and edited quickly.

Note: Only SIMnet Administrators are able to view the Instructors section.

You can search students directly from the panel. Search by name, email or username. The student search only returns at most 5 student records per search result

Note: Instructor accounts are only able to view content they created or that is assigned to their class. Administrators can view all content within the URL.

Test Banks

Note: Only SIMnet Administrators can access the Administration section.

Help

Documentation

The SIMnet Cahngelog documents all changes made to SIMnet including all major bug fixes.

Terms and Privacy Policy

View the SIMnet Terms and Privacy Policy.

Common Controls

Common controls are used throughout the SIMnet Course Manager.

A number of simple controls are used throughout the SIMnet Course Manager. Understanding how they work and how they can be effectively applied will save you time and energy as you move throughout SIMnet.

Every major section in the Course Manager uses the Actions Menu. This menu provides actions that can be performed on a particular 👉, , or Report. The Actions Menu will always be on the far right of each content type. To use the Actions Menu, navigate to the desired item (Student, Course, etc.) and then click the drop-down arrow. Each content type has its own unique Actions Menu options, but they typically include options like Edit/Assign or Delete. To learn more about specific Actions Menu options, view the desired help section.

Lists of Students, Courses, and Learning Objects can quickly become large in SIMnet. Being able to effectively filter the available data will greatly increase your efficiency. Whenever you see the Filter icon, a filtering option is available to you.

Clicking the Filter icon will bring up a list of available filtering options like Contains, Starts With, or Does Not Contain. Choose your desired option and enter the info you would like to use to filter your data. By default, SIMnet uses the Contains option.

The Details icon allows users to quickly review a piece of SIMnet content without loading up an exam or SIMstudent view. The Details icon provides quick access to individual question content. This includes the question text being asked; the answer or hint; where the information covered in the question originates; and the ability to preview the question directly. The details icon is available when assigning or reviewing content of Lessons, Exams, and SIMpaths.

Whenever you are scheduling content, from SIMbooks to SIMpaths, Lessons to Exams, you have the ability to control when students can access content. Use the Calendar icon to limit when

Content Types

SIMnet assignment types

Lesson

Lessons contain instructional, interactive, simulated exercises. Lessons are similar to SIMbooks but only include SIMnet content and do not match content 1-1 to a textbook. Instructors may customize the lesson content based on a textbook or create their own sequence of skills.

Exam

Exams use simulated, performance based questions to test the student's knowledge. There are two pools of exam questions–Assessment and Practice.

Assessment–Assessment questions are generally a bit more difficult and worded to require critical thinking.
Practice–Practice questions are generally a bit easier and are worded more directly, giving the student more information.

SIMbook

Electronic versions of textbooks that also include chapters with links to Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try interactive, simulated exercises. SIMbooks are exact replicas of the printed copy of these textbooks with Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try exercises as a part of each chapter. These exercises directly correlate with the skill set addressed in each portion of each chapter of the textbook.

Teach Me-Text on screen they read.
Show Me–Video with audio narration showing how to complete a task.
Guide Me–A click-by-click interactive practice exercise.
Let Me Try–Assesses comprehension of a skill within the same simulated application interface used in exams.

SIMpath

A SIMpath is a three step learning and assessment path which follows these steps: Pre-test, Lesson and Posttest. The Pre-test can include questions from either question scenario. The Lesson and Posttest are then customized based on the completion of the Pre-test. An instructor can configure each SIMpath to be adaptive based on the pre-test results or static and contain prescribed content based on the pre-test.

Step 1: Pre-Test

Includes questions from one of the SIMnet question scenarios: Scenario A or Scenario B.
Students can only take the pre-test one time.
If the SIMpath preferences are set to allow it, students may skip the pre-test and go directly to step 2.

Step 2: Lesson

The SIMpath lesson contains the learning tasks that correspond to the questions in the pre-test.
The lesson can be set to show all the relevant tasks or only those that correspond to questions the student skipped or answered incorrectly.
Students can be allowed to skip the lesson or can complete the tasks in the lesson multiple times.
Once the student has completed all of the Let Me Try exercises in the lesson at least once, a Take PostTest button appears in addition to the Take Lesson button.
When the student clicks the Take Post-Test button, the SIMpath Assignments page updates and the lesson is no longer available.
Now the student can click the SIMpath assignment and click Take Exam to start the post-test.

