Recently, I've been seeing an increase in posts from teachers who are getting on My Big Campus for the first time. Teachers are joining the standalone (freemium) version of MBC because they've heard about My Big Campus from their colleagues, and districts using the Lightspeed web filter are getting a head start on implementing My Big Campus over the summer. And, of course, when the next school term starts, we'll have a flood of new students learning their way around.
I just wanted to share a few of the self-help features on My Big Campus, that can transform you from a novice to a power user.
Help
Click Help in the top right corner to find a growing list of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), neatly organized by subject matter. You'll also see a tab for Community help, where you can browse, search, ask, and answer questions. If you don’t find what you’re looking for in the FAQs, see what questions your peers have been asking. Or see if you can help someone out.
Bob's Wall
If you need to ask a quick question, or just say "Hi Bob!", post on my Wall. Bob's Wall is available to everyone on My Big Campus, and I'm on there answering questions just about any time of the day, including weekends.
MBC staff and other MBC users have created and published several comprehensive and very useful training Bundles on the Bundle Exchange. Here are a few to check out:
To find others, search for "training" or "mbc" – you can branch, customize, and share any of these bundles with your own school.
We regularly present webinars (interactive online meetings) for teachers and IT staff, to help get you up to speed on My Big Campus.
- Register for one of our regularly scheduled Teacher Overview webinars, presented by MBC staff and senior MBC Coaches.
- The monthly MBC Trainers Update webinar is a good way to stay caught up on new features and tips. Join the webinar live, or watch the closed-caption recording in MBC Trainers.
You can also request a training webinar for you and your staff at a time that suits you; email engagers@mybigcampus.com to set things up.
MBC Orientation Center
Staff can navigate to Topics (just to the right of Groups and People), click on More Topics and find the MBC Orientation Center, where users have shared how they are using My Big Campus in short videos and some easy-to-duplicate lessons. In Resources you’ll find Reference Materials and documentation that you can use yourself, or distribute to new users. There are even pages for admin and IT staff.
MBC Release Notes
If you’re waiting for an enhancement, feature, or bug fix to be released, check out the MBC Release Notes topic.
Topics, Topics, Topics
And while you’re navigating to Topics, which are visible to staff users only, peruse the diverse list of topics being discussed by your peers: flipped classrooms, iPad/iPod educational resources, project-based learning, collaborative writing, virtual field trips, cyber classrooms, and more. You may even want to start one yourself. These topics are groups that span district boundaries so you can form professional learning networks and learn from each other.
MBC Trainers
Finally, if you're responsible for training folks, join the MBC Trainers group for IT pre-requisites, awareness building, training agendas, documentation, and more.
So in summary, I’ve got your back! Let me know if there are more ways we can help.
Recently, I've been seeing an increase in posts from teachers who are getting on My Big Campus for the first time. Teachers are joining the standalone (freemium) version of MBC because they've heard about My Big Campus from their colleagues, and districts using the Lightspeed web filter are getting a head start on implementing My Big Campus over the summer. And, of course, when school starts again in the fall, we'll have a flood of new students learning their way around.
I just wanted to share a few of the self-help features on My Big Campus, that can transform you from a novice to a power user.
Help
Click Help in the top right corner to find a growing list of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), neatly organized by subject matter. You'll also see a tab for Community help, where you can browse, search, ask, and answer questions. If you don’t find what you’re looking for in the FAQs, see what questions your peers have been asking. Or see if you can help someone out.
You’ll also find video tutorials for specific functions. If you’ve made some and are willing to share, I’ll add them to our collection. Send them to me via support@mybigcampus.com.
If you need to ask a quick question, or just say "Hi Bob!", post on my Wall. Bob's Wall is available to everyone on My Big Campus, and I'm on there answering questions most hours of the day, including weekends.
MBC staff and other MBC users have created and published several comprehensive and very useful training Bundles on the Bundle Exchange. Here are a few to check out:
To find others, search for "training" or "mbc" – you can branch, customize, and share any of these bundles with your own school.
We regularly present webinars (interactive online meetings) for teachers and IT staff, to help get you up to speed on My Big Campus.
