We have updated the TurnItIn API integration with ManageBac. This will make things much smoother, eliminating the need to separately login to TurnItIn or having to create classes individually.

To get setup, contact your TurnItIn support representative and ensure that you have the ManageBac option enabled for your account under the Integrations section when logged in as an Administrator (there is a nominal additional charge from TurnItIn for the integration).

For step-by-step instructions, view our setup tutorial and how to review originality reports directly on ManageBac.

We are very pleased to announce the much anticipated, updated IBIS integration with ManageBac.

The new and improved automated IBIS integration will allow you to bulk register your Diploma candidates – completely eliminating the need for manual data entry into IBIS.

It comprises three steps:

1. Students complete their Diploma Plan Worksheets on ManageBac.
2. DP Coordinators review and lock the Plan Worksheets.
3. DP Coordinators securely initiate the automated registration process.

Steps 2 and 3 will take less than 15 minutes with zero manual data entry and a maximum of three clicks per student.

A new truth is needed

Asking the right question

US$2.7 trillion of aid over 50 years to developing countries has not provided a sustainable solution for poverty. In 2010, 2.6 billion people, or 38% of the world, still live on less than US$2 a day. While aid alleviates the symptoms of poverty, it does not address the root causes or bring about inclusive prosperity.

Instead of asking ‘How do we address poverty?’ we ask a new question – ‘how do we create prosperity for everyone?’ History shows that a creative society is a prosperous society. Creativity is the source that unlocks unlimited possibilities. In a world of creativity, prosperity has no limits. This is our unique understanding.

Prosperity is the answer to poverty

-Richard Chandler

We feel it is now time to re-think CAS, and we are curious to hear your thoughts as students and coordinators.

Please note any changes we make will be opt-in, you will be able to decide whether you want to take part in CAS+ or whether you prefer to keep things as-is. We will not impose any changes.

These are the areas we aim to resolve through CAS+ on ManageBac:

• CAS should be more fun and competitive – more like a game. The perception of CAS as a ‘chore’ requirement is an outcome of this design problem. Solving paperwork was domino one, solving this is domino two, and we will see where it leads.
• We would like to create 40 sustainable activities & projects – 5 focusing on each learning outcome. The activities will be global, practical and actionable (i.e. not involving taking expensive trips). If you have ideas, please e-mail us at ideas@managebac.com. We will be setting up a voting system shortly.
• Metrics: Hours or learning outcomes? We need a better way to measure significance of an activity and whether there is sustainable impact. Impact like Karma cannot be quantified, but sustainability can – by asking basic questions ‘did this activity address any underlying problem or make tangible progress?’ or ‘was it simply applying a bandage and leaving the underlying wound unhealed?’
• Inspiration: CAS in its simplest form is pursuing excellence in a non-academic endeavor. The current learning outcomes capture this, but in an abstract way. What is lacking is fungible inspiration. People, who achieved great success, whether they are living today or part of the ‘eminent dead’ deserve to be studied and CAS provides an opportunity to learn from and emulate their greatness in creativity, action and service.

Here at ManageBac, we are inspired by Richard Chandler and his work Greatness that Matters and Bringing the Light. Chandler more than anyone we know embodies the learner profile in risk-taking, principled action, and reflective inquiry in pursuit of truth.

1) Transitioning Years

Within the QuickStart Wizard, you can easily archive and adjust your IB year groups. This will allow you to archive your graduated students (i.e. the DP Class of 2011) and adjust the grade levels (i.e. to move your DP one cohorts to DP two from Grade 11 to Grade 12). All of your archived IB group records are retained on the system and accesible, but archiving will ensure a correct student count on your account.

You can also archive IB groups via the Overview tab by clicking Edit Group Settings.

2) Adding New Students

You can easily import new students via the Users tab by clicking Import Students.

To get started, you can download our Student List Template by right-clicking and pressing ‘Save As’. Once you fill in the templates using Excel or Numbers, you can bulk import your lists, which will create the accounts in 10-15 minutes.

One thing to keep in mind, the column formats must remain consistent. The required fields for students (highlighted in red) are shown below:

• First name
• Last name
• E-mail Address (if you don’t have student e-mails, we can create temporary accounts for you)
• Grade (Diploma would be 11 or 12 in the American system, and 12 or 13 in the UK system)

If you are unsure about the format or need help, you can always send us your lists to support@managebac.com and we will be happy to assist you.

