Worthington, Minnesota
2,600 Students
Worthington Schools-518 District, located in southern Minnesota, is a loyal, long-time Infinite Campus customer. Today, Worthington uses the same student information system (SIS) as when they first implemented in 2000. As the district grows, Infinite Campus continually adds enhancements to Worthington’s system without disruption and at no additional cost. These improvements, such as the new Instructional Management tools, have brought a new level of accountability and transparency to both teachers and students.
Background
Tom Ahlberg, Worthington Campus Administrator, remembered, “Our previous system was so old. Grades were kept in a red, hard-covered grade book. We also had a third-party system for posting scores. Report card time was very hectic.”
Ahlberg attended a technology conference to search for a new vendor. “At the conference, I learned that both Marshall Public Schools and Hutchingson Public Schools had recently implemented Campus.”
Ahlberg gathered two busloads of interested individuals from Worthington and headed over to Hutchingson. They saw the fully-integrated, Web-based functionality of Infinite Campus, and how Hutchingson’s teachers and administrators use it in their district.
“I returned home and told my neighbor about Campus. She is technology savvy and understands the structure of databases. She said, ‘what they’re doing is the wave of the future… it’s all new territory.’ I greatly respect her opinion. I was sold,” said Ahlberg.
Using New Tools
Worthington has adopted many of Infinite Campus product enhancements. For example, teachers at Worthington have been experimenting with the new Instructional Management (IM) tools in their classrooms. These IM tools are fully integrated with the core system and are included at no additional cost.
Instructional Management tools:
- Assignment Submission - post and receive assignments via the portal.
- Assignment Resources - upload videos and MP3s to assignments.
- Digital Repository - set up a universal catalog of learning resources via the cloud system.
- Online Assessment - create test questions, align them to standards, pull questions from the cloud, and deliver tests through the Campus Portal.
Both teachers and students at Worthington use the IM tools as an interactive medium for assignments, assessments and resources. This increases flexibility and communication.
“Students have been teaching us how to use the teacher tools,” said Ahlberg. “In less than a minute, they discovered they could post and save an assignment to the portal, and then reopen and continue working on it at home.”
Ahlberg will be using Campus Online Assessment tool for an incoming freshman math assessment. Previously, students would complete the assessment on a paper scantron. Now, the assessment is taken online, and Ahlberg statistically analyzes each student.
“More and more teachers will be integrating online assessments into their classrooms. It’s just a matter of time,” stated Ahlberg. “The capabilities of the teacher tools are endless.”
Results
In addition to the new teacher tools, Worthington has experienced many benefits with Infinite Campus, especially the Campus Portal. Parents and students have real-time access to grades, attendance, assignments, schedule information and much more. The new Campus Mobile Portal is an intuitive app that can be accessed from any Apple iOS or Android device.
“With the Campus Portal, information is at our fingertips,” explained Ahlberg. “It’s amazing to see how many times both parents and students log in to the portal. They’re always checking it.”
With the included Instructional Management tools, teachers have cut back on the amount of paper used. Class information, assignments and assessments can now be kept online.
“Teachers are more organized,” stated Ahlberg. “They can go onto Campus and look up an assignment instead of shuffling through papers. Also, the teacher tools have increased student interactivity. They can upload assignments, videos and more.”
Overall, the functionality of Infinite Campus is a huge time-saver for Worthington. Redundant data-entry and inconsistent data does not exist with Infinite Campus. Data is entered once, stored in one location, and used across the district.
“With one keystroke, data is changed everywhere it needs to be changed. Infinite Campus helps our district be more efficient, which benefits everyone,” said Ahlberg.