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Learn how to get the most out of ActiveHub!
This quick intro will show you how to navigate this simple, flexible and effective platform for learning, assessment and insights.
Manage your institution.
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Our support website provides a number of useful knowledgebase articles for learning how to use Pearson Gateway to adminstrate your establishment's users and groups for ActiveHub and ActiveLearn.
| Your dashboard |
| Managing user accounts |
| Creating a single user account |
| Creating a several user accounts |
| Managing groups |
| Creating a single group |
| Creating several groups |
An overview.
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This area contains all the In-class lesson PowerPoints™ as well as Independent lessons that can be set for any students who have missed a lesson or are working independently at home.
Click on an icon and then the headings in the left-hand menu to see the lessons for each course.
Use the tabs in the central part of the screen to view the two types of lessons:
PowerPoint-based front-of-class presentations.
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The 'In-class' tab for each lesson allows you to download and open the relevant PowerPoint by using the Launch Lesson button:
The PowerPoint is designed to be used at the front of class. It follows the Dynamic Classroom pedagogical structure and includes a range of activities for students, as well as accompanying notes for teacher guidance.
You can find the lesson resources underneath this area:
These are the resources which are relevant to this lesson:
Resources which are used directly as part of the lesson will always be linked directly into the PowerPoint.
All about independent lesson plans.
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The ’Independent’ tab for each lesson allows you to preview the lesson and resources. This will help to give you a brief look at the lesson before you launch or assign to students.
Scroll down through the slates on the left and click on any to preview the content on that page on the right:
Underneath this area, you will also find the lesson resources. This area is also shown in the In Class lesson area:
These are the resources which are relevant to this lesson:
Resources which are used directly as part of the lesson will always be linked directly into the PowerPoint.
Assign the lesson to students by clicking on the ‘Assign’ button and then selecting the relevant group:
You can assign the lesson to specific students in the group by selecting them from within the group listing.
Add a start and end date and an optional note to students, and assign.
If no groups are found, your group may not be set up correctly. Read more about groups.
A quick overview.
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Lesson plans provide in-class and independent lessons. If available, an Overview tab of each lessons will shwo the content covered in both versions.
Working with different types of tasks.
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Click on Create task in the top right of the screen from the task main page.
Give the task a name, and select the relevant course and group:
Then select the task type. There are three types:
| Supporting material | Videos or audio files attached to a lesson |
| Offline activity | Worksheets that student can complete offline |
| Online activity | Auto-marked or teacher-marked online questions |
Select the resource(s) you would like to assign and then click Create to assign these resources to the students in the selected group:
See your task results.
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In the tasks area, click on the task you would like to review. Thie list of students will show:
| Status | Who has and has not completed the task |
| Result | The score (if the questions are auto-marked) or a link (if questions require marking). |
Use the results link for a student to review how the student has performed.
For auto-marked tasks, the score will display:
Youcan use a drop-down arrow to see details about how the student answered:
Finally, you can review and input marks for the questions which aren't auto-marked.
Helping your learners.
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After reviewing a student’s answers and adding marks where necessary, send the final marks to the students:
You can also view any feedback that the student has given about the task and respond to it directly:
The students will receive your reply along with the marks that you have sent them.
Your personalised dashboard of assessment content.
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The Assessment dashboard is personalised to you, showing the assessments you have saved in your own library. It provides a quick and easy way to access the assessment library, assessment builder and the mark entry.
Assessment papers, mark schemes and examiner reports.
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The assessment library holds all the assessment papers, mark schemes and examiner reports. The assessments shown will differ depending on your subscription or trial. To provide easy access to your favourite assessments from the large selection available, you can save them into your Saved Assessment Folder. Organise your assessments into your own named folders and drag-and-drop to move them around.