Getting setting up with ManageBac is quick and easy. When you first login as an Administrator, you will be prompted to complete our QuickStart Wizard. This will guide you through the setup process to ensure that your school settings are configured, to create your student & staff accounts, and finally to set your master IB deadlines.

1) Configuring School Settings

This involves confirming your school details such as the name, programmes offered (e.g. DP, MYP, PYP), IB school code and logo. Next, you’ll be able to confirm your subject choices within each programme.

2) Preparing Student & Staff Lists

This is the most efficient way to bulk create student and staff accounts. You can download our Student List Template and Teacher List Template by right-clicking and pressing ‘Save As’. Once you fill in the templates using Excel or Numbers, you can bulk import your lists, which will create the accounts in 10-15 minutes.

One thing to keep in mind, the column formats must remain consistent. The required fields for students (highlighted in red) are shown below:

• First name
• Last name
• E-mail Address (if you don’t have student e-mails, we can create temporary accounts for you)
• Grade (Diploma would be 11 or 12 in the American system, and 12 or 13 in the UK system)

If you are unsure about the format or need help, you can always send us your lists to support@managebac.com and we will be happy to assist you.

3) Setting Master IB Deadlines

This allows you to easily build in your master calendar of IB Deadlines. These deadlines will carry forward for future years, so you won’t need to re-enter them for each new cohort.

First select the Diploma Group under the IB Manager tab. Select the Calendar tab, and click IB Deadlines & Events on the right menu.

You’re all set! Your ManageBac account is now up and running.

User feedback has always been the driving factor in making ManageBac better. Last week we introduced a new feedback system called UserVoice. You can use this to suggest new ideas or to vote on existing feature requests. The number of votes will be used to prioritize our future development. We will provide status updates on planned and in-progress features.

Our new Server Status page will provide uptime statistics for ManageBac.

You can always check this to determine whether there is an issue with our network.

We have made several important updates earlier today to improve usability on ManageBac. Quick navigation for students, so they can easily access their Plan, CAS, EE & ToK worksheets.

Reflection questions are now referred to as CAS Questions, and CAS Evidence is now referred to as Reflections. We have also streamlined the interface on the activity summary page to make information clearer and to reduce excess white space.

Meeting Logs are now CAS Interviews. For Administrators, Teachers & Advisors, we have added a progress section, so that you can easily evaluate student progress as: (1) Excellent, (2) On-track or (3) Concern. The progress status is visible to both students and parents.

One-click to mark approval and completion. You won’t need to press save changes.

These changes in terminology were made based on recommendations from the IBAP regional office.

Last weekend over coffee, we were reading the IB’s new standards and practices, which were published in January 2011. This document lists out the requirements that schools work towards during implementation and day-to-day management.

We have a habit of reading things backwards, and in the glossary, one of the definitions caught our eye.

Pedagogical leadership: The effective management of resources, systems or structures to ensure that teaching and learning at the school addresses the overarching mission of the school and the IB programme standards; or those responsible for its management.

(emphasis added)

This definition makes sense, and it is very clear that pedagogical leadership requires effective management; however, the implicit assumption is that there are resources, systems and structures in place with which to manage.

This assumption may seem like a given. After all you can’t lead a school without a building (e.g. structures), without properly trained staff & faculty, and without resources (e.g. textbooks, instructional materials, etc.).

But what about systems?

Systems can mean many things to many people, but moving backwards through the document, there are over two dozen references to system(s) across the IB Continuum. Here’s an example:

Standard C4: Assessment.

5. The school has systems for recording student progress aligned with the assessment philosophy of the programme(s).

6. The school has systems for reporting student progress aligned with the assessment philosophy of the programme(s).

7. The school analyses assessment data to inform teaching and learning.

To summarize standards & practices (B1, B2, C4), systems provide a way to assess, report & analyze student progress, to communicate IB requirements to the school community, and to improve collaboration among staff & faculty.

It seems straightforward enough, but in practice this is a complex problem. If one of your colleagues is working weekends to get report cards out on time, to manually convert MYP grades into local grades, to enter in exam registrations on IBIS, to manually copy & paste units onto a curriculum map, you know exactly what we mean.

The root of the problem is the absence of a single integrated system that does everything required in the IB’s standards & practices.

Requirements are being met with a bundle of systems that individually serve a well-defined purpose (e.g. ATLAS Rubicon for curriculum mapping, Edline for the parent portal, Blackboard/Moodle for posting homework, FilemakerPro/Rediker/Powerschool for your student information system).

