Below you'll find some common questions from Atlas system administrators working at schools around the world. Whether you are a new or experienced Atlas System Administrator, we're here to support you throughout the year. Feel free to contact your Atlas Support Team for additional help!
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Managing Users
I forgot to click “Send Invitation Email” when adding a new user, what can I do?
After adding a new user, you are not able to send the invitation email again. Instead, simply share these instructions with your new user:
- Navigate to your Atlas URL: ******.rubiconatlas.org
- Enter your school email address
- When prompted, click "Rest Password” to receive a password reset email
- Check your email (and junk mailbox), click the link in the email to set your personal Atlas password
- Bookmark your Atlas site from your Atlas Dashboard after successfully logging in
How can I add a user with view-only permissions?
Sometimes you need to add users to Atlas who will not be developing or teaching curriculum. This could be a superintendent, principal, long-term substitute, support staff, or a member of your school's accreditation team. This is easy to do, simply add them under Manage Users, and that's it! All users added to Atlas can Browse your school's curriculum by default. They will not be able to edit any curriculum unless you specifically assign them to a course under Manage Courses.
Can I import a list of new faculty members from a spreadsheet?
Yes, you can add NEW user accounts in bulk using the Import Users button. Follow the instructions on that page to upload your list in a Comma Separated Value (.csv) format. Importing users will not assign users to courses for developing or teaching. This is done separately under Manage Courses.
When I delete a user does Atlas delete their course curriculum?
No. Deleting a user from your system will never delete their courses or curriculum. When you delete a user with courses assigned, Atlas will give you the option to re-assign their courses to another faculty member. Even if you are not ready to re-assign the courses then, you will still find them in your full course list under Manage Courses, where they can be assigned to another faculty member at any time.
Some users are marked "Inactive". What does this mean?
Users are marked "Inactive" after 2 years of not logging into Atlas. This helps the Admin identify any former faculty who may need to be deleted from the system, or current faculty who may need additional assistance.
Login Troubleshooting
One of our teachers reports not receiving the Reset Password email. What can be done?
- First, have them check their junk mailbox for the message, sometimes it may have been directed there.
- Next, under Admin>Manage Users check that their account is active and their email address is correct. Without this, they will not be able to login or receive password reset emails.
- While in Atlas, you can visit Admin>Reset Passwords to reset their password manually. Be sure to provide them with their temporary password information.
- Finally, check with your IT department that @onatlas.com is marked as a “safe-sender” so users can receive password reset emails in the future.
Managing Courses
What is the difference between a Teacher and Curriculum Developer?
When assignninng users to courses, you can assign them as one or both of these options. Curriculum Developers have full editing control over the course. They can add and delete units on the calendar, develop unit details, and add lesson plans. Teachers can ONLY add lesson plans to existing units.
As a System Admin, can I edit curriculum?
In the Admin tab, you manage the structure of your Atlas system, but this does not automatically give you the ability to edit the curriculum in courses. This is often unnecessary, as the ability to view, search, browse, and analyze the curriculum is available to every user. If you find that you need to edit the content of a user's course, you will either need to be assigned to that course or have Special Editing Privileges applied.
How can I make a copy of a course that includes curriculum?
If you need a copy of a current or archived course that includes curriculum, it is a 2-part process. First, simply assign Curriculum Developers to a blank course, then let them know to use the Copy Unit button to copy over all or part of another course. For example, a Curriculum Developer assigned to a blank Algebra 8 course can use the Copy Unit button to copy some or all units from any current (or archived) version of Algebra 8 found in your system. When finished, they'll have a duplicate copy of the units they need, and will now how to use the Copy Unit feature in the future.
What is the difference between a Course Title, Course Assignment, Course, and Curriculum Map?
In Atlas we use these terms in the following way:
Course Titles: A list of approved course names. Your list of Course Titles represents the potential course offerings for each grade and subject. This page allows you to remove redundant or inconsistent course names, keeping your course list tidy. AP Biology, for example, should appear only once in your list of Course Titles to avoid having other courses called Biology (AP). Not all Course Titles need to be taught each year.
Course Assignment: Also just called a Course, this is a course that is actively taught this academic year. When adding a Course Assignment, you'll select the Course Title, School, and Curriculum Developers for the year. There may be more than one AP Biology Course Assignment listed because several users at your district may independently teach AP Biology. Any courses not taught this year should be removed from the list of Course Assignments.
Curriculum Map: Another name for the course curriculum (units, assessments, lessons, etc.) that lays out the plan for the year. The Curriculum Map view in Atlas lays out the year's curriculum for each course on one page.