Step 3: Post-Test

Post-Test includes questions that correspond to the questions in the pre-test.
Post-Test questions may be exactly the same as those in the pre-test (from the same scenario) or they may be parallel questions from the other scenario. o Instructors can set preferences to allow students to take the post-test up to 99 times.
Each post-test result is stored in the gradebook.

SIMnet provides instant, automatic grading for Microsoft Office documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and databases. Students are able to download, complete, and submit projects for grading. The instructors can assign projects to classes or to students based on their individual needs through the Projects window.

Testbank exams present multiple choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank questions similar to a traditional paper exam. Test Banks exams can be their own separate exam or a combined exam with simulation questions.

Resources are hyperlinks and files created and uploaded by instructors and assigned to students. A resource may be a syllabus, link to an online article, or a manually graded project.

Glossary of Terms

The glossay or terms and definitions.

Action Menus The initial page for each navigation area is a summary list of the objects available. Each row in the list includes an Actions drop-down menu which appears on the far right of the object. The Actions menu gives you access to the functions available for that item.

ADA Multiplier Allows the instructor to assign more time to complete an exam for a particular student. The default setting for all students is 1, which represents the base time that the instructor has assigned to the exam.

Archiving Allows instructors to remove students, classes, lessons, exams and SIMpaths from their active lists and reports and store them in an archive list. This will not delete them but will help keep the instructor's account clean and organized, showing only current information.

Blog Link at the top of the screen to see a list of the latest changes to SIMnet.

Columns--Calculated A grouping of columns which is used to produce a single grade. Each column entry can have a "column weight." It is possible for a calculated column to contain other calculated columns. This allows instructors to create calculated column groups that can be re-grouped to produce a final grade.

Columns--Custom Custom or "non-linked" columns are columns which are not related to any SIMnet assignment. Custom column grades are not calculated on an attempt basis and are always being overridden as you enter the grade score manually.

Columns--Linked Linked columns are grade columns that can accept assignment attempt scores automatically from SIMnet SIMbooks, Lessons, Exams, Test Bank Exams, SIMpaths, and Resources.

Columns--Mapped A mapped column is a column that is included within a calculated column to determine the final displayed grade.

Dashboard Shows the current state of your classes and helps keep your classes, assignment and student activity organized. View by clicking the Dashboard link from within the My Account section. The dashboard has the following components: Assignment Schedule, Past Due Assignments, Integrity Violations, and Student Activity. The dashboard components contain information about students and assignments in the courses you teach.

Delay Results Until This setting delays displaying the results of an assignment to students until the date set even if the due date or end date is an earlier date/time.

Due Date Assignments submitted after the due date and time are considered “late” and will display as such.

End Date The date and time that an assignment is no longer visible in students’ accounts.

Exam--Correct Retake Allowed Allows students to re-answer questions they have already answered correctly. The exam must have more than one question attempt allowed.

Exam--Detailed Feedback Includes the question list on the results page showing students which exam questions were answered correctly and incorrectly.

Exam--Display Feedback Displays correct and incorrect feedback during an exam.

Exam--Display Hints Displays hints after incorrect answers. This option is only available if Display Feedback is enabled.

Exam--Display Submitted Answer Shows students the steps they took to answer the question This applies to both correctly and incorrectly answered questions.

Exam--Enable Create Custom Lesson Allows students create their own custom lesson based on the exam.

Exam--Enable Printing Allows students to print the Exam Results page.

Exams (type)--Scenario B SIMnet Exam An exam made up of questions from the Scenario B exam question pool. Scenario B questions are a different pool than scenario A but not any more or less difficult.

Exams (type)--Scenario B SIMnet Exam Template A scenario B exam that is available for copying but cannot be assigned directly to a class.

Exams (type)--SIMnet Exam An exam based on lessons or Show Me, Guide Me, Let Me Try exercises in a SIMbook.

Exams (type)--SIMnet Exam Template An exam that is available for copying but cannot be assigned directly to a class.

Exams (type)--Test Bank A grouping of questions with similar objectives that can be used to create Test Bank Exams.

