Teacher Portal

Last updated: 07.12.2021 Editor: David Jenkins

Understanding the Teacher Portal

The teacher portal is the primary access point for all teachers (often representing schools) participating in the challenge. This section offers a detailed insight into the current features of the Wavumbuzi teacher portal and how teachers can navigate and interact with it to participate in the challenge.

Accessing & Navigating the Teacher Portal

Teachers can access the teacher portal after registering to participate in the challenge via the Wavumbuzi website. The purpose of the registration process is to collect important user data and issue users with unique login criteria as a means of participating in the challenge.

The steps involved in the teacher registration process is detailed in the Challenge Software page in the CRM & Systems section of this playbook. It is the responsibility of the CRM & Systems Manager to keep this documentation up to date at all times.

The Teacher Role

The teacher portal is designed to facilitate teacher engagement in three key areas:

1. Activating and managing teachers and learners affiliated to their school;

2. Tracking the progress of teachers and learners affiliated to their school, and

3. Earning points for their school (by completing reviews).

These key areas are highlighted on the landing page of the teacher portal, alongside a fourth area which stores key resources (such as tutorial videos and activation packs) for teachers to easily access.

(1) User Activation & Management

Teachers are responsible for managing (and activating) two types of users in the system: (i) fellow teachers; and (ii) their learners. When in the system, these user can further be allocated to classes (which can be setup by teachers to manage multiple subsets of users affiliated with their school).

User Activation

Teachers who have registered for Wavumbuzi are encouraged to activate/invite both their colleagues and their learners to join the challenge, which is made easy via the invitation form in the 'activations' tab of the teacher portal.

For instructions on how teachers can send invitations to their colleagues, refer to the Inviting Fellow Teachers article on the Wavumbuzi Knowledge Center.

For instructions on how teachers can send invitations to their learners, refer to the Inviting Learners article on the Wavumbuzi Knowledge Center.

User Management

In addition to inviting learners and fellow teachers, teachers are also able to manage these users' accounts. Typically this involves (a) removing learner and teacher accounts; and (b) managing learner school join requests.

(a) Managing Learner/Teacher Accounts

On occasion learners and fellow teachers register multiple accounts, which makes it difficult to keep track of their progress and levels of activity. Alternatively, teachers may invite a learner or teacher to represent their school in the challenge, who subsequently changes school. In these instances teachers will need to remove the student/teacher account from their school.

For instructions on how teachers can remove student/teacher accounts from their school, refer to the Removing Duplicate Accounts article on the Wavumbuzi Knowledge Center.

(b) Managing Learner School Join Requests

In addition to registering to participate in the challenge via invitation from their teacher, learners can also register of their own volition via the Wavumbuzi website. During the registration process, they will be prompted to choose the school in which they attend. This will trigger a request in the teacher portal (for teachers of the associated school) to join this school. It is the responsibility of the teachers managing that school to approve or deny these requests. If requests are approved, that learner will be able to start earning points for that school, and their progress can be tracked in the teacher portal.

For instructions on how teachers can process join requests from learners who wish to represent their school in the challenge, refer to the Managing Learner School Join Requests article on the Wavumbuzi Knowledge Center.

Note: those learners who have been invited to register for the challenge via the teacher portal will have their school join requests approved automatically, as these types of invitation assume approval.

Creating Classes

In order to manage subsets of learners and teachers in the system, teachers can also create classes in the teacher portal and assign learners and teachers to these classes. There are several benefits to creating classes, including improved tracking capabilities and access to class leaderboards and reports (which allow teachers to personalise the challenge and associated competition dynamics for their schools).

For instructions on how teachers can create classes in the teacher portal, refer to the Creating Classes and Assigning Users article on the Wavumbuzi Knowledge Center.

(2) Tracking User Progress

Learner, teacher and school progress in the challenge can tracked in the teacher portal at an aggregate level (via the leaderboard and reports modules) and at an individual level (via the student report module).

Aggregated Progress Tracking

Progress can be tracked at an aggregate level via the leaderboard and reports modules.

The leaderboard offers a high level overview of learner, class and school points, and ranks them in comparison to competing learners and schools across the country.

The reports module offers more targeted insights into learner, teacher, class and school progress via the dashboard, performance and class tabs. The dashboard tab offers insights in to performance at a school level, the performance tab offers insights into aggregated learner performance across several configurable variables, and the classes tab offers a high level overview of aggregated class and teacher points and ranks them in comparison to other classes and teachers within that school.

For instructions on how teachers can access the reports module in the teacher portal, refer to the Tracking Learner Progress video on the Wavumbuzi knowledge base.

Individual Progress Tracking

Progress can also be tracked at an individual level via the student report module. The student report is accessible via the participants tab and is designed to allow teachers to review learner profiles, submissions and score breakdowns in order to gain individual insights into their performance.

For instructions on how teachers can access the reports module in the teacher portal, refer to the Tracking Individual Learner Progress article on the Wavumbuzi knowledge base.

(3) Earning Points for the School

In addition to managing users and tracking their progress, teachers can also contribute to earning points for their school. Teachers can earn points for their school by completing two main activities: (i) inviting learners and fellow teachers to register for the challenge; and (ii) reviewing learner submissions.

Details on inviting learners and fellow teachers can be found in the "User Activation" section towards the top of this page.

Reviewing Learner Submissions

Teachers are able to review two types of learner submissions in the teacher portal (a) submissions from learners affiliated with their school that have been reported as inappropriate; and (b) submissions (anonymous) in the peer review queue from learners who are not affiliated with their school.

(a) Reviewing Reported Submissions

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(b) Marking Submissions in the Peer Review Queue

For instructions on how teachers can mark submissions in the teacher portal, refer to the Teachers Marking Submissions article on the Wavumbuzi Knowledge Base.