How should I assign courses that are taught by several teachers?
Courses are managed in Admin Dashboard > Manage Courses > course assignments click Add New Course to create a new course, or click Edit to edit details for an existing course. Simply by assigning more than one user, you automatically create a Collaborative course, allowing multiple users to edit the same course. All courses assigned to more than one user are called Collaborations and will have a Collaborative icon after the Course Title. Collaborative courses are often used in co-teaching situations, or when the subject or grade-level teams are working to build a consensus curriculum.
How do I remove a User and delete a Course?
The Recycle Bin captures all courses deleted from your system that hold any curriculum data. In this way, you can remove courses from your system, and retrieve them at a later date if you find you made a mistake. To move a course to the Recycle Bin, go to Admin Dashboard > Manage Courses > course assignments and click Delete. You will receive a warning asking if you want to move the course to the Recycle Bin. In other areas, such as Admin Dashboard > Manage Courses > Courses by Users, the Delete will only remove the user from the course, and will not move the course to the Recycle Bin. If you are removing your own course, it will be transferred to the Recycle Bin.
Your Recycle Bin cannot be deleted. This information will remain in your system for future retrieval.
What is "Map Type"?
Map Types allow System Admins to identify and label Curriculum Maps that are intended for a specific use. Users can identify the Map Type by the label appended to identify particular types of courses through All Curriculum > All Courses or Reports quickly. Some common Map Types include:
- User Map Types:
- Consensus (C): identify the intended curriculum.
- Diary (D): user-created, these maps describe the taught curriculum.
- Best Practices (BP): represents the best of curriculum mapping. Best Practice maps are used to highlight users' exemplary courses.
- Sandbox Map (SM): to distinguish maps that do not represent officially approved courses (e.g., a course being prepared for next year).
- Awaiting Review (AR) v. Reviewed (R): identify those maps that have been reviewed, if you have a review process in place at your school.
- Core Map Types:
- District Map (DM), Skeletal Map (SM), Pacing Map (PM), Consensus Map (CM): different names used to describe the approved core curriculum for a course.
- Administrator Map Types:
- Formatting/ Style Guide Map (SG): may give users a guide as to how best to format their map. (e.g., what should be in bold, where to use bullets, how much detail should be included?).
- Leadership/ Planning Map (LP): may give an outline of upcoming professional development days and activities/ goals of each session.
What is the Public checkbox all about?
The Public checkbox is used to determine which elements of your curriculum are allowed to appear in a Public version of your Atlas system. A Public Atlas system is a live copy of your internal password-protected system that is available for parents and community members to browse without a password. If your school does not have a Public version of your Atlas system, these Public checkboxes can simply be left. If you would like to learn more about creating a Public version of your Atlas system, please Email Atlas Support.
What is the Identifier?
Some areas within the Admin tab ask you to indicate an Identifier when editing Subjects or Unit Template Categories. This is a best-fit category used to interpret what is being created and is primarily used only when sharing curriculum within an Exemplars and PLCs community. Select the best available option from the list. Your choice here will not affect your curriculum data in Atlas.
Standards & Standards Reporting
Where can I find the list of Standards currently available to our school?
If your school is aligning to Standards, a list of these can be found under All Curriculum > Adopted Standards. Teachers will also find these accessible when developing units in the My Atlas > My Courses tab.
Can I add additional sets of Standards to the system?
Additional Standards can be included for your Curriculum Developers to align to, but this is a decision that should be carefully considered among your school Leadership Team. There are literally hundreds of sets of Standards that can be made available in your Atlas system, but the Standards you choose for your school should clearly reflect the desired goals of your curriculum.
Please Email Atlas Support to inquire about adding further Standards to your system.
Can we create our own Standards to be used in Atlas?
Yes! Our Standards Editing Tool allows schools to create their own custom standards for Curriculum Developers to align to in the My Atlas > My Courses tab.
Please Email Atlas Support to enable the feature and receive training on the Standards Editing Tool.
Can Curriculum Developers use Standards outside of their subject area?
We have recently updated our School’s Standards, and they are in an electronic document. What should we do?
It is easy to copy and paste Standards from various document formats into Atlas using the Standards Editing Tool. We also recommend that schools start using the Standards Editing Tool located in Admin Dashboard > Maintain Standards during their Standards review process, so that the updated Standards can be viewed and used in Atlas right away. Please refer to the resources and videos for the Standards Editing Tool located in Admin Dashboard > Maintain Standards.