To find assessments, use the filters on the left to narrow down the list of assessments displayed or search for a specific assessment using a title in the search field. Refine your search by using the following filters:
| Assessment type | Select by ticking the type of assessment. The types vary by subject but may typically include GCSE past papers, baseline tests, end of unit tests, end of term tests and end of year tests. |
| Created by | Select whether the assessment was created by Pearson Edexcel, created for an AQA user or created by a user in your school using Assessment builder. |
| Series | For past GCSE papers only, select the series when the paper was originally set, eg "Jun 2019". |
| Tier | Select Foundation or Higher (for Maths and Science only). |
In the Search box, use any part of the assessment title, for example Paper 1, Calculator or Macbeth.
View an assessment to see a pdf of the paper, the mark scheme, the examiner's report and any associated resources (if relevant). Download the documents into a zipped file of the pdfs so they can be printed and given to students. Save them to your Saved assessments folder for easy access next time. From here, you can also start entering marks after students have sat the assessment, using the Enter marks button.
Build your own assessment from a bank of questions.
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Assessment builder holds a large bank of individual questions and takes you through a four-step process to build your own assessment. The bank of questions includes questions from Edexcel past papers as well as from other Pearson assessments.
The step-by-step process helps you design an assessment to suit your students' needs, using questions covering specific topics and certain grade ranges. It creates the bespoke assessment paper, mark scheme and examiner report to be downloaded in word or pdf format. The assessment can be saved and shared with colleagues.
The following guidance takes you through the four-step process:
Start by seeing a list of completed assessments that can be saved into your own folder. Select Create new assessment to start building your own assessment.
From the large bank of questions, narrow down the questions shown, by using the topic search or the various filters. Type in the topic name or use the Full topic list to select more than one topic.
The following filters are available (note that some can be dependent on the subject):
| Assessment type | Select questions from the type of paper they were originally used in. For example, tick 'Past paper' if you only want to use Edexcel past paper questions. |
| Unit / Paper | For sciences, select the relevant subject and paper, e.g. B1. For maths select either calculator or non-calculator questions. |
| Grade | Use the grade filter to select the level of difficulty for the questions. To select a range of grades, tick the grades within your range, e.g. 4, 5, 6. |
| Tier | Choose questions from the Foundation or Higher tier. |
| Assessment objective | Select one or more assessment objective(s). |
To start again with the topic search and filters, select Clear filters.
The questions are listed in the table below. Each question description shows what the question is testing. The grade, mark and minutes are shown to help you decide whether to include the question. Simply select View to look at the question and select Add to add the question to your assessment. If a question has been added, it can be removed by selecting Remove. Use the arrows next to the titles to sort the questions. Note: any questions with sub-questions will always be shown according to the grade which has the most marks from all the sub-questions.
From the large bank of questions, narrow down the questions shown, by using the topic search or the various filters. Type in the topic name or use the ‘Full topic list’ to select more than one topic.
To change the order of the questions on the assessment, use the 'Order questions by...' drop down or click and drag each question individually. For example, if you want your assessment to go from easy to hard, use 'Order questions by grade (lowest to highest)'.
There are some required fields needed in order to save your assessment; this includes the assessment type, assessment title and the date the assessment will be made available to others in your school. If you want to hide your assessment from other staff, or if you want to continue editing it, then set a publish date in the future.
To add a cover sheet for your assessment, enter the relevant fields. Once your assessment is complete, you can download it.
Download your bespoke assessment paper, mark scheme and/or examiner report (only for past paper questions) into a Word or PDF format.
Enter marks online to see valuable insights.
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Once your students have sat their assessment, entering marks into ActiveHub means you will see the rich analysis and next steps recommendations from the Insights screens.
The Mark entry screen shows all the assessments where marks have been entered and any that are still in progress. To edit any marks, for example where a student was absent and sat the paper later, select edit on the relevant assessment title.
To enter marks, first find the assessment you want to enter the marks against. Use the filter options on the left to narrow down the list of assessments or simply type in part of the assessment title into the search bar.
From the list of your groups displayed, select one or more groups that you want to enter results for and choose Done. You can view a list of students in each group.
