Skip to main content
All CollectionsCourse BuilderLesson Plan View
Developing a Lesson Plan Using View All Settings
Developing a Lesson Plan Using View All Settings
Naf avatar
Written by Naf
Updated over 9 months ago

Navigating the lesson plan editor

The “View All Settings” lesson plan editor has three different tabs:

  • Edit: Create the timeline to be used in class

  • View LP: The printable lesson plan that is generated (e.g., for teaching)

  • Resources: to edit or add new class resources

When you first open a lesson plan, you will be viewing the “edit” tab and the “Basic Class Information.” Most of the content in this section is populated from the syllabus, but there are some sections that require text additions.

Basic Class Information

When you first open a lesson plan, the “edit” tab and the “Basic Class Information” open by default. To re-navigate to this section, select “Basic Class Information” above the timeline in the left column of the lesson plan editor.

Most of the content in this section is populated from the syllabus, and any edits required to those aspects must be edited in the Syllabus Editor. There are other sections that require additions of text in the lesson plan editor here, each is indicated below.

  1. Purpose of today’s session: Add a big picture overview of the topics of the session.

  2. Session Overview: A student facing overview of the class.

  3. Learning outcomes: Populated from the Syllabus Editor

  4. Readings: Reading citations are populated from the Syllabus Editor, but a Why/Use for each reading should be added in the appropriate text box. The reading citations and Why/Use will be visible on the student’s dashboards in Forum once the class is published.

  5. Study Guide: Add a list of questions or key concepts that students should address before the session to help students focus on the correct aspects of the readings. The study guide will be visible on the student’s dashboards in Forum once the class is published.

  6. Pre-class work: When appropriate, add a pre-class work task that students should complete before class session. This should be work that will be drawn on in class. The pre-class work will be visible on the student’s dashboards in Forum once the class is published. Pre-class work can be designated either individual or group.
    ​
    If group work is selected, you will have to also indicate whether students should be allocated to groups by number of students per group (“group by students”) or by number of groups (“group by groups”) and make the desired selection from the second drop down menu (“Number of groups”). Note: All groups will have the same instructions, the text in this text box, so be clear what each group should do by including the group names (e.g., GROUP A will use the following text...).
    ​
    For pre-class work you can choose to have students submit responses in a Forum workbook. Hover over and then select the “Add workbook” button beneath the individual/group selection. A popup will prompt you to select a workbook from the lesson plan resources or to create a new resource. You can add and edit a workbook to use for pre-class work in the resources section of the lesson plan editor. We recommend using Forum workbooks for pre-class work because you can review student work ahead of the class session and can bring student responses into the Forum classroom if desired. Pre-class workbooks are locked to student editing after class begins.
    ​

  7. Background readings for faculty: Add any additional readings, resources, or citations that may be useful for faculty preparing to teach this class session. This will only be visible to faculty (not students) in the lesson plan PDF. This is also a good location for links to resources used in class (e.g., problem sets and answers, case studies, additional readings that offer a solution for a problem posed in class, etc.).

Glossary of terms for lesson plans

The lesson plan editor is structured so that the lesson plans translate directly to Forum and there is common language between them. For example, activities, steps, elements, and panes are terms that describe where they are visible in Forum.

Term

Explanation

Activity

Activities are a set of steps that cohesively lead students to a specific learning goal. Activities are visible in the timeline and bucket a number of steps. Their role is to help chunk the steps of a lesson plan into focused smaller units.

Step

A step is a task with a specific stage layout. An activity is a series of steps with a common focus. Each clickable timeline button is a step. Selecting a specific step in Forum will change the stage layout.

Element

An element is a resource or user that is featured on the stage within a pane. The elements are specified in Course Builder within each step.

Pane

A smaller section of the main stage in Forum. There may be 1-8 panes onstage at any time.

Stage layout

Identifies how many panes are onstage in Forum and describes their configuration. For example, odd numbered stage layouts (e.g., 3-up, 5-up) have a large pane on the left hand side and with even numbered stage layouts the stage is split equally among the number (i.e., 6-up, the stage is split into 6 equal panes).

Stage

The area in Forum which is visible to students and can be changed to accommodate different resources and users.

