Spaces is an assessment platform that makes it easy to capture, assess, and share student growth. It can be used to build a meaningful record of student progress for all stakeholders, empower students to explore, reflect and grow within the classroom, and foster a student-centric approach by connecting parents, educators and students.
Getting An Account
Teachers will have the opportunity to receive a Spaces account during one of the two onboarding windows throughout the year:
In order to receive access to a Spaces account, you need to:
Your class data will also automatically be uploaded to your digital portfolio and synced with MyEdBC nightly.
Co-Teacher/Non-Enrolling Teacher Access
Each class in MyEdBC has is assigned a primary teacher. These are the teachers who will have the class and student data associated with their accounts upon creation. Some classes will also have co-teachers or non-enrolling teachers who need access. To achieve this, these co-teachers/non-enrolling teachers will need to complete the steps outlined above to receive access to an account, and the primary teacher will then need to invite them to their class.
- September 6 - October 1, 2022
- January 16 - February 1, 2023
In order to receive access to a Spaces account, you need to:
- Talk to your school-based administrator about your interest in using Spaces for your assessment this year.
- Complete the the Digital Portfolio Account Request form.
Your class data will also automatically be uploaded to your digital portfolio and synced with MyEdBC nightly.
Co-Teacher/Non-Enrolling Teacher Access
Each class in MyEdBC has is assigned a primary teacher. These are the teachers who will have the class and student data associated with their accounts upon creation. Some classes will also have co-teachers or non-enrolling teachers who need access. To achieve this, these co-teachers/non-enrolling teachers will need to complete the steps outlined above to receive access to an account, and the primary teacher will then need to invite them to their class.
Setting up and organizing your class
Once your account is created, you will need to set up your first Spaces class by completing the following steps:
- Decide on your class structure by mindfully creating spaces within your class to meet your goals.
- We recommend starting with:
- One "class space" for announcements and classroom discussion
- One "individual space" for a catchall portfolio for student-generated learning artifacts.
- We recommend starting with:
- Add curriculum standards to your account by navigating to your Curriculum Tag Set Account Settings, clicking on the blue "Add Curriculum Tag Sets" button in the center of the screen, and using the tool to choose which tags you would like to add.
- Create your first post by following this handy guide.
- Add your families and/or co-teachers when you are ready.
- Use Spaces' great family engagement resources to communicate your intentions to your families.
STUDENT ACCESS AND SUBMISSIONS
Help students sign in to Spaces:
Help students capture their learning:
- Ask students to navigate to ca.spacesedu.com.
- From here students can log in with their @sd22.bc.ca credentials.
- A QR code login option is currently being developed, and should be ready for September 2022.
Help students capture their learning:
- Depending on how you created your assessment prompt (see the section below for more info on creating assessments) students will need to either:
- Access a post that you created in a specific space and include their submissions in a comment.
- Create a post in a specific space that you have indicated using the "+ Create" button.
- Click on the "Activities" tab at the top of the screen, find the activity that you have created, and click on "Get started".
PROVIDING FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS
There are a few ways to provide feedback to your students in Spaces:
- Using a teacher-generated post :
- Create a post in any individual space that prompts students to respond with a comment.
- During this creation process you can tag the post with any curricular competencies that you have added to your account.
- Reply to each student's comment with formative feedback and/or assign a level of proficiency.
- Create a post in any individual space that prompts students to respond with a comment.
- Using a student-generated post :
- Instruct students to create a post in a specific space using the blue "+ Create" button. .
- Access this space to view student submissions and provide formative feedback via a comment.
- You can also optionally tag each post with a specific curricular competency and/or assign a level of proficiency.
- This will help you easily access artifacts based on competency in the future.
- This will help you easily access artifacts based on competency in the future.
- Using an activity:
- Create an activity by clicking on "Activities" in the top navigation bar and then clicking on the "+ Create" button.
- Tagging your activity with a curricular competency at this time will streamline your assessment when the time comes.
- Instruct students to complete the activity and submit their work.
- Review each submission and provide formative feedback via a comment and/or assign a level of proficiency.
- Publish the posts individually or in bulk.
- Create an activity by clicking on "Activities" in the top navigation bar and then clicking on the "+ Create" button.
Creating a Learning Update
Content in Spaces can easily be used to generate learning update.
Please note that in order for your families to see your learning updates you need to ensure that:
Please note that in order for your families to see your learning updates you need to ensure that:
- The contact information for your families has been added to Spaces.