There are two ways to enter marks:
If you only enter the Total Marks for each student, you will get limited analysis in ActiveHub Insights. If you enter marks for each question, you will get question-level analysis, topic analysis and next steps in ActiveHub Insights. Firstly, enter the date of the assessment. Next, enter the mark for each question, for each student and record any notes against the student too. (The notes are not visible to students, they are to help you keep a record of circumstances for your own purpose.) If you enter a mark higher than the maximum mark possible, you will get a warning icon and will not be able to submit your results.
If a student did not sit the assessment, mark them as absent rather than not entering marks or giving them 'zero'. This helps keep the analysis in Insights accurate. You can edit your marks at a later date if the student sits the paper later. If a student did not attempt a particular question, leave the box empty. If they attempted the question and got it wrong, give them 'zero' marks.
Once you have entered all marks correctly, select the Submit button and the data will be fed through to ActiveHub Insights. This process may take up to an hour. You can Save as draft at any point and then retrieve the part-completed marking from your 'In progress' screen in Mark entry.
Firstly, enter the date of the assessment. Secondly, download the empty csv template to your local device. Either copy and paste results from another system, or type them directly into the csv. Save your file. Once complete, select upload a file to import the results into ActiveHub. Note: there will be an error check and the results will not be submitted until all errors have been corrected. Submit the results.
Overview of Insights
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The Insights Dashboard gives a quick overview of the groups you are teaching. For each group, you will see any students that need your attention and have quick access to their most recent assessments and tasks.
Anything that is blue and underlined, indicates a link. From the dashboard, you can either click on the blue links, or use the left side menu to navigate around the Insights pages.
There are three areas that students might need your attention (see the '?'):
| Progress | Highlights students whose progress between their latest assessment and their baseline shows a fall in grade (excluding unit tests). |
| On track? | Highlights students whose latest assessment indicates they are not on track to hit their target, based on linear progress from baseline to target and excluding unit tests. |
| Tasks incomplete | Highlights students who have completed less than half their tasks on time. |
In order to see these valuable insights, it is important to do the following:
Look at group performance in assessments and tasks
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The Groups page shows how a group has performed on average over time across all their assessments. The Tasks tab shows how they did in their task
Note: remember to enter your baselines and target grades first from the Groups page.
The Average score over time chart shows the average score for assessments taken for each group. For past papers, an Edexcel comparison is shown (see bar). Use the filters to focus on specific assessment types and to change the view to see either the number or the percentage of students. Use the key to add or remove groups from the chart.
Scroll down to see the percentage (or number) of students in your group that are on track to meet their target (based on their last assessment). Use the key to add or remove groups from the chart.
Scroll down further to see the Assessments table, which shows all the detail that sits behind the chart at the top; it shows the grade (or mark or percentage) that each student got for each assessment, as well as comparisons for the group average, year average and Edexcel average.
Look at a student's performance in assessments and tasks.
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The Students page shows how an individual student has performed on average over time across all their assessments and tasks. Use the tabs to switch the view to other subjects. It also provides detailed analysis of how the student did in a particular assessment, including next steps.
This chart shows the average score for assessments taken by this student. Use the filters to focus on specific assessment types and to change the view to see the assessments by grade or percentage. Compare actual results to the dotted line (showing linear progress from the baseline to the target).
Scroll down to see all of the student’s assessment results, including comparisons to the group and year averages. Click on an assessment name to see how the student did in that assessment.
These charts show how an individual student performed in a specific assessment. Start with the Grade chart, then move on to the Questions, Topics, Skills and Next Steps.
The Grade view shows the mark, percentage and grade a student achieved in an assessment. The grade boundaries chart shows how close they were to the boundary.
The Topics chart shows how a student performed in each topic in an assessment. The colour coding helps to distinguish the strengths (green) and weaknesses (red). For past papers, an Edexcel comparison is available. You can add results from other assessments to get a more balanced picture of a student’s topic performance.
The Skills chart shows how a student performed in each skill in an assessment. It works in the same way as the topics chart.
