Capturing work
A capture is a short record that learning happened. It’s the one thing in the app worth doing daily, and everything else builds itself out of it. It should take a few seconds, so if it’s taking longer than that, something below will probably explain why.
The three kinds
Note. A line of text. What you read, what you talked about, where you went. This is the workhorse, and a conversation in the car is as legitimate here as a worksheet.
Photo. A picture, with an optional caption. A finished page, a model, a whiteboard. Photos are stored privately, readable only from your account.
Grade. A mark against a subject. This one posts to that subject’s gradebook, so it needs a subject chosen, and what it accepts depends on the grading scale you use: a letter, a number from 0 to 100, or a short mastery note.
Saving one
1. Open Capture. It’s the middle control in the bottom bar on a phone, and always reachable from the app frame on a larger screen.
2. Choose Note, Photo, or Grade. Note is selected already.
3. Check the child, the subject, and the day. These come pre-filled and are usually right.
4. Type or attach the thing, then save.
You’ll get a quiet confirmation reading Saved. Your records updated themselves. That sentence is literal, and the next section is what it means.
What updates itself
Saving a capture marks that day as an instruction day for that child. The minutes you recorded add to their time for the subject. A grade lands in the gradebook and moves the average. The child’s stat cards and their record all move at once.
You never enter attendance separately for an ordinary day. Attendance is a consequence of having captured something, which is the whole reason capture is built to be fast.
The defaults, and when to change them
The day defaults to today, with yesterday one tap away and a date picker for anything older. Backdating is normal and expected. Saturday-evening catch-up for the whole week is a completely ordinary way to use this.
The child defaults to the one you captured against last, which is right most of the time and wrong in exactly the way you’d expect if you have several children doing different things. It’s worth a glance before saving.
Time offers 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes, and a custom value in minutes or hours. It starts at 30. If you don’t track hours, leave it alone.
Scheduling instead of recording
The same screen can put something in the future rather than record the past. Use it to schedule an activity, on one day or on chosen weekdays, or to schedule an exam. An exam is the one thing in the app that reminds you by default, on the grounds that you asked for it by scheduling one. Every other notification is off until you turn it on.
Frequently asked questions
Can I record something that happened last week? Yes. Today and yesterday are one tap each, and a date picker covers anything older. Backdating is expected rather than tolerated, and catching up on a whole week in one sitting is an ordinary way to use this.
Do I have to choose a subject every time? Only for a grade, which posts to that subject’s gradebook and so needs to know which one. A note or a photo can be saved against the child alone.
If I capture twice in one day, does that count as two days? No. Attendance counts distinct days, so a day with six captures on it is one instruction day, the same as a day with one.
Where to go next
Capturing offline covers what happens with no signal. Attendance and instruction days covers where these captures end up.