Exams (type)--Test Bank Exam An exam made up of objective questions (multiple choice and true/false) from a specific test bank.

Exams (type)--Test Bank Exam Template A test bank exam that is available for copying but cannot be assigned directly to a class.

Exams--Advance on Incorrect Moves students to the next question even when the user answers incorrectly. This option is only available if Display Feedback is enabled.

Exams--Show Study Guide Displays page references to students from the textbook selected in the Textbook list.

Gradebook Provides administrators and instructors with tools to track scores and for changing the ways in which grades are calculated and displayed, as well as means to change the grades manually. There is one gradebook per class.

Gradebook--Grade History Every attempt, grade override, manual update or unlocking is logged in the grade history. The history includes: the user who modified the grade, the grade before and after updating, and the date/time it was modified or unlocked. A grade is only locked when an instructor has manually overridden the grade in the gradebook. To unlock a grade, select it and click the Unlock Grade button. This will revert the grade to the original, calculated score.

Instructor Roles--Administrators They can create other administrators and instructors and have full access to all classes, lessons, and exams. Only Administrators have access to the account settings pages and archiving functions. An Administrator who is assigned to a specific campus or campuses, becomes a Campus Administrator. This means the Campus Administrator can view all assignment results and student information for a specific campus as well as add or delete campuses from their account.

Instructor Roles--Assistants They can only view classes, students, lessons, exams, and reports. They cannot create anything.

Instructor Roles--Full Instructors They can do everything an Administrator can do except modify administrative settings, create other instructors and edit other instructors' materials. Instructors cannot change the account settings nor can they access archiving functions.

Instructor Roles--Inactive Instructors They cannot log in to the Course Manager. Their information is saved in SIMnet but they are unable to access it.

Instructor Roles--Limited Instructors They can only create lessons and exams from templates. They do not have the right to edit the content or preferences of lessons and exams created from templates nor can they create new learning objects.

Lessons Interactive exercises with content that is mapped to modules or textbooks. Lessons include Teach Me, Show Me, Let Me Try.

Lesson filters—Lesson Filter Displays all available tasks for the selected lesson. The Lesson filter facilitates quickly combining multiple existing lessons.

Lesson filters—Module Filter Displays all available tasks for the selected module or application. Filtering by Module also allows you to explore tasks by MCAS objective.

Lesson filters—Template Filter Displays all available tasks for the selected template. This filter option quickly facilitates combining multiple existing templates.

Lesson filters—Textbook Filter Displays all available tasks for the selected textbook. Filtering by Textbook also allows you to explore tasks by Chapter.

Lesson/Exam Snapshot Shows the details of the exam (including preferences and assignments) in a static window. This option is useful for instructors who do not have edit privileges for the exam.

Module A way of organizing data by subject matter rather than by book series or chapter. Modules correspond directly with the Microsoft Office Application or other content matter.

Personal Assignment Grade Transfer In some cases, instructors may need to extend a learning object's assignment period for one or more students using the SIMnet personal assignment feature. Personal Assignments of Course Assignments are set to automatically transfer.

Projects Automatic grading for Microsoft’s Office Suite projects. Students are able to download, complete assignments live in the application, and submit projects for grading.

Reports Saved report queries that will automatically update each time you view the report. When you select Overview Report from the Students or Classes Actions list, that report is saved to the Reports list automatically.

Report--Account Overview Displays an overview of instructors, classes, and campuses. (For Account Administrators only).

Report--Class Overview Queries all of the lesson and exam results for assignments for a specific class.

Report--Exam Report Allows an instructor to view the latest exam results for your entire class.

Report--Lesson Report Viewing a lesson report allows you to view the latest lesson results for your entire class.

Report--Lesson Task Analysis Queries the number of times a task was taken by students and how many times it was completed.

Reports--MCAS Objective Analysis (Historical) Queries the number of times the MCAS objectives have been answered incorrectly, correctly, and the total for the first question attempt, the second question attempt and all question attempts. Data is generated on every SIMnet question attempt for the lifetime of the account.

Reports--Project Report Queries all results for a specific project. The report can be filtered by class, campus or project.

Reports--Project Objective Analysis Report Displays how class or campus has done completing each Student Learning Objective across all completed project attempts.

