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Faculty guide - LearningExpress PrepSTEP: Home

This guide provides information of interest to faculty who want to either add PrepSTEP to a Canvas course or want to refer students to use the resources on their own via the library's website.

LearningExpress PrepSTEP - Adding Resources to Canvas

                                        

 

Faculty can now add content from the Library's popular database PrepSTEP into their Canvas courses.

View the short video below for information on adding a PrepSTEP resource to a Canvas course.

  • PrepSTEP includes practice tests, tutorials, and ebooks on a wide variety of subjects  (Flashcards are also available for some topics).
  • Content is arranged by "centers". If you are new to PrepSTEP, take a few minutes to review the centers which are listed below. (An attached spreadsheet of current resources is also provided on this faculty guide.)  Once you get into the PrepSTEP external  tool, you will have to select the name of the center from a drop-down menu.
  • View the short video below for information on adding a PrepSTEP resource to a Canvas course.  As the video demonstrates, within the external tool function in Canvas select EBSCO LearningExpress PrepSTEP.
    • You will then be prompted to select the name of the center from a menu.  A few submenus will then appear after each selection.
    • Faculty can preview a resource, within the external tool screen, before they select the resource.
    • If PrepSTEP tests are added as a Canvas assignment, grades will automatically go into the course's grade book.
    • Since students are authenticated as a B-CU student once they log into their Canvas course, no additional log-in is necessary to use the PrepSTEP resources you added to the course.
  • Some tests are offered in one of three modes: Learner, Practice, and Simulation.
    • Learner mode allows a user to view the answers to test questions as they go along, to help them study.
    • Practice mode displays the time allotted for that test, but if the timer runs out a user is not prevented from completing the test. The timer is only intended to help them pace themselves in preparation for real testing situations.
    • Simulation mode simulates an actual testing environment and is only available for practice tests that are based on official tests. In Simulation mode, a user will not be able to continue taking a test when the time is up.
  • Students may continue to use PrepSTEP through the library's database link. More information on this is at the end of this guide.
For library questions or help: askalibrarian@cookman.edu
For  Canvas-related questions, please get in touch with the BJ Moore Center for Faculty Innovation.

Overview of Content in LearningExpress PrepSTEP

PrepSTEP homepage on Library website.

PrepSTEP® for Colleges & Universities

PrepSTEP® is packed with online test preparation, tutorials, e-books and articles to help university students achieve academic success and readiness for the workplace. It has skill building in English, math and science, college success skills tutorials, popular computer software tutorials and much more.

Core English Skills Center
Strengthen reading, writing and grammar skills, build vocabulary and improve spelling skills using the interactive tutorials, practice tests, e-books and articles in this center to improve  core English knowledge.

Core Math and Science Skills Center
Help in math or science, including developmental math, algebra, geometry, pre-calculus and calculus. Also tutorial, ebooks and practice for both chemistry and biology, as well as a general science tutorial and a physics practice.

College Success Skills Center
This center covers topics such as time management, multitasking, classroom success skills, research skills, getting academic support, and personal success skills. The Research skills section includes 6 Information Literacy tutorials. 

Career Preparation Center
Help to prepare for a professional licensing exam. Practice tests include TEAS, NCLEX-RN, Culinary Arts, Social Work, Civil Service,  Law Enforcement, and FTCE General Knowledge tests, and many more. This module also has information on occupations and ways to build workplace skills.

Basic Computer Skills Center
Learn the basics of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook? These video tutorials are a quick and easy way to build the proficiencies that are needed.

Placement Test Preparation Center
Prepare for college placement tests. Tests include ACCUPLACER® Tests, ASSET® Tests, CLEP® and DSST® Exams, PERT Practice Tests, and TOEFL iBT® and IELTS™ Tests.

Grad School Admissions Preparation Center
Prepare for the most popular graduate school entrance exams with authentic and timed test practice for the GMAT®, GRE®, LSAT®, MAT®, and MCAT®. Search for Graduate Schools, Programs, and Scholarships. (Over 24,000 scholarships and other awards. Scholarships are included for high school through doctoral level and other postgrad study.)

Recursos para Hispanohablantes Center
Herramientas de aprendizaje, carrera y ciudadanía en español. Este centro ofrece a los adultos que están muy ocupados los recursos para mejorar sus habilidades básicas, ganar sus credenciales de GED® o ser ciudadano estadounidense.  (English Translation : This center provides students with resources in Spanish to improve their basic skills, earn a GED® credential, or become a U.S. citizen)..

View this short video on how to add a resource to a Canvas course

(Video starts at 1:19, bypassing information of interest only to system administrators). To enlarge the screen, view on Youtube.

Vendor information on Settings:

  • For exams/tests- add as a graded assignment. Points go directly into the grade book
  • For all other resources (ebooks, tutorials, flashcards, etc...) -
    • Currently, there is no way to simply add a direct link to an integrated PrepStep resource in Canvas without making it an assignment.
    • Also, normally the setting would be "ungraded" for these type of resources, but there have been instances where the setting reverted back to graded after the assignment was saved. Therefore, for this reason, add all other resources as an assignment,  graded with 0 points and use the checkbox marked “Do not count this assignment towards the final grade” to indicate that the assignment is ungraded.
  • However,  you may add links in Canvas that go to the Library's PrepSTEP database (or create a Canvas page and add the library links to the page).
  • If you are considering using links that point t0 the Library's database , please read the section below  for information on the relationship between using integrated resources within Canvas and using  the resources within the Library's database.

Other Ways to Access PrepSTEP Resources

Students and other B-CU users can continue to use the many PrepSTEP resources from the Library's website. The database is listed as  LearningExpress PrepSTEP on the Library database AtoZ page.

  • If using the library's link to PrepSTEP, users must create a personal account in order to save their work in progress, store points reports, and revisit any practice tests, tutorials, or eBooks. Registration only requires a valid email address (which will be their user name) and creating a password.
  • If using the Library's link to PrepSTEP while off-campus, users must first use their B-CU login to authenticate that they are a current B-CU user, just as they would for any other library database that they are accessing while off-campus . Then, on the PrepSTEP homepage. they can log in using their PrepSTEP username (their email address they used to create the account) and password.
  • User activity, of course, while using PrepSTEP through the  Library website, is not linked to any Canvas grade book.
  • If students access PrepSTEP both within Canvas and within the Library database, their accounts are not connected with each other.

Library Usage Reports

  • Please contact Dr. Tasha Youmans or Ms. Betty Story for more information on receiving student usage reports for activities performed by your students within the Library's version of PrepSTEP.