MAPS-ICT™
Guide to using MAPS /

We hope this guide will help you come to terms with everything you will need to know about MAPS when you first start using it.

What is MAPS?

Developed closely with teachers and LEA advisors, this robust web application is designed to save teachers time and make ICT assessment more effective and manageable.

MAPS stands for Managed Assessment Portfolio System. It is an online portfolio system, accessible 24 hours a day all year round from school or home. Teachers can create, assign and mark assessment tasks and pupils can complete those tasks and store their work within their own portfolio on TAG Learning’s secure server. Teacher and pupil information and data are kept secure with the use of usernames and passwords.

Teachers can mark work seeing the whole process that went behind the task and not just a printout. There is an inbuilt messaging system within MAPS which allow students and teachers to discuss tasks and ask for help.

It is an ideal platform for moderation across the school and LEA. The children can see at the touch of a button what is expected of them and teachers can comment on children’s work as it progresses. Moderation notes can be attached so that teachers in school and across LEAs can see how that work was moderated.

Guide created by Fran Greenaway, Curriculum Adviser and Karim Derrick, Senior Developer of MAPS

MAPS-ICT™
Guide to using MAPS
Contents /

This guide is split into four sections:

Section 1 Tutorial for Administrators (usually the ICT coordinator)

How to set up your MAPS account3

How to supply data to TAG4

How to login5

How to set up teachers and classes6

How to check and amend pupil information9

How to use the holding class facility10

How to edit the administrator’s portfolio12

Section 2 Tutorial for Heads of Department

How to login 15

How to set up teachers18

How to edit your portfolio20

How to create and manage cross curricular tasks23

Section 3 Tutorial for Teachers

How to login as a teacher26

How to set up your Portfolio29

How to use an existing assessment task32

How to assign assessment tasks42

How to create your own assessment task 46

How to manage messaging pupils 55

How to assess and mark tasks58

How to manage the gallery of school’s work64

How to create moderation portfolios67

Section 4 Help for Pupils

How to log on69

How to change portfolios70

How to view and send messages to the teacher 76

How to view, work on and upload information to a task79

How to hand in work84

MAPS-ICT™
Guide to using MAPS: Section 1
Tutorial for administrators
Setting up your MAPS Account /

Tutorial for Administrator

The following tutorial is for teachers with administrator level privileges to MAPS in your school, which is likely to be the school’s ICT coordinator. You are now the school’s MAPS coordinator and administrator.

Only the administrator is able to create new classes and add new pupils. The administrator can add teachers and create Heads of Departments who can then also add teachers to the system.

The administrator will also be able to monitor what is going on in the school as they have access to log files showing when teachers and pupils have logged on to the system.

Setting up your school’s MAPS account

When TAG first receives the order from your school, we set up your school’s MAPS account and send a login to the school’s MAPS coordinator (often the school’s ICT coordinator). You will then be sent by email and by post your username, password and the MAPS Internet address for your school. It is very important that the MAPS admin team get the correct email address. It would be preferable if this was a school email address but it is not necessary.

The first thing you need to do is to send us your student data so that we can import it into MAPS. This ensures you are not spending hours creating student accounts.

Preparing your pupil data for MAPS

TAG sends instructions on how to prepare your school data to all MAPS subscribers. Your school will receive the instructions both as an email and in print form. If you have not received the instructions, please send an email to quoting your order number. After supplying your data, please allow up to 10 working days for it to go live.

Attached to the email are files that will help your SIMS administrator (or school secretary) to extract the student information that TAG needs to set up the pupils. Please copy all of the files attached to the email to a formatted floppy disk (blank disk) and label the disk ‘MAPS-ICT’.

Take your floppy disk labelled ‘MAPS-ICT’ to your school SIMS administrator along with the printed instructions.

Your school SIMS administrator will give you back the floppy disk containing a file called LLL_NNNN.txt (where LLL is the 3 digit DfES code for your LEA and NNNN is the 4 digit DfES code for your school) This file holds your student data.

