I noticed that the Drive folder and Google Calendar seem to be missing in a Little SIS Premium class, for which I just clicked Accept? How can I fix it?
This is a behavior Google introduced to help cut down on clutter in Drive and Calendar when an administrator creates lots of classes. It's called lazy resource creation, and they are working to improve it.
Getting your Calendar and Drive folder to appear is as easy as:
- Calendar: Post any assignment type to the class. Refresh your browser.
- Drive Folder: Post an assignment with a Drive file in Make a copy for each student mode. Refresh your browser.
How can I tell the difference between an invitation to teach a course that Little SIS Premium created vs. an invitation to be a co-teacher which was sent to me by a colleague?
The owner of a class can invite co-teachers from the About page in a Classroom class. These invitations will look like what you see on the left in the image below. The primary teacher's Google Workspace avatar is visible and the note says You've been invited to teach this class.
Little SIS Premium uses an admin account to create classes using Google's APIs. Invitations from Little SIS Premium look like the tile you see on the right in the image below. The note says You've been invited to teach this class by an administrator.
Who should I contact if Little SIS Premium seems to be making unwanted changes to my Classroom rosters?
Contact your IT department immediately if you spot something awry with the roster changes. Don’t worry too much if a student gets accidentally removed. They can be easily re-added. Your IT department will want to get to the bottom of why it happened to prevent it from happening again. Researching the issue helps to identify any other issues with the student database.
Can I change the names of the classes made by Little SIS Premium, or will it mess up the sync?
You are free to change any field you like in the Classroom classes created or linked by Little SIS Premium. Unless your IT admin has said otherwise, Little SIS Premium doesn’t rely on the class name to match courses with the student information system.
Can I still create my own custom classes for different purposes? For example, after-school clubs, differentiated reading groups, etc.
Yes! Yet, you should know that these will not have their rosters synced by Little SIS Premium. These will be your responsibility to manage. If you choose to decline classes created by Little SIS Premium, you can also manage your regular classes on your own.
Will Little SIS Premium mess up existing Classroom classes we use for professional development or that we created for non-academic groups like clubs?
No. Little SIS Premium will not sync these unless you merge them with a SIS class.
Does Little SIS Premium delete student work when it removes a student from my class?
No. The student’s work is still accessible to the teacher and the student via the Google Drive folder for the class. If the student is later re-added to the class, all of their work shows back up in Classroom.
It is important to note that a student who changes from one class to another will not have their previous work show up in their new class. They will have to share the Google Classroom folder with the new teacher for them to see work from a previous class.
Could Little SIS Premium ever accidentally delete my classes?
No. Little SIS Premium gives the IT Department the ability to archive classes if they decide that it’s old and no longer active. It helps keep things simpler for students that way. An archived class shows up in your Archived Classes list in Classroom, they are not deleted. You can still re-use posts from an archived class, and you can un-archive a class at any time. Little SIS Premium does not allow anyone to delete active or archived Classrooms.
What happens if a teacher change happens in the middle of the year/semester?
If a new teacher is assigned in the student information system, Little SIS Premium will automatically transfer ownership of the Classroom and all associated resources to the new teacher, as long as it is not in the Provisioned or Declined state. The original teacher remains in the Classroom as a co-teacher and can later be removed.
Will Little SIS Premium mess with my class title, section, description, etc?
It could be set up that way by your IT admin if it made sense. Most of the time, teachers prefer to change the name of their classes, so your IT Department doesn’t turn that feature on.
What happens to student's work and grades when they change classes?
The way that Google Classroom handles student roster changes ensures that the student's work in Drive is not lost. The grades in Classroom are only accessible if the student is re-added to the same class at a later date. Grades are not available to the new teacher when a student changes classes.