Set up everything for the new academic year (🎥with video)

The start of the new academic year can be a hectic period. To help make the Sowiso setup as easy as possible, we created a checklist for you. Follow the 5 steps to make sure that you have everything ready for the new academic year.

1. Create a new class

Go to "Teacher", "Manage" and select "Copy class", if you wish to keep the same users (students and teachers), groups, course material, test or assignments. If you are creating a class from scratch, choose "New class".

Fill in the class name, end date, and optionally, select the items you want to copy over into your new class.

💡Read detailed instructions or watch a quick video:

2. Review the course material

You might want to keep exactly the same course material you had the year before. In that case, you can skip this step. If you would like to review your course material, go to "Teacher", "Course material".

On the left side of the screen you will see all the chapters that are currently in your class, so all the chapters that your students will see once they start logging in. On the right side are all the materials that are available to you. These aren't necessarily all the Sowiso materials, you can always check our website for the most recent information.

💡 Read detailed instructions here.

3. Set up your tests and assignments

If you copied over your tests and assignments from the previous year, all the date settings will stay the same as they were in the previous year. Make sure to change the time settings on all your tests and assignments so that your students can access them during the relevant academic year.

💡Read detailed instructions or watch a quick video:

4. Share the access code with your students

There are three ways to let your students log into Sowiso: 

• Using an LTI integration (into an LMS system)
• Using a SURFconext integration
• Not using any integration (logging in with a username and password)

Make sure to only follow the steps for the path that your school/institution has chosen, so to not confuse the students. The login page on the Sowiso website gives instructions on how students should log in. Please contact our support team if anything changed in your setup, and the information on this page is no longer correct. 

If you are using an LTI integration

Please follow these steps if you are using Sowiso together with an LMS (e.g. Moodle, Blackboard, Brightspace, etc). Keep in mind that even if your school uses an LMS, that doesn't automatically mean the two systems are integrated.

Go to your class on Sowiso, and then go to "Settings", "Access code". Click on "New code" to generate it.

Once the new LTI access code has been generated, open the "SSO-registration link" menu and: 

1. Click on the "Copy" icon to copy the access code. Add this code into your LMS. 
2. Open the "Automatic access via LTI" option. 
3. Add the course ID (from your course in your LMS) in order to enroll your students to the exact Sowiso class.

See instructions for common LMS':

• Moodle
• Brightspace
• Blackboard
• Canvas

If you are using a SURFconext integration

Under class "Settings", "Access code":

1. Open the "SSO-registration link" menu. 
2. Click on the "Copy" icon to copy the access code. Share this code with your students.

If you are not using any integration 

Under class "Settings", "Access code":

1. Open the "Self-registration link" menu. 
2. Click on the "Copy" icon to copy the access code. Share this code with your students.

Students who already have an account on Sowiso (perhaps they used Sowiso a year before for a different class) can use the short access code. The short access code is located on the same spot, under class "Settings", "Access code". Students can follow instructions to learn where they need to add the short access code in order to join the class.

5. Archive your old classes and links

Now that your new class is set up, you can clean up the old classes that you won't be using anymore. By archiving your old classes, you will remove them from your menu view, but you won't permanently delete them. If needed, you can recover the classes in the future.

Archiving your classes helps ensure that students from previous years no longer have access. Any additional students who continue using Sowiso will be included in the end-of-year count and may result in an overusage charge.

That's it, you are all ready for your new class! 🎉