Manual data entry (e.g. somebody’s weekends) and temporary solutions are used to tie the systems together to make things happen. In most cases, the level of integration is close to zero, so assessment data does not talk to the unit plans in the curriculum, even though logically, a teacher would want to know how to improve a unit plan based on the assessment data.

So why hasn’t an integrated system been built?

• Geographic fragmentation: IB schools are widely distributed.
• Curriculum variance: the vast majority of IB schools offer different programs (e.g. IGCSE, AP, etc.) with a diverse numbers of students (e.g. 20 to 3,000).
• Complexity: the rules change every 5 years with a new curriculum review.
• General apathy: it’s not my problem… I deal with (insert subject or work).

So you can see that the true pedagogical leaders have not just been managing systems and acquiescing to the status quo, they have been participating in the design and construction of a new system.

We know this because we have had the pleasure of working with many of these fine individuals (IB Coordinators, Teachers & Principals), whose suggestions and insights have guided the development of ManageBac.

We’ll get in the habit of posting more regularly as we stumble upon interesting things. This is a long overdue post.

We have always been interested in finding new ideas and problem solving, this has been the most exciting aspect of our work. Especially as we have begun to delve into the MYP and now into the PYP, but more practically, we have had to prioritize our time and practice triage.

We are a small team of three people trying to fix a complex problem with many moving parts that is not ‘owned’ by any one person, let alone any single organization – not even the IBO.

To provide some context, when we started with CAS Manager back in late 2007, we were fixing a very clear and focused problem: for students, we were eliminating the paperwork, and for the Coordinators, we were providing real-time information on where students stood with respect to their requirements. It was a ‘win-win’ outcome. Students would not waste time with forms and paperwork, Coordinators could clear out filing cabinets and minimize admin time.

The same core idea was also applicable to the Extended Essay, Personal Project, etc. but beyond the DP core and a tiny part of the MYP, we had two possible paths. The first choice was we could leave it at that (take a nice job and move on), or we could double-down our risk, and try to fix the bigger systemic problems, which consisted of streamlining coordination, planning, and assessment & reporting.

A complete restructuring.

It seemed ludicrous to us to have Coordinators manually registering hundreds of students on IBIS one-by-one, for teachers to be doing MYP assessment in Excel sheets, and to have each school designing its own information systems from scratch at an enormous and duplicative cost.

What we observed was the absence of standardization in systems and processes, which inhibited ‘economies of scale’ across the IB. In other words, the fact that more schools were adopting the IB was not directly translating into better systems for existing schools, faculty and students.

This is a bold assertion to be making, but it is the reality on the ground because despite Access being a 2020 goal, there is a wide gulf in resource allocation among schools, and nowhere is this more readily apparent, than with technology resources and systems.

To clarify when we describe ‘systems’, we are not talking about having a fancy computer lab with shiny computers. Hardware is not going to fix these problems. Technology accelerates productivity (the difference between walking 20 miles to work vs. driving) because paperwork and an over-worked Coordinator are not tenable long-term solutions. The ‘system’ in this case walks out the door every night exhausted.

A tragic misallocation of resources.

The most technologically-advanced IB school on earth is in Singapore. We were impressed – awe would be a better word to describe it. They have a team of developers building their own systems from scratch in-house. The caveat is, that they have customized to such an extreme degree, that their systems are effectively useless to any other IB school. This pattern has repeated itself hundreds of times at a tremendous cost.

We asked ourselves: we are not living in a world, where everyone designs their own electricity plugs? Why are information systems operating under the same curriculum any different? We felt that there was a very clear purpose for standardization.

Charlie Munger said it best: Always invert.

Stepping back just think of the harm that would have been caused if everyone refused to use the same electricity plugs. It would have been virtually impossible for anyone to: (a) deliver electricity, and (b) design and mass-produce electrical devices efficiently.

Without clear accepted standards, decades of progress would never have materialized. No computers, no indoor lighting, etc. Basic things that we take for granted were all contingent on a very simple process of standardization.

This is analogous to the root problems we are addressing within the IB community through ManageBac. The paper forms are already obsolete.

Much like the film Inception (no spoilers for those, who haven’t seen it), Cobb tells his team we only have one way and that is to continue, so for us in 2009, it was foregone conclusion.

We have always had some ‘Projections’ getting in our way, but the idea is in place. 528491…

We will be moving to a new hosting facility at RackSpace this Saturday, May 22nd, at 6 AM EST. The system will be temporarily inaccessible for up to 5 hours until 11 AM EST.

We recommend that you finish saving your evidence & activities before that 5-hour window begins at 6 AM EST.