Reports--Project Objective Analysis Report Per Student Displays student’s percent score on each Student Learning Objective from each time that objective has been scored in a project across as many projects as the instructor chooses.

Reports--SIMbook Report A query containing all results for a specific SIMbook.

Reports--SIMpath Exam Question Analysis Report Displays how classes or campuses scored on SIMpath assignments

Reports--SLO Report by Objective Displays all Exam results by Student Learning Objective.

Reports--SLO Report by Question Displays all Exam reports and the relevant Student Learning Objective but is grouped by the question itself.

Reports--SIMnet Exam Queries all of the results for a specific exam.

Reports--SIMnet Exam Question Analysis Queries the number of times a SIMnet question was answered incorrectly, correctly, and the total number of attempts.

Reports--SIMnet Question Analysis (Historical) Queries the number of times a SIMnet question has been answered incorrectly, correctly, and the total for the first question attempt, the second question attempt and all question attempts. Data is generated on every SIMnet question attempt for the lifetime of the account.

Reports—SIMpath Queries all results for a specific SIMpath.

Reports--Student Overview Report A Student Overview Report queries all of the lesson and exam results for a specific student. From this report, you can view result details and delete results.

Reports--Student Report Generates a report showing all of the student's lesson and exam results, including student-created self-study lessons. From this report, you can view result details and delete results. You can also change the grade of an individual item.

Reports--Test Bank Exam Queries all of the results for a specific test bank exam.

Reports--Test Bank Exam Question Analysis Queries the number of times a test bank question was answered incorrectly, correctly, and the total number of attempts.

Resources Allows instructors to create and upload their own hyperlinks and files to assign to students. This section also works as a two-way dropbox that manages the workflow between instructors and students. Instructors can assign items to students and allow them to submit files for review. Instructors can then provide feedback directly to the student from the Submissions link.

SIMbook Electronic versions of some McGraw-Hill book series that include chapters with links to Show Me, Guide Me, and Let Me Try simulated exercises. Students complete one, two, or all three of the types of simulated exercises directly from the corresponding book chapter while reading the textbook information. Gradebook credit is available for completion of the exercises.

SIMpath An adaptive three step learning and assessment path which includes a pre-test, a lesson, and a post-test. SIMpaths have a variety of options and can be customized for instructors’ needs.

SIMstudent Allows instructors and administrators to log in to the Student Portal directly from the Course Manager without requiring a separate student account or registration code.

Student Learning Objective (SLO) Each SIMbook series content broken down into individual question components. A single Let Me Try or Exam question may contain multiple Student Learning Objectives. Project assignments may have multiple questions that require mastery of the same SLO.

Snapshot—Class Snapshot Shows the class roster and assignments.

Student Snapshot Shows the student’s registration information and a list of the classes the student is enrolled in.

Student Type--Full Student Student who has a full SIMnet registration code in his account and therefore has access to all SIMnet modules.

Student Type--Single Use Student SIMnet Proficiency student who has access to a single SIMnet exam only.

Student Type--Trial Student Student who signed up for a trial. Next to a student’s name in the list of students indicates a trial student.

Student Type--Unregistered Student Student who has an account in SIMnet, but has not yet entered a registration code.

Templates Lessons, exams, SIMpaths and test bank exams that are available for copying, but cannot be assigned directly to classes. Templates are available for instructors to copy and assign to their own classes. Once an instructor creates an exam from a template, the instructor is the "owner" of the exam and can edit the exam based on the rights and privileges assigned to that instructor's role. Full Instructors can change the questions or the preferences in the exam. Limited Instructors can only assign the exam and change the restrictions associated with the assignment.

SIMbook Series

Providing the correct materials for your students

Within SIMnet there are multiple book series created by separate authors. This gives your school the ability to select the appropriate series for your needs. It also means that some parts of SIMnet are accessible or inaccessible to your students depending upon what your school has elected to make available to students. When you are setting up your course, be sure to review your materials and ensure that the materials you selected will be available to your students.

When a course offers materials that are not provided with the license purchased by a student, they will receive a Missing modules notification on the assignments that require a book the student did not purchase.

SIMnet books largely cover either the four major Microsoft Office applications: Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Word; or additional materials like general Computer Concepts and additional applications like Microsoft Outlook.

