Frequently Asked Questions

The following is information for teachers. If you are interested in technical information, please see Information for IT staff.

Q: Do I need to subscribe in order to use Schoolshape?

No subscription is necessary.  You have three choices:

1. No Signup

You are free to use Schoolshape French, German, Spanish and ESL resources on your electronic whiteboard without creating an account.

2. Free Learning Platform Account

If you wish students to see the answers to questions and hand in their work to you, they must sign in.  This discourages cheating!  For security reasons, you should first register your school, then create accounts for your students.

3. Language Lab Subscription

If you wish students to record their own audio and video, and use other language lab features, your school should take out a subscription.  Language lab prices.

Q: I would like to log in as one of my students. What is their password?

A: You set the students&; passwords when you entered them into the system, but they may have changed their password since then.

You can reset their password from your account by clicking &;My Students&; , selecting a student and clicking &;reset password&

Q:  Can the recordings be accessed from anywhere, including home?

A:  Yes - all you need is a computer and access to the internet. 

Q: Is there any special software to install? 
Q: Do I need to download Schoolshape onto my computer? 

A: No. Just go to lab.schoolshape.com and you can use our service. 

Q. Can I set work and have a teaching assistant do the assessment?

Yes: when setting work, click the &;Advanced&; tab, then select whomever you wish from the list of staff.

Examinations

Q: Which senior schools have agreed to moderate the CE Speaking Tests online? 

A: Go to Senior Schools Using Schoolshape.

Q: We are having some difficulties as when both myself and my colleague log in ( we do exams at the same time) the system logs one of us out!! 

A: You cannot log in as the same teacher twice. Each teacher must set their own exam. You will then both be able to conduct exams at the same time.

Q. Can I see exams set by another teacher?

A. Yes.  Examinations that you have recorded are visible to other teachers in your department, making it easy to divide examination duties.
 

Q: Is there back-up in case there is a technical problem causing the system to become unavailable?

A: The system is designed to continue recording the candidate even if there is an interruption in the junior school&;s internet connection. All data is automatically backed up. 

Q: I cannot write in the comment box!


A: In order to write a comment on a student’s work, click the ‘Add comment’ tab, then click into the yellow field provided. A cursor should then appear, inviting you to write your comment, and then click the ‘OK’ button. Your text will then be fixed (no longer editable, but with a ‘X’ in case you wish to delete it). If for some reason your comment box cannot be written or edited, simply delete it and add a new one. If this still doesn’t work, reