Pre-Team Creation

Before your team is created, you need to select the members of your staff or department who will serve as coaches. Then, discuss the best strategies for organizing and managing students in the EduGuide Program before your team launches. The EduGuide program is adaptable but be sure to plan for an approach that works best for the team.

Who should serve as coaches?

EduGuide teams offer four coaching roles: Admin, Team Captain, Lead, and Support. You will want to select a handful of staff members who can serve as Admin Coaches, and most classroom teachers will be Lead Coaches. The Support Coach role can be assigned to those who will be observing students or assisting Admin and Lead coaches.

What do coaches need in order to get started on the team?

Hardware Requirements

Coaches can use a laptop, desktop, tablet, or mobile device to to register on the site; however, things might go more smoothly if they use a laptop or desktop computer rather than a tablet or mobile device.

Registration Information

When teachers register on the site, they will be asked to enter four pieces of information:

  • Job Role at the Organization
  • Organization Name
  • Email Address (username)
  • Password

It is important to remember the email address and password used to register as they will be required to log-on to the program.

Student Information

It helps to have a class list available so that you can compare it to the list of students in your group with the team.

General Understanding of the Platform and Path system

The site can be broken up into three main areas:

  • Your personal account
  • Team, Team management, and Metrics
  • Path System

Coaches will have access to all three parts, but students only have access to the path system and their personal account area.

Coaches will spend the most time using the Metrics area where they can track students’ progress and respond to comments. Check out your team’s library for more information on coaching coaching students in the path.

When coaches join the site, they will be automatically taken into their professional path. The path coaches work on covers the same lessons as the students’ path, but includes additional tips and tools to provide further program information for teachers. The very first activity in the professional path provides an orientation of the EduGuide program as well as video tutorial which are helpful for coaches.

What naming convention should we use for the groups?

How you name your groups will depend on how you are organizing your students, how your team’s auto groups feature is configured, and also the different ways in which you will be grouping your students.

This is important because other than helping to organize the students within the team groups naming conventions:

  • Are used to filter the views in the Metrics page.
  • Can be followed by coaches
  • Coaches who follow a specific group will get regular reports related to that group via email

What materials or equipment do students need?

Similar to coaches, students can access the EduGuide website via a computer, tablet, or mobile device. During registration, students will be asked for their names, email addresses, and passwords. It is important that they remember the email address and password that they enter during registration, because they will be use them later to log back in.

When will students begin?

This date will depend on your school’s schedule. When you setup your team, you will be prompted for a student start date. This date is also included in the invitations that are sent to other coaches.

Who will you contact locally when you have technical questions?

It would be helpful to give your IT department or consultant firm a heads- -up that your school will be using EduGuide’s online program. Also, let them know that you will be asking for their help running an IT test for their team. During setup, you will be prompted for the email address of an IT technician who supports your school.

When should we hold a staff launch meeting?

As a part of your launch process, you will be prompted to set up a date for your team’s launch meeting. This is a chance to share more about the EduGuide Program and answer any of the above questions that still need clarification.

Team Setup

Team setup goes very quickly once your Team has been created and Coaches begin responding to Invitations. Only Admin Coaches and Team Captains are automatically shown the team Setup page as they join the site so that they have an opportunity to respond. Lead and Support Coaches are not shown the Team Setup pages and are taken directly into their paths when they log in.

They will be asked for the following:

  • Auto Groups - Auto Groups is turned on by default, but a step in the Team Setup page will give you the option of turning it off if you wish. This depends on how you will be using groups in the team. When Auto Groups is turned on, groups will automatically be created when Lead Coaches join If you do not want this to happen, or if you prefer to create all groups manually, then you may want to turn this feature off.
  • Invite Team Captains - Team Captains have all of the same abilities as Admin Coaches, but serve as a coordinator for the team, assisting coaches with questions and ensuring that everything in the team goes smoothly. Team Captains and Admin Coaches are the primary contacts for coordinated communication. Team Captains will schedule support for implementation with their EduGuide Results Coach.
  • Schedule IT Testing. You will want to schedule IT Testing as soon as possible so that EduGuide’s website can be tested and any issues resolved before your students begin to join your team. During the IT testing process, your network administrator or technician will be asked to confirm the configuration of your school’s organization as well as complete a series of sample activities.
  • Invite Team Coaches - This is where you go when you are ready to invite coaches to the team, but also the place to check when you have questions about the status of your invitations. You can also send send reminder invitations to those coaches that are late in joining the team or emails to coaches reminding them to get started with their student groups.

Prior to Launching with students

There are a number of actions coaches can take after setup has begun on the team, but before their team has been launched.

  • Complete your professional path. The orientation activity will be delivered to coaches before the first activity that students will be completing, Your Path to Growth. Reviewing the activities gives team coaches an understanding of topics covered and and the types of questions students will be asked.
  • Review the resources in your team library. Many of the documents in the library offer information and tips on how to coach students in the path system.
  • Complete your professional path. The activities will give you an idea of topics students will be asked, and the types of questions they will be asked.
  • Finalize your group structure. Make a note of the groups students will be joining, and which groups you will want coaches to follow.
  • Follow up with IT Support and confirm successful completion of test. A green checkmark will appear next to your IT Support professional’s name in the IT Testing portion of the team setup page when the test has been completed and passed.
  • Familiarize yourself with the website. Explore the main menu options and tools available for coaching on the metrics page.

On the Day that Students Launch

Each Lead Coach in the classroom with students will guide learners through the process of joining the team and starting the first activity in the path. Lead Coaches will need to be ready to provide the following information:

  • Join Code or URL for their group. This can be found on the “Group Management” page. You can find this information by clicking on “Invite Members” next to a specific group.
  • Instructions for joining. Students will either go to http://join.eduguide.org and then enter in the group join code, or they will use the join URL. They will be guided through the registration process.

It is helpful to describe to students what EduGuide is and to explain the benefits to them. This helps to invoke enthusiasm.

There is a handout available in the team library which contains instructions for students to follow as well as a place where coaches can enter their group’s join information. Alternatively, teachers can choose to electronically share join information via a hyperlink provided.

The first activity that students complete contains a survey and will take a little longer than average to complete. This survey is followed up at the end of the year with a second survey which measures students’ growth and help with the analysis of students’ progress.