Introduction

Welcome to Sirius Online ©2024–25! 

This document contains all the information educators need to be successful in implementing and managing learning in courses that have been purchased for use online in SY 24–25. The information in this guide targets teachers, coaches, and  subject-area coordinators. It assumes that classes have already been set up by the district or school, or have been added through our self-registration method.

This document can also serve as a participant guide for  SES 101: Introduction to Sirius Online, the first course in a series of Professional Learning courses that focus on using Sirius Online to achieve your instructional goals and implementation needs leading toward students’ STAAR success.

For more information on getting Sirius Online set up at your district or school, please see System Requirements and Rostering in Sirius Online (Formerly “Getting Started Guide”).

Direct link: https://sirius4learning.zohodesk.com/portal/en/kb/articles/getting-started-guide

To learn more about Sirius Online ©2024–25, please visit this link.

Direct link: https://siriuseducationsolutions.com/products/online/

Sirius Online Checklist for Teachers 

Upon review and hands-on experience with the topics included in this How-to-Use Guide, educators and professional users will be able to perform the following functions within each major interface/user experience tab.

SUPPORT TAB |NOTIFICATIONS ICON |PROFILE ICON  

Upon review and hands-on, participants will be able to:

1. Get technical support quickly and easily from the Sirius Customer Care team, allowing you to quickly recover from any online technical challenges that you might face as you facilitate learning and growth in your students
   
2. Access important notifications and news about Sirius Online, including release notes
   
3. Manage a limited set of profile attributes and log out of Sirius Online.
   

CLASSES TAB (MAIN DASHBOARD)

1. Add content (courses) to each class card that you or your district has set up for you (needed for Clever, ClassLink, and self-registration rosters); this includes adding the Sirius Tools Tutorial that reviews the tools and accommodations available that mimic STAAR’s new online formats and item types.
   

Notes:

1. Grades 3, 4, 5 RLA and Math 2024–25 courses now feature English-Spanish Bilingual versions in addition to English-only courses. Any teacher with at least one Emergent Bilingual student should use the Bilingual version of the course within their classrooms for optimum learning management.
   
2. The  Fall 2024 Testing—Biology EOC aligns with the previous version of the Science TEKS and should be used with students who are testing in December 2024. Students preparing for STAAR in 2025 should be assigned the Biology EOC 2024–25 course.
   

1. Navigate and launch the principal components available within each course, including new interactive auto-graded lessons and live computer-graded Diagnostic tests, STAAR Practice in Practice/Feedback mode, cumulative review, and post tests.
   

2. Explain the difference between Practice (Feedback) and Test Mode
   

3. 
   

   Search course content by tag, category, and alignment
   

ASSIGNMENTS TAB

STUDENT EXPERIENCE

1. Support students using Sirius Online dashboard, including access to courses and classes, assignments, reports and profile.
   

REPORTS TAB

• Course Report—View and analyze performance, usage, and engagement by course and course activities.

• Standards Report—View and analyze performance, usage, and progress by standard or TEKS.

Before You Begin Using Sirius Online: Rostering and the Getting-Started Guide

Most teachers will not need to set up classes, as they are rostered automatically by district IT staff or other support staff. Access to Sirius Online is embedded in the district portal, or available through Clever, ClassLink, Edlink, or your district Learning Management System (LMS).

If you do not have Single Sign On or rostering available to you, you may need to set up classes through our self-registration process.

For more on self-registration, please see Section 4 of our System Requirements and Rostering in Sirius Online, including our video overview of the registration process contained within the resource.

Direct link: https://sirius4learning.zohodesk.com/portal/en/kb/articles/getting-started-guide#Teacher_Self_Registration_and_Login

A special note about video tutorials referenced in this document

The referenced videos in this document are labeled as firewall-friendly and will work within your firewall as long as your IT department has “whitelisted” our main URL. If you are not able to view them, we recommend you use a computer on a different network or your phone to view the streaming-friendly/YouTube video clips for optimal playback.

We also present the full YouTube playlist of videos. Please share the link with your colleagues, co-teachers, and tutor staff, and encourage them to go “hands-on” with Sirius Online immediately after viewing.