SIMnet offers book series that are specifically written to the 2016 version of Microsoft Office and the 365/2019 version of Office.

A Skills Approach

The Skills Approach series features the four main Microsoft applications: Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Word. The Office level book encompasses the introductory chapters of all four applications and the introductory Essential Skills for Microsoft Office. This includes the first five chapters of Word and Excel, and the first four chapters of Access and PowerPoint.

Also included with the Office level book are the Skills Approach Internet Browsers, Outlook, and Windows 10 & File Management books as well as the Standalone Computer Concepts book and Technology at Your Service.

Each application also has a Complete book. The Complete books include the introductory chapters of each application and additional chapters. The Word book includes 9 chapters and 2 addendums on Mailing and advanced features. The Excel book includes 10 chapters. The Access book includes 8 chapters and 1 addendum. The PowerPoint book includes 8 chapters.

Each Complete book also includes Internet Browsers, Outlook, Windows 10 & File Management, Computer Concepts and Technology at Your Service.

In Practice

The In Practice book series features the four main Microsoft applications: Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Word. The Office level book encompasses the introductory chapters of all four applications and the introductory Essential Skills for Microsoft Office. The introductory chapters include the first four chapters of Word, Excel and Access, and the first three chapters of PowerPoint.

Also included with the Office level book are the Standalone Internet Browsers, Outlook, Windows 10 & File Management, and Standalone Computer Concepts books and Technology at Your Service.

Each application also has a Complete book. The Complete books include the introductory chapters of each application and additional chapters. The Word book includes 12 chapters. The Excel book includes 11 chapters. The Access book includes 10 chapters. The PowerPoint book includes 7 chapters.

Each Complete book also includes Internet Browsers, Outlook, Windows 10 & File Management, Computer Concepts and Technology at Your Service.

Other Series

365/2019 Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS)

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 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 (coming soon).

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 (coming soon)
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 Standalone Books

The SIMnet Standalone series features the four main Microsoft applications: Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Word. The Office level book encompasses the introductory chapters of all four applications and the introductory Essential Skills for Microsoft Office. This includes the first five chapters of Word and Excel, and the first four chapters of Access and PowerPoint.

Also included with the Office level book are Internet Browsers, Outlook, and Windows 10 & File Management books as well as the Standalone Computer Concepts book and Technology at Your Service.

Standalone books are written for a single application. Each book includes the introductory chapters of each application and additional chapters. The Word book includes 9 chapters and an addendums on Mailing. The Excel book includes 10 chapters. The Access book includes 8 chapters and 1 addendum. The PowerPoint book includes 8 chapters.

Each Complete book also includes Internet Browsers, Outlook, Windows 10 & File Management, Computer Concepts and Technology at Your Service.

Computing Essentials

The Computing Essentials textbook includes 13 chapters on using technology and computers both as a consumer and a professional.

Student Learning Objectives (SLO)

At its core, each SIMbook is a series of concepts for students to learn and skills for students to master. These skills may come one to a page or three to a page or more. SIMnet seamlessly transitions these many skills and concepts into single interactivities in a SIMbook, single questions on an Exam, or single points on a Project. This is accomplished through the Student Learning Objective.

The Objective denotes the location of the information on the SIMbook page by the book series, version, application, chapter, and page. For example, one Student Learning Objective would look like this: SA19-WD-02.01. This SLO is from the Skills Approach book series, Office 2019/365 version, Word application, Chapter 2, Skill 1.

Textbook Files

Each Textbook in SIMnet comes with many additional files for instructors and students.

Each SIMnet Textbook includes additional resources to assist instructors. They can be downloaded all at once, or in sections as you prefer.

SIMnet provides the following types of textbook files:

Instructor Manual
Instructor PowerPoint
Let Me Try Data Files
Let Me Try Solution Files
Project Data Files
Project Solution Files
Show Me Audio Transcripts

Accessing Textbook Files in the Course Manager

To download the available textbook files, navigate to the SIMbook section in the left navigation and select the desired SIMbook from the drop-down menu.

You can download the files for an entire SIMbook by clicking the Download Instructor Resource Files for SIMbook link and selecting all files. The download manager that pops up has all of the files for all of the chapters in that SIMbook.

