Hi Rob
Where would you put this info about behaviour in iDoceo and export? In “Gradebook” “Diary” or “Notes”
The people using Planbook.com in this thread. Does it allow one to log notes about each student’s behaviour and then export easily and send to parents via email?
You could either add a text column to the grade book, or create a note that is associated with the student. The latter would make sense if you want to record it separately from the grades and you do not want it appearing on reports.
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Thanks Rob! Can I send you PM? It sounds like you really have the grip on this app while it seems so confusing to me.
Sure, go ahead. I’ll be able to help you get started.
Thanks for reviving this question, @andreasl. I hadn’t seen it before and I have several contributions I’d like to make to the conversation.
- I use Tinderbox to plan my syllabus
- I’ve been using Google Slides for homework and in-class assignments
- I’m using Trello to support student team work
I’ll be blogging about Tinderbox and Trello sometime in the future, but here’s a blog post that documents how I’m using Google Slides. I hope some of you find it helpful.
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Help with improving workflow on creating and sending student reports using iDoceo
This is a rather long post, written on a long cross-Atlantic flight to Toronto en route to Mexico, on the drawbacks of using an iPad Pro without the possibility of direct text expansion from Text Expander in any field on iOS except the apps that support it. If you’re an educator, use iDoceo, and/or rely on text expansion in any form on iOS wihtout access to a Mac, I would love to get your input.
I have a class 4 days a week. After each class, I take notes on each student’s behaviour. Every Friday afternoon, I send my report to the student’s parents by email through iDoceo. The idea is that the parents will talk with their kids about their behaviour in class.
But this is quite time-consuming when considering the rather low effect it has.
So I have set up a workflow that I need some help improving, i.e. thoughts on how to make it faster and better.
I use an iPad Pro and Smart Keyboard exclusively - I don’t own a Mac anymore.
My current workflow:
- After each class, I have a recurring to-do in Things that reminds me to write notes on each student’s behaviour.
The Notes section and notes look like this in iDoceo on iPad:
The Notes section in iDoceo requires me to enter a title and then the note itself. I create new notes in iDoceo each Monday afternoon. The note then lasts until Friday at which point it is sent to the parents using the email icon in the top left of the note. I hold on to the sent note iDoceo so that I can revisit it later. When pressing the mail icon, iDoceo opens a new email dialogue in Mail.app with the parents’ email already inserted along with the note itself in the new message.
- First I have to insert the days of the week of which my report has been written. I have created a TextExpander snippet that unfolds the following:
Monday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
- I can’t use the automatic text expansion on iOS here, because it doesn’t let me create subordinate lines like the above. I can only type in a single line like this: “Monday Wednesday: Thursday: Friday:”
- That doesn’t really make sense, so I have to use TextExpander in a Drafts note and then copy that and insert it into each field. It’s a pain and any thoughts on how to make that go quicker would be great.
- One way to solve it is to link and sync my TextExpander snippets to iCloud and then do an text expansion with TextExpander directly into the “Replace text” dialog in Settings—>Keyboard on MacOS. A text expansion in that field will automatically create subordinate lines like the ones I want:
Monday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
- Then I have to enter the title of the weekly report each Friday. Initially, I created a Text Expander snippet that said: “Weekly report, week [insertion of single text field]”
- But this snippet also requires me to open Drafts, but it is only something I do once a week. I can copy that text and insert it as the title in each new note in iDoceo.
- But I would actually like some help with creating a smart date snippet in TextExpander on iOS that automatically inserts the dates of the current week, like this: “Weekly report, 23/09/19-27/09/19”. I can then copy that and insert it in the title field of each note in iDoceo
- If someone can help me set that up then that would be great.
- The next stage is inserting automatic text expansion in the note in iDoceo. Initially, I had created three TextExpander snippets that comprised good, bad and neutral student behaviour. But I can’t insert that directly into iDoceo when using a Smart Keyboard. So I initially wanted to use Drafts and insert the text there and then copy that for each student to iDoceo. Using Drafts and TextExpander would also allow me to insert the student’s name in the note, which makes it more personal. But it takes too long (I am aware that this the catch for using an iPad Pro exclusively)
- So instead, I have created three text expansions in
iOS Settings—>Keyboard—>Replace text. The drawback is the lack of names in the report and it is very hard to avoid using names or pronouns of the student when using a generic text expansion. But it saves a lot of time and switching between apps, so it is much faster.
- Then I have to send the email and I do that using iDoceos link to Mail.app. However, one problem here is that my work email is not my standard account in Mail.app. So with the sending of each note, I have to change the “From:”-address manually.