FULL YOUTUBE PLAYLIST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSl1FwYfNBI4L5j7pGYeQs06jWqTl8eT-

1. SUPPORT TAB | NOTIFICATIONS | PROFILE ICON: Getting Support and Getting Set Up

Firewall-friendly video clip: https://publisher.content2classroom.com/api/publicRedirectToResource?contentItemId=EBECD666898E4B15B493AB30039DF6F6

Streaming-friendly/YouTube video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Oh5urMYM3M

Support

If you need access to support resources, click the Support tab in the top-right of your screen when you log in.

You’ll navigate to a support landing page that allows you to access online support resources in our Knowledge Base, participate in our online educator Community, or create a ticket if you need technical support from our Customer Care team.

You can also submit a ticket for technical or customer support directly by emailing support@siriuseducationsolutions.com.

Contact Information

• Toll-free voice: 800-942-1379 (#2 - Tech Support)

• Toll-free Fax: 844-329-0913 

• Tech support email to ticket: support@siriuseducationsolutions.com

• Chat: Available at www.siriuseducationsolutions.com

Messages and Notifications

Messages and notifications from the Sirius Online Team and system-related messages can be found in the upper-right corner in the circle icon with a number inside. The number represents system notifications and messages from the Sirius team that are currently active. When you see the number in the icon change, you should review messages and notifications, as we often include special notices about application updates as well as notices of exports with access to them.

Managing Your Profile

Your profile icon can be found in the upper-right corner of the screen.

1. Click the profile icon to activate the pulldown menu.

2. Then click Profile.

If you’re self-registered, you’ll be able to update a limited amount of information, including your password and profile icon.

 If your school does rosters for you, you’ll be only able to change your profile icon. 

You can log out from the account profile icon.

Adding Images to Class Cards

Sirius Online courses include all programs purchased by your district or school. 

1. Click the meatball icon (the three horizontal dots) in the upper-right corner of the ghosted or existing image for the class in the class card.
   
2. From the Edit Card Image window, choose an image file less than 5 MB in size to represent your class.   
   
3. Crop the image to an appropriate size if needed.
   
4. Click Crop and Save.
   

 The new image will be visible to students and co-teachers when viewing the class card from this point forward.

2. CLASSES TAB (MAIN DASHBOARD): Adding Content and Navigating Sirius Online

Streaming-friendly/YouTube video clip: https://youtu.be/pBxieDVzin0?feature=shared

IMPORTANT NOTES:

1. *Regardless of the rostering method used, teachers will need to add content (Sirius courses or district or school admin—produced tests) to their classes, even if automatically rostered by IT or their district through Clever, ClassLink, EdLink, or self-registration.
   
2. If you are missing a course or program that you purchased, please contact the SES Online team at (800) 942-1379, option 2, or by creating a Tech Support ticket in our online Support Center at https://desk.zoho.com/portal/sirius4learning/en/home, or by emailing support@siriuseducationsolutions.com.
   

Adding Content to Classes

There are two methods for adding content to classes in Sirius. The first allows you to quickly assign content to multiple classes; the second allows you to add one or more courses or assessment folders of content to a single class.

Adding Content to Multiple Classes

Use this method to save time in adding the same course to multiple sections of the same subject.

Adding Content to a Single Class

Use this method to save multiple courses or assessment folders to a single class.

1. Click the Add Content button on the class card beneath your class name. 
   
2. Choose the + Add Content button in the upper-right corner of the page.
   
3. Select content by clicking or checking the checkbox to the left of each course or assessment folder you plan to add to your class.
   
4. Then, click Save.
   

Your content will be added to your class and will appear on your class card in the courses link.

Note: Be sure to add the Sirius Online Tutorials module in which you will find the Sirius Tools Tutorial and teacher/educator-focused eLearning Modules that will introduce you to Sirius Online. The Sirius Tools Tutorial reviews all relevant tools and accommodations that students will use on the new online STAAR test, so it is an important resource to use with your students prior to working on course content.

NEW: SY24–25 English-Spanish Bilingual Courses—Grades 3, 4, 5 RLA and Math

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Streaming-friendly/YouTube video clip: https://youtu.be/zC7ldcp9bBo

If you are an Elementary RLA or Math teacher (Grades 3–5), you can now access both new English-based courses and brand new English-Spanish bilingual courses, allowing you to assign either an English or a Spanish translation of an online activity to your students. 

Our recommendation for any classrooms with at least one Spanish-speaking Emergent Bilingual student (EBs) is for teachers to use our English-Spanish bilingual courses. 

The new bilingual courses allow you to make both English and Spanish-language assignments from the same course for easier, quicker, and more insightful score comparisons across activities. 