Instead of viewing all of the files for the whole book, you can click the Actions menu for the particular SIMbook chapter and select the Download Instructor Resources option at the bottom of the menu. The download manager that pops up has all of the files for that chapter.

The download manager provides each available file. The files can be selected as a group from the Select All check box or each item can be checked off individually. The Visible in Student Library column lets the instructor know which files are available to students automatically.

Once you have selected the desired files, click the Download Selected Files button. The Bulk Download option allows users to download files that are either organized by chapter, or are provided all in the same folder. To select organized folders, click the Nested (with folders) radio option. To select all files within a single folder, select Flat (no folders). Click Download Instructor Resources to download a .zip folder of the selected files.

Accessing Textbook Files from SIMstudent

Textbook files can also be accessed from the Library using SIMstudent. To view textbook files this way you must navigate to the SIMnet Library, select the desired textbook and then select the desired chapter. The Resources tab in the chapter view shows the available files. The files available in SIMstudent view are all the files available to the instructor and include files that cannot be accessed by students, like the Instructor Manual and Instructor PowerPoint.

Integrity Violations

Using Project and Resource Academic Integrity Detection successfully

SIMnet Project and Resource assignments have a special security feature called the Academic Integrity Detection. This assists instructors in determining that students are using the file that they downloaded from their assignment page and uploading work that is their own. Academic Integrity Detection is designed to assist the Instructor and School in determining if a student has misrepresented SIMnet work as their own. It is a resource that provides additional information about where a student’s file came from and who may have worked on it.

What is Academic Integrity Detection?

When a student downloads a Resource or Project start file from their assignment page, SIMnet injects additional data, inaccessible to the user. This is referred to as the user’s Unique Signature. That additional data is an encrypted set of keys used to uniquely identify the student and start file. Each downloaded start file has at least one unique signature. Depending on the size of the start file multiple distinct Unique Signatures are injected into various locations of the file. Injecting multiple Unique Signatures prevents tampering with the Unique Signature. The student must upload a file that contains the same unique signature data that was included in their downloaded file. When the student uploads or submits their assignment for grading, the file is automatically reviewed for these Unique Signature elements before the assignment is accepted. If the data matches the student’s information, then the file is graded. If the Unique Signature data does not match, the student receives an Academic Integrity Violation flag or will not be able to submit their file depending on the instructor’s set preferences. A submitted file that doesn't contain any Unique Signatures is not accepted.

There are multiple ways that a student can have their file fail the Academic Integrity Detection check.

The student’s file does not contain any Unique Signature data. In this situation the student has typically downloaded their start file from the SIMbook page or started with a blank file. Files that contain no Unique Signature data cannot be uploaded to SIMnet regardless of instructor preference.
The student’s file contains the Unique Signature data of another student. The student has submitted another student’s file as their own Assignment for grading. All of the elements of the file contain the Unique Signature of another student.
The student’s submission contains elements of another student’s file. The student has downloaded their own file from SIMnet but copy/pasted elements of another student’s file into their own file. Individual elements from SIMnet Project files, like a paragraph in Word or a cell in Excel have Unique Signature elements. In this instance, the unique signature of some or all of these elements does not match the student’s file but does match the unique signature of another student.

Instructors may choose to prevent their students from uploading any files that include any Academic Integrity Detection issues. In this case, if any of the three potential issues with the student’s unique signature occur, the student's file will not be graded and the student will get an error message when they upload their file.

To disallow submissions with any Student Integrity issues, in the Project Assignment Details window, deselect the Allow Student Submissions with Integrity Violation check box.

By default, students can upload assignments with Academic Integrity Violations. When an Integrity Violation occurs, by default, their instructor will receive an email notification that a violation has occurred and be able to view that there is a new Integrity Violation on the Dashboard. These two areas will prompt the instructor to view the individual Academic Integrity Violation Report for that particular submission.

The Academic Integrity Violation Report shows the instructor information about the student who uploaded the file and information about the student whose file was uploaded. There are two types of Academic Integrity Violation Reports, one for when the student uploaded a file belonging to another student and one for when the student has uploaded their own file but it contains elements of another student’s file.

