Hawkes Learning System
Instructor Frequently Asked Questions
GETTING STARTED
What is the course id?
GVLTECDEV
I have never used Hawkes. What is my password?
The temporary password for new instructors will be“Masteryworks” (case sensitive). After you
logon, go to Online Gradebook, Tools tab, Change Password to change this initial password to
your own personalized password.
What is my access code used for?
Notice that on your instructor screen, the first icon is for the student software. Your access
code allows you into the student software.
How is my access code connected to a particular class?
The first time that you use the access code, you will need to enroll in a class. If you haven’t set
one up yet, you can work offline or enroll in your lead instructor’s test class (if he/she has set
one up).
You can use one access code to get into any section in the book. If you want to show these
screens in class and want to make sure that the students see exactly what they would see, you
need to make sure that you are enrolled in the proper class. You have two options:


Go to Progress Report and use the Transfer to transfer to another class (top left of
screen).
Or, if you would like multiple access codes (one per course, not section), ask your lead
instructor. Then the access code you use would determine which class you are enrolled
in.
How do I set up my class in Hawkes?
Reference the appropriate document (Blackboard, content collection).
What kind of Hawkes training is available for Hawkes?
There is a student training video available on www.hawkeslearning.com (Students, Training)
that you and your students should watch.
There are links to additional instructor training videos in the Instructor Training Videos
document (See Blackboard, content collection).
Do I have to use the due date and late penalty templates?
You must use the templates that have been set up for due dates and late penalty periods. The
intent of homework grades and due dates is to strongly encourage each student to have good
study habits. They need to do the homework and they need to get it done before the next class
period in order to be able to understand the next lecture.
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Instructor Frequently Asked Questions
We have found that, if you don’t give homework grades, many students won’t do homework.
Plus, if you set a due date too far into the future, many students will wait till then to attempt the
homework.
In order to be somewhat flexible, we have set up a late penalty template with increasing
penalties and the syllabus states that we will drop the lowest 3 grades.
Since I must use the due date template, what do I do if I get behind in my lectures?
You can modify your due dates if you get behind. Go to Online Gradebook, Assignments, HLS
Lesson Due dates, double click on the class. Change the due dates needed. You will be
prompted to change the name of the template when you save.
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Instructor Frequently Asked Questions
INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE
What should I do if my instructor PC in my classroom does not have Hawkes installed?
If there is no icon on the desktop for Hawkes, check to see if the software has been installed by
going to Start (bottom left) and then select All Programs. Look for Hawkes Learning System.
You can create a desktop icon by right clicking on the Hawkes software and then Send to
Desktop.
If the software is truly not installed on the PC, then contact your lead instructor.
How do I install the software on my home computer?
Go to www.hawkeslearning.com (Instructors, Current Users, Download the software). Your
download password is “Masteryworks” (case sensitive).
Is there any limit on how many or which computers that I install Hawkes on?
No.
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Instructor Frequently Asked Questions
SETTING UP MY CLASSES
How do I change the students’ lessons in Progress Report to be sorted by due date (rather than lesson
number)?
To do this:
. Online Gradebook
. Tools
. Display Options
. Scroll down to HLS lessons.
. Use drop down in both columns (Instructor, Student) to select Due Date sort.
Note: This is a single indicator that affects all of your classes.
Where do I maintain my Gradebook (Blackboard or Hawkes)?
It is a standard at Greenville Tech for gradebooks to be maintained in Blackboard. The current
up-to-date HLS grade for each student will be in Hawkes. From time to time, you will need to
enter these grades into Blackboard.
The recommendation is to update Hawkes homework grades in Blackboard wherever you post a
test grade to Blackboard, and more frequently if you desire (but no more than weekly).
How can I set up reminders for students when certification due dates are coming up?
If you would like Hawkes to email your students reminders before the certifications are due, you
can go to Tools, Communication, Reminders.
Note: These reminders are emailed to the Communication area of Hawkes, unless the
students set their profiles to forward all emails to a different email address (Progress
Report, Tools, My Profile).
There is a reminder template already set up called ‘GTC Mat101 – 2011FA MAT 101 Reminders’
which you are welcome to select and use (or you can create your own).
The template is set up to send an email reminder to students 2 days before the certification is
due as follows. The student name, lesson name, due date, and instructor name are filled in by
Hawkes:
First reminder 2 days before due date (i.e., 48 hours before due date/time): - no change
to message:
Just to let you know, the following certification [LessonName] is due [DueDate].
Final reminder 3 days after due date:
This is a final notice concerning the following certification [LessonName], which
was due [DueDate]. There are two days remaining for you to complete this
certification and receive some credit for your efforts. After that, while you will
still be able to work on it, you will receive no credit and the gradebook will
record a zero for this certification.
