The Perfect Blend: Student Logins and QR Codes

The purpose of this article is to explain how to maximize the benefits of your My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping membership. Utilize particular features to the fullest, specifically daily/weekly lesson plan emails, student logins, and lesson plan QR Codes.

Please see our previous articles on Quick Record QR Codes and Student Logins as this article assumes some familiarity with these features already.

Student with smart to record lessons
Use student logins, QR Codes and old smartphones

The Goal

In homeschooling, one of the many goals is to raise responsible adults.

With so many records that have to be tracked, what better way to encourage growth in our children than to allow them to handle their own record keeping, especially when it comes to recording lessons. Naturally, depending on the student’s age, temperament, and ability, you gradually give the student more responsibility and permissions as they mature.

Getting Started

Here is a list of items you need to have to get started.

  1. A My School Year Membership
  2. A student login account
  3. A student’s email address (optional)
  4. A smartphone, tablet, or computer with webcam (when using QR codes only)

The computer device only needs to have Internet access. Re-use old smartphones by just turning on Wi-Fi. No calling plan needed! Be sure to install a free “QR Code Reader” app.

 

How It Works

In a nutshell, here’s how it works.

You and/or your student will receive an email with a PDF of the lessons to accomplish. You can print this out or use the codes directly from the email. Once a lesson/task is completed, the phone/tablet/computer can scan in the QR Code, and the student can mark the lesson complete. Depending on the permissions you allow, the student can also assign a grade or make other changes. If necessary, you can follow up by checking your Teacher’s Aid alerts and reviewing the student’s updates.

Here is a step-by-step guide for set up:

  1. Under My Homeschool > My Account > Settings
    1. Sign up for PDF version of the email for either Daily and/or Weekly, whichever schedule works best for you.
    2. Set the “Show QR Code” setting to “Yes”.
  2. Under My Homeschool > Setup > Students, make the following changes
    1. Select a student
    2. Set “Allow Login” to “yes”
    3. Give the student a user name and password.
      1. The user name can be, but is not required to be, the student’s email address.
    4. Set the Lesson permissions to be “Full Access” or “Complete Only” depending on your needs and student’s maturity level.
    5. Set the optional “Create Alert” setting.
      1. If set to “yes”, you will receive a Teacher’s Aid alert for every lesson the student updates.
    6. Optional: If they have an email address, you can send them the Daily/Weekly PDF emails too.
  3. When the student completes a lesson, they scan the QR Code displayed on the lesson plan report from the email using the QR Code Reader app.
  4. My School Year will display that particular lesson and the student can mark complete and save.

 

Notes and Recommendations

Here are some general notes and recommendations you should follow. As always, know thy student. Keep in mind your child’s age, ability, and maturity whenever allowing them access to their records.

  1. Use old/outdated smartphones for younger students. You don’t need a calling plan – just Wi-Fi.
  2. The student does NOT have to have an email address to login.
  3. When starting out for students of any age, we recommend setting “Create Alert” to “yes” until both student and parent are comfortable.
  4. For younger students, we recommend leaving the “Create Alert” setting to “yes” in case the child gets “click happy”.
  5. If you do not wish to allow student’s access, remember that you, as the primary member, can use the QR codes and record lessons yourself.

As always, if you have any questions, you can post a comment, send us an email, or call us toll-free.

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