How To: Create and Access an Authoring Account in Argos

FAQ:

How do I make an Argos authoring account?

As part of our commitment to providing you with the best experience, this guide will take you through the simple process of creating an authoring account. 

Unlike instructor accounts, authoring accounts require a quick one-time setup. We are working to streamline this process in the future for new users, but once you create your account, you won’t need to use these steps again. 

Here you will find a step-by-step guide or a video tutorial to walk you through this one-time process.

Step 1

Logging In and Enabling Educator Mode: To get started, make sure you're logged into your Infiniscope account. Once you're in, enable educator mode. This step is crucial because it grants you access to essential features.

Step 2

Accessing Educator Resources: Enabling educator mode will unlock the option to view educator resources on lesson cards. Click Educator Info, then View Resources. Clicking here will take you to the lesson landing page.

Step 3

Generating Your Authoring Account: Scroll down the lesson landing page until you reach the bottom. There, you'll spot the "Customize to get started" button. Click to initiate the account creation process.

Step 4

Creating a New Section: Upon clicking the button, an Argos page will open with a Project Overview page.No further action is needed on this page – simply close it. By now, your authoring account has been successfully generated.

Step 5

Start Your First Project or Close out: To start a new lesson, click “Projects” on the left panel, then “New Project” to get started.

Once you close out of Argos, you’ll need to access your authoring account. Below are instructions and a quick video to get you back to projects.

Step 6

Accessing Your Authoring Account: To access your newly minted authoring account once you’ve closed out of Argos, ensure you're logged into the Infiniscope website with educator mode enabled. This step allows you to see the tools menu. From this menu, select "Argos."

Step 7

Switching to Your Authoring Account: When you initially enter Argos, you'll be taken to your default instructor account. To access your authoring account, look for the dropdown menu next to your profile icon. Choose "Go to Course Author" from the menu, and you'll seamlessly switch to your authoring account.

Congratulations! You've successfully created your authoring account and regained access from the Infiniscope website.

We're thrilled to have you on board and look forward to the content you'll create. If you have any questions or need further assistance, contact us! 

Jess 👑🐝

No LMS? No Worries!

 

Welcome back! 

The new school year is upon us and based on our quick poll in the Facebook Hivespace, we see some of you are feeling a bit ho-hum about it. Not to worry! We are here to support you. Today's topic is all about the Enrollment feature on Infiniscope. Not just ANY enrollment feature, but the one you can use even if you DON'T have an LMS like Canvas, Moodle, or Blackboard. 

We built something called LMS-free, specifically for educators without an LMS. We want to show you how it all works, so make sure you bookmark this page for quick reference!

Below you will find a series of steps, a few 🔥HOT TIPS🔥 to help you out and maybe a couple of subtle (not so subtle?) jokes. Before we dive in, we admittedly are making a couple of assumptions, such as

    1. you already have an Infiniscope account
    2. you know how to login
    3. you know how to find a lesson page through the view educator resources button

If you are missing any of this know-how, check back soon for other blog posts on these topics. 

To begin your LMS-free enrollment journey, select a lesson and open the lesson resources page. Once on the lesson resource landing page, scroll to the bottom to find these 3 ways to teach:

1. Choose "Enroll to get started".

2. Choose the first button "I don't have an LMS or I use Google Classroom."

 

3. Set up your course section by adding a Title, Start date and End date.

New and Improved!

Greetings Hivespace! 🐝

Welcome to the new and improved Infiniscope Website Experience! 

"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." 

Walter Bagehot

Sina and I continue to be your guides on this adventure as we bring you a new website and team members to support you and your ever-changing classrooms. 

I'll create a separate post to introduce you to new team members and reintroduce you to Sina and myself shortly. Today's post is all about the excitement we share with you about the website! It's been a long slog since January of 2020 when we received the news that Smart Sparrow sold their platform. 

I'm not going to lie, the news was crushing...at first. How would we continue to support YOU?! You are the MVPs and we needed to keep going for you!

But you see, we have amazing leadership here in ETX, the home of Infiniscope. Leaders that have vision and gut instinct. Our Director, Dr. Ariel Anbar insisted we could build a new platform from the ground up. One that was better, more powerful, open-source, and more intuitive. Over the last two years, we have partnered with Carnegie Mellon's Open Learning Initiative (OLI) and Unicon inc. to envision and implement this new platform, and enlisted the help of a new technology service provider, Argos Education to deliver these products to educators and learners. All of these technologies mean a new delivery mechanism...the new and improved Infiniscope website! Huge shout-out to Daydream Software for building the site of our dreams!

With the launch of this new website, you receive 

• an all access pass to this powerful new authoring platform hosted by Argos Education called Torus. Torus is non-proprietary, so we and you no longer need to worry about the sale of our technology tool in the future. It includes a feature called "Core Authoring" that allows educators to quickly and easily create their own lessons and an adaptive page to create more advanced lessons like those previously built in Smart Sparrow.
  
  
• tools that enable enrollment, whether you have an LMS or not. No LMS? Just click and go! Have an LMS, connect with your administrator to connect Argos Education. Once Argos is connected to your school's LMS, you or any teacher can enroll students in a lesson at any time!
  
  
• search functions! We have created tagging and search features that allow you to quickly find the content you are looking for and we even allow you to suggest tags. Is a piece of content aligned to a specific state standard for you? Tag it! Then others from your state can find the same content.
  
  
• quick access to all the Hivespaces with more ways to connect to educators in the network using the platforms you enjoy most. Have a preference for Facebook over Slack? We have a group for you to connect with!
  
  
• so much more! Get in there and start playing around to find all the features that your membership provides for free. 

We know it has been a long wait and we are so excited to have you along for the next phase of Infiniscope. Stay tuned for more blog posts as we feature team members, hive members, and "how-to" vignettes. There's SO MUCH MORE to share! 

Follow us to stay up to date!

Have a great week all!

Jess Swann - The Queen 👑  Bee 🐝