Downloading the myIGDIs iPad® App
The myIGDIs iPad® App requires iOS 9 or higher. To download the app, navigate to the Apple App Store and search for "myIGDIs". Download the app. Classroom Administrators will be able to log in using the same credentials used to access myIGDIs on the website at login.myigdis.com.
Administering the assessment from the myIGDIs iPad® App
To administer the assessment using the app, you need two iPads - one for the teacher, and one for the student. Both of the iPads must have the myIGDIs app installed, with Bluetooth® enabled (this can be done in the iPad's settings).
If you are administering assessments remotely, see Administering myIGDIs Literacy on iPad® Remotely: Teacher and Administrator Guide.
- On each iPad®, open the myIGDIs app.
- You'll see this screen first. On the teacher iPad®, select Teacher. On the student iPad®, select Student; you will see a white screen.
- On the teacher iPad®, enter your user name and password; then, select Login.
- On the teacher iPad®, you will see a list of the students in the class and the scores for assessments they have taken in the selected season.
myIGDIs assessments can be used for screening or progress monitoring:- Screening assessments are completed once in each season (Fall, Winter, and Spring). Screening is always completed before progress monitoring. To administer screening assessments, make sure the correct season is selected at the top of the window.
- Progress monitoring assessments are scheduled to be done every three weeks if progress monitoring was turned on after the screening assessment. Progress monitoring is automatically on if the student's screening score falls into Tier II/III (red) or Cut Range (orange), but you can turn it on or off for each student and assessment type at any time after the screening assessment for the season (see step 10 below). To see the status of students' progress monitoring assessments, select Progress at the top of the window (to the right of the seasons). Students may or may not have assessments ready to start. If the required time hasn't passed since the last assessment, the Progress view will show you how long you need to wait before the next one.
- Screening assessments are completed once in each season (Fall, Winter, and Spring). Screening is always completed before progress monitoring. To administer screening assessments, make sure the correct season is selected at the top of the window.
- To begin a screening assessment for the selected season, select Start in the row for the student and the column for the assessment type. Note: If you're going to administer Picture Naming, always administer that assessment first since the pictures and skills are reused in the other assessments.
| Abbreviation | Assessment Type |
|---|---|
| PN | Picture Naming |
| RH | Rhyming |
| SID | Sound Identification |
| WODB | Which One Doesn't Belong |
| AL | Alliteration |
To begin a progress monitoring assessment, select Assess Now if the option is available.
- If you haven't already connected to the student's iPad for a previous assessment, you will go to the connection screen, where you should see a list of device IDs for students' iPads. If you don't see the list, make sure that Bluetooth® is enabled on both iPads.
To identify which iPad you want to connect to, on the student's iPad, with the myIGDIs app open, look for the device ID in the top right corner of the screen.
Then, on the teacher's iPad®, select the device ID for the student's iPad® to connect to it. You will see an orange "Connecting" message; when the iPads are connected, you'll see a green "Connected" message.
To check whether Bluetooth® is on, open the iPad® Settings, select Bluetooth®, and make sure the toggle is on.
The two iPads must be using the same time zone; if they are not, the student iPad won't be detected.
- Once the iPads are connected, select Begin the Assessment at the bottom of the screen.
- You will see instructions on the screen, telling you how to use the assessment buttons and how to navigate through the assessment. After reading this information, tap anywhere on the screen to continue.
- Next, you'll see the first item. That item will give you some text in red to read out loud. (Text in black tells you about actions you should take or things that will happen. Note that in some cases you need to tap items in order to make them visible to the student.) The sample below is from a Sound Identification assessment.
The student sees the picture or possible answers without the text. The example below shows a student sample for Sound Identification.
For the first two items (Sample A and Sample B), you answer the question yourself to show the student how to answer. As you finish each question, select Next >> in the bottom right corner.
For the remaining sample questions, ask the student to answer the question. After you finish the sample items, the scored items will begin.
