Custom Libraries

Use Custom Libraries to better organize and share your activities with others.

Trevor Register avatar
Written by Trevor Register
Updated over a week ago

Overview

The Custom Library is a new way to organize and share your activities. Think of a custom library as you would a folder within Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive. Adding other instructors to a Custom Library makes it a shared library with them.

A custom library will allow you to:

  • Place only certain activities within the library. For example, you could make a custom library called Unit 1 - Kinematics and place only activities for that unit with the library.

  • Share a library with other instructors. You can allow them only to assign those activities to other students or to both assign and edit those activities. Activities edited within a custom library will be reflected to students, even if it's already been assigned.
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Creating a Custom Library

From the Activities page:

  1. Click My Libraries

  2. Click +Add New Library

Give your new custom library a name and short description. The new library will appear in the My Libraries dropdown.

Adding collaborators to a custom library

To manage a particular custom library:

  1. Click My Libraries

  2. Click the three dots next to the library name.
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    ​Note: if you don't see these dots, it means you don't have editing permissions for the library. You'll need to contact someone at your school with Admin or Owner permissions.
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You'll then see all of the information and settings for your custom library. You can change the name and description of the library, see who has what kind of access, as well as add, remove, or change the level of access for members.

When you click Add Members, you'll see the following box.

There are four levels of permissions for adding members to a library:

  • Viewer - Member can view and assign activities, but cannot edit them nor can they add or remove activities from the library.

  • Editor - Member can view, assign, and edit existing activities as well as add and remove activities from the library. Edits made are reflected to the students, even if an activity has already been assigned and started on.

  • Admin - Member can do everything an editor can. Member can also add or remove other members as well as change their permissions.

  • Owner - Member can do everything an admin can as well as archive the library. Once archived, no member will have access to the activities within that library. This will not affect student work on activities contained within that library.

To change the permissions for a member within the library, click the drop-down menu next to their name and change to the appropriate permission. To completely remove their access, click Remove.

Adding activities to a custom library

When browsing activities in a different library, be it another custom library, the Pivot Interactives Library, or the Community Library, click the three dots below the name of the activity and then either Copy to Library (to make a new copy) or Move to Library (to instead remove the activity from the current library and place it in a new one).

Move to Library is only available for moving between custom libraries where you have editing privileges for both.

Alternatively, click I want to when previewing an activity, then Add to Library. From there, select the library you'd like to add it to and click Copy Activity.

Editing activities in a custom library

To edit an activity in a custom library, find the activity and then click Edit.

Edits made to an activity in a custom library are reflected to the students, even if an activity has already been assigned and started on.

Assigning activities from a custom library

To assign an activity to a class from a custom library, click the three dots below the activity name, then Assign.

You'll then be prompted to select which class you'd like to assign the activity to.

What happens if my account goes inactive?

If you are the owner of a custom library and your account goes inactive, then you and all collaborators lose access to that library. Student work is preserved. Ownership can be transferred to an active account to prevent loss of access if the original owner won't have an active account again.

If you are not the owner of a custom library but you're added as a member of any other permission level, then you will always have access to view and edit activities strictly within that custom library. Inactive users won't have access to your Personal, the Pivot Interactives, or Community Libraries

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