- Register for one of our regularly scheduled Teacher Overview webinars, presented by MBC staff and senior MBC Coaches.
- The monthly MBC Trainers Update webinar is a good way to stay caught up on new features and tips. Join the webinar live, or watch the closed-caption recording in MBC Trainers.
You can also request a training webinar for you and your staff at a time that suits you; email engagers@mybigcampus.com to set things up.
MBC Orientation Center
Staff can navigate to Topics (just to the right of Groups and People), click on More Topics and find the MBC Orientation Center, where users have shared how they are using My Big Campus in short videos and some easy-to-duplicate lessons. In Resources you’ll find Reference Materials and documentation that you can distribute to new users, and reference yourself. There are even pages for admin and IT staff.
MBC Release Notes
If you’re waiting for an enhancement, feature, or bug fix to be released, check out the MBC Release Notes topic.
Topics, Topics, Topics
And while you’re navigating to Topics, which are visible to staff users only, peruse the diverse list of topics being discussed by your peers: flipped classrooms, iPad/iPod educational resources, project-based learning, collaborative writing, virtual field trips, cyber classrooms, and more. You may even want to start one yourself. These topics are groups that span district boundaries so you can form professional learning networks and learn from each other.
MBC Trainers
Finally, if you're responsible for training folks, join the MBC Trainers group for IT pre-requisites, awareness building, training agendas, documentation, and more.
So in summary, I’ve got your back! Let me know if there are more ways we can help.
Judging from the high volume of posts on my wall lately, we have a lot of new users among us. So with all the new people and activity that a new school year brings (not to mention all the new features we’ve introduced to this site), we've thrown some extra effort into additional help resources.
Improved Help
Under Help there is a growing list of FAQs neatly organized by subject matter. Next to that is Community help. So if you don’t find what you’re looking for in FAQs, search out your peers. Or check in and see if you can help someone out.
You’ll also find video tutorials for specific functions. If you’ve made some and are willing to share, I’ll add them to our collection. Send them to me via support@mybigcampus.com.
MBC Orientation Center
Staff can navigate to Topics (just to the right of Groups and People), click on More Topics and find the MBC Orientation Center where users have shared how they are using My Big Campus in short videos and some easy-to-duplicate lessons. In Resources you’ll find Reference Materials and Quizzes documentation that you can distribute to new users and reference yourself. There are even pages for admin and IT staff.
MBC Release Notes
If you’re waiting for an enhancement, feature, or bug fix to be released, check out the MBC Release Notes topic.
Topics, Topics, Topics
And while you’re navigating to Topics, which are visible to staff users only, peruse the diverse list of topics being discussed by your peers: flipped classrooms, iPad/iPod educational resources, project-based learning, collaborative writing, virtual field trips, cyber classrooms, and more. You may even want to start one yourself. These topics are groups that span district boundaries so you can form professional learning networks and learn from each other.
MBC Trainers
Finally, if you're responsible for training folks, join the MBC Trainers group for IT pre-requisites, awareness building, training agendas, documentation, and more.
So in summary, I’ve got your back! Let me know if there are more ways we can help.
Over the summer, we've added some cool stuff and tweaked some stuff to improve My Big Campus. So, as you're moving onto campus this school year, you may need some orientation.
First, you'll find MBC Reference Material (pdf) at http://mbcurl.me/1BX. This highly graphical document walks you through the most common uses of MBC and points out some special notes and recommendations.
Those of you tasked with training others should peruse (and optionally join) the MBC Trainers group where a training outline is provided, as well as an introductory PowerPoint presentation (in Resources after you join), and more. See http://www.mybigcampus.com/groups/mbc-trainers.
Next, staff may want to attend our webinar, this Thursday, August 18, 9 to 10am Pacific time. We’ll cover the new interface, latest features, and user policies. Sign up for “Going Back to School with My Big Campus” at: http://mbcurl.me/1BZ.
If you can’t make that time, no worries. It’ll be recorded and publicized for later viewing.
Finally, the MBC administrators among you will be happy to learn that we have tweaked our sign up and management tools. More info can be found in Help.
As always, I’m available on my wall to answer questions, and our Help section with video tutorials is growing.
Let me know if there’s anything we’ve overlooked!