- Any thoughts on how to avoid that problem would be nice.
If anyone has read this to it’s completion, then I would sure welcome thoughts and ideas on how to improve this further. All suggestions are welcomed.
Hopefully my workflow, imperfect as it is, could inspire something to use it.
Thanks for reading.
I have to wonder whether the back and forth from Drafts and iDoceo would be solved differently. What if you did all the scripting and composing work in Drafts with Textexpander where the combined power can be utilized to its fullest. When complete, you copy the end result to mail and iDoceo.
—
JJW
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Thanks for your feedback! I considered that, but then I would have to have a draft for each student and still go back and forth. Using the built-in iOS text expansion lets me do it much faster, although it’s generic. I really hope Apple will support TE through the Smart Keyboard. But of course that isn’t much help if the app doesn’t support it right? I just wrote to iDoceo and they say for security reasons they wouldn’t really consider 3rd party integration like TextExpander, basically
Back to the op.
I teach history at the college level and have a completely paperless classroom. For a little bit of context, I do not lecture or present pre-defined PowerPoint/keynote slides. I utilize the Socratic method and project-based learning to organize the course as a whole and daily dialogue in class. Technology is central do every aspect of my teaching.
Tech:
iPad Pro, pencil and some digital whiteboard app (currently Goodnotes, sometimes ExplainEverything): I do not use the whiteboard or traditional chalkboard, but instead write everything into an app projected on the screen. This could also involve videos, images, diagrams, etc. and will end up being shared with all students.
- I use DEVONthink to go as a drag-and-drop “bucket” in slide-over to draw from as a dialogue with students.
- Google earth and or Google maps as a method of presentation of the world (I teach history). If I choose to, I take a quick screenshot and drag and drop that into the whiteboard and market up there.
- I hook up the iPad Pro wirelessly to an Apple TV so that I am not confined to the lectern.
- depending on the instructional theme of the day, I may use Notion in slide over or alternatively a second iPad as a repository for on demand facts, figures and historical “Storylines” (because who can remember all of that stuff).
- once Catalina comes out, I may utilize the second screen feature to improve resolution options - Since most projectors are not easily customizable for faculty. since most projectors are not easily customizable for faculty.
Notion.so app: I utilize Notion as a course dashboard. While my campus utilizes Canvas, I find it too restrictive, limiting, and cumbersome as a method of distributing resources. I still use canvas as a secure place to submit assignments, give feedback, and communicate.
DEVONThink 3: I utilize DT 3 as a second brain. I capture podcasts, websites, journal articles, books, notes…everything. I utilize many of the features of DEVONthink such as OCR, wiki links (creating a personal knowledge management wiki), advanced search, custom meta-data, and a variety of other tools.
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This is great. Thanks for the post! Would love to pick your brain more about how you organize and plan everything out, and how you go about planning (or not) the “whiteboarding”.
Ask away. As I tell me students, send me as many emails (messages) as you desire, and let me respond as is appropriate for my schedule 
.
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What are your class sizes?
Between 40-100 students.
This is great! I teach Biomedical Science very much the same way… Discussion with the students is key. It engages them and gives the teacher a clear sense of how people are doing. Retrieval Practice is a key part of this too. I do, however, rely on Google Slides as the starting point of my info and expand as the class proceeds. I share the slides “Live” with my students using Schoology.
I’d love to hear more about DT Pro 3…
Just out of curiosity…with Airtable, Google Docs and other solutions recommended for tracking students+progress+whatever, GDPR is an issue, at least for EU/EEA countries. Is your DPO/director/board OK with it or not even aware of it? Are AirTable, Google Docs (and the data stored in it) registered, as required, in the record of processing activities?
I hate taking attendance… I use Shortcuts to send a QR code to Airtable with the time that students arrive. It auto populates a list of students that should be here, but aren’t, too.
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Brilliant. We still use a pen and paper 
Maybe consider using Airtable and Zapier. I do something where I have a Google Doc template that pulls information from Airtable and Shortcuts via Zapier.
If you logged behavior in Airtable, made your TextExpander snippet a template in Google Docs, then you could trigger it at the end of each week through Shortcuts, and maybe even draft the email at the end.
I have more info on my blog for how I do something similar, if this might work for you: http://organizedmusician.com/2019/08/10/creating-contracts/
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A good point, @Lars. For our university, Google Suite are all FERPA compliant, but most other tools are not. Students can use them of their own volition, but we can’t use them for class purposes, or use any of those platforms to discuss or reveal grades.