SKeVA© Helpful Hints
Whether you are just starting out or looking to hone your SKeVA© skills, read below for some Helpful Hints from our program staff.
Adding Classes:
It is easier to add classes BEFOREadding students rather than vice versa.
It may be helpful to add an additional “tutoring” class to your roster when students are initially added. With a “tutoring” class, you can create additional practice tests for students who would benefit from extra exposure to materials and assign them to this class only.
Adding Students:
Certain versions of Internet Explorer (IE) are incompatible with the adding students feature of SKeVA©. If you select “Add Student,” and the screen fails to fully load (look at the green bar at the bottom of the screen), you are likely experiencing this difficulty.
We suggest switching to Safari, Mozilla, or another version of IE for adding students only; all other features of SKeVA©are unaffected.
For manual (one by one) upload, only the following fields are required: First Name, Last Name, Class, and Student ID.
While many other student data fields are optional, you or your district may find it useful to have this information listed for students (ex: free or reduced lunch, SPED, etc.).
The manual upload screen is where you will be able to activate the Audio Support and Spanish Language translationfeatures for specific students.
When adding students, you may come across an error message stating that student with that first/last name combination already exists in the system.
You can either create an individual name by adding a suffix or a prefix to that student’s name or add a universal suffix or prefix to all students’ names for ease of use.
Ex: Juan Lopez becomes Juan Lopez11, so a teacher would automatically add 11 to the end of all last names, thus he or she would not have to remember which students had the unique suffix.
Test Creation:
Start and End Dates: The SKeVA©team strongly suggests selecting today’s date as the start date and the last day of the school year as the end date for tests. Once the end date has passed, the test is inaccessible to students although results will be available for the teacher. Selecting the last day of the school will ensure that students have access to take the test even if absent, etc.
Number of Probes: Although as few as six probes can be used with Progress Monitoring, research suggests using as many as possible, up to 12.
Selection Criteria: New SKeVA© users should start with general criteria as many TEKS do not have sufficient keywords associated with them to create an entire test; this means selecting all available objectives until you become familiar with the system.
Share Test: Tests can be shared with other teachers within your school (not within the same district) only if you select “Share Test” during the creation process.
Timer: The test timer appears in the upper right hand corner of student test pages.It counts up (not down), will not limit students to a particular time frame, and will not record the time spent on the test. The timer acts as a visual reminder for the student and allows the teacher to determine at a glance how long the student has been working on any one test.
Error Messages: Occasionally you may see the message “Test NOT CREATED, please click here to modify.” Follow the prompts back to the keyword selection screen and select additional keywords as needed to complete your test.
Audio and Spanish Language Support
Only activate either the Audio or the Spanish Language Support for each individual student; they are not designed to work together and will read Spanish items in English.
Consider using headphones for students with Audio Support
Remember to check both “ELL” and “Spanish Language Items are Displayed” if translations are desired.
Students should begin and end an entire test series of progress monitoring probes or pre/post tests in one language
Students who take probe 1 in Spanish should take all additional probes in Spanish as well
When a new test is started, the teacher can switch between English and Spanish at will.
The system cannot grade answers within the same probe series or pre/post test in two languages at once; errors will result in the grading if languages are switched mid-series.
Student Log In
If a student is having trouble logging on to the SKeVA© system, there are usually two problems in play:
1.) The student did not properly log off
2.) The student’s name has an almost imperceptible space or character mistakenly inserted
SKeVA© utilizes a specific “Log Off” link in the upper right hand corner of the screen
Students may at first simply hit the red “X” to close the screen, which may not register that they have logged off.
The next time the student attempts to log in, they will be blocked because the system believes they never logged out.
Teachers can log off students by accessing “Add/Edit/Delete Students” and selecting “Log off All Students.”
When adding students, sometimes users inadvertently insert a space before the first letter of a student’s name or a special character.
These small variations can be all but invisible to the user.
The system will not allow the student to log on with this discrepancy in place.
The teacher can reset the student username by accessing “Add/Edit/Delete Student” and re-entering the student’s first and last name, then selecting “Update.”