The Academic Integrity Detection system is a simple check. Either the student’s file has the encrypted data unique to them or it doesn’t. This check is reliable and accurate. However, this is not a guarantee of cheating in and of itself. Instructors may elect to review each individual Academic Integrity Violation. Below are two scenarios that may occur and how an instructor may review them.

Situation 1: Student A has inadvertently submitted their work on Student B’s account. In this instance, Student B will have an Integrity Violation. There are two pieces of information that an instructor may use to help determine if this issue occurred. First, the file submitted to Student B’s account will have the name of Student A. Second, reviewing the login details of each student in the Student History will show that the two students generally login from similar locations.

Situation 2: Student A has taken Student B’s file and uploaded it to their account. The clearest information additional to the Academic Integrity Violation itself will be the name of the student’s submitted file. If Student A has submitted a file that has their name on it but Student B’s unique signature data they have made an attempt to pass Student B’s work off as their own. Many times the students will not go to the same school or work in similar locations, making inadvertent submission increasingly unlikely.

SIMnet provides all available the details in the Integrity Violation Report. In most cases, we recommend cross-referencing the Student History to review the student's login time, IP address, and the computer/browser details to further support the Integrity Violation case.

Digital Credentials

Digital Credentials are marks of attainment that students can take with them when they finish your course.

Digital Credentials are a mark of hard work and attained knowledge in SIMnet. Digital Credentials can be added to a student's resume or online footprint to demonstrate their skill in Microsoft Office applications. There are two types of credentials in SIMnet. Achievement Credentials mark the successful demonstration of skills. They require completing an Exam or Project assignment and gaining a high grade. Completion Credentials mark the disciplined review of course materials. They require completing each section of the student's textbook.

Digital Credentials are divided into belts, like those available to martial arts students. SIMnet offers a White Belt (L1), Yellow Belt (L2), Purple Belt (L3), and Black Belt (L4). These are ordered by difficulty with the Black Belt demonstrating peak achievement.

Achievement Credentials

There are two different Achievement Credentials available in SIMnet. The Yellow Belt is available to students who complete Level 3 Capstone Projects. Capstone Projects are created to provide students an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of a wide array of skills for each Microsoft Office application, Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.

Black Belt credentials are awarded for completing a 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.

Completion credentials are based on completing each Let Me Try interactivity in a SIMbook. 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 2019 Chapters 1 through 5 and a Purple Belt for completing Chapters 6 through 9.

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. Students can complete either credential without the other.

Administrators must opt-in to Digital Credentials. In the Settings menu on the left navigation, click the Options sub menu. Ensure the Enable Credentials: On radio button is selected.

Completion Credentials, earned for completing SIMbook materials, are automatically available. Achievement Credentials, earned for completing an Exam and Project assignment with high marks, must be assigned to students. Assigning Credentials works like assigning any other learning object.

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.

Level 3 Capstone Projects can be assigned for the Yellow Belt credential. Those assignments have a Credential icon in the Exercise Title.

Black Belt exams have already been created and are available for all schools that have Digital Credentials enabled. You can filter for them by searching for "black". Each Black Belt exam has the credential icon in the Exam Title.

Credentialed assignments have an Assignment Preference, Credentials. When this is enabled the assignment can be used to earn a credential. The school can set the Threshold preference to be between 90% and 100%. This is the score required to earn the credential. Credentials cannot be set to a threshold lower than 90%.

Earned SIMnet Credentials can be viewed either by Course or by Student. To view all of the credentials that students have achieved in your course, select the course in the Classes section 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.

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.

Best Practices

How to get the most out of SIMnet when you set up SIMnet, throughout the semester, and after each semester is complete

Account Setup

Products, textbooks, ecommerce for account level vs. class level

Setting up your SIMnet account for the first time will ensure that your instructors and students have the right materials available for their courses and that you don't have to do any mid-semester fixes to keep everything running smoothly.

Campuses

SIMnet can provide access for different materials, courses, and options based on creating a separate campus. Campuses do not share textbooks, licensing options, gradebook settings, and course defaults. Setting up separate Campuses is a powerful tool when your school is going to use SIMnet very differently based on a separate campus, school section, or location.

Note: Setting up separate campuses means that you will need to edit many SIMnet settings by Campus. Setting up a campus should occur when the values of keeping textbooks and course offerings away from inappropriate users outweighs the hurdles of keeping each campus set up correctly.