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Instructor Frequently Asked Questions
GETTING STUDENTS STARTED
What if a student has a computer but no access to the internet?
They should always save/print their certificates. To submit their certificate, they must find a
computer with access to the internet and do the following:
Go to www.hawkeslearning.com/GVLTECDEV/. Login with your access code. Press
Submit Certificate. Then browse to find the certificate file (on a flash drive).
What if a student doesn’t have a computer?
The students can always do their work in a computer lab on campus. These labs should all be
set up with the Hawkes software.
If students used the old Lial book for a developmental math course in a previous semester, do they
have to purchase the new book?
Yes, they do. The book is packaged with the software, which is critical for them to obtain and do
their homework.
It is possible (but not advisable) for them to use the Lial textbook and to purchase the Hawkes
software online. The textbooks do have some significant differences.
Does Hawkes provide temporary access codes for students who need extra time to get their financial
aid to pay for the book/software?
Yes. The instructor will go to Tools, Manage Students, then click “Request Temporary Access
Code.” They will then type in the students first name, last name and email address and click
“Add.” After they have added the names they need codes for, they just hit the “Send” button
and Hawkes will be notified of the pending requests.
As soon as Hawkes gets the request, they release the codes and each student is emailed with
their Temporary Access Code and directions on how to make it permanent. The instructor can
see the temp code once it’s created and the student enrolls with it in their class but they will not
see it before.
Students must purchase their materials from the bookstore within the first 3 weeks of class and
register the License Number with us through their Progress Report in order to make the code
permanent. It’s a breeze for them once they’ve purchased materials. There is no transferring or
combining of data like there is with other software systems so it’s pretty simple for them.
What do I say to students who get a used book from a friend or relative and want to use that person’s
access code?
Once an access code is used, it is assigned to that person. Each student must buy the software
in order to get their own access code. They can purchase the access code directly from
www.hawkeslearning.com.
What do students do if they have trouble installing or using the software?
As an instructor, you are not required to answer technical questions about the software. You
are required only to know the math and how to use the software.
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Instructor Frequently Asked Questions
Students (and instructors) can call the technical support number:
843-571-2825 or 1-800-426-9538.
The hours available are documented in www.hawkeslearning.com, select Support, then Support
Request. As of 10/7/10, the hours are: Monday - Friday: 8:30am - 10:00pm ET . These hours
are usually extended for the first month of a semester, often to Sundays from 2pm till 10pm.
Prior to calling, students may want to review the Hawkes Student FAQ Guide (which you should
post in Blackboard). If that doesn’t address their problem, they can go to
www.hawkeslearning.com (Students, Frequently Asked Questions). This documents many error
codes and what to do to handle the errors.
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Instructor Frequently Asked Questions
DEALING WITH STUDENT PROBLEMS
What if a student says that he is using Hawkes but does not show up in your online gradebook?
When students get on to Hawkes for the first time, they must enroll in your online gradebook by
selecting the correct instructor name and correct section.
If the student selected you as the instructor but selected the wrong class, you can fix this by
going to Online Gradebook, Tools tab, Manage Students, and transfer the student to the
correction class.
Students can always fix the problem themselves:
If they don’t have WebTest or Progress Report buttons available, then they have not
chosen the current course id.
To fix this, they should select Tools at the top of the screen, then select Edit
Hawkes Course Id, and change the course id to GVLTECDEV.
If they have the Progress Report button, it is possible that they have selected the wrong
class.
To fix this, they should press the Progress Report button, verify the class (top left
of screen) and if incorrect, then press the Transfer button to change to the
correct class.
What do I do if the student was using a temporary access code and now has a permanent one but
his/her work does not show up in your Grade Book?
The student should call Hawkes Technical Support so that the two codes could be merged. This
should not have happened if the student had entered the same email address reported to
Hawkes earlier. The system automatically merges the two if it recognizes the same email
address. (This is the reason we need to make sure to tell students to always use their school
email address.)
In any case, the temporary code becomes the permanent one. The student should continue
using the temporary one; however, they definitely need to call Hawkes Technical Support to
make sure the two codes merge.
What do I do if the student says that they certified but the grade does not show on Progress Report?
The student should always print and save their certificates when they certify in order to show
proof.
They should check the Progress Report whenever they certify because (even if they think that
they are connected to the Internet) there can be brief interruptions that will prevent the
certification from going through. Then, if the grade doesn’t appear, they have a chance to
submit their certificate manually.
On an exception basis, the teacher has the ability to enter/modify a student’s homework grade.
To do this, go to Online Gradebook ,Assignments, Edits Scores by Student. Scroll down to
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Instructor Frequently Asked Questions
assignment in question and enter the date that she certified the Enter column. Hawkes will
determine the grade based upon whether it was late or not.
How do I change the lesson due date for one student?