- You have setup "Family Access" for the space containing your points of progress to be either "Visible" or "Active".
- Using a teacher-generated post :
- Create a post in any individual space that prompts students to respond with a comment.
- During this creation process you can tag the post with any curricular competencies that you have added to your account.
- Reply to each student's comment with formative feedback and assign a level of proficiency.
- Create a post in any individual space that prompts students to respond with a comment.
- A student-generated post:
- Instruct students to create a post in a specific individual space using the blue "+ Create" button.
- Access this space to view student submissions and comment with your strength-based feedback that integrates both the specific curricular competencies addressed and the proficiency level displayed by the student in the artifact.
- Rather than typing the specific curricular competencies and proficiency levels in a comment, you can optionally tag each post with a specific curricular competency and assign a level of proficiency.
- This will help you easily access artifacts based on competency in the future.
- This will help you easily access artifacts based on competency in the future.
- Using an activity:
- Create an activity by clicking on "Activities" in the top navigation bar and then clicking on the "+ Create" button.
- Remember to tag your activity with the curricular competencies that you plan to assess.
- Ensure that you assign the activity to an individual space.
- Instruct students to complete the activity and submit their work.
- Review each submission and comment with your strength-based feedback and assign a level of proficiency for each tagged curricular competency.
- Publish the posts individually or in bulk.
- Create an activity by clicking on "Activities" in the top navigation bar and then clicking on the "+ Create" button.
Once you have completed your point of progress, it should look something like this:
FURTHER LEARNING
If you would like to dig deeper into Spaces, check out this "Get Started with Spaces" video series:
Information for Administrators
It is not technically required that Administrators have access to Spaces. If they would like to access the platform to view student learning updates, they would need to follow the same procedure as other Co-Teachers/Non-Enrolling Teachers (above).
Mid-Course Learning Updates
You have the option of choosing to create your mid-course learning updates in Spaces or MyEdBC. If you choose to do them in Spaces, please follow the instructions outlined below.
Inviting Administrators
Please make sure that you have added your Principal and Vice-Principal(s) as co-teachers for each of your classes. This tutorial will walk you through the invitation steps.
Inviting Families
Before inviting families, it is a good idea to reach out to them via email to let them know that they will have access to their student’s learning updates through the Spaces platform.
Here are some resources to get you started:
Once you have sent out the initial email, you are ready to begin inviting families. The easiest way to do this is to use a field set in MyEDBC.
We have been told that Spaces will be adding the ability to automatically add family contact information in March 2023. Once this feature has been added this step will be updated to reflect the new streamlined procedure.
Creating the Mid-Course Written Learning Update
In Spaces
You can create a mid-course written learning update in Spaces in one of two ways, both of which use the Reporting Space:
You are required to:
Please access this tutorial for instructions on how to do this easily.
Inviting Administrators
Please make sure that you have added your Principal and Vice-Principal(s) as co-teachers for each of your classes. This tutorial will walk you through the invitation steps.
Inviting Families
Before inviting families, it is a good idea to reach out to them via email to let them know that they will have access to their student’s learning updates through the Spaces platform.
Here are some resources to get you started:
Once you have sent out the initial email, you are ready to begin inviting families. The easiest way to do this is to use a field set in MyEDBC.
We have been told that Spaces will be adding the ability to automatically add family contact information in March 2023. Once this feature has been added this step will be updated to reflect the new streamlined procedure.
Creating the Mid-Course Written Learning Update
In Spaces
You can create a mid-course written learning update in Spaces in one of two ways, both of which use the Reporting Space:
- Comment on Artifact
The idea for this method is to choose only a single artifact that is representative of the overall proficiency for each student. You then tag the post with a competency, provide a proficiency level, comment with your strength-based comment, and copy the post to the Reporting Space.
If the idea behind this method appeals to you, please access this tutorial for more specific guidelines. - Comment in Post
The idea for this method is to create a new post for reach student called “Mid-Course Learning Update”, tag it with a generic competency, provide a proficiency level, and copy the post to the Reporting Space.
With this method you can also copy any number of specific posts that you would like to highlight (along with any formative feedback you have provided) to the Reporting Space.
If the idea behind this method appeals to you, please access this tutorial for more specific guidelines.
You are required to:
- Enter in a proficiency level/grade for each student
- Enter “See Spaces” into the comment field
Please access this tutorial for instructions on how to do this easily.
For further help/questions, please reach out to your school Technology Innovation Coordinator.