Timeline

The timeline is the list of clickable steps that is viewable in Forum after publishing. Instructors can select a step and change the stage layout during class. The timeline is the product of the Course Builder lesson plan editor and a preview of the timeline is in the left hand column of the “edit” tab in the lesson plan editor.

Lesson plan locking

Lesson plans can only be edited by one user at a time because if multiple users are editing at once, edits made by one user can be overwritten by another. Therefore, the lesson plans are automatically “locked” so that only one user at a time can edit a lesson plan.

If you try to open a lesson plan and another user currently has it open, you will get a message that the lesson plan is locked and the option to “steal the lock.”

If you steal the lock, then your version of the open lesson plan is the one being edited and if the other user tries to edit, he or she will find they are locked out of the lesson plan.

Best practices:

  • Make handoffs among lesson plan authors, reviewers and other users clear, so that one user is editing at a time.

  • Close lesson plans if you are not actively editing or reviewing (i.e., do not leave these tabs open on your computer unless you are actively working on them).

  • Before you steal a lock, contact the user who has it open to determine if he or she is actively editing or reviewing.

Using text boxes in the lesson plan editor

Text boxes throughout the lesson plan editor generally feature the same capabilities, with a few exceptions, noted below.

  • Formatting capabilities (all located in the text box toolbar): Create headers, add bulleted lists, add numerical lists, create blockquotes, create code blocks, bold text, italicize text, underline text, insert a link (i.e., select a portion of text and select “insert link” and add the url for the link in the pop-up window), insert an image (i.e., select “insert image”, follow instructions in the pop-up window to add an image from your computer, jpg or png, or from a url).

  • Notes:

    • Note the visibility of each text box in the bottom right corner. If “Visible only to faculty” the text box is visible only in the lesson plan PDF, which students do not see. If “Visible to faculty and students” students will see the text in Forum, either on their dashboards (e.g., pre-class work, readings why/use) or in class.

  • Images cannot be resized in the text boxes, so select smaller images to insert.

  • Exceptions to the above:

    • Poll question text box: any formatting, images, or links added to this text box do not translate in Forum where the poll question is viewed. Best practices are to include only text in the poll question (bold, italics and underlining text is fine) and feature any images, bulleted lists, or links in a separate resource onstage during the poll (e.g., in a 2-up with the poll on one side and the resource on the other side).

    • The slide editor works differently than the other text boxes, see that section within this documentation for more information.

Adding images

You can add images to lesson plans and assignments in Course Builder as long as they are in PNG, JPG, and sometimes PDF format. However, there are limitations to where you can add images. You can add images to any of the following:

  • Text boxes in lesson plans and in assignments (jpg, png). Click on the image icon (“Add an image”). Check where the image will be visible, most text boxes are visible only to faculty.

  • As a resource in the lesson plan editor (PDF, jpg, png)

  • As part of the instructions or questions within a Forum workbook. To add an image to a Forum Workbook, in any text box, click on the image button found in between the quotations and the code line buttons. A popup will prompt you to select an image from your computer to upload (jpg or png). The image will then appear in the text box alongside the text.

You cannot currently add images to the poll text. Instead, add the image as a resource and feature both the image and the poll onstage during the poll.

Best practices to ensure that your images look their best in Forum:

Because image sizes are not controlled, the best way to ensure that your images fit in the Forum pane they are featured in is to:

  1. Create a slide (using Google slides or PowerPoint). Print or export that slide (or set of slides) as a PDF, then upload the PDF as a resource to feature onstage.

  2. Insert the image into a Google document.

Building a Lesson Plan using “View All Settings”

Adding and editing activities in a lesson plan

Activities are a set of steps that cohesively lead students to a specific learning goal. Activities are visible in the timeline and bucket a number of steps. They are bookended by an introduction and a closure moment that introduce the Activity Learning Goal.

Add a New Activity

Add a new activity by selecting “Add an activity” at the bottom of the timeline in the edit tab of the lesson plan editor. From the pop up select an activity template (or a blank activity) to add to the lesson plan and reorder as described above.