To set up your school's Campuses, review

Products

In SIMnet, products are divided by versions of Microsoft Office and associated SIMnet content. In order to make any SIMnet materials available to instructors, you need to select a Product and add it to your school. For example, to assign any Office 365/2019 content you will need to add the SIMnet for Office 2019 product to your school. You may add multiple SIMnet products at the same time.

To set up your school's Products, review

Textbooks

Once you have added the desired Products to your school, you will need to add Textbooks to the Account and to each Campus. Selected textbooks determine which textbooks your instructors will be able to use to assign content to your courses. Adding the correct textbooks and removing old textbooks is a powerful tool to ensure that your instructors assign content that is intended by the school. Each Campus can have a separate set of assigned textbooks.

To set up your school's Textbooks, review

Activation Codes & Licenses

Licenses determine how your students purchase access SIMnet content. SIMnet contains a number of that may be made available to students. Matching the appropriate license to the appropriate course with the appropriate materials ensures that students have timely access to all of their textbooks and assignments.

Working with your bookstore to provide physical licenses that may or may not accompany a physical textbook requires no additional setup within SIMnet. Work with your McGraw Hill representative on selecting the appropriate print activation code for your course.

ECommerce licenses are purchased by students as they enroll in SIMnet. These offerings are set by the school administrators at the Account level. Multiple eCommerce options may be selected at the same time. Individual courses may use only a subset of the selected eCommerce offers.

Account Level Inclusive Access licenses are provided by the school automatically to each student as they create a SIMnet account. Setting up Inclusive Access requires working with your McGraw Hill representative.

Note: Activating Inclusive Access requires turning off the Self-Registration setting and deactivates Courtesy Access. These settings should not be edited when using Inclusive Access.

Course Level Inclusive Access Licenses

Course Level Inclusive Access licenses are provided by the school automatically to each student when they are enrolled in a specific course. Course Level Inclusive Access is used when Account Level Inclusive Access will not work because a particular course uses separate materials from the rest of the school. Setting up Inclusive Access requires working with your McGraw Hill representative.

Note: Course Level Inclusive Access can only be set up at the beginning of the semester before courses have been created. Course Level Inclusive Access cannot be added retroactively to courses that have already been created.

Archiving

Keeping SIMnet neat to help students and instructors find the right materials

Archiving

Archiving allows instructors to remove students, classes, lessons, exams and SIMpaths from their active lists and reports and store them in an archive list. This will not delete them but will help keep the account clean and organized, showing only current information. Whether you're archiving lessons, exams, SIMpaths, etc., the process and the archive screens are identical.

To archive:

Click on the Archive link in the section you want to archive items on the Left Navigation.
Click on the item(s) in the active list and click the Add button.
The item now appears in the Archived list.

Items that have been archived can also be unarchived at any time, making the item active again. To unarchive:

Click the item(s) you want to unarchive.
Click the Remove button.
The item now appears in the Active list.

Archiving for students follows the same process but is a bit different. An archived student can still log in and use their self-study materials but their account will not be deleted. Once a student account has been archived, their unique username cannot be used by another user.

Deleting content in SIMnet is significantly more permanent than Archiving. Unlike Archiving, Deleting cannot be done in bulk from a list. You must select each thing to be deleted individually and select Delete from the Actions menu. Deleting cannot be undone within SIMnet. In some limited circumstances Deleted content can be restored by contacting SIMnet Support.

Note: Students who have purchased content within SIMnet cannot be deleted within SIMnet. Students who have purchased content but would still like their account deleted must contact SIMnet support.

Gradebook

Course gradebook topics.

Reports

Report topics.

Student Results

Student results for Exams, Lessons, SIMbooks, SIMpaths, Resources, and Projects.

Courses

Users

My Account

The My Account navigation sections.

Communicate

Send and receive messages and announcements with the communicate section.

Instructors

Create, edit, and delete instructor accounts with the Instructors section.

Students

Create, import, enroll, edit, assign, and view reports for students.

Content

Lessons

Topics on viewing, creating, and assigning Lessons.

SIMbooks

Topics on viewing, assigning, and managing SIMbook assignments.