Monitor student progress

As students work through an Applied Digital Skills lesson, it’s important to support and guide students. Monitor their progress to help them succeed. 

Here are some tips from current teachers and students who are using the lessons: 

1. Some students may be concerned about “perfection” in their projects while working on a lesson. These students may benefit from reminders that it’s fine if their project isn’t perfect and that they can go back later to change style choices, like colors and fonts. 
    
2. Students may sometimes have difficulty coming up with ideas for their project. If brainstorming is not a key skill in your lesson objectives, provide a list of topics and ideas that they can use if they get stuck. You may also collect images that are free to use before class so students will not need to search for their own images. 
    
3. During group projects, group dynamics may lead to one student monopolizing the conversation or another being hesitant to offer ideas. Groups experiencing this type of issue may benefit from support to help ensure each has a chance to participate equally. 
    
4. Discuss group digital etiquette with students, such as being careful not to delete each other’s work and not adding content to a cell if they see someone else in it.
    
5. If specific guidelines are not given for a project in the video’s directions, offer guidance on the format, content, and length you would like. Or, adjust the guidelines that are given to better fit your needs.
    
6. Preview the lesson to determine if it has tasks or concepts that may be unfamiliar or challenging for students, such as: 
    

   ALL	SHEETS	DOCS
   Cropping/resizing an image	Conditional formatting	Inserting a page break
   Locating different tools	Data validation
   Moving between/resizing windows	Wrapping text
   Using the undo/redo buttons

   
   We recommend that you introduce and walk students through the skills that are applicable to the lesson before watching the videos.

 

7. Review the vocabulary that is listed at the beginning of each lesson plan before and after the lesson. While the terms will be mentioned and demonstrated in the lesson, it is good reinforcement to preview the terms with students before the lesson and review them after.
    
8. If students seem to have trouble remembering the steps of each video, demonstrate that they can move to different sections by clicking on portions of the transcript, shown below each video. Videos can also be sped up or slowed down as needed using the Playback Speed dropdown.