Templates in the pop up include a list of the steps in the template. Some broad categories of Activity templates include:

  • Structural parts of a typical active-learning lesson plan: e.g., Class introduction, Preparatory Assessment, Common Confusions, Hook, Eye rest break, Wrap-up

  • Discussion-based activities: used for debates, discussions with a resource, Mazur-style peer instruction polls

  • Breakout-based activities: each include 1-2 breakouts and debriefs following those breakouts

Cloning activities is possible among different or the same lesson plans, although cloning an activity will not clone any resources attached within the activity. To clone an activity from another location:

  1. In the activity overview of the original activity to be cloned, click the three dots to the right of the total time and select “Copy to clipboard.” In the popup, select “Copy.”

  2. Navigate to the bottom of the lesson plan where you would like the activity to be copied to and select “Add an activity.” In the upper right corner of the popup select “Paste an activity.” Paste the link you copied to the clipboard from the original step.

  3. (Optional) To re-add resources if the activity that was cloned is in the same lesson plan simply attach the resource(s) to the proper element in the new activity. If the original activity is from a different lesson plan, return to the lesson plan of the original step and download any resources needed. Then upload those resources into the lesson plan with the new activity and attach the resource(s) in the correct places.

Edit an Activity

Edit activities by managing (i.e., deleting and adding) steps, which are viewable in the activity overview (select the activity title from the timeline to view). In this overview, you can:

  1. Reorder the activity: Hover your cursor to the left of the activity title and use the up and down arrows to move the activity in the timeline.

  2. Edit the activity title

  3. View the activity time: based on the total time allocated to steps in the activity. You cannot change the total activity time at the activity level, but you can change times at the step level and they will sum here.

  4. Edit “Notes for Faculty”: provide an overview of the activity including the overarching goals

  5. Add learning goals: Select “+Add learning goals” beneath the Notes for faculty

  6. View the current steps in the activity

  7. Add steps: Select “Add a step” and select a new step from the pop up.

  8. Delete an activity: Select the “...” button in the right of the activity header. When open, there is an option to delete the activity or to view the activity in the lesson plan PDF. Select “delete” and you will see a pop-up window asking if you really want to delete the activity (in case it was a mistaken selection!).

Adding and editing steps in an activity

A step is a task with a specific stage layout. An activity is a series of steps with a common focus. Each clickable timeline button is a step.

Add a New Step

Add a new step by selecting “Add a step” at the bottom of the list of steps in the activity overview (select the activity title from the timeline to view). From the pop up select a step template (or a blank step) to add to the activity and reorder as described above.

Some broad categories of Step templates include:

  • General and introductory steps: Activity Introduction, LO/Rubric Introduction, blank step, Eye break

  • Breakouts: Breakout Instructions, Breakouts, Feature Breakout Groups

  • Polls: Poll w/discussion, Pre-class work poll

  • Discussions: Discussion with resource

  • Featuring: Feature Breakout Groups

  • End of activity/class: Closure Moment, Reflection Poll

Cloning steps is possible among different or the same lesson plans, although cloning steps will not clone any resources attached to the step. To clone a step from another location:

  1. In the original step to be cloned, click the three dots to the right of the time allotted and select “Copy to clipboard.” In the popup, select “Copy.”

  2. Navigate to the activity where you would like the step to be copied to and go to the activity overview. Select “Add a step” and then in the upper right corner select “Paste a step.” Paste the link you copied to the clipboard from the original step.

  3. (Optional) To re-add resources if the step that was cloned is in the same lesson plan simply attach the resource to the proper element in the new step. If the original step is from a different lesson plan, return to the lesson plan of the original step and download any resources used in that step. Then upload those resources into the lesson plan with the new step and attach the resource(s) in the correct element of the step.

Edit Steps

Edit steps by managing (i.e., deleting and adding) elements and adding clear faculty instructions. To view the current step contents, select the step from the timeline in the left column of the lesson plan editor. Once in the step view, you can:

  1. Reorder the step within an activity: Hover your cursor to the left of the step title and use the up and down arrows to move the step within the activity (step order is viewable in the timeline).

  2. Edit the step title

  3. View and edit the stage layout: Select “Stage layout” to view the drop down menu of options. If you select an option that increases the current number of panes, the additional panes will feature users as elements as a default. If you choose to reduce the number of panes, it will delete the last elements in the list (e.g., if you have a 5-up with a resource and 4 users and reduce the stage layout to a 3-up the new layout will contain the resource and 2 users). The stage layout can also be changed by manually adding or deleting an element (which automatically updates the stage layout visible here).

