Task Tracker: What's It All About?
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What is Task Tracker?
Task Tracker is our system that tracks student progress on website activities like Concept Builders, Minds On Physics, The Calculator Pad, Physics Interactives with Concept Checkers, and the Science Reasoning Center. Task Tracker allows teachers to create classes, populate the classes with students, make assignments for students to access, and view student progress reports and scores on those assignments.
Is Task Tracker Necessary?
Good question! The answer is No! Absolutely not. Our website can be used without a Task Tracker account. In fact, every section of our website can be used without a Task Tracker account. As of this writing (June, 2024), every section of our website (with the exception of the downloadable teacher resources) sits in front of the paywall. While we do have financial obligations and needs, we have no intention to change that. Need a Tutorial? It's FREE. Need to have the tutorial as a video? It's FREE. Need to review for a test? It's FREE. Want to practice some algebra-based Physics word problems? FREE. Want to use a simulation to drive home an idea? FREE. Need to sharpen your conceptual understanding? Try our Minds On Physics or Concept Builders ... for FREE.
What Can Task Tracker Do?
So if it's free, why should I purchase a Task Tracker subscription? Great question! And a question that we hope you think about before you make the purchase. Taking the step of purchasing a teacher account should only occur after you've conducted a cost-benefit analysis. Here is our sales pitch:
A Task Tracker subscription allows a teacher to ...
- ... create one or more classes and invite students to join the class using a Class Sign-up Code.
- ... turn a website activity (Concept Builder, MOP mission, CalcPad problem set, Physics Interactive simulation or Concept Checker, and a Science Reasoning activity) into a homework assignment that appears on student's assignment board. Those assigned tasks will have due dates, point values, late penalty points, etc.
- ... create a set of scoring rules by which the activity will be scored. Those scoring rules can be as simple as all or nothing or 1 point per question or as complex as blending points for completion with points for partially completing certain parts with bonus points for completing more than the required number of parts.
- ... preview any one of the more than 900 Task Tracker assignments in advance in order to judge the suitability of such assignments for a group of students.
- ... customize an activity such that undesired question groups, problems, or activity parts are not part of the assignment.
- ... depending on the activity type, you can sometimes modify the student experience and challenge. For instance, you can set a customized Health Penalty for a Minds On Physics mission that determines how fast the Health Bar goes down. Or for a CalcPad problem set, you can set the number of total attempts per problem, the number of attempts that are unpenalized when missed, and the penalty that is imposed after a certain number of attempts. (Recommendation: use with caution.)
- ... leave a message for students that appears on their assignment board along with the assignment. It can be as inspirational as "You got this!", as preparatory as "Use Slides 8 - 12 of the slide deck for this unit", and as hintful as "Remember: the d in the equation gets squared."
- ... export student scores in a CSV format for quick import or entry into your electronic gradebook.
- ... write a CalcPad problem of your own or create a custom CalcPad problem set that includes a blend of our problems and your own problems. In fact, CalcPad by itself is probably a great resason to purchase a Task Tracker subscription.
- ... assign a task to a single student or a set of students. Perhaps you would want to assign a Minds On Physics mission or a CalcPad problem set as a requirement for a test retake but only have the assignment show on certain students' pages. Now it is easy to do by simply checking a box next to the students' name on the Task assignment page.
- ... save all your assignment information for a class so that next year you use the Clone feature to quickly have your class ready to go.
- ... assign a co-teacher to your class, granting them rights to create and edit assignments, view scores, customize tasks, etc. You can even assign a SpED case manager as a co-teacher to apply accommodations to assigned tasks (extended deadlines on tasks, shorten assigned tasks, etc.)
- ... save students a lot of time. Student progress is saved so that they can start at home where they left off at school. This provides motivation for them to start an assignment with minutes left in the class period and know they can finish at home without having to start over.
Does Task Tracker Automatically Grade and Score Student Work?
Yes. Students receive instant feedback when they submit answers to questions. The score is updated after every submission. That score shows on students' assignment board in Task Tracker. The score is also displayed to teachers at the bottom of the Task page where the roster is located. With a Task Tracker assignment, a teacher would never have to grade or score anything. Just tell us how to score it and we'll tell you the score.
I am New to Task Tracker. Will It Be Easy to Learn?
Task Tracker is a powerful piece of software. And like any piece of software worth learning, you will need to climb a learning curve. With recent interface improvements, we have significantly lowered the slope and length of the learning curve. But you can still expect a learning curve. You will need to learn how to create a class and invite students to join. You will need to learn how to assign a simple task and edit task properties. You will need to learn how to find and export the scores. We have directions and video walk-throughs for all of this. We believe you will become a Task Tracker pro quite quickly.
My Department Works in Teams. Will Task Tracker Help?
Task Tracker is great for teams. If you and your colleagues are on the same group subscription (and you probably are), then Task Tracker will serve you well. If you are teaming up on a course, it is easy to clone a task (that you make to another teacher's class. With Version 2 of Task Tracker, you can even clone several tasks or even a unit's-worth of tasks at once to several destination classes. And it is also easy for a colleague to import a task from your class into one of their classes in the course that you teach together. This means that one teacher creates the task or several tasks for one of their classes and it only takes a few clicks for every teacher to have that very task or set of tasks in their class.