Or Email Atlas Support to enable the feature and receive training on the Standards Editing Tool.
We are rewriting our Standards this year. Any suggestions on how to transition from the old to new Standards?
Atlas allows you to keep two versions of Standards for the same subject in Atlas to give Curriculum Developers time to transition from the old to the new. We would suggest putting in parenthesis (use till 201X) with the older version and (use from 201X) with the newer version so Curriculum Developers can quickly identify the Standards they should be using.
Please Email Atlas Support for questions or Standards loading best practices.
I added new Standards in the Standards Editing Tool, but the Standards do not appear in My Atlas > My Courses?
Standards will not appear in My Atlas > My Courses until Benchmarks for the Standards have been added. Benchmarks can be added by clicking on the Arrow Icon to the left of each Standard. When you click on it, a text box will appear where you can add the first Benchmark to that Standards. Additional text boxes will appear when needed.
How come we only see the school Standards when we go to Maintain Standards?
Site & User Activity
Where can I find the list of Standards currently available to our school?
If your school is aligning to Standards, a list of these can be found under All Curriculum > Adopted Standards. Teachers will also find these accessible when developing units in the My Atlas > My Courses tab.
Can I add additional sets of Standards to the system?
Additional Standards can be included for your Curriculum Developers to align to, but this is a decision that should be carefully considered among your school Leadership Team. There are literally hundreds of sets of Standards that can be made available in your Atlas system, but the Standards you choose for your school should clearly reflect the desired goals of your curriculum.
Please Email Atlas Support to inquire about adding further Standards to your system.
Can we create our own Standards to be used in Atlas?
Yes! Our Standards Editing Tool allows schools to create their own custom standards for Curriculum Developers to align to in the My Atlas > My Courses tab.
Please Email Atlas Support to enable the feature and receive training on the Standards Editing Tool.
Can Curriculum Developers use Standards outside of their subject area?
Yes! When developing a curriculum in the Unit Planner, Curriculum Developers can align with any available set of Standards. Your Standards drop-down menu will default to Standards for the specific subject area of the course, but Curriculum Developers can select any available Standards for their course. Atlas will remember what was last selected and default to that set of standards in the future.
Optional Features & Customizations
Can I make changes to the layout of our Unit Planner?
The layout of the Unit Planner that users use in My Atlas > My Courses is customizable; only Atlas system admins have the privileges to edit the unit planners template in Manage Unit Planner Template located in the Admin Dashboard. However, the changes to the layout may affect users on a system-wide basis, so make sure to confer with the school Leadership Team to decide what changes need to be made. If you would like to add new templates, contact us.
What happens if I make changes to our Unit Template Categories?
Editing the title or description of a unit template category will apply to all schools in your system using that category. Email Atlas Support to request deleting a unit template category, keep in mind that will remove any Curriculum Developers data stored in that category. Be sure to consult all school Leadership Teams before making any changes here. Editing Unit Template Categories can be made in Admin Dashboard > Unit Template Categories.
How do I edit the mouse-over descriptions for each Unit Template Categories?
You can edit category descriptions in Admin Dashboard > Unit Template Categories. Clicking Edit next to any unit template category will update the mouse-over descriptions. Keep in mind this applies to all schools in your system using this category. The rich text editor can be added to add bold, italics, or bullet lists to your descriptions. These descriptions will appear as a mouse-over in Unit Maps, Curriculum Maps, and when Curriculum Developers develop their Unit Planners.
How to Change the Site's logo?
We're happy to help with updating your Atlas site logo, please email us the new logo as a JPG, and we will update the site.
How do I adjust our Academic Calendar in Atlas?
After each Annual Archive of your courses, your Atlas calendar may need to be updated for the new academic year. Changes can be made to the following dates in the Admin Dashboard > Academic Calendar:
- First and last day of classes.
- Dates of any vacations during the year.
- End of semester/term/quarter dates (if applicable).
Curriculum Review
Where can I find the list of Standards currently available to our school?
If your school is aligning to Standards, a list of these can be found under All Curriculum > Adopted Standards. Teachers will also find these accessible when developing units in the My Atlas > My Courses tab.
Can I add additional sets of Standards to the system?
Additional Standards can be included for your Curriculum Developers to align to, but this is a decision that should be carefully considered among your school Leadership Team. There are literally hundreds of sets of Standards that can be made available in your Atlas system, but the Standards you choose for your school should clearly reflect the desired goals of your curriculum.
