Navigation Bar:
Insights – An overview of your Professional Growth profile.
My Info – Your personal information (transcript, file library, user profile, etc.)
Learning Plan – Status of your requests or proposals and any recently completed PD
Activity Catalogs – Search for PD opportunities
Activities – Here you can manage courses in which you are an Instructor or Owner
Forms – Catalog Activity Proposal & Out of District Workshop forms
Administration – You'll see activities here that are pending your approval.
Viewing the Catalog:
To view the catalog, click Activity Catalogs in the navigation bar. You can view by either catalog or calendar.
Catalog View:
Helpful hints when searching by the catalog:
- Use the “Data Range” function to make sure you are searching for current activities.
- Use the drop down menus to refine your search further. The “Activity Format” (in person/asynchronous) filter can be very useful.
- The search bar can be used to find specific activities. Also, some departments include a consistent acronym or tag in their activity titles so the search bar can be used to narrow down to specific departments (ETLS, Secondary ELA, TCI, etc.)
- Clicking on an activity title will pull up a more detailed page with a description.
- The purple drop down option will let you sort activities alphabetically, by start date, and by end date.
Calendar View:
Helpful hints when searching by the calendar:
- Calendar view can be used to find activities offered throughout the month to better fit with your schedule.
- Hovering over an activity will give a short overview while clicking on it will bring you to a full activity description.
- Use the checkboxes on the top left to sort by in person (Knox PD Catalog) or online (Knox Online Catalog) activities.
- Once you sign up for an activity it will appear yellow on your calendar.
Registering for a Session:
Once you have clicked on an activity in either view you'll be taken to separate page. On this page you'll find a detailed description of the activity along with any relevant information such as links to external courses (pictured below.) If the course has in person meeting dates/locations you'll find them here as well. You'll also find activity start and end dates, the owner, instructor, and how many hours the courses completion will award. On the top right you'll find a “Sign Up Now” button.
Submitting an Activity Proposal:
In the “Forms” section on the left navigation bar you'll find a section to create a “Catalog Activity Proposal.”
You'll be taken to the Catalog Activity Proposal form shown below.
Helpful hints for filling out the Catalog Activity Proposal form:
- Sections highlighted in red are mandatory for form submission.
- Individuals on the Wait List will not automatically be transferred to the Participant List if space becomes available.
- If you are selecting “Building-level PD” in the Purpose section make sure you make at least one choice in the “Building(s) Restrictions” section.
- Activity Owner's permissions: Meeting management, roster management, registering users.
- Activity Instructor's permissions: Meeting management, registering users.
- Once the Catalog has been submitted it will not appear in the Activity Catalog until approved by a Catalog Admin.
Approving Proposals:
To find activities and out-of-district workshop forms that are awaiting your approval go to the Pending Approvals area of the Administration section on the Navigation Bar.
You'll find a list of activity proposals under the Proposals Pending Approval section and a list of Out-of-District Workshop forms under the Forms Pending Prior Approval section. Review these and either approve or deny them as appropriate.
Creating an Activity:
To create an activity without a proposal click on “Add/Edit Activities” under the “Activities” section in the navigation bar. Only Catalog Admins have this permission. Click the blue dropdown menu. From here you'll be able to enter the activity name, start/end date, and whether its in person (Knox PD Catalog) or online (Online Sessions (asynchronous)).
Completing this step will take you to the activity creation form shown below.
Helpful hints for filling out the activity creation form:
- All sections labeled with a red asterisk are required for form submission.
- If you are entering meeting times for your activity you must first use the silver “Save as Draft” button on the right before navigating to the Meetings tab.
- Meetings must occur between the Activity Start Date and End Date.
- In the Registration and Approval Settings, Process Registrations On the Catalog Processing Form in the drop down menu.
- Steps are a new section where you can add instructions, links, or directions for participants.
- If you are adding steps you must first use the "Save as Draft button on the right before navigating to the "Steps tab.
- When you are ready to complete the form click the blue “Publish Activity” button in the top right corner of the page.
Managing Attendance:
Registration > Learning > Attendance > Completion > Awarding Hours
Registration:
Users will register for the course on their own through the Activity Catalog as shown before. Activity Owners and Catalog Admins also have the ability to manually add participants to the roster.
Learning:
Participants will complete their learning either in-person or online. Online activities can occur through Canvas courses or other platforms, but these systems do not directly interface with Frontline Professional Growth.
Attendance:
Meeting attendance is managed from the Meetings tab. A list of the meetings will be shown and attendance per meeting is tracked from the blue “Manage Attendees” option on the right. The default values are based on meeting length but manually changing attendance hours will flow into total awarded hours upon activity completion.
Completion:
Whether the it's online, asynchronous, or in person the activity will end when scheduled.
Awarding Hours:
This is the most critical step and occurs on the Roster tab. Participant's Approval Status needs to be changed from “Approved In Progress” to “Completed.” This can be done by clicking the pencil icon on the participant's row then changing the drop down menu. Awarded Hours can also be changed in this menu. By default the system will automatically award the total number of hours entered during activity creation. Checking the boxes to the left of participant names allows you to do both of these actions to multiple participants through the “Bulk Actions” dropdown menu.
Collecting Certificates:
Many asynchronous or online activities will require participants to upload a certificate of completion as proof of participation. Participants can follow these steps:
- From the navigation bar on the left you'll want to go to your “My File Library” section shown below.
- Select the “Upload a File” button on the top right.
- Once the correct file is uploaded go to the navigation bar on the left and go to your “Learning Plan.” You'll find a list of the activities you're attending under the “Approved and/or In-Progress” section. Click the blue manage button to the left of the course you'd like to upload the file to.
- You'll be taken to a detailed page for the activity. Below the Activity Description and above the Activity Dates you'll click on a blue hyperlink called “Files:”
- This will take you to the activity's Team Room. At the bottom of the page you'll find a blue boxed labeled “Share Files.” Click on this box and you'll be able to upload the certificate here.
Out of District Requests:
In the “Forms” section on the left navigation bar you'll find a section called “Out-of-District Workshop.”
Helpful hints for filling out the "Out-of-District-Workshop" form:
- Sections highlighted in red are mandatory for form submission.
- Even if you do not need a sub, you must list the times in this space for the form to be submitted.
- If you are submitting this form for a parent contact hour DO NOT select a content area or supervisor. You must select Miscellaneous Professional Learning. Content supervisors will not approve parent contact hours.
Helpful hints for finalizing an Out-of-District-Workshop request:
- If your request is denied or returned to you for more information you will see a message on your Learning Plan home screen.
- If your request is approved you will see it under the Approved and/or In-Progress heading on your Learning Plan home screen.
- Once your session has been approved click the manage button beside your session on your Learning Plan home screen then choose the “Mark Complete” option.
- Approved sessions that are not marked complete by the user will not award hours.
- The session will not show up on your transcript until all of these steps have been completed and it has been approved by your principal or supervisor.