If your class does not contain EBs, we recommend that you use the English-only versions of these courses.

Navigating the Teacher Dashboard

After logging in, you will see the Classes screen, which serves as a dashboard giving you access to many key features. 

The top of the screen has tabs allowing access to the major features you will need:

• Classes

• Assignments

• Reports

• Support 

In addition to the tabs at the top of the screen, you can click any of the blue text hyperlinks within a class card to jump directly to key items, including:

• Course—The Sirius Online courses/programs assigned to your class.

• Assignments—Current and past assignments.

• Class Roster—Your current list of students in your class.

• Class Settings—General settings, including co-teacher access codes.
  

• Accommodations—Your current accommodation settings apply to students and carry over to all Sirius classes. Please consult colleagues in the event there are any discrepancies that need to be resolved for multiple classes.
  

• Groups—Create instructional groups within each class.
  

Navigating a Course

Let’s take a deeper look at navigating courses. 

1. To begin, click Course. 
   

2. On the course page, click an Open button to see the full contents of a course broken into main categories of content by type.
   

3. Click the Open button associated with the Introduction and then Course Contents to view your course’s structure. Be sure to peruse the Teacher Guide for your course along with Getting Familiar with STAAR Item Types that may be new to you and students.
   

4. Click the Close button to close the current resource you are viewing.
   

5. Next, click the Open button for any assessment—including any Diagnostic Tests that you’d like to overview—and then Next at the bottom of the screen to advance a couple of screens.

Note: The QuickNav, the orange button in the upper-left, is an alternate way to navigate a course once you launch any activity within a course.

Practice (Feedback) Mode vs. Test Mode

Let’s now consider the difference between activities in Practice (Feedback) Mode vs. Test Mode.

Practice (Feedback) Mode

Test Mode

Search Content

Sirius Online offers the ability to search for course or program content by tag, category, or alignments, by clicking Go to Search from the main Courses screen. 

Once activities are found, teachers can assign them directly from the search results window.

Teachers can also search through activities and assignments by key words appearing in assignment titles for quick management.

In Search by Tags, teachers can  

1. Search by specific words that appear in titles of activities, tests, and lessons
   

In Search by Alignments, teachers can search by one or more applicable TEKs to reveal specific activities that correlate to their selection by clicking a checkbox next to the standards or benchmark.

Note: When first opened, all assignments appear in the main section of the screen; the Search by Alignments feature filters the full set of activities down to specific activities that match the standards you are searching for.

You may assign any activity that you’ve searched for by clicking the Assign button. See the sections below for additional information on making and managing assignments.

Assigning Content

1. Upon selecting an activity that you’d like to assign, click the Assign button.

2. Make the following selections within the Assign screen:
   

1. ASSIGN TO: Select any of your current classes in the pulldown, one or more individuals, instructional  groups, or all classes that have access to the course. 
   

If you’d like to assign this same activity or resource, click Yes and assign it to another class, group, or individuals without leaving the screen.

Notes: 

1. Any changes to an assignment can be made by activity and then managing the assignment in its Summary view.
   
2. Lesson assignment content can be reassigned using the same method. 
   
3. As lesson content can be lengthy, be sure to assign the content for longer durations of time, along with specific daily instructions in the Assignment Instructions Field.
   

Working with Activity Assignments from Content Cards (TOC) after Creating Assignments 

Activity assignments appear in the small icon with the number of assignments per activity (e.g., 1x, 10x, etc.). 

When the assignment number icon is clicked, teachers navigate to the Scorecard Summary screen.

You can also navigate directly to any items that require manual (teacher) scoring.

3. CLASSES TAB (MAIN DASHBOARD): Setting Up Classes and the Class Card

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Streaming-friendly/YouTube video clip: https://youtu.be/pBxieDVzin0

Class Cards Overview

1. Courses—Associated courses that teachers have added to their classes; there may be multiple courses and even grade levels based on the objectives and plans for each instructional implementation.
   
2. Assignments—Offers access to work that has been assigned to the class; allows access to work review, scoring and activity scorecards (i.e., raw data based on student assignment work).
   
3. Roster—A list of students who have been rostered for a particular class; also contains co-teacher access code for co-teacher or tutor self-registration, or the class student access code for students who need to self-register at self-registration districts.
   
4. Class Settings—Contains class name/label for renaming classes; start and end dates of the class; student access code (for self-registration districts only); co-teacher/tutor access code for self-registration of co-teachers or tutors at rostered or self-reg districts based on available data that has been shared with Sirius from the district.
   