To do this:
. Online Gradebook
. Reports tab
. Detailed Student Grades
. Select Section and Student
. Scroll down to desired lesson
. Click on due date
. Click on drop down box and select Edit Student’s Due Date
. Change due date
What is the Hawkes Curriculum and how do I make sure that students get the correct curriculum?
The Hawkes curriculum is the set of questions that compose the Hawkes lessons. Each lead
teacher has the option to modify these questions, adding questions that are missing from the
default curriculum or eliminating questions that are unnecessary or too difficult.
When a student signs on to Hawkes, the curriculum is automatically downloaded from the
internet. For students who are working totally offline, refer to the question about offline
students.
Students can see which curriculum that they are using by: Getting into Hawkes, Help, About. If
the Curriculum is ‘HLS Default’, then you need to send them the curriculum load module for
them to load manually. Find the question below about how to send the curriculum to the
student manually.
What special considerations are there for students who work totally offline?
Curriculum:
Students who work totally offline (i.e., never connect to the internet while in Hawkes) need to
get the curriculum loaded to their computer. Find the question below about how to send the
curriculum to the student manually.
Submitting Certificates:
Students who work offline must also submit their certificates manually. To do this, they must
go to a computer with internet access. They can submit certificates one of two ways:
 If the computer has Hawkes installed, they can get into Hawkes and go to
Progress Report to submit their certificates.

If they desire (or the computer does not have Hawkes), they can go to
www.hawkeslearning.com/gvltecdev to submit their certificates.
To submit a certificate, they must have saved the certificate to a file (like on a flashdrive) and
then they can load this file when asked.
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Note: The date that is given them for doing the homework is the date that they submit their
certificate. This is similar to manually turning in an assignment to a teacher.
What if the students complain about getting problems in Hawkes lessons that should not be in their
curriculum?
An example of this is in section 8.6 (MAT 101). We have excluded problems relating to D=RT
from the curriculum.
One of the following may be happening:
(1) The student is not on the internet when he gets into Hawkes so the correct curriculum
cannot load down.
a. To fix this, send the student an email with the curriculum file attached and have him
load it manually. You can find the curriculum file for your course in Blackboard,
Community, Developmental Studies, Math, Hawkes. See below for more info.
(2) The student never updated their software with the latest software version of Hawkes.
When you get into Hawkes, the version is displayed at the top of the screen. Check what it
says on your computer at school. This is what the student should look for on his computer.
If he has an old version of the software:
a. To fix this, tell the student to go to www.hawkeslearning.com, download the
software, selecting Developmental Mathematics.
b. If downloading the software doesn’t fix the curriculum issue, then send him the
curriculum to load manually. See below for more info.
(3) The student is in Practice mode and using the Level button at the bottom of the screen. If a
student uses any difficulty level other than Pre-Certify, Hawkes is currently picking problems
that may be outside the curriculum. (Hopefully, Hawkes will fix this in the future.)
How do I send the student the curriculum manually?
All of the curriculums (031,032,101,102) may be found in Blackboard, Developmental Studies,
Developmental Math, Hawkes. You may also request the curriculum file from your lead
instructor. Note: The Hawkes curriculum defines which questions show up in Hawkes lessons.
Email the student with the curriculum file (extension is .hcf) attached.
Caution: Do NOT open the file because it is not something you can edit and it has no
meaning.
In the email, tell the student:
To load this curriculum, save this file to a flash drive and take to your computer.
Then get into Hawkes, select Tools at top of screen, then Load Curriculum.
Select the curriculum file on your flashdrive.
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Hawkes Learning System
Instructor Frequently Asked Questions
BEST PRACTICES FOR HAWKES LEARNING
What are some best practices for Hawkes learning?
Recommend that students keep a homework notebook.
Students may be inclined to scribble their work on scratch paper (or just do problems in
their head). If so, they have nothing to help them study for the test or exam.
If they keep a notebook with problems neatly worked, they have something to
reference in studying for tests or when they have questions later on.
If you give grades for activities, you could have them bring in their homework notebook
and give them a grade if it looks like they are doing it.
Show the Hawkes student training video on the first class day.
This will depend on how many students are already familiar with Hawkes. Depending
on how many of your students are not familiar with Hawkes, you may want to run some
or all of the student training video (20 minutes). Make sure that they understand how
to access the video so that they can see it as many times as they want on their own.
Do NOT say that “Certify is Homework”.
Explain that “homework” is the process of watching the Instruct screens, doing the
practice till the student knows the concepts and how to do the problems, and then
doing the certify. Explain that the “certify is a quiz that they take AFTER they learn the
material”.
If you say that Certify is Homework, many students will skip Instruct and
Practice and go directly to Certify even if they are not ready. If students say that
they keep getting thrown out of certify, this is an indication that they were not
ready to certify.
