Getting Started with GameSalad for Education

Quick Start Guide

Creating a Class

You can create a class in a couple of ways. The first way is by clicking the large button with a "+" on it from the Teacher Dashboard landing page. Doing so will prompt you to name the class. Simply enter a name and click the "Create" button and you're good to go! You can also create a new class while currently viewing one of your classes. This is done by clicking the class dropdown arrow in the upper left, then selecting the "Add Class" option.

View Curriculum and Assign Lessons to your Class

You can view all of the curriculum, lesson plans, tutorials, etc available to you and assign tutorials to your classes from the "Curriculum" tab when inside a classroom. From this page you can click into the different units we provide to explore the lesson plans, activities, materials, and tutorials, etc. Here's what CS.1 Getting to Know GameSalad looks like: Once you've opened a unit, you'll be viewing the Lesson Plan. This is also where you can view: 1. The required materials for each section of the Lesson Plan. 2. The list of assignments for the unit. 3. The tutorial that the students will see after this unit is assigned to them. 4. A demo of what the completed game the students will be creating looks like. All this information is broken out via the tabs across the top of the section. When you're viewing a unit, you can assign it to your class by selecting the "Assignments" tab across the top of the section. You can then choose to assign the whole tutorial and quiz together to your students (using the Assign All button highlighted in green above) or assign each individual part of the tutorial to your students using the Assign buttons highlighted in red above. Once something has been assigned to your class, any students in that class will see it from their assignments tab when they log into GameSalad Creator.

Add Students to Your Class (First Time Login)

Students can join your class using Google or Clever Single Sign On, or by creating a GameSalad account directly. Each of your classes has a unique ID (the invite code), as well as a URL that you can send to your students so that they can join your class. Start by navigating into a class you want to invite students to from the teacher dashboard. On the left side of your screen you should see an invite student button. Pressing this will provide you with the unique URL your students can use to join your class. Clicking that URL will copy it to your clipboard. You can then pass it out to your students, or if you'd like to, you can become a student in your own class and see what your students will see when they go to join your class by heading to that URL yourself. After a student heads to that URL they will be prompted to login with their GameSalad, Google or Clever account to join the class. Logging in with Google or Clever Single Sign On will create a GameSalad account for them and link it to their Google or Clever account. Google or Clever SSO If you're students are using Google or Clever SSO, have them click the correct log in button from the join class URL you sent them. After selecting one of the SSO options, your students will be prompted to create a GameSalad account. They will need to provide their first name, last initial, birth year (to determine if they're older or younger than 13 for COPPA compliance) and can optionally pick their own usernames. Once your students have filled in all the remaining fields and click the "Let's Go!" button, their GameSalad accounts will be created and they will be placed on a page they will see the name of the class they're trying to join as well as a Join Class button. Have them click the join class button and then they'll be in your class! Not Using SSO If you're not using a Single Sign On option for your classroom, the steps are very similar to those above. Once your students have navigated to the join class URL you provided them, they will click the create account link. The students will then need to provide their email address, first name, last initial, birth year (to determine if the students are under the age of 13 for COPPA compliance), and pick a username and password for their account.  Once your students have filled in all the fields and click the "Create Account" button, their GameSalad accounts will be created and they will be placed on a page they will see the name of the class they're trying to join as well as a Join Class button. Have them click the join class button and then they'll be in your class!

View Student Progress Through Lessons & Grading

Once you have invited students to your class and have a lesson assigned to the class, you can view your student's progress from the Grade Book tab in the teacher dashboard. If you click on the course progress percentage, you'll see a small window popup with some additional details such as how long the student spent on each step of the lesson. Once students have taken the quizzes that are assigned, you can click on the grade percentage in the Grade Book to pop up a window to view their responses and do any grading needed for short answer responses. If extra grading is needed, simply click on the "Grade Essays" link: After you click on the Grade Essays link, the student's short answer question responses will show up for you with the ability for you to enter a point value that you feel the student earned, as well as leave feedback for the student: When you're done grading you will see the updated grade for the quiz, and have the option to email the grade report to the student or move on to the next report to grade.

Have Students Join Your Class (Existing GameSalad Accounts)

Students that already have accounts can join your class via the Join Class option under the dropdown in the top right of Creator once they're logged in. They will then be prompted to input the invite code that you can find on your class info page. After your students type in the invite code for your class, they will see the name of the class they're trying to join and a Join Class button will appear. All they need to do at this point is click the Join Class button to join your class. Afterwards you should see them in your roster, and they should now be able to see any lessons you've assigned to the class they've joined.

Assignments Tab Interface Overview

How can I get more Assets for my Projects?

There's lots of different software out there available for use to create image or sound files. So long as they export the file formats that we support just about any software will work. Supported file types are: - .png for images - .m4a for music - .ogg for sounds There's also a lot of sites where you can download already created assets in the needed formats. Here's a list of some options you can check out (some paid and some free): Creating Your Own Images Photoshop (https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html) Photoshop is an industry standard and has a ton of functionality. It works on both Mac and Windows computers, but is not free. GIMP (https://www.gimp.org/downloads/) GIMP has functionality similar to Photoshop, and also works on both Mac and Windows computers. The upside is that it's free. Piskel (https://www.piskelapp.com/) A great free, online, tool to create pixel art. Paint.net (https://www.getpaint.net/download.html#download) Paint.net is a little simpler than Photoshop or GIMP, but that will make it less daunting for people who haven't made their own graphics before. It's also free, but only supports Windows. Creating Your Own Sounds Audacity (https://www.audacityteam.org/) Audacity is a nice free option for sound creation, and works on Mac and Windows computers. Leshy SFMaker (https://www.leshylabs.com/apps/sfMaker/) Leshy SFMaker is a sound generator, which is much more approachable than something like Audacity, as you simply adjust values to get a sound you can use. Downloadable Resources If you'd prefer to download already created assets for your projects, check out these resources. https://soundimage.org/ Soundimage.org has a ton of royalty free sounds and images available for download. It's a great resource if you're looking for sound effects, music, or backgrounds. https://gamesalad.com/asset-bank/ This is a place where you can download all of the assets used in the curriculum for use in other projects. There's also a lot of assets available here that we don't use in the curriculum (check out the "ocean" and "large variety" asset packs). https://gshelper.com/ - Non-free option This is a marketplace you can purchase templates and assets from.

How do I Move Students Between my Classes?

You can move your students from one class to another through the teacher dashboard. This is done from the roster tab inside of one of your classes. 1. Selecting the student(s) that you want to move. 2. From the bulk options dropdown in the upper left, select the move option. 3. Click the apply button (this will prompt you to select which class you'd like to move the students to). 4. Select the class to move the students to. 5. Click the OK button. 6. Save your changes to have your student moved over into your other class.

Bulk Changing Student Passwords

As a teacher you have the ability to manage your student's passwords from the roster tab in the teacher dashboard. Follow the steps here to see how it's done. Start by heading to the roster tab in the teacher dashboard for the class that you want to update student passwords in. Use the checkboxes to select the students that you want to change passwords for (you can use the checkbox at the top left corner of the roster to select all the students in the class). Click on the Choose Bulk Action dropdown in the top left corner or the roster tab, select change passwords, and click the apply button. You should now see an overlay with a couple selection settings for the change. The default is to update each selected student account with a different auto-generated password. The alternative is to update all selected student accounts with the same password that you specify. Make a selection and then click the update button. You should now see the password field for each affected student in the class turn blue with the pending changes. Click the save button to finalize the changed passwords. You can verify that the passwords have been updated by double clicking on the password fields for the students.