5. Accommodations—Class and student-level settings, based on academic program and level, that can be set class-by-class by teachers or administrators.
   
6. Groups—Allows teachers to create, name, and populate instructional groups within a class.
   

4. ASSIGNMENTS TAB: Making and Managing Assignments (Student Scorecard)

Creating Assignments Video

Firewall-friendly video clip: https://publisher.content2classroom.com/api/publicRedirectToResource?contentItemId=588D4249660E4015AFEF39CFDFC008DD

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Managing Assignments and Student Scorecard Video

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Streaming-friendly/YouTube video clip: https://youtu.be/a4V2J0TMsbc

Overview and Philosophy of Assignment Management

Let’s now look at the Assignments tab. 

A few general notes to consider prior to digging in:

1. Assignments can be viewed by activity from each activity content card (from main course), as in past versions of Sirius Online.
   
2. Assignments display by activity cards, which reference any number of assignments in any activity in Sirius. That includes tests, practices, instruction, lessons, activities, etc.
   
3. Filters include Due Date Range (including from selected start to selected end date), Assigned to All or Select Classes, and Assigned by Lead Teacher or Co-teacher (tutor).       
   
4. Search—You can now search through your assignments using any word that appears in an activity title.
   
5. Automated flow through four stages of student work. Any number of currently active or past assignments automatically flow across these stages as Assigned, In Progress, Requires Manual Scoring, or Scored.  
   
1. For activities containing only computer-scored items, activities are automatically scored and closed by students when they submit their work.
   
2. For any activity containing one or more open-ended manually scored items (such as open writing), activity assignments appear in the Requires Manual Scoring stage, awaiting teacher review and scoring; scoring must be done in order to finalize or close the assignment, potentially releasing scores to reports, if selected.
   
6. Select Score on an assignment to view the Assignment Summary.
   

1. Assignment Summary: View General Performance, and Status for each student.
   

1. Leave assignment-level feedback, reassign, unsubmit or review student work
   

1. Review the Scorecard Summary in order to gain insights into performance on all assignments relating to this activity:
   
2. Assignment Number: in this case, each assignment was assigned individually vs. by entire class.
   
3. To view student work on the activity assignment, click the eye icon in the Student Work column.
   
4. Use the toggle switches to individually control which scores on different assignments need to be shared with the student or sent to Reports.
   
5. Leave feedback using the speech bubble icon on the far right. 
   

2. Assignment Details: Item analysis view in the Scorecard.
   

1. A calculated score for the assignment appears (as long as there are no manually graded items); access to assignments is by clicking the score or “eye icon” found in each student row.
   
2. When rolling over cells in the item report table, a pop-up displays, allowing the teacher to view the question before deeper review. A teacher can decide to eliminate the item from the student’s final score.
   
3. Teachers can export a CSV of the Assignment Report, which includes performance scoring and time spent on the assignment and against each item in the activity.
   
4. The Summary CSV lists general performance metrics for each student for the activity.
   
5. The Item Analysis CSV indicates how students performed on each item in an assignment, the time spent on the item, and the TEKS/Alignment for the item. A final usage time is calculated in the CSV in seconds (divide by 60 to get minutes).
   

Engagement Analytics Tab 

The Scorecard’s Engagement analytics tab provides the following information concerning how students interact with their assignments. As engagement data flows into our Course Report’s new Engagement (Beta) tab, teachers will be able to easily spot trends relating to student engagement behaviors with an eye to improved test-taking skills based on deeper levels of feedback that you can offer to students over time.

1. Time on Task Ratio. Indicates balance of time spent answering correctly vs. incorrectly. Helping students to learn to slow down and proceed through test items methodically is perhaps the single most effective measure of engagement that you can use in your feedback to students as they use Sirius Online.
   
2. Feedback Usage. Number of uses of blue feedback buttons out of total available. Note: This metric is only available with Practice Mode activities that are set for Practice Only. Helping students use item-level feedback and additional contextual information not only builds their skills but helps them to proceed methodically toward correct responses.
   
3. Resources Usage. Number of uses of tools or resources (such as Calculator, Dictionary, References, etc.). Although the use of special resources may not be useful for students on all items, you’ll want to understand which students are using their program’s resources at hand, and whether engaging with these resources helps improve their ability to provide correct responses.
   
