Every Clarity subscription can allow students to run the ClarityEnglish programs from home, the bus-stop, the library and the classroom. What are the elements required for this to be as smooth as silk (as Tense Buster, Intermediate, Equality would teach us)?
Named users
If you have a Learner Tracking licence, then all security is provided when a student signs in with their name/email and password. Students can be anywhere, on any device, and if they know the sign-in details they can run the program. Once in, they will not need to sign in every time provided they keep using it regularly. Wherever they are and whichever device they are using, all results are sent to Admin Panel for reporting.
How to implement this? Usually a teacher or administrator will import the student details into Admin Panel. Students can be removed from Admin Panel once they have finished a course, or their licence will automatically expire one year after they first start the program (unless the licence period is different).
Anonymous Access licence
The Anonymous Access licence is for schools which are not interested in tracking their students’ progress. Students generally just click on a link to enter the program, so where does security come from? You don’t want to pay for ten concurrent licences for your college, only to find that someone has sent out the link on Twitter and all the students of a dodgy online school are using it at your expense.
Firstly, we can offer security through an IP range. This means that anyone who is in your building, and using your WiFi, can access the program. It is secure, but not flexible because your students can’t use it at home or on the bus.
Many libraries have a portal or sign-in page on their website. Once a student has successfully signed into this, then all links appear to come from the IP range of the library, and are secure. Your students can now work from home, whilst appearing to be in the school. A typical system to do this is EZProxy.
Clarity can offer security through our own simplified version of this. If your students / library patrons have a barcode or member number, we can give you a webpage where they sign in with this and we verify it before allowing them in.
Learner Management Systems (LMS)
You can embed ClarityEnglish programs in a course or resource page in an LMS such as Moodle. Most Learner Management Systems support a standard called SCORM, which delivers units of learning called SCORM objects to students. If a course creator wants to include a ClarityEnglish SCORM object — perhaps that excellent Tense Buster Equality unit I mentioned earlier — they simply drag it into their course. Then, when any student who has already signed into the LMS clicks the link, they are taken directly into that unit of Tense Buster. No double sign-ins, no menus, and progress reporting is sent back to the LMS at the end of the unit. Full security and flexibility is provided by LMS.
What’s next?
If you have any questions about providing remote access to your students for Clarity programs you subscribe to, or are considering subscribing to, then please contact the Clarity Support Desk (support@clarityenglish.com). We will be happy to help.
Further reading
