Frequently asked questions

Schools Online Projects focus on curriculum based learning and offer a structured approach for schools to work more closely together on collaborative projects with schools around the world. The project templates combine classroom work with online discussions in a structured format. Moreover, this also allows students to move into deeper discussions and share their learning through making presentations or displaying artwork, as well as peer evaluation of their work.

An internet forum, also known as message board, is a place where discussions or conversations take place online by posting messages. For those of us who have experienced sending and receiving emails, it can take time for someone to respond to your post but soon someone will. The same concept applies to Schools Online forums. If you are looking for partners to collaborate with, just simply post your requirement and details. If anyone happens to be interested in working with you, then they will respond to you.

Imagine you have a question you can't solve. For example, the tap in your bathroom is broken and you'd like to fix it yourself but don't know how. In the past, you relied on friends and family to pass on the information or you could maybe write to a magazine in the hope that your query would be selected for an answer. With the Internet, you can now go to a forum to post your question and the whole world can help! This logic applies to partner finding on Schools Online. You read through the posts to see if there's a suitable match and if there isn't you post your own requirements and wait for others to respond. Although the Internet has made many things faster, we are still relying on humans to reply, therefore patience is a must!

We currently have 21 projects which have been designed to fit into the development of a global dimension in teaching. They will also to appeal to the interests of your students. For those new to collaborative projects, we also have project templates. These outline the project in stages, and help guide you through from start to finish. Here is an example 

First of all, you should read through the existing posts to see if there's already a suitable partner for you online. It is very important that you read each others' posts first before you post a new topic introducing your own school. This will help with the partner finding process.

If you can't see anyone suitable after you've read through the posts, then you will need to post your requirements. This should include your age group, subject area and/or a project idea you have. The duration of the project is something to think about as well, but remember that the key thing is flexibility.  Here's a good example:

Hi, my name is Rosa and I am a high school teacher in Sydney. I have a group of 15-16 year-old students. We would like to participate in a science based project where we can share our knowledge together. Perhaps you have a famous scientist from your country we could learn about and vice versa? We would like to start this project around November and would like the project to last 2 weeks. We do not mind where the partner school is based but would need to match our age group. If you are interested or need more information, please reply to my post. I look forward to hearing from you soon!” 

The site facilitator will suggest who could potentially be a good and suitable partner for you, but we cannot arrange partners for you. You should take the initiative by approaching any available teachers in the forum; preferably ones with a similar student age range, class size, and project interests. This tends to lead you to a successful partnership. Remember that a successful partnership is established through good relationships between you and your partner.

Congratulations on finding a partner! Before you start any project, it is crucial that you plan the project together. Planning includes:

- Having an aim for the project.
- What will your students learn through this project?
- What do you and your class wants to achieve through this partnership? What are the learning outcomes, and how will you know that you have achieved them?
- What will the students produce or create? What materials or websites will they use?

Please note that there are many project outlines on Schools Online, so if you are new to a project, or need some ideas, you are more than welcome to follow these.

You are advised to discuss with your partner the project timeframe before requesting a project space. It would be a good idea to have an initial plan at this stage. How will you prepare your students before collaborating with partners and what will be the first activity? These type of things could be developed at this stage.

At this stage you should also agree on a timeline. For example, when will the resources related to stage 1 be ready by? Think about practical things as well - perhaps you only have access to a computer room once a week, and you need it on a certain day, or are working to a tight schedule. No matter what the reason, it is important to agree on all this beforehand and produce a timeline plan for the project to avoid any confusion later.

You are also strongly advised to develop a communication plan before starting the project. What are the different ways can you communicate? For example, email, mobile, school telephone, school email etc. Do you have your partner contact details in your communication plan? Have you tried them? Having a plan like this to begin with will help reduce the risk of having an inactive partnership.

Once you have finished your initial project plan, communication plan and agreed on the timeline, you should next request a project space to further discuss your collaboration.

Please submit your request at http://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/find-partner-school/project-space-request-form and allow us 2 working days to proceed on your request. Please be informed that we do not operate during weekends.

To see all the projects which you are currently enrolled in click on 'My projects'. This is located within the 'My Desktop' feature, located on the left hand side of the page.

You should see a list of all the projects that you are currently a member of. Click on the name of the project to access your project space.

A project template is the summary guide which will help make your project planning easier. It includes the introduction of the project, suggested first activity, useful resources and curriculum links which can be adapted to suit your needs.

This has been designed as a guide, especially for first timers. Project templates are available for download at http://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/templateprojects.

If a project is planned properly this should not happen, but for many different reasons circumstances can change and perhaps they are unable to contact you.