4. Annotations Usage. Number of uses of Strikethrough, Highlight, Sticky Notes, or Mark for Review. You may be requiring students to use specific strategies or metacognitive markers as they dissect passages, questions, and responses. You’ll be able to overview annotations usage quickly before examining student work in more granular ways.
   
5. Language Tool Usage. Number of uses of Translate and Speak tools. Gain greater insights into how English Language Learners and students becoming better readers use text to speech and translation as they acquire greater language skills. 
   

Scorecard Standards Tab

Your assignment’s scorecard offers a view into raw standards performance by item, including the text of the standards included by item, the class average for the item, and how each individual student who has completed the assignment performs on the standard.

Providing Feedback to Students as You Review Their Work: Philosophy

The personalized feedback you provide directly to students based on their work on individual items is critical and can inspire deeper levels of learning.

1. Effective feedback enables learning.
   
2. When students make mistakes, the right feedback can fuel learning when done with care in ways that do not penalize students; feedback can help support a connection between teachers and students as they motivate students to make greater efforts to learn and gain success.
   
3. Provide feedback that asks students to slow down and think deeply, vs. act quickly, in order to help them perform better on questions that require deeper thinking.
   
4. Encourage students to explore the highly contextual immediate and non-judgmental feedback available in Practice Mode lessons. 
   
5. Encourage student choice by encouraging them to engage with Blue Scaffolded Supports in Practice activities.
   

1. Help students understand and use basic feedback (right vs. wrong), instructional feedback that corrects faulty understanding, strategy-focused feedback, and coaching- or motivating-type feedback designed to ask students to think of ways to improve their learning and performance without telling them specifically what to do.
   

1. Ask students to focus an equal amount of effort on understanding and explaining why some answer choices are incorrect as on identifying the correct answers. Knowing how to eliminate incorrect answers is as critical as identifying correct answers.
   

Providing Feedback to Students as You Review Their Work: Logistical

For each student response, you might:

1. Adjust scoring in the side panel slider. Adjust or change how the scoring was done in autograding (e.g., from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0). Click the Save button if you are changing the score.
   

1. ]

1. Respond to sticky note, annotation, or highlight. Respond in a sticky note for a student to read, or praise student use of annotations, highlights, or other tools.
   

• Exit scoring by clicking the “X” in the upper-right corner of the screen.
  

Managing Assignments Through the Assign and Edit Buttons (Bulk Updates)

The best way to manage multiple assignments for any given activity is through the use of the Assign and Edit Buttons. 

1. By using the checkbox next to an assignment, the Assign button allows specific assignment adjustments to be made, including to whom the assignment is made, when the assignment is active, and how scoring should be handled. 
   
2. By using one or more checkboxes next to assignments, the Edit button allows you to make more sweeping changes in bulk to more resources in terms of changing assignment status, date range, reports and scoring, delete assignment, or submit/unsubmit score,
   

Note: To delete one or more assignments for a single activity, select one or all assignments in the left column, click Edit in the upper-right, select the radio button for Delete Assignment(s) and then click Delete.

5. STUDENT EXPERIENCE: Supporting Student Work on Assignments

Firewall-friendly video clip: https://publisher.content2classroom.com/api/publicRedirectToResource?contentItemId=48F8ACF514DE44C99DA4089D8D0DE03E

Streaming-friendly/YouTube video clip: https://youtu.be/aVmBeuS50pg?feature=shared 

Sirius Tools Tutorial is available now in the Sirius Tutorials Course Module.

Student Experience Overview

Profile icon: Students use to create an image avatar

Courses tab: View current assignments

Courses tab: Switch between classes

Assignments tab

Reports tab

Accessing Content: Dashboard or Assignments Screen

Students access their most recently assigned work on their Dashboard.

Or they can choose to navigate to the Assignments tab.

The Assignments screen offers opportunities to view assignments that are:

• Current

• Due today

• Closed (no longer available for student access)

• Graded (auto-scored or teacher graded)

Note: All content—Lessons, STAAR practice, Diagnostic, Cumulative Practice, post test, and final practice tests—is principally auto-scored. Depending on the program and content, there may be some open-response items that require teachers to evaluate and score before releasing scores for reporting.

1. Students begin work on activities by clicking the Start button.

2. Remind students to carefully review instructions and then click the Next button.

3. Students reply to questions by selecting the correct answer or interacting on screen using Sirius tools, and then by clicking Next.
   

