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PrepStep for Colleges - Placement Tests and Study Guides: Faculty: Adding Resources to Canvas

PrepSTEP® contains online tutorials, test practice, e-books and articles to help students achieve academic success and workplace readiness. It has skill building in English, math and science, career licensing test prep, workplace skill building, GED prep,

PrepStep Guide for Faculty: Add Resources to Canvas

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

  • 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 an MJC 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 on other pages of this guide.

Contact us!

For library questions or help: ask@mjc.libanswers.com

For Canvas-related questions, please get in touch with the MJC Canvas & Tech Support

How to Add PrepStep to Canvas course

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

HOW TO ADD PREPSTEP CONTENT TO YOUR CANVAS

  • All PrepSTEP content is added as an ASSIGNMENT in Canvas 
  • To activate PrepSTEP within an assignment, select Submission Type: External Tool and choose EBSCO Learning Express
  • Save and Publish
  • THEN allow PrepSTEP to load into page to select specific content
  • Can preview content before selecting
  • View as Student to confirm content. 

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 to 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 MJC 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 A to Z 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 MJC login to authenticate that they are a current MJC 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 Michael Leamy for more information on receiving student usage reports for activities performed by your students within the Library's version of PrepSTEP.