The following information is essential and MUST be included when you send us your student data:

Your Name

School Name

School Address (including postcode)

Your Phone Number at school

The student data file LLL_NNNN.txt

Email your student data to or post it on a floppy disk to the following address:

MAPS-ICT Administrator, TAG Learning Ltd, 25 Pelham Rd, Gravesend, DA11 OHU

When you first log in, if your pupil data has not yet been processed, you will find that the classes and pupils are not listed. Please do not set up classes and pupils manually - that function is for minor amendments during the year.

Please note that it is vital that we have UPN numbers for all pupils.

MAPS-ICT™
Guide to using MAPS: Section 1
Tutorial for administrators
Getting Started /

Logging in

The first thing you need to know when using MAPS is that it is an Internet-based system, so you can only access it from a computer connected to the Internet.

To access your portfolio go to the Internet address for your LEA on MAPS. The address will be in the form:

The easiest way to find out your LEA’s MAPS Internet address is to go to:

In the top left of the screen you will see a drop-down box listing LEAs where schools are subscribed to MAPS. Scroll down and click on your LEA, then when the MAPS screen for your LEA comes up, click the Login button at the top right of the screen.

If your LEA is not listed or you have lost your password contact the MAPS Administrator at TAG Learning Ltd on 01474 537350 or send an email to

Note: If you have an early version of Internet Explorer, you may be told that ‘a security certificate was not issued by a trusted authority’. If this is the case, click ‘View certificate’ and then ‘Install certificate’, this will install the GlobalSign[*] security certificate on your browser. You will need to do this on all PC computers using Internet Explorer 5.0 or earlier.

You may also not be able to view MAPS if you have an early version of Internet Explorer. Version 5.5 or better is recommended and can be downloaded from

* GlobalSign is a registered trademark of GlobalSign NV/SA.

Setting up teacher accounts

In order for others in your school to fully use MAPS there are 3 things you need to do.

  1. Log-in to MAPS (see previous page).
  2. As the MAPS administrator for your school, you need to set-up log-in accounts for each teacher using the system.

To do this you will need the email address that each teacher wishes to use. This will be their user name when they first log in, but they can subsequently change this to a more manageable username. Have the teachers’ email addresses to hand.

Note: this will usually be their school email address, and not a personal home email address.

  1. You also need to assign classes to these teachers.

Note: Please make sure you input an email address that is valid and you and the teachers check regularly. You will be informed by email of system updates and be warned of any security issues or your pupils inputting inappropriate language in their portfolio.

Setting up teachers, classes and adding pupils: easy steps

Step 1 – Viewing your portfolio for the first time

When you have logged in, the first thing that you will see is the front of your portfolio. This contains some personal information about yourself that you wish to share with others. The screen is called ‘about me’. You need not do anything on this screen at the moment. To find out how to use and edit this screen, read the document in the Teachers’ section of this guide entitled: Creating a Teacher Portfolio. (page 29)

Step 2 – Viewingyourclasses
You may wish to see what classes have already been entered onto your system.

  1. Click the ‘portfolios’ button at the top of your screen. This will take you to a screen showing the list of classes and teachers registered with MAPS in your school.
  2. Choose the subject first, then click the class names to show the class list.

The class contains information relating to the pupils and their assigned tasks.

  1. Click on the teacher name to take you to the teacher’s own portfolio.

Note: Only the school’s MAPS administrator has the ability to add or delete classes and add pupils!

On the portfolios screen you will see four buttons on the left hand side.

Step 3 – Adding teachers

  1. From the ‘portfolios’ screen, click the ‘add teacher’ button.
  2. Insert the name as the teacher would want it to be seen
  3. The user name of the new teacher that you enter will be their requested email address, until they change it in their own portfolio.
  4. Make sure you select the correct subject. If the teacher is Head of Department, be sure to click the HoD radio button - this affects their privileges in the MAPS system.
  5. Complete the form and press submit.
  6. The title and names will appear on the teacher’s user area, and in messages from the teacher to pupils. When you confirm the details you will see the teacher’s name on the bottom section of the ‘portfolios’ screen.