4. Students use the Go To button at the bottom-center of the screen to navigate among items, or to view items they have not completed or flagged in the slide tray item navigator.
   

5. Students flag items that they would like to return to later in their session.
   

6. REPORTS TAB: Working With Reports

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Viewing Student Progress Reports in the Reports Tab

More powerful reporting awaits in the Reports tab. 

To view reports, you can:

1. Click the Reports tab.

2. Select a Course or Standards Report by clicking the View Report button associated with a class.

NOTES:

Content will display in rows according to content type within the course report.

4. To access Student Performance reports, click the Details link in the header of the right column.

You’ll land on the performance report by default. You can also access the Usage and Engagement reports from this screen.

Note: If you are actively sending scores to reports, it is important to click VIEW REPORT—a one time task!—for each Sirius class. That action initiates reports to build automatically moving forward during the duration of your class. You can click VIEW REPORT for either Course or Standards to trigger automatic report compilation for your class.

Using the Student Performance Report

1. To view a specific student’s performance report, click the blue initials in the header for that student.
   
2. The student’s name highlights in the upper-left of the report. Their performance data is displayed in the right-side column, along with the comparative class average for that assignment. 
   
3. To print a hardcopy or electronic PDF, click the Print button in the upper-right and follow the instructions in the print monitor.
   
4. You can export this report by clicking the Export button and following the instructions on screen
   

You have the same ability to examine an individual student’s usage reports by clicking the Usage (Minutes) button from the Class Detail (by Student) screen in both Course Reports and Standards Reports.

Viewing Engagement in the Course Report

1. To view the engagement report, click Engagement.
   
2. Navigate to Performance, Usage, and Engagement reports by clicking the Details link over the top of the class readout.
   
3. The report defaults to Performance. You can also click Usage to view the number of minutes students have spent on specific activities along with total use (at the top for each student) along with average use for the class as a whole and for each individual activity.
   
4. Click Engagement to view our preliminary Engagement (Beta) report.
   

Let’s review the main opportunities that you’ll have to view your students’ Engagement based on their work on activities.

Notes:

1. SPEED WARNING in information (i) icon. In the top-right legend, you can click to view the (i) for Speed Warning to get a descriptive summary for the flag that appears below in the report.
   
2. FEEDBACK WARNING in information (i) icon. Click the (i) to the right of Feedback Use to get a description of what this flag means to students. Note: As you see above, Feedback Warnings are only available for Practice and Instruction work in which students are offered the blue button scaffolded supports such as Hints, Try Again, Show Correct Answer and Sample Answer.
   
3. SPEED WARNINGS. Example of Student “AB” getting a speed warning. The student is spending, on average, 2:12 on items he is getting correct, compared to :10 on items he is getting incorrect. The takeaway is to work with the student on spending more time on items that he finds challenging, or to methodically spend time using any resources or tools that could possibly help support getting quick answers (e.g., eliminate obvious wrong answers).
   
4. FEEDBACK WARNINGS. Example of student “ES” getting a Feedback Warning for using only 2 out of 17 possible instances of feedback. Note: A warning is produced when fewer than half the opportunities to view valuable feedback are not taken by the student.
   
5. VIEW ENGAGEMENT DATA IN SCORECARD. Teachers click the View link to return to the Scorecard’s engagement data directly from the Engagement Report to more actively drill into the raw scores that students produced as they engaged in an activity.
   

New in Fall 2024: Ability to Hide Columns

Teachers can now hide columns in the Details view of reports if you would like to do a finer comparison of data in those columns.

To utilize, click the Hide Columns button in the upper-right of your report screen and then select the checkboxes next to the columns you would like to hide, and then the Hide Columns button on the pop-up.

Viewing Standards Reports

1. To view a Standards Report, return to the Reports home screen and choose a Standards Report from the right region of the screen by clicking the View Report option associated with the class you’d like to review.
   
2. Click the caret in the body of the report.
   
3. View results by using both the vertical and horizontal scroll bars.
   
4. Filter the report based on Reporting Category, Clusters, and Subclusters, as well as Readiness and Supporting Standards designations in the second of two pulldowns in the upper-right.

Note: See our more in-depth Sirius Online: Teacher Reports for more information.

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***IMPORTANT: Assignment-Making Directly from a Standards Report—Student Progress

A simple, powerful, and useful feature of the Standards Report provides teachers with the ability to make quick assignments based on a student’s performance against standards directly from the report.

