Instructor Guide to the Course Dashboard
Superior Student Experience + Simple Course Materials Management
Launch Complete will ensure you are meeting students where they are, inside the LMS. Launch Complete is a student experience that brings all course materials together in a single, easy-to-access location: the learning management system (LMS).
Launch Complete creates a superior course materials experience across the institution. Students see everything they need for all of their courses and instructors rest assured that all content will be available. Students can access, shop, and record opt-in/opt-out decisions for their course materials in one fell swoop.
Students will be presented with a personalized booklist combining both print and digital retail offers from your campus bookstore’s eCommerce system allowing students to shop and compare while also enabling day-one access to Inclusive Access content.
Student Benefits:
- A seamless login experience
- Reduces student confusion by providing access to 100% of adopted course materials
- Inclusive Access items are available day one with simple opt-out tools within the LMS
- Transparent comparison shopping for everything else
Student Experience
Students access the Course Dashboard via your institution's Learning Management System (LMS). In the following example, we’re using Canvas.
They will navigate to your course, then click on the link titled “Course Materials” to launch the Course Dashboard. The Course Dashboard can be viewed in iframe, in a new tab, or a new window, depending on the settings possible in the LMS. In cases where the Course Dashboard is set to open into a new tab or window, students will see an additional button to load Course Materials in a new window.
Course Materials Link
Elements of the Course Dashboard
Students can see and access the course materials they have been assigned from the Course Dashboard.
The Course Dashboard
- Course and Materials Count
- Account Settings
- Cart
- Search by title, author, or ISBN.
- Item Cards are organized by course. The materials associated with the course that they launched from will be listed first, with the rest of the materials ordered by most recently accessed, then those with no access organized alphabetically.
Item Cards
Item Cards
Each Item Card will contain the following information:
- Cover Image
- Title
- ISBN
- Author
Inclusive Access Materials
Inclusive Access Item Card
Item Cards for Inclusive Access Materials contain the following additional information:
- Content Type
- Opt Status of either Opted In or Opted Out
- Program Name
- Student Price
- Required/Optional Designation
- Opt Out Deadline
- Item Note
-
Change Opt Preference
- If Opted In, the Button will read “Want to Opt Out?”, before the Opt Deadline passes. After the Opt Deadline passes, this button will no longer be visible.
- If Opted Out, the Button will read “Want to Opt In?” before the Opt Deadline passes. After the Opt Deadline passes, this button will no longer be visible.
- Attachment(s)
-
Content Access Buttons will vary by content type. After the Opt Out deadline has passed, the button will read Compare & Purchase.
Opting Out of Inclusive Access Materials
When a student elects to opt out of Inclusive Access Materials by clicking “Want to Opt Out?”, they’ll receive a single survey question asking them to tell us the primary reason for opting out. Submitting a response is required. Once a reason is selected, the student confirms their Opt Out.
*Students will no longer have the ability to opt in and out of Inclusive Access Materials from the Virtual Store. All Opt decisions will take place in the Course Dashboard.
Compare & Purchase Student Choice Items
Items that are not included in the school’s Inclusive Access Program will have a “Compare & Purchase” button.
Student Choice Item Card
Clicking Compare & Purchase will load the options available for the course material in the Virtual Bookstore.
- All corresponding materials available from the school’s Virtual Store (TextbookX) will be listed.
- Digital materials can be offered at different durations and price points.
- Print materials can be new or used, and offered to rent or buy.
Compare & Purchase
Purchase Recommendations
When Purchase Recommendations in Launch Complete are enabled, if a student has any non-IA items in their courses, they will see a purchase recommendations notification in the top right, letting them know these recommended items have been put into their cart for purchase.
Cart
Clicking “Review & Checkout” will take them to their cart. They can remove anything they don’t want, or they can use the “Compare Options” links to choose another option for these materials.
Compare Options
Clicking Swap for any of the other options will swap out the items in their cart and return them to the cart.
Clicking Checkout from Retailer in the cart will move the user to the checkout experience in their Virtual Bookstore (TextbookX) to continue their purchase.
Checkout
Students will receive an order confirmation emailed from the Virtual Bookstore (TextbookX)
Content Access Buttons
Content Access Buttons will vary, based on the content type:
Content Access Experience
eBooks
To access an eBook, a Student clicks “Read Now”.
The first time a student launches one of their digital materials, they will be presented with the opportunity to enter their email address which will help us identify if they have an existing Bookshelf account.
If an account exists, we’ll ask for their Bookshelf password, and then launch them into their eBook. If an account doesn’t exist, we’ll present them with an opportunity to create an account.
Creating an account with an Email Address
- They’ll provide their role: Instructor, student, or other
- Provide their name, email, and security details.
- Select that they agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, then click Create Account.
Creating an account with your Google or Apple ID
- Select the social login option of their choice and the account you would like to log in with
- Once you're authenticated, a few more questions may appear now
- Select your role (Student, Instructor, Other)
- Provide some additional details regarding your institution.
For students who don’t want to create or link a Bookshelf Account, clicking “No thanks, I’ll skip this step” will allow them to continue to their digital material without registering for an account.
Students will only see this screen the very first time they launch. After that, we’ll remember their decision and take them straight to Bookshelf.
Read more about the new Bookshelf Home experience here.
Code Reveal Courseware
Code Reveal Courseware is not accessed directly from Course Dashboard, but students can access their access code for the courseware by clicking “Reveal Access Code.”
A window will pop up on the right side of the Course Dashboard, displaying their access code, as well as the URL where they will redeem their code for courseware access.
Partner Integrated Courseware
Students will access their courseware by clicking “Launch Courseware”, which will SSO them into the Publisher’s courseware.
Publisher Direct
Publisher Direct Courseware is not accessed through the Course Dashboard, though we do collect opt outs for these materials. Typically we include an “Item Note” advising the student to return to their LMS in order to access this courseware through the Publisher’s Tool in their LMS course.
The Instructor Experience
Instructors can view their digital content and access additional resources of interest, like the VitalSource Instructor Dashboard from the Course Dashboard.
Like students, instructors will be able to launch into eBooks by clicking Read Now. The first time an instructor launches one of their digital materials, they will see an informational message about their complimentary digital materials and a sign-on page where they will need to create an account. Instructors will only see this screen the very first time they launch. After that, we’ll remember their decision to take them straight to Bookshelf.
Instructors will also see courseware represented on their Course Dashboard as follows:
- For Code Reveal Courseware, if a student clicks Reveal Access Code, no code will be revealed because we don’t distribute Codes to Instructors.
- If they have set up the course properly, Instructors can also access any installed Partner Integrated Courseware by clicking “Launch Courseware”.
- For any items that are distributed direct from a Publisher through a separate Tool in the LMS, the instructor will see an item card, but (as with students) would need to navigate to the Publisher’s tool to access it.
Instructors also have a tab for our Instructor Portal where they can easily access other VitalSource applications, like our Instructor Dashboard.
Instructor Analytics
The VitalSource Instructor Dashboard is a learning analytics dashboard designed to instructors manage students' engagement. Instructors can use the dashboard to ensure that students are reading early and often. The dashboard allows for timely intervention with potential at-risk students and can help lead to improved outcomes and inform content decisions.
Key Features
- Aggregate data on how long students spend in a study session and how many pages have been read
- Data availability at the student, book, course, or institution level
- Smart filters for deeper dives where needed
- Learn more about the Instructor Dashboard here.