Tuesday, September 12, 2017

ClassLink Portal Launch for 6-8 Students

Today we are launching the WUSD ClassLink Portal for our Middle School Students in Grades 6-8.  We will be livestreaming throughout the day a 15 minute demonstration that will walk students through how to access ClassLink, set up their accounts, and establish Single Sign On for their ConnectED accounts.

English Teachers can display the stream to their classes during the following times.  Please refresh this page to get the URL for your Live Stream.

To take full advantage of this brief overview, have students logged into their devices in advance with the district website open in Chrome and student login information to ConnectED readily available.

Monday, September 11, 2017

ClassLink Portal Launching Today for 9-12 Students

Today marks the beginning of our ClassLink Single Sign On (SSO) portal rolling launch.  We are focusing first on our 9-12 Students using ConnectED/Study Sync in their English Classrooms.

We are hosting a series of 15 minute Live Streams throughout the day via our WUSD Tech YouTube Channel that will walk students through accessing the new WUSD ClassLink Portal, setting up account preferences, and establishing SSO with ConnectED.

Join us at the following times on our WUSD Tech YouTube Channel.  The URLs change for each Live Stream.  I will post them below. Please refresh this page for the most up-to-date- URL.  Teachers you need to be logged into your District Google Account to display the LiveStreams.
We will be hosting another series of Live Streams for our Middle School English Classes tomorrow, Tuesday, September 12, 2017.  Following successful launch for our secondary students, we will be focusing on our TK-5 Classrooms.

Monday, September 4, 2017

09012017 Technology Update: Lexia, Class Link, and Aeries Student Portal Accounts

Happy September!

Lexia:


All classes for grades 6-8 ELA have been created in Lexia. If 6-8 English teachers are planning on using this resource, please see the instructions below:


Teacher login to Lexia:

  • Go to myLexia.com login page
  • Username: District email address
  • Password: If you do not remember your password, click on the link “Forgot password” and create a new password. Passwords should be the same as last year.


Student login to Lexia:

  • Go to the Lexia login in the bookmark folder on the Chromebooks
  • Username is student email – yes, the entire address (please do not change this or create new accounts for students, the automation will delete these accounts
  • Password is 5 digit perm ID
We learned last week that Single Sign On is not available for Lexia through Class Link. This is not a Class Link issue, but a Lexia issue and we are asking for Lexia to make the integration with Class Link a priority as it creates unnecessary barriers for student use. In Class Link there will be a link to Lexia for students and staff to click on, but they will have to login again. We have heard very loud and clear how challenging the long email address is to type for our youngest students. We have been working with Lexia this past week to rewrite our automated script to include just the first part of the student email address and to remove the @wusdstudents.org for the user name. We did several tests and finally were able to get it to work this morning, but it was with a student account with no data. I have an open ticket with Lexia to make sure that when this automation is ran, that it is modifying the username and not replacing the user account because we have already started assessing students. I will keep everyone posted as to what the final answer is, but please know we are working behind the scenes to make this as easy as possible once we learned that SSO is not possible due to Lexia not offering this option for Class Link.

Class Link (Single Sign On):


We met with Class Link this past week and are still working on some of the errors with automatic rostering for ThinkCentral (K-5 Math). Rostering is being performed through an industry standard called “OneRoster” that extracts data from Aeries and provides the necessary formatted files to our vendors on a nightly sync. This creates all of the accounts and organizes our classes so that teachers or technology staff do not have to manage the comings and goings of students. We are massaging the script from Aeries to get the specific data for ThinkCentral to work for us. Class Link allows us to have one dashboard that shows all of the different services teachers and students use that can be either entered without signing in or, in the case of Lexia, signing in (Lexia does not support OneRoster). We are piloting the beta version of Class Link today in a classroom and will continue to fine tune the set up in the coming week. We are working as quickly and diligently as possible to deliver this dashboard to you, but want to make sure that it functions properly and does not present any barriers.

Aeries Student Portal Account


We have automated the creation of Aeries Portal Accounts for our Middle and High School students.

When a new student enters the district, our automation systems create a computer username, and a student email. Once the student’s email account has been created, the Student’s Aeries Portal Account will be created. An email will be sent to the student’s district email from AeriesAdmin@wusdstudents.org with instructions for logging into their account.

We have removed the need for students to provide a Verification Code or Primary phone number – they just log in using their @wusdstudents.org email address and the random password provided in the confirmation email. Once students are logged in, they can click on their profile settings to update their password.

If you have students that cannot access their Aeries Portal Accounts, please call Christy Jourdan at the Helpdesk, 916-376-7999, or put in a helpdesk ticket for assistance.


It has been an incredibly busy 2.5 weeks for the Technology department as we are working to roll out many new services for our students. We thank you for your patience, support, and feedback!

Have a restful weekend and happy Labor Day!