Recommend to students at the beginning of the semester:
When they get access to Hawkes, they should verify that they are in the correct class by
going to Progress Report and looking at top left of the screen. They should see your
name as Instructor and the correct section. If they enrolled in the wrong class, they can
press the Transfer button (top left) on this screen to transfer to the correct class.
Remind them that, if they are not in your Gradebook, they cannot get a homework
grade.
Recommend to students that they check the Progress Report every time that they certify.
If the students are connected to the Internet when they certify, then their certify grade
will be posted properly to their Progress Report.
However, sometimes they may temporarily lose connection without being aware of it.
Because of this, encourage your students that every time they certify, they should check
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their progress reports to make sure that the certification is posted. If not, they then
have the opportunity to submit their certificates to fix the situation.
Recommend to students that, if they have a tutor, the tutor should help them in Practice
mode, not Certify mode.
Practice is where the learning should occur. The Certify is a quiz. If the tutor helps them
with Certify, then the student will have no clue if he has understood the material and
can work the problems on his own.
What can I do to encourage my students to get them enrolled in Hawkes and get started doing the
homework.
(1) In every class, keep pushing the idea of Hawkes and how important it is to get started.
(2) Review your Hawkes reports to see who has yet to enroll or who has enrolled but not started
homework. Talk to these students.
(3) Remind students that, if they don’t have a computer or are having problems installing the
software, they can do their homework in one of the computer labs on campus. If they are
having problems installing the software, they need to call the Hawkes technical support number.
(4) If any students are waiting on financial aid prior to purchasing the book, let them know that you
can get them a temporary access code for the first 3 weeks of the class. See the Instructor FAQ
document on how this works.
(5) Use Hawkes during your lecture in order to get the students familiar with the software. Work
some homework problems using Hawkes to get them started on homework.
(6) Ask for any questions on Hawkes at the beginning of each class.
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OTHER ISSUES
When I print tests in Webtest or after I have exported them to Word, sometimes equations do not
show up on the printed copy. Why?
This is actually a Microsoft problem, not a Hawkes or printer problem. There is no global way of
fixing all of our computers on campus (although IT is still looking into this).
So, in the meantime, you may need to get your lead instructor to post pdf versions of tests
which should print fine.
By the way, this problem seems to be fixed in Windows 7.
How can I remove students from my Hawkes gradebook when they have withdrawn from the class?
a. Create a new section called “withdrawn students”. (Online Grade book, Tools, Manage
Sections)
b. Transfer your withdrawn students to the new section. (Online Grade book, Tools,
Manage Students)
For Grade book in Blackboard:
Go to Manage, Row Visibility, and hide these rows.
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END OF SEMESTER
What should I do at the end of a semester?
After you are finished final posting grades, you need to archive and reset your Hawkes classes to
remove the students and their grades. To do this:
. Online Gradebook
. Tools tab
. Reset Grade books
. Select Students and Student Scores, and HLS lessons due
. Select the class(es) to be reset
. Press the Reset Grade Book button at bottom of screen.
After the class(es) have been reset, then delete the class(es) as follows:
. Online Gradebook
. Tools tab
. Manage Sections
. Select the class(es) to be deleted.
Note: Each instructor has to have at least one section defined. You
cannot delete all sections. Recommendation: Have one class section
named “Withdrawn Students”. This section can be used to transfer out
withdrawn students from your normal gradebook. Then just
archive/reset this section at the end of the semester but do not delete it.
. Press the Delete Section(s) button.
The system will ask if you want to archive before delete. Say “No” since you
have already done the back up.
To delete any due date templates that you created (when you changed due dates for a section):
. Assignments Tab
. HLS Lesson Due Dates
. Manage by Template
. Find the templates with your name
. Check each template to be deleted, making sure that the
last column (Assigned) says No.
. Press Delete button at bottom of screen
What should I do if I have to give a student an Incomplete and want to give him a chance to do more
certifications?
Before resetting the class(es):
Create a new class for all incomplete students.
. Set up ‘HLS Lesson Due Dates’ template for this section of students.
. Ensure that any ‘Other Assignments’ are also assigned to this new section so
that grades transfer.
Transfer this student from his current class to the new class. To do this:
. Online Gradebook
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. Tools tab
. Manage Students
. Select the “from” class and the “to” class. Select the student and transfer. The
system will ask if you want to transfer grades. Answer Yes.
After transferring the student to the new special class, then follow the instructions above to
archive/reset and then delete the old class.
Can I get see my archived gradebooks?
Yes, go to Tools, View Archived Gradebook.
When you look at a particular grade for a student in one section, you will see the date that he
certified followed by (T) if the certification was on time or (L) if the certification was late. If the
assignment was not done, you will see “past due”.
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