Post date: May 18, 2016 2:18:5 PM
I use Haiku. There are a wide variety of tools available within Haiku. I've been using the software for 4 years now and I'm sure there are features that I haven't even explored yet. These are the tools that I've found in Haiku over the years and I'll bold the tools I've found the most valuable.
Email - I usually use my school email to connect with students rather than the Haiku email function.
Announcements/Notifications
Discussions - this would be helpful in an online-only class, but currently I don't use this feature much because we have our discussions in class
Calendar (see above for a picture)
Profiles - I've noticed that some students have pictures in Haiku and some don't. I think it is tied to their email address, but I can't be sure because I haven't explored this function much.
Dropbox - I use this functionality with my AP class, but not with my physics class.
Quizzing/Testing - I use this a lot with my physics students, but not as much with my AP class. These short quizzes are similar to self-assessments because they're really meant to alert the kids' to their weak spots.
Gradebook - I use this as a place where I can see all their quiz grades and enter them quickly into PowerSchool. Because I simply use it as a place to hold grades and not report their official grade, I haven't looked into whether it allows you to import grades. I currently have it to display percentages and everything is weighted equally. I just did a little more digging into the gradebook on Haiku and it allows you to do the following:
term weights
grade categories
percentages or grades
methods to exempt or mark students absent from an assignment (you can also create your own special notations. My favorite is "missing")
how much to round the grade (whole number, 1 decimal place, 2 decimal places)
sort the grade book various ways
User Progress - I'm not certain how accurate this functionality is, but it is interesting. Khan academy has a better interface for this type of data
All of these tools have their place, but if I were to have to pick one tool to delete from the line up, I'd pick the profile tool. It would be easy enough to set up a discussion where everyone posts a little bit about themselves so everyone could get to know each other. That would be more likely to get read than expecting students to click on each other's profile.