  4. View and edit the step time: Time for each step can be edited by selecting “Time allotted” and typing in a new time.

  5. Edit Faculty Instructions: Provide clear instructions for the instructor to facilitate this step in the activity (i.e., what is the instructor doing?). Brief, bulleted instructions work well here. The text in this box is displayed for faculty in the notes field in the Forum timeline.

  6. Add engagement prompts: Select “+Add engagement prompt” from underneath the faculty instructions text box. The goal of engagement prompts is to provide the students with a clear reason to remain engaged in the following step (e.g., they have to answer a poll afterwards or they need this information for the next step). The text in this box is displayed for faculty in the notes field in the Forum timeline. Close this box by selecting the “X” in the upper right corner of the text box.

  7. Add focus questions: Select “+Add focus questions” from underneath the faculty instructions text box. Focus questions are useful for facilitating a discussion in class. Focus questions are visible only to faculty and are displayed for faculty in the notes field in the Forum timeline. Close these questions (e.g., if they are blank) by selecting the “X” in the upper right corner of the upper most text box.

  8. View, add, and delete the elements in the step: Elements are visible below the faculty instructions and focus questions. They will appear onstage in the classroom in the order they appear in this list (e.g., if a 3-up stage layout, the first element will be in the large left hand pane on stage). To add an element, select “Add an element” and select a new element from the pop up. To delete an element, select the “...” button in the far right of the element header and select “delete”.

  9. Delete a step: Select the “...” button in the right of the step header. When open, there is an option to delete the step or to view the step in the lesson plan PDF. Select “delete” and you will see a pop-up window asking if you really want to delete the step (in case is was a mistaken selection!).

Adding and editing elements in a step

Add a new element by selecting “Add an element” at the bottom of the list of elements in a step. From the pop up select an element to add to the step.

Some broad categories of elements include:

  • General: Resource (e.g., Google document, PDF, JPG, etc.), Feature User (e.g., random student, quiet student, teacher)

  • Breakouts: Breakouts (note: must be in a 1-up), Re-run breakout (i.e., run the same breakout again with the same students), Feature breakout user (you select from which breakout group a student will be chosen randomly), Feature Breakout Groups (creates a timeline button with each breakout group as a choice; selecting a specific breakout group in Forum will feature breakout notes + all students in the breakout)

  • Polls: Poll, Repoll, Poll Results, Poll Comparison (see discussion on Polls in another section of this resource)

  • Slides: Each slide option has a different template of header(s) and text, all are editable.

Notes:

  • Adding and deleting elements will automatically change the stage layout.

  • The order of elements in this list determines in which pane they appear on stage in the classroom (e.g., if a 3-up stage layout, the first element will be in the large left hand pane on stage). The location of a specific element on the classroom stage is indicated in the element header in the box to the left of the element type (above “Element type and placement”). Reorder elements by hovering your cursor to the left of the element title and using the up and down arrows to move the element within the element list (note the location change in the box to the left of the element title).

  • Delete an element by selecting the “...” button in the right of the element title/type. Select “delete” and you will see a pop-up window asking if you really want to delete the element (in case is was a mistaken selection!).

Adding and using poll questions in a Forum class

Poll elements are used to either ask a poll question for students to respond to in class or to feature poll results. Add a poll either as a templated step “Poll” or as an element in an already created step. There are four different poll elements that can be added:

  • Poll: A multiple choice, yes/no, or long form (i.e., 300 character narrative answer) question that students answer in class. In class, an instructor can feature poll results in this same step by selecting “End Poll” in Forum (i.e., so a poll results step is not necessarily needed).

  • Repoll: Prompts students to answer the exact same poll question as a previous poll question in a previous step. This is useful after a discussion of poll results, to repoll the students to see if any answers have changed.

  • Poll results: This element features the results of a poll that was answered in a previous step.

  • Poll comparison: Features the student responses to the original poll and a repoll of that poll.

Repoll, poll results, and poll comparison, require selection of a poll from earlier in the lesson plan.

Polls can be multiple choice, yes/no, or long form (i.e., short narrative answers). Other options include:

  • Grading: HC/LO gradable (on LOs from the course syllabus) or not gradable

  • Default Application Target (Optional): this helps us to later assess the types of questions we are asking students, the default should be Neither.