Please Email Atlas Support to inquire about adding further Standards to your system.
Missing Data
Where can I find the list of Standards currently available to our school?
If your school is aligning to Standards, a list of these can be found under All Curriculum > Adopted Standards. Teachers will also find these accessible when developing units in the My Atlas > My Courses tab.
Can I add additional sets of Standards to the system?
Additional Standards can be included for your Curriculum Developers to align to, but this is a decision that should be carefully considered among your school Leadership Team. There are literally hundreds of sets of Standards that can be made available in your Atlas system, but the Standards you choose for your school should clearly reflect the desired goals of your curriculum.
Please Email Atlas Support to inquire about adding further Standards to your system.
Can we create our own Standards to be used in Atlas?
Teacher Questions & PD
Where can I find the list of Standards currently available to our school?
If your school is aligning to Standards, a list of these can be found under All Curriculum > Adopted Standards. Teachers will also find these accessible when developing units in the My Atlas > My Courses tab.
Can I add additional sets of Standards to the system?
Additional Standards can be included for your Curriculum Developers to align to, but this is a decision that should be carefully considered among your school Leadership Team. There are literally hundreds of sets of Standards that can be made available in your Atlas system, but the Standards you choose for your school should clearly reflect the desired goals of your curriculum.
Please Email Atlas Support to inquire about adding further Standards to your system.
Can we create our own Standards to be used in Atlas?
Additional Features & Products
How Do We Create a Public Version of Our Atlas System?
Admin: Annual Archive and Restoring Deleted Information
What is the Annual Archive process?
The purpose of the Annual Archive is to provide a snapshot of the curriculum from each academic year and enable access to curriculum resources from prior years. Archived courses are read-only and are located in All Curriculum > All Courses when you filter the Current Year. Users may browse and even copy units from archived courses.
What should be considered when setting the Archive Date? (Admin)
On the selected Archive Date, all Curriculum Maps will be copied and saved for future reference in the All Curriculum > All Courses, so the Archive Date should typically be set at the end of the academic year after the user have finished mapping their curriculum. Curriculum Maps will also copy forward for faculty to continue editing for next year, so the Archive Date should fall before staff will be editing their maps for next year. The selected Archive Date applies to all schools in your Atlas system, so be sure to consult any other School Leadership before changing this date. See Set Archive Date for more information.
Where is the archived Curriculum located?
Archived Curriculum is accessible through the All Curriculum > All Courses tab by selecting a previous academic year from the Current Year drop-down menu.
How do I restore Curriculum from the Archives?
Teachers can copy curriculum units from the archives themselves, using the Copy Unit feature. As an Admin, you need only ensure that the teacher has a course with the correct Course Title for the current academic year. The teacher can then copy all or part of an archived course into their current course.
Admin: Communication Tools
What Is The Difference Between Discussions and Notes?
While Discussions are visible and to everyone in the system, Notes are private and can only be viewed by the course developer and Admins. In the Notes I've Received panel, you will see all the notes left for you by other users and all the notes you've left. Read more about Notes & Discussions here.
Where can I see the discussions taking place in Atlas?
1. Click the magnifying glass in the Search bar then select Activity.
2. From the Activity Type filter on the left, choose Discussions and any other relevant filters.
3. Click Search. From the Search Results, click on the relevant link to access the discussion.
4. Once in the unit or report, click Actions and Join the Discussion to view existing comments and add your message.
Where can I find something shared with me?
You will receive an alert in your Notifications Channels (the envelop icon located at the top right side of your Atlas, next to your account name). The Communications icon, two dialogue bubbles, is located at the top of a vertical line of four icons to the left of your Atlas system.
Click on the respective link to open the shared information.
How can I print a Note?
Any user can print the list of notes they receive on a particular course by doing the followings:
- Go to the Unit Calendar of the desired course, then click the small arrow next to any unit title in that course.
- Select Leave a Note.
- Click the View Notes button at the top right corner of the pop-up menu.
- Head to the Actions menu, then select Print.
Additional Features & Products
How Do We Create a Public Version of Our Atlas System?
The option to create a Public version of your Atlas system is available as a Professional Service and costs $500. Public sites can be accessed without a password log-in and can reflect elements of your password-protected Atlas system. It’s a great way to share your curriculum with interested parents or Board members for review. We would work with you to set up the initial requirements, and then teach you how to manage your Public System from there. Your school Leadership Team should begin this process by looking at the sample Public sites listed in the Communities tab to start generating ideas on what yours could look like. Then Email Atlas Support to take the next steps.