Step 4 – Assigning classes

  1. From the ‘portfolios’ screen (click the ‘portfolios’ button at the top of the screen if you are not already there) select a class that you wish to link to a teacher by clicking the word ‘edit’ next to the class name.
  1. This will bring up a screen similar to that shown to the left. Check that the class name and the year group are correct, if

not, modify them.

  1. Use the drop down box next to ‘Teacher’ to associate the correct teacher to this class. Your teacher is now ready to log-in to the system and to begin to assign assessment tasks.

Note: When a teacher logs in for the first time their default password will be ‘portfolio8’. Please encourage all teachers to change their passwords immediately.

Step 5: Checking and amending pupil data

When your pupil data has been imported into the MAPS system you should check that all of the data has been imported successfully. Please note that if there are typing errors in the school data that you supply, they will appear in the data when imported into MAPS. Ideally, you should correct the data before sending it to TAG. However, you can amend pupil names/details in MAPS.

  1. Click on the ‘portfolios’ button. If you know which class the child is in, click on the link to the class. If you are not sure, type the pupil’s surname into the pupil search box.
  2. Click on the link to the child and then click on the edit button.

You can then change the following information for a pupil:

email address

name

classes

UPN number

gender

ability to edit profile (this can be switched on or off for each pupil)

date of birth

free text information

colour scheme

Note: only the Administrator can disallow the pupil from editing their profile (About Me screen.)

Step 6: Adding a pupil

Although the majority of pupils will be entered for you, you may have new pupils to the school that need to be added to a class.

  1. To add a pupil, go to the ‘portfolios’ screen and click the ‘add pupil’ button on the left of the screen.

You will need to provide the following information:

email address

name

classes

UPN number

gender

date of birth

  1. Click the ‘FINISHED!’ button.

How to use the holding class facility

The holding class stores the profiles for pupils who have not been allocated a class.

When to use the holding class

  1. If a pupil has left the school and you do not want their name to appear on the class list for a teacher move the pupil to the holding class.
  2. When pupils are leaving the school at the end of their time at your school, it is necessary for you to put those pupils into the holding class. If the feeder school is using MAPS also, when they send their data to the MAPS team at TAG those children will disappear from your school’s holding class and move to the next school.

The Unique Pupil Number or UPN

Each pupil has a unique pupil number given to it by the DFES. It is vital to check that this number is correct as the MAPS system will pick this up when a child moves school. This will ensure that all there previous work in their portfolio will be transferred when they move.

Viewing the holding class

To view the holding class click the ‘profiles’ button at the top of the screen and then click the ‘holding class’ button at the left of the screen.

Moving pupils to and from the holding class

To move pupils into and out of the holding class, you need to edit their details. To do this, go either to;

  1. The ‘edit’ link beneath their name in their class list) and change their class.

Or;

  1. The edit button on the pupil’s About Me screen. Change class within the edit screen.

Switching off classes

If you are in a large school with multi form entry, you may not want all your classes active at the same time. Within MAPS you have the facility to switch off classes so that the pupils cannot login to MAPS.

Times when you would use this application

•When new classes begin using MAPS and have not changed their passwords. This can help with security as it prevents pupils logging into other classes and changing their passwords without authority

•When you do not want your pupils downloading materials, uploading tasks or adding anything to their portfolio screens.

How to switch classes off

  1. Click on the classes tab and choose a class. Your class list will appear.

  1. In the top right hand corner of the list, click on ‘Switch off’. When the pupils in this class try to logon they will receive a message:
  1. To reactivate the class, click ‘Switch on’ at the top right of the class list.

To create and assign assessment tasks see tutorials:
Creating an assessment task (page 46)and Assigning assessment tasks page 42) in Section 3: Tutorial for Teachers.

/ © 2003 TAG Learning Ltd, 1 -

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