Overview
When a member of a school or district logs into their eChalk application, they will, by default, land on the eChalk Dashboard. The purpose of this article is to familiarize you with the content and choices you can make on the dashboard in order to find the material, content, or options for creating content you need.
Understanding eChalk's Dashboard
The eChalk Dashboard organizes your school life into different areas and provides users with a "home base" from which to locate all the activities they are associated with in the school or district. Users will find it useful to gain an understanding of how to locate the classes, clubs, teams or departments they are associated with. And to understand how to view various announcements, participate in discussions, or access resources made available to them.
What are those rectangles?
eChalk organizes your school life according to where in the school or district your user profile lives. If you are associated with a school within a larger district, you will see the name of your school in bold near the top center of your screen.
To the left of your school name are two icons, one green graduation cap icon, one orange group icon. The graduation cap icon and number next to it are the number of classes at your school you are a member of. The group icon and the number next to it represent the number of groups you are a member of. Note: Your school in this context is considered a group.
Each rectangle, or tile, represents either a class or a group. If the class/group has an image associated with it, the tile will display that image. By clicking on a tile you can enter the class or group. Please refer to the article on Creating a class to understand the difference between "manage class" and sections.
The "school tile" will give you access to any announcement feeds, calendar events, resources, or discussions your school is making available to you.
If your school is a part of a district using eChalk, then you will see the name of the district below your school tiles, and you will see tiles related to the district level groups or classes that you are a member of. By default, you will automatically see a tile for the District as a whole. These classes or groups may be related to departments you are a part of, or they may be a professional development class that you are a member of. In eChalk, even teachers can be students of a class. Or the district may be creating groups or classes for vertical alignment or horizontal alignment. Click on a tile and see what the class or group has to offer you.
Do you see a Green Plus symbol?
If you've been given the power to create classes at the school or district level, you will see a Green Plus symbol that will allow you to generate classes at the school or district level. If you do not see a Green Plus symbol on the right side of your screen, then you do not have those powers. If you feel that you should, please see the site manager for your school.
Tools just for you!
In the upper right corner of the screen, you will see a place for your profile picture (or your profile picture if you've already uploaded one). Just to the left of this image is your name. Clicking on your name brings a dropdown menu that provides you with access to your My Files area (see the article on using the My Files area) and the ability to Log Out of eChalk.
To the left of this are two more icons. The rectangular icon is access to your universal calendar. This calendar will be fully implemented following the version 1 release. When fully implemented, this calendar will bring together all the events from all the calendars associated with classes and groups you are a member of in a single, unified calendar.
The last icon looks like a small house and is your "Home" button. Anytime you are logged in to eChalk and want to return to the dashboard, clicking on the Home button will bring you back to this location.
