Adam Bilsky
Updated :
Overview
| Note: This article contains video content that will not display or is not optimized to display correctly in the Foundry on-site support widget. For best results, we recommend reading the original in the Knowledge Base. Click the pop-out button |
This article details how to create a basic learning experience form, which requires the user to be logged in to the Admin role. Once you create this basic template, move to the next article, 'Customize Your Form.'
Contents
Before You Begin
All form types - experiences, journals, evidence, etc. exist in three main stages - the form design stage, the experience planning stage, and the finished plan stage. Each has a different look and purpose. Click each of the three buttons below to compare the three stages of one of our test site forms, the 'Course Plan.'
At the bottom of the Form Design image, you'll see the prompt for the content target chooser. In the second image, you'll see the chooser with some of the subjects listed - as it would appear to the user who created the experience. In the third, you'll see the finished plan with all the learning targets they selected.
We hope this initial example helps you envision the various stages of a form so you can prepare to design your own.
Create a New Form
Demo Video
This video shows the basic steps to creating, editing, and publishing new form from scratch. Each step is illustrated in detail below.
To begin, navigate to Admin > Forms:
Here you can browse any existing forms on your site.
To create a new form, select the type of form to be created from the 'Create a Form' dropdown menu located at top left, then click the 'Create Form' button to its immediate right.
Standard Form Components
When 'Experience Plan' is selected, the following menu opens. The decisions you make here are saved as your form "properties."
Asterisks (*) indicate required decisions. Note: Although both 'Associations' and 'Skills Assessment Options' are starred as "required", Foundry does not actually require you to create any evidence form associations or align skills.
Title the form (required) and provide a description (optional). Note: if you're creating an experience plan form (pictured below) you will see two additional fields: one titled 'Associations' and one titled 'Skills Assessment Options.'
Associations refers specifically to the evidence forms available to users to attach evidence of student learning (uploaded documents) to the experience. Associations you choose here will show on the form properties screen.
Although this property is marked 'required,' you do not actually have to create an evidence form association. However, if you do not create at least one association, students will be unable to attach actual evidence to their learning experience. Think of it in old-fashioned terms as not having an inbox for turning in term papers.
Read here if you are unfamiliar with evidence forms or you need to learn to create one (link pending).
Skills Assessment Options is an optional configuration for measuring student growth in your selected skills target set.
- Leaving all boxes unchecked means the experience will not contain skills targets for evaluation.
- Checking "Allow student to select and align..." allows either the student or the advisor to select skills targets to add to the new experience.
- Checking "Pre-select the 'Skills'..." allows the advisor to add the same skills targets to each experience created with this form. Use this for forms you expect many students to use frequently, such as an independent reading log. A second menu will display the skills subjects, groups, and targets from your skills target set:
Note: Students assigned experiences with this form will not be able to choose their own skills targets.
- Checking "Automatically trigger a student skills self-assessment" allows the advisor to select a self-assessment form (if your school uses these) when a student completes an experience. This will appear as a rubric.
New forms are made "active" by default; you can change this setting by deselecting the "active" checkbox at the bottom of the form editor.
Click 'save' and then the 'X' to close out the properties editor and proceed. Once you have chosen these settings, they will display below the form title when you select it to edit. they can be edited by clicking 'edit properties.'
Add Prompts
By default, required prompts will appear automatically. You won't be able to delete these required prompts from your form, but you will be able to edit any of them to change the wording, as well as reorder them by moving them up and down within your form.
You will then build the form using any of the prompts available to you in the 'Add Prompt' menu. Different forms contain different available prompts. The below example shows available prompts on an experience form.
At this point, feel free to experiment with adding, naming, and moving prompts. Each new prompt you add will appear below the others at page bottom. As you build your form, you can organize the prompts (moving them up or down within the form), change the wording by editing individual prompts, and remove prompts you no longer wish to use by deleting individual prompts.
When you want to see the result, click 'submit' to update the active form, or click 'save for later' to update the form but save it as a draft. Read the next section for more information on working with drafts.
Then, locate your updated form and click the 'preview' icon to the left of its row to see a preview of your work:
You will unable to actually interact with the form, but you will see mostly how it will appear to users who select it.
| Note: Form prompts appear differently when designing/editing the form, viewing the completed form in Admin mode, and viewing/editing the form as a student or advisor. It is strongly recommended you read *** article For help defining and understanding how to work with the various prompt types available to you. |
Save as Draft
If at any time you'd like to save your form as a draft to work on later, simply click the 'save for later' button. It is now a draft (not active). The Forms menu shows only active forms by default, so from the menu at right, choose either 'Show Draft Forms' or 'Show Only Draft Forms' to find the form again.
When your form has been fully created and finalized, check that the form is active so that users in your site are able to access and use it.
Activate Your Form
To ensure the form is active, either re-open the properties menu by clicking 'edit properties' and check the 'Active' box and then 'save', OR scroll to the bottom of the form editor and click 'submit.'
The form will now be available within the 'Forms' column, as well as in the experience menu for students or advisors when they click 'Start an Experience'.
Copy an Existing Form
If you have a form that has just the right components, but could use one or two refinements:
You can copy an existing form by using the following steps:
- Click on the form you want to duplicate (copy).
- Click on 'duplicate' to create an exact copy as a starting point.
- After creating a copy of the form, Foundry will show you the entire list of available forms.
To view or edit this Copy, click on either the name of the copied plan or on 'view' to see the finished form as it will be used by students and advisors.
Make Forms Available to Users
Once a form has been created and published, it must be made available to users - advisors and students - in order for them to create an experience using that form. Read here for more on making forms available to users.
Suggested Reading
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Note: Articles linked here under "Suggested Reading" are chosen by Foundry Support team members for their relevance and are updated as needed. The articles listed here may differ from those on the right side of the page, where the Knowledge Base AI lists "Related Articles." |
Forms and Form Types: an Introduction
Labels: PLP, Journals, Time Logs, Assessments, Forms, Experience Plans, Evidence, create a form,
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