What you and the student do in the assessment depends on the assessment type:
| Assessment type | What the teacher sees/does | What the student sees/hears/does |
|---|---|---|
| Picture Naming | Teachers see the word; they ask the student to name the picture. The teacher then selects Correct, Incorrect, or No Response at the bottom of the screen. | Students see a picture, and they tell teachers the name verbally. |
| Rhyming | Teachers see the first word and then the words that are possible rhymes, with the correct answer in red. Teachers say and touch each word to reveal pictures to the student, and they ask the student to choose the rhyming word. When the student answers, that word becomes larger on the teacher's screen. | As teachers touch each word, a picture of each appears for the student. The student taps the picture of the rhyming word. That picture gets larger when the student taps it. |
| Sound ID | Teachers see the three letters, with the correct answer in red. They touch each letter to reveal it to the student. Then, audio begins on the student's iPad®, asking the student to choose the letter that makes the specified sound. When the student answers, that letter becomes larger than the others on the teacher's screen. | Students see the three letters and hear audio asking them which letter makes the requested sound. Students tap a letter to choose their answer. The letter they choose gets larger than the others. |
| Which One Doesn't Belong | Teachers see three words, with the correct answer in red. They touch each word to reveal pictures to the student. When the student answers, that picture becomes larger on the teacher's screen. | As teachers touch each word, a picture of each appears for the student. The student taps the picture that doesn't belong. The picture the student chooses gets larger when the student taps it. |
| Alliteration | Teachers see the words, with the correct answer in red. They touch each word to reveal a picture of each to the student. After that, audio plays for the student to ask which word starts with a specific sound. When the student answers, the student's choice becomes larger on the teacher's screen. | Students see pictures representing the words, and they hear audio asking them which word starts with a specific sound. The student taps a picture to choose an answer; that picture gets larger when the student taps it. |
Things to note:
- After the student answers, select Next >> in the bottom right corner of the screen. If you select Next >> more quickly than expected (or before the pictures and audio are available to the student), a message will ask if you are sure you want to continue. For the last item, the button is Finish instead of Next.
- If you need to start an item over, select the Redo button at the bottom of the screen.
- If you want to cancel the assessment at any time without saving the assessment results, select Home in the bottom left corner.
- After a screening assessment, you will return to the scoring screen, where you can see the time taken to administer the assessment, the date, the score, and who administered it. The color of the score circle shows you the benchmark category: green (Tier 1), orange (Cut Range), or red (Tier II/III).
You can:
- Start a different assessment for the student by selecting Administer.
- Turn progress monitoring to yes or no (once each screening assessment has been done for the season).
- Select Class Summary to go back to the Home screen for the class.
After a progress monitoring assessment, you go back to the Progress Monitoring screen, where you can see the student's latest score on the assessment and the amount of time you need to wait until the next assessment (three weeks).
After administering assessments, be sure to sync data as described in the next section.
Before you can administer an assessment to another student on a different iPad, you must disconnect from the first student's iPad. To do that, on the student's iPad, select Change ID under the device ID. This will do two things: 1) it will disconnect the connection, and 2) it will set a new device ID on that student's iPad.
Syncing data from the myIGDIs iPad® App to myIGDIs Data System on the Website
Sync the data to ensure that the results of myIGDIs assessments administered on the iPad® are available when you log in to myIGDIs Data System in a web browser. To sync data, make sure you have Bluetooth® enabled on the teacher's iPad®, and make sure it has a connection to the internet. While logged in to the iPad® app as a teacher, select Menu in the upper left corner.
In the left-hand column, select Tap here to synchronize.
A message will pop up saying "Synchronization is in process." When the sync is complete, a message will alert you that the synchronization was successful; you will be able to see the data on the myIGDIs Data System (the myIGDIs site that you log in to through a web browser).
Logging Out
As a teacher, when you're done administering assessments and syncing the data, you can log out of the app by selecting Menu and selecting Log Out. (If you have not synchronized the data, a message will ask if you are sure that you want to log out without synchronizing data.)
iPad® Troubleshooting
To optimize performance, we recommend using the latest versions of iOS® and our app on both of your iPads. To check your iPad's current version of iOS®, open up Settings, go to General, then Software Update. If you don't have the latest version, click Download and Install. To find the latest version of our app, open up the App Store, click Search, then type "myIGDIs". If you don't have the latest version, install it. Make sure you go through this process on both iPads. This app requires iOS® version 8.0 or later.