The first thing to do is send them a reminder email. You may click on your partner’s name in the forum and use the function “send email”. Give them a few days to reply.  Please remember that in certain countries internet access may be sporadic or difficult. If in a week there is no word from them, please contact us at schoolsonline@britishcouncil.org. We will contact the local office to see if they can get in touch. If we fail to locate your partner then you may have to find another partner or we will have to close down the project and unfortunately, you will have to start again.

This is why it is absolutely crucial you spend time planning your project with your partner at the beginning. Once both of you have a clear idea, you will be more committed to the project.

Participating in a project can be time consuming, especially if you are new to it. We want to make sure you don't work too hard!  We also feel that everyone should be given a fair chance at participating in various projects. Therefore we set a limit that one teacher can only participate in two projects at a time.

We are trying to minimise the number of topics in the forum. Without certain limitations, a forum can soon become overrun and difficult to navigate If you don’t see the topic you are looking for and want to start new one, contact us at schoolsonline@britishcouncil.org and we will create it for you.

In order to access the forum, please navigate to the Partner with a school tab at the top menu bar. Click on the teacher forums link to go to the forums. Alternatively, go to My desktop and click on My forums.

Some forums may be limited to certain users or groups. To view, read, post or perform another action you may need special permissions. Contact us at schoolsonline@britishcouncil.org to grant you permission if you cannot access a forum you think you should be able to.

We are trying to minimise the number of topics in the forum. Without certain limitations, a forum can soon become overrun and difficult to navigate. If you do not see the topic you are looking for and want to start a new one, contact us at schoolsonline@britishcouncil.org and we will create it for you.

You can reply the post by clicking the 'reply to this post' button. Once you have submitted the post, you will see your message with a small note at the top right in reply a post to name. The person you replied to will receive an email notification message if he or she subscribed to the topic or forum.

You can edit a post by clicking the edit button for the relevant post. If someone has already replied to the post, you will find a small piece of text output below the post when you return to the topic, which lists the number of times you edited it along with the date and time. This will only appear if someone has made a reply. Please note that regular users cannot delete a post once someone has replied.

If the forum administrator has allowed it, you should see a button for reporting posts next to the post you wish to report. Clicking this will walk you through the steps necessary to report the post. Please only report on the misuse of the forum not for a general reply or for special attention.

Announcements often contain important information for the forum you are currently reading and you should read them whenever possible. Announcements appear at the top of every page in the forum to which they are posted. Only site administrators and facilitators are able to post announcements.

Sticky topics within the forum appear below announcements and only on the first page. They are often quite important so you should read them whenever possible. For the organisation of the site, only site administrators and facilitators are able to post sticky topics.

Locked topics are topics where users can no longer reply. Topics may be locked for a number of reasons and were set this way by either the forum moderators or forum facilitators. Topics are often locked if the forum or topic is no longer relevant but some users may wish to access older posts for reference.

Bookmarking in the forum is much like bookmarking in your web browser. You are not alerted when there is an update, but you can come back to the topic later. Subscribing, however, will notify you when there is an update to the topic or forum on the board via your preferred method or methods.

To subscribe to a specific forum, click the Subscribe forum link upon entering the forum. To subscribe to a topic, reply to the topic with the subscribe checkbox checked or click the Subscribe topic link within the topic itself. You will be notified by email message when there is a new update in your subscribed forum or topic.

To remove your subscriptions, go to your User Control Panel and follow the links to your subscriptions. Please be informed that you will not receive any notification message once you unsubscribe selected topic forum or topic.

Each board administrator can allow or disallow certain attachment types. Currently users may attach the following kinds of file extensions as attachments:

.doc (MS Word versions up to 2003), .docx (MS Word versions from 2003 onwards), ,ppt (MS Powerpoint versions up to 2003), pptx (MS Powerpoint versions from 2003 onwards), .xls (MS Excel versions up to 2003), .xlsx (MS Excel versions from 2003 onwards), jpg & gif (image files) MP3 (audio format), WMV (Windows media format for video), MPG (Video format).

If you are unsure what is allowed to be uploaded, contact the board administrator for assistance.

Smilies, or Emoticons, are small images which can be used to express a feeling using a short code, e.g. :) denotes happy, while :( denotes sad. The full list of emoticons can be seen in the posting form. Try not to overuse smilies, however, as they can quickly render a post unreadable and a moderator may edit them out or remove the post altogether. The board administrator may also have set a limit to the number of smilies you may use within a post.

Private messages to other members can be sent by clicking on the username of the person you wish to contact.You will be taken to their profile page where you will see a link at the bottom of the page to send them a personal message. You may send a personal message to more than one member by typing their username in the send to box.