The Next steps view shows the topics that the student has performed less well in and the common barriers that precede the topic that might need to be retaught.
Valuable insights from your assessments.
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These charts show how a group have performed in a specific assessment using the Grade breakdown, Question-Level Analysis, Topic & Skills Analysis and Next Steps. The assessment results must be entered into the Mark Entry markbooks in the Assessments area of ActiveHub. Once submitted, results may take up to 30 minutes to appear on the Assessment Insights. All these results can be shared directly with students.
The screens start with the Grade chart, then moves on to the Questions, Topics, Skills and Next Steps.
This chart shows how many students achieved each grade in an assessment. Use the filters to focus on specific grades and to change the view to see either the number or the percentage of students. Use the key to add or remove groups from the chart.
This chart shows how students on average performed in each question in an assessment. Click on the column headers to sort the data by the different criteria. For past papers, an Edexcel comparison is available. You can filter results to compare students who achieved specific grades in the live assessment.
The topics chart shows how students on average performed in each topic in an assessment. The colour coding helps to distinguish the strengths (green) and weaknesses (red). For past papers, an Edexcel comparison is available. You can add results from other assessments to get a more balanced picture of your students' topic performance.
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The skills chart shows how students on average performed in each skill in an assessment. It works in the same way as the topics chart.
This shows the topics that the students on average performed less well in and the common barriers that precede those topics that might need to be retaught.
Valuable insights from your tasks.
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These charts show how a group have performed in specific tasks using the Grade breakdown, Question-Level Analysis, Topic & Skills Analysis and Next Steps. The task results are pulled from the Resources and Planning area of ActiveHub, where students will have been set tasks to do online, eg for homework, or whole independent lessons. Once submitted, results may take up to 30 minutes to appear on the Task Insights.
The screens start with the Summary chart, then move on to the Breakdown and Next Steps.
This table shows a summary of how each student performed in a specific task and the status (eg ‘Not started’). It also highlights any students that did not complete the task by the due date. In the Tasks Analysis Table, it shows the mark, the time taken and whether it was completed on time for each student in a group.
This shows the average mark for the group broken down by individual items within a task.
The Next Steps summarise how well students have understood the content covered in the task. It is intended to help the teacher decide if the content needs to be retaught or whether individual students might need additional support.
The Next Steps are broken down into three categories:
| More work needed (red) | These students used more attempts to reach the correct answer, or didn’t reach the correct answer. The results suggest their knowledge in this area is weak. |
| Would benefit from further reinforcement (amber) | These students generally reached the correct answer, but not on the first attempt. The results suggest their knowledge is near complete. |
| No further work needed (green) | These students generally reached the correct answer on the first attempt. The results suggest their knowledge in this area is strong. |
Share assessment results with your students
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All of the assessment results can be shared with students. Which means when students log in to see their tasks, they can also see their assessment results under My Results.
What is shared, when it is shared and who it is shared with is under your control. If you do not proactively select results to share, then students will not see any of their results.
In order to share results, go to the Assessment Insights page on the left hand menu to see your list of assessments. Each assessment will be 'Not shared'' by default. Select 'Share with students' to see the sharing screens. Here you can decide which results you want to share. For example, you may want to share the mark from an assessment with students, but might not want to share the grade. Also, you may want to share the results of assessments, but not compared to a target. Tick the fields to be shared.
You are able to share results with the whole group, or specific individuals. Add the date you want them to be shared. Add some feedback, either to the whole group or individual students, on how they did in the assessment.
If all details are shared with students, they will see the following information:
Students see their latest assessment results (across all subjects) shown first.
View results will provide more detailed results from a specific assessment. This includes the grade boundaries, feedback from their teacher, question analysis and topics analysis. The question analysis and topic analysis will help the student understand what areas they are doing well in and any areas they need to improve.
This chart shows a student how they have performed in assessments over time. It could include their baseline and target and state whether they are on track to meet their course target.
