When logged into your Checkology educator account, there are a number of ways to learn all about the content available to you and to help you determine fit with your curriculum and student needs. Check out the FAQs below for some good places to start when looking to browse Checkology content.
How do I learn about available Checkology content in my educator account?
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To quickly access information about Checkology’s core lessons, go to the "Resources" tab. There, you’ll find a variety of materials organized by topic, grade level, estimated duration, resource type, subject area, and alignment with News Literacy Project Standards. Additional instructional support and featured resources are also available toward the bottom of the page.
- You can also use the "Search" function to quickly find resources by entering key terms. For example, searching for "transcripts" will bring up text versions of lessons, which can be especially helpful to reference while teaching a Checkology lesson or grading student work. Additionally, you can narrow your results by using the filters on the right-hand side of the page, which allow you to sort resources by category.
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To preview an entire lesson, exercise, challenge or mission, visit the “Content” tab. In this tab, you will find a “Preview” button next to every piece of Checkology content. When in this preview mode, you can go through the content element-by-element or you can use the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen to skip around.
What is the difference between lessons, exercises, challenges and missions?
When browsing or assigning content in Checkology, you will find four types of content: lessons, exercises, challenges and missions. In general, lessons are longer and go more in-depth than other types of content.
- Lessons ("Learn")
- Lessons introduce, explore and assess students on core concepts and skills. Most lessons are hosted by a subject matter expert and consist of instructional videos and assessments containing real-world examples. Read more about Checkology's core lessons here.
- Exercises ("Practice")
- Exercises provide additional practice with core concepts and skills introduced in lessons. For example, "InfoZones" exercises ask students to practice zoning real-world examples of information by determining whether a post, article or video is news, opinion, propaganda, entertainment, raw information or advertising.
- Challenges ("Extend")
- Challenges extend student learning by going in-depth into a specific core concept or skill introduced in a lesson, often by exploring a particular case study. For example, the challenge "Watergate: An Iconic Investigation" has students research the Watergate scandal, an important example of investigative journalism like the others in the "Democracy's Watchdog" lesson, and create a resource sharing their findings with peers.
- Missions ("Fact-check")
- Missions are fact-checking activities in which students get to the bottom of a piece of information using digital verification tools and skills they learn about in the Check Center.
Once I’ve finished browsing, how do I assign content to students on Checkology?
Once you have decided which content best fits with your curriculum and student needs, head to your Dashboard class tiles and select “+ Assign course.” This will take you to the course management area for the class you selected where you can assign a preset course, build your own course or edit an already assigned course. For more information on assigning a course, please visit the following help center articles:
Related articles: Assign a course
Still have questions or need a content recommendation? Feel free to reach out to our Help Center team by submitting a request.