The student progress dashboard gives you an overview of what each student linked to your school has achieved. Circles represent badges in each level (bronze, silver, gold) and will appear filled in when a student completes the badge. Stars at the end of each row indicate whether the student has achieved that level (and therefore unlocked the next level). Note that student progress is not linked to progress made using class accounts, it will only show badges achieved using individual student accounts.
On the resource hub we have a range of different resources to help you plan and implement your own nature-friendly activities in your schools. You can read more about how to find resources and upload resources on the resource hub help page. Most resources have been created by the British Ecological Society however you will also find resources that have been made by volunteers, teachers or external organisations. You can see who has contributed the resource when you click on it. Resources have tags (e.g., type of resources, key stage aimed at) which appear in coloured blocks underneath each resource. These tags allow you to filter to the resources you want.
To download a resource simply click on the resource to view the resource set, then click the resource you want to download and click the download button in the top right.
The school admin page is where you set up and manage your school details and different user accounts. It is useful to set up this information when you first start using Encounters, however you can come back, change details and add new accounts at any point.
You will need to add your school name and a logo under the school details section. The name and logo will appear on community page posts as well as your school dashboard. If you are not a school but are an organisation working with schools or a group working with primary school age children, just add your organisation/group name and logo here instead.
Educator accounts are used by teachers, support staff, volunteers or group leaders. The account you signed up with will already appear here however you can set up more accounts (e.g., for other teachers in your school) that link to your school. With an educator account you can post on the community page and use the educator zone (e.g., access the resource hub). You can also work on badges however you will need to set up a class first. You can keep track of which accounts are active by clicking edit.
There are two main ways for students to engage with the Encounters platform: either by working with a teacher/group leader as a class (where the teacher logs activities to earn badges) or working individually through their own accounts. You can have both class accounts and student accounts - for example you may wish to do activities as a class but then some engaged students may wish to also do activities independently in their free time. We've found that this option works best for most schools. To set up a class all you need is to enter a name and choose an avatar. Similarly to educator accounts, you can also edit whether a class is active or not. This could be particularly useful for at the end of the school year where you can 'archive' a class (you could change the name to add the school year) and create a new class for the new academic year to start working through badges.