Steps

1. Click the View link in the Details column.

2. On the Details screen, click View to see all the assignments that relate to the standard.

3. There are multiple assignments that could be assigned containing this specific standard: 

1. Note the Item Level Scores and Assignment Level Scores toggle that allows you to view by item or assignment

4. Click Related Assignments (above) and you’ll navigate to the scorecard’s Related Assignments screen.

This button is your bridge to the scorecard and its data.

5. Be sure to use the breadcrumb navigation at the top of the screen to return to your report after you’ve completed your review.

Appendix: Other Applications Available within Sirius Online

Sirius STAAR Assessment Bank and Test Builder

How Teachers Work with Assessments Created in SSAB (YouTube: 8 minutes). A short overview walking teachers through the process of assigning assessment folders to their classes and assigning assessments to their students. 

Adding Assessment Folder Content to Sirius (SSAB: Teachers). A one-pager on how teachers add assessment folder content created in SSAB.

Assigning Assessments in Sirius (SSAB: Teachers). A one-pager on how teachers assign assessments created in SSAB to students.

Instructional Flow Overview

Sirius Instruction Online and in Print

When used for intervention in the diagnosis of weaknesses, implementation of Sirius programs typically involve three main stages: 1) Diagnostic tests to identify needs; 2) Lesson instruction and STAAR practice; and 3) Assessments to monitor student progress over time and at the end of the determined period of instruction.

Teachers, however, may decide to enter the instructional flow at any point or suggested stage along the way, and the implementation of instruction is supported through flexible assignment-making online and/or in print. 

Key to your use of the instructional flow is how you plan to use your Sirius programs’ resources, including diagnostic tests. If you are using them for intervention or test preparation, you will likely more closely follow the stages described below in order. If you are using diagnostic tests and other resources with other instructional goals or targets in mind, you might deviate from these stages and come up with your own pathways through your Sirius program resources vs. lesson by lesson.

Within each general step, you’ll encounter the following instructional flow stages that are intended to be cyclical:

• Diagnose

• Analyze

• Plan

• Teach

• Practice

• Reteach

• Assess

For more information, see the Instructional Flow Overview document in our Knowledge Base at https://sirius4learning.zohodesk.com/portal/en/kb/articles/instructional-flow-overview-10-5-2022.

Creating Quick Pullout Classes at Rostered Districts (Teachers)

Any teacher or administrator at a rostered district or school using Clever, ClassLink, or EdLink can now quickly create special pullout sessions or “non-SIS-based classes” using new tools available in Sirius Online. These classes may be set up to help your district or school meet the demands of Accelerated Instruction and the use of tutors.

Teachers can add pullout classes for themselves (in addition to administrators creating them) by following these steps:

2. Type in the following information:

1. Add a Class Name; be sure to follow your district class-naming conventions, especially for special Accelerated Instruction pullouts or breakouts.
   

3. Once the class has been created, you can add students by clicking the Add Existing Student button.

4. Search for and add each student who should be added to your class.

5. Confirm your final list of students on the Roster Screen to be sure all have been added.

Note: Co-teachers or tutors can be added using the co-teacher access code via self-registration if they are not included in the district or school data.

Reviewing Archived Reports

Activate the Active Classes pulldown in the upper-right and then choose Archived Classes.

Your past archived class reports will appear. You can navigate through Course and Standards reports as you do through current active class reports.

Advantages and Strategies for Working with Sirius in Your Learning Management System (LMS)

You may have integrated Sirius into your LMS when you first set up your Sirius programs for use by students and teachers. What are the advantages? Which strategies can we use to optimize the use of Sirius programs within your LMS?

Advantages and Benefits

1. Rostering: Rather than use self-registration or another third-party rostering service, you can now roster your Sirius programs by class, teachers, and students. This helps to ensure that students can start learning on Day One when your classes are set and you’re ready to begin teaching. Any updates or changes to classes are synced overnight.
   
2. Single Sign On: If teachers and students are accustomed to logging in to their school or district to access their materials, classes, and work, then they can be set to go with Sirius by logging into your district or school SSO provider or portal. 
   
3. Assignments: Teachers access content they want to assign to students against differing parameters (date, time, special instructions); students access assignments from their main dashboard or via the Assignments tab when they access Sirius from their LMS.
   