Another great feature that course teams can use is the class cloning feature. As you start up the school year, every teacher on the course team can clone one of last year's classes. Class cloning allows you to populate a class with all the assigned tasks used during the previous year. You can always edit, remove, and add to the task listing; but the act of cloning means you don't have to start the year with an empty task list. And best of all, you can set all date information - lik the visible by date - to the end of subscription so that they don't show up on your students' assignment board. Then when a unit nears, you can quickly select all tasks from the Topic and use our Mass Date Change feature to update the dates.
If you've not used Task Tracker, the above two paragraphs may qualify as TMI (too much information). So let us put it this way: we've taught courses in teams ourselves and we understand. We've designed the system so that it works awesome for teams and it works awesome for individual teachers. We have you covered!
I Co-Teach a Physics Course. Does Task Tracker allow Co-Teacher Access?
We added co-teacher access in June of 2024. So as we start up the 2024-25 school year, Co-Teacher access will be a reality. As long as both teachers are listed as teachers on the subscription, it will be possible for a
lead teacher to add the co-teacher to the subscription. The co-teacher was the rights to create assignments, clone assignments, edit assignments (including scoring rules and visible by and due date information), view scores, change passwords, etc. Put another way, while the course is
owned by the
lead teacher, the co-teacher has full access and privileges.
I Teach AP Physics. Will Task Tracker Work for That?
We believe that Task Tracker will work for any algebra-based Physics course, whether if be Conceptual, on-level, Honors, IB, or AP. While many of the tools on our site were written for the on-level and honors-level Physics student, there are numerous resources that would be appropriate for AP Physics. In particular, the recently added resources associated with simple harmonic motion, rotational motion, and fluids makes Task Tracker a great accompaniment for an AP Physics 1 course. We know many AP Physics 1 teachers who have been using our Task Tracker resources for many years. And with the added resources, it has become all the more useful.
The number of resources available for AP Physics 2 is growing but we advise that teachers check it out before it making it their go-to for AP Physics 2.
Calculus-based assignments are hard to find on our website.
I Teach Conceptual Physics. Will Task Tracker Work for That?
You bet it will. We love Conceptual Physics and our hope is that more schools would offer such a course to serve those students not traditionally served by an algebra-dependent Physics course. Because The Physics Classroom takes a concepts-first approach to most topics, you will find that there are many resources that are perfect for Conceptual Physics. In fact, our Concept Builders (at least most of them) were made to serve Conceptual Physics classes. Many of our Concept Builders include multiple difficulty levels or multiple activities, each of which approaches a topic from a different level. This approach of varying difficulty levels or multiple activities makes most Concept Builders well-suited for Conceptual Physics courses, on-level Algebra-Based courses, and Honors Physics courses. And with a Task Tracker subscription, it is easy to preview a task that you might wish to assign using our Teacher Preview versions of the task. With Teacher Preview, you can easily identify and remove those question groups that are not suitable for your Conceptual Physics class. This means that just about any of our task types (with the exception of the Calculator Pad section) would include a wealth of assignments that are suitable for a Conceptual Physics class.
You need to realize that Task Tracker is more than a problem-delivery and grading system. Our Task Tracker tools aren't just tools that serve Physics problems with randomized numbers and grade the results. Our Calculator Pad does an awesome job with that. But our other tools include numerous activities that have a rich conceptual reasoning emphasis. And this is why Task Tracker works very well for Conceptual Physics and Physics First classrooms.
My School Has Limited Financial Resources. Can I Afford Task Tracker?
We think so! Task Tracker was designed to be affordable. In order to maintain a free website and to keep all resources in front of the paywall, we have relied upon ad displays along the perimeter of the pages to pay our bills. So if you are willing to endure ad displays, then we are confident that you will find Task Tracker affordable. And for a little extra cash, you can go ad-free and still be at a price point well below other comparable services.
I Like Coffee. Will Task Tracker Brew My Morning Coffee?
We like coffee too! But unfortunately Task Tracker refuses to brew a cup of coffee. It has to draw the line somewhere. But once you get Task Tracker set up for your classes, you will have plenty of time to set up and brew your own morning coffee. And best of all, you will have time to circulate through your classroom and help students with Physics (and Chemistry too), watch them get excited about learning and earning trophies, and overcoming obstacles with Aha! moments. And by the way, if you do find a service that grades and scores students' work and brews your coffee as well, please let us know. That sounds like a company we would like to work for.
Why Should I Purchase a Task Tracker Subscription?
If the above discussion hasn't provided a convincing enough reason to pull the trigger and purchase a Task Tracker subscription, then how about this: everybody's doing it. Every year, thousands of teachers purchase a subscription and use it faithfully. Some use it as a homework delivery tool. Some use it as an in-class tool. And some use it as the central support system for their entire curriculum. And most return to do it again next year. So perhaps the big question is: why shouldn't you purchase a Task Tracker subscription.