  • Whether to allow multiple answers from students (e.g., for a multiple choice poll with many potential answers)

  • Visibility: you must select whether an instructor can see all responses (this is the default) or students can see all responses (students would not see responses until the instructor ends the poll after all students have answered)

Best practices for poll questions:

  1. The text box for the poll text, titled “Question”, should only contain normal text. Any bullets, line breaks, equations, or images will not publish correctly into Forum. A good practice is to add only the question in this box.

  2. To feature images, long text passages, or equations during polls, add these as separate resources and feature the resource next to the poll question in a 2-up stage layout (e.g., to feature an equation, add a slide and use LaTeX to format the equation on the slide).

  3. Add the poll answer and any notes or explanations on the answer in the “Faculty Instructions” for the step that contains the poll.

  4. In most cases, the poll results can be shown and debriefed in the same step that students respond to the poll.

Adding and using Breakouts

Breakouts separate the students into smaller groups in separate “rooms” to work on a task. Add a breakout either as a templated step “Breakout” or as an element in an already created step. The breakout set up has a number of options to specify:

  1. Breakout title: Include a brief, informative title, this is integrated into breakout notes titles and is the name that the breakout will be referenced by in other later choices (e.g., feature breakout groups in a debrief).

  2. Group by & Group choice: Breakout groups can be sorted in different ways to better approach the learning goal of the breakout task. (See table below.)

  3. Duration: Use the dropdown menu to specify the duration of the breakout. This selection will be the time displayed on the clock in breakouts and determine when Forum will end the breakout. Note: The “Time allotted” at the step level also needs to be set manually, it will not automatically change with a different selection from the dropdown (e.g., The default breakout time is 10 minutes. If you have a shorter breakout, such as 5 minutes, you should also reset the time at the step level to allocate only 5 minutes for that step in the class timeline).

  4. Breakout notes content box: This is faculty facing only and will be visible on the lesson plan PDF.

  5. All Groups: Student-facing breakout notes must be added for each breakout here. (See “Adding breakout notes” below.)

Group by:

Group Choice:

Students

Select the target minimum number of students that should be randomly added to each breakout group.

Groups

Select the number of breakout groups flavors, the target number of students, and the students will be randomly allocated to different groups.

Poll

Select a previous multiple choice poll, a target number of students, and students will be placed into breakout groups based on their poll answer.

Shuffling Breakout

Select a previous breakout, students will be shuffled among groups in this second breakout, which will have the same number of breakout groups. For example, if you have 16 students in class and 4 different breakout groups in the first breakout, the 4 Group A students in first breakout will be separated in the second breakout so that there is one in each of the breakout groups.

Pre-class Work

Students will be placed into breakout groups that are the same as the pre-class work groups. Note: pre-class work must be designated as group work for the same session.

Grouping by Groups… what’s a flavor?

  • When setting up grouping by groups, you are not creating the literal groups, but rather describing types of groups. A flavor is a type of group. You give a name to each flavor and select a notes document for that group. The name of the flavor and the name of the notes doc should be similar to minimize confusion.

  • Based on the number of flavors, the target number of students, and the section enrollment, Forum will automatically create the necessary number of actual breakout groups. This group creation is a two-stage process: When the lesson plan is published, Forum looks at the number of students enrolled and creates an initial set of groups. Then, at the moment the breakout is started in class, Forum looks at how many students are present and moves students to make the distribution as even (and as close to the target number) as possible.

Similarly, if you set up a breakout to group by "Polls", you will now also need to specify the target number of students. Each poll response becomes a flavor, and Forum creates the right number of groups based on the student answers and target number.

Adding breakout notes:

  • Most resource types can be added as breakout notes (e.g., Forum workbooks, Forum docs, Google sheets, pdf, cocalc, whiteboards).

  • Only one resource can be selected as the breakout notes for a specific breakout (e.g., if students need both instructions and a whiteboard, prompt students to pull in a whiteboard in the breakout instructions).

  • Most breakout grouping choices use the same breakout notes duplicated for all breakout groups. One exception, if you have selected “Group by” > “Groups” and selected a number of groups an option to have different breakout notes for each group type (i.e., flavor) is added here.