4. Gradebook (soon to become Scorecard): Teachers manage auto-scored and open response work in the Sirius Scorecard. Teachers review auto-scored items and score open-response items, and decide when to close assignments from use. Teachers control when they share scores and access to work with students for their review as well as to receive feedback from the teacher.
   
5. Reports: Teachers receive rich and visually compelling standards and course reports from within the Reports dashboard. Students can access their work as well once all items have been scored and the teacher releases scores or exports CSVs from the Gradebook for further evaluation. 
   

1. Work with your IT group if you have any questions about access and optimizing the user experience of all your online programs.
   
2. Teachers can take a general referential approach to assignments (Your assignment is now ready in Sirius), or they can add specific references in their LMS’s assignments to students (Please review Lesson 1 and then do Lesson 1 Practice with the following tips…). 
   
3. Teachers can provide light or elaborate feedback to students based on their performance on items within Sirius through the use of Sticky Notes, Highlights, and Annotations.
   

STAAR-Test Required Calculators 

Some STAAR tests require calculators and districts must ensure that students have access to a calculator. Districts may provide calculating devices or students may bring them from home. Districts can satisfy this requirement by providing students with:

• a handheld graphing calculator 

• a graphing calculator application

• the graphing calculator tool included in the STAAR online testing platform

The STAAR® Online Testing Platform (SOTP) provides three different calculators. The calculators and related STAAR tests are listed below:

• Graphing calculator: Grade 8 Math and Algebra (optional for Biology)

• Scientific calculator: Grade 8 Science & Biology (1 calculator to 5 students)

• Four-function calculator: Grades 3–7 Math and Grade 5 Science (eligible students only)

Sirius Online Calculators: Desmos

Sirius Online supports the same calculators as the SOTP via the tool bar. 

However, instead of emulating the SOTP calculators, Sirius Online uses Desmos STAAR-approved calculators, a free and popular online application. Sirius uses modified versions that are approved for use on the STAAR tests, whether administered in print or online. 

Within STAAR tests, Desmos is commonly used on iPads or on separate Chromebooks that can be used offline (no internet access) or in kiosk mode, preventing access to other applications. To learn more see: https://www.desmos.com/test-mode. 

Note: Desmos STAAR-test calculators differ from the standard Desmos calculators available on app stores or at Desmos.com.

Practice with the Same Calculator Students Use on STAAR

Sirius makes it easy for students to use Desmos calculators during practice. However, students can also use a handheld calculator. If students use Desmos in Sirius Online all year long, we recommend that schools make Desmos available for the actual STAAR test. As recommended by TEA, this helps to ensure that students are familiar with the calculator they are expected to use on the actual STAAR test. 

For more information, please see:

https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/2019-20%20STAAR%20Calculator%20Policy_Final.pdf

Other Important Considerations

1. Students prefer Desmos to handheld graphing calculators.
   
2. Desmos calculators are fully accessible for vision-impaired and blind students. They comply with the WCAG 2.1 standards at the AA level, and work with most assistive technologies, such as screen readers. Users might need to adjust some browser settings. For more information, visit www.desmos.com/accessibility.
   
3. Sirius Online hosts the Desmos technology directly on Sirius servers and will not exchange any data with Desmos's servers.
   
4. Links to STAAR-modified Desmos calculators:
   

Basic calculator:  https://www.desmos.com/testing/texas/fourfunction

Scientific calculator:  https://www.desmos.com/testing/texas/scientific

Graphing calculator:  https://www.desmos.com/testing/texas/graphing

Grade 8 Science, Biology: Four Function Calculator

Grade 8 Science, Biology: Scientific Calculator

Grade 8 Science, Biology, Grade 8 Mathematics, Algebra I: Graphing Calculator

• Support for Desmos calculators

Desmos Tutorials

Calculator tutorials are available at learn.desmos.com . Refer to the Desmos User Guide (English) to learn more about the calculator’s functionality. The Desmos User Guide is also available in Spanish and other languages.

Desmos Professional Learning

Desmos professional learning modules are designed to support teachers, schools, districts, and various organizations in using Desmos. Free events and webinars are also available: https://learn.desmos.com/professional-learning

Full-Version Desmos Calculators

A full version of the Desmos graphing calculator is available on their website. You can also download the calculator at the iOS or Android app stores for free. Once downloaded, you can use these apps without an internet connection. Districts can use the full version for instruction; however, the full version will not be available on the STAAR tests. For information on using Desmos in classroom activities, visit:

http://learn.desmos.com/activities