NOTE: If you want each group of each flavor to have different documents, then you also select "Separate copy for each group", build each group a different document in the resources tab, and then select these appropriately for each breakout group. But, if you want all groups of the same type to all be typing in the same document, select “Shared resource between groups”

Add breakout notes using one of the following methods. In both cases the breakout notes need to be edited or added in the “Resources” tab of the lesson plan editor.

  1. Select breakout notes from the dropdown menu, which will list all of the resources currently in the “Resources” tab of the lesson plan editor. [Note: we recommend creating breakout notes as a Forum workbook in the resources tab, see the article on “Adding resources to a lesson plan”].

  2. Select “Create new Google doc,” which will create a blank Google doc using “NOTES FOR” + the title of your breakout. The breakout instructions need to be added to this document in the “Resources” tab of the lesson plan editor.

Adding resources to a lesson plan

In the resources tab of the lesson plan editor you can edit existing resources or add new resources for use in the class. Uses in class include as breakout notes or featured on the main stage.

To edit an existing resource, select that resource from the current list of resources in the left hand menu.

To add or create a new resource, open the drop down menu “Choose resource type” under “Create a new Resource.” You can create new resources that are listed in this dropdown menu (e.g., Forum workbooks, Forum code books, Google Documents, Whiteboard, Python notebook,), link secure urls (i.e., “https”) to show in class, or upload a resource from your computer. File types allowed for upload include: pdf, jpg, png [Note: we recommend PDF over jpg and png, because the images will size to the pane on the Forum stage].

Forum workbooks, code workbooks, and docs

All breakout workbooks/docs are created in Course Builder, on the "Resources" page of the lesson plan editor. A Forum Workbook can also be added as Pre-Class Work, for the participant to complete and bring to the start of the session.

Workbooks vs Forum Docs

Workbooks are a Minerva Resource that allow students to collaborate on work within a breakout, similar to Forum Docs. Students can work on Forum workbooks during breakout sessions.

The main difference between Forum Docs and Forum Workbooks is that Docs are unstructured documents and Workbooks are structured. Hence, authoring and use of them are also different: Docs are filled with content by an instructor and then just copied as-is for use. Workbooks are created using a mix of exercises or questions that students can fill out, and instructions that are read-only. Furthermore, Workbooks can be assigned as pre-class work, Docs can't. Workbooks can be rolled up, which means you can view a summary of all the student answers for a particular question within the Workbook. Forum Code Workbooks are similar to regular Workbooks, but they allow for code blocks to be integrated and run within the workbook.

To create a workbook or Forum document that can be used for breakouts or pre-class work:

  1. Select the “Resources” tab within the Lesson Plan editor. From the “Create a New Resource” dropdown, select either “Forum Workbook” or “Forum Code Workbook” or “Forum doc”.

    1. To edit a Forum doc, just type in the text box. This text will be editable by students in the breakout.

    2. To edit the workbook, begin by adding elements (i.e., instructions, free response, multiple choice, table question, code block). Edit the question or instructions text, which will be locked to student editing in the classroom. And specify the response type (length of free response or multiple choice, or tables). You can preview the workbook before attaching it to the lesson plan step.

    3. Then, in the “Edit LP” tab, select the step where you would like the workbook attached and select the workbook that you created from the dropdown.

Clone a Workbook

Forum Workbooks and Forum Code Workbooks can be cloned across lesson plans and courses for various purposes. To clone a workbook, select the original workbook from the Resources tab of a given lesson plan.

  1. Copy the original workbook’s Resource URL link.
    ​

  2. Create a new workbook. This can be within the same lesson plan, or in a different lesson plan entirely. Select Clone Existing Workbook from the Add an element dropdown menu.
    ​

  3. Paste in the Resource URL that was previously copied and click Ok. All of the content from the original workbook except the Resource Name should now appear in the new workbook.

Add an image to a workbook

Images can be added to Forum Workbooks alongside the text via upload. To add an image:

  1. While inside a Forum Workbook, click on the image button, found in between the quotations and the code line buttons. This can be found in any type of Forum Workbook elements.
    ​

  2. The page will prompt you to upload an image. Select an image from your computer to upload (jpg or png). The image will then appear in the text box.

Adding a video to a lesson plan

Videos can be featured in a class session, but not downloaded into the class. To feature a video you can:

  1. In Course Builder: Add a URL to the lesson plan, either in the resources tab of the lesson plan editor or as an element (add a “resource, “ select “create new url” and then select the url you would like to feature). The URL must be secure (i.e., “https”). YouTube videos are supported in both Course Builder and Forum. This is the most stable option and we recommend uploading video clips to YouTube and adding the URL to the lesson plan.

  2. In Forum: Screenshare the video from the faculty computer. This can work for videos on non-secure websites or on your own computer. This is less stable because video sound may not be audible to students.

Managing the classroom set up using “View All Settings”

Defining and changing the stage layout

The stage layout identifies how many panes are onstage and describes the configuration. For example, odd numbered stage layouts (e.g., 3-up, 5-up) have a large pane on the left hand side and with even numbered stage layouts the stage is split equally among the number (i.e., 6-up, the stage is split into 6 equal panes).

A visual guide to stage layout is viewable in each step (located in the step header) and each element (located before the element name in the element header). The stage layout in the element indicates in which pane the specific element will be featured.

Stage layout can be changed in increased or reduced in two ways:

  1. In the header of a step select “Stage layout” to view the drop down menu of options. If you select an option that increases the current number of panes, the additional panes will feature users as elements as a default. If you choose to reduce the number of panes, it will delete the last elements in the list (e.g., if you have a 5-up with a resource and 4 users and reduce the stage layout to a 3-up the new layout will contain the resource and 2 users).

  2. Adding and deleting elements will automatically change the stage layout.

Managing class time in the lesson plan editor

Timing for a lesson plan can be viewed in a number of locations, but edited only at the step level.

  1. The total class session time allocated in a lesson plan is tallied in the header bar of the lesson plan editor (under “Duration”). All lesson plans start with 10 minutes of flex time built into this total time, even if the lesson plan is blank. This flex time can be used to extend an activity or clear any confusions at the discretion of the instructor in class.

  2. Time per activity is visible (neither are editable):

    1. In the timeline to the right of the activity title. The timing here is shown as the approximate start and end time of the activity in the lesson.

    2. In the header bar of the activity (select the activity name from the timeline and view the activity introduction) on the right hand side “Total time.”

  3. Time per step is visible in the header bar of the step, to the right of the step title “Time allotted”). Time for each step can be edited by selecting “Time allotted” and using the drop down menu.

Editing and using slides in lesson plans

Slides are used to feature text for students in class (e.g., Activity Learning Goal, a discussion prompt, session summary). Slides can be added to lesson plans as part of activity and step templates (e.g., Activity Learning Goal) or as an element. The different slides listed as options when adding an element are different templates, all of which can be edited.

Editing slide is similar to text boxes, but with slightly different features:

  1. Headers at multiple levels and normal text

  2. Lists: bullets and numbering

  3. Add page: used to separate multiple slides

  4. Text formatting: bold, italics, underline

  5. Equation editor (𝑓ₓ): adds a LaTeX editor within the slide to enter equations

  6. Notes: no imagery can be added to slides, feature images by uploading a different resource to feature onstage (e.g., PDF, JPG, PNG, Google document)

Doing calculations in a Forum classroom

Forum has a number of features to support computational classes that require students to do calculations. It is simple to build these into your lesson plans in Course Builder:

  1. Slides: Have a built-in LaTeX editor to show equations in class.

  2. Resources:

    1. Forum Code workbooks: featuring integrated Python, R, Sagemath, and Julia coding; you can also add text based questions into a Forum code workbook

    2. Whiteboards: you can draw using a mouse, trackpad, or tablet

    3. PDFs: you can upload a PDF with and equation on it to feature in class and can draw on these if needed using the drawing tool

    4. Google Docs + equation editor (View > Show equation toolbar > New equation)

    5. Google sheets: If a spreadsheet would be effective.

You may want to have students do calculations in breakouts. They can use many of the same tools in breakouts:

  • Forum code workbooks

  • Google docs + equation editor

  • Google sheets

  • Students can bring in whiteboards as needed but breakout instructions in Google docs or Cocalc (as a pdf) are best (just indicate to students in the instructions that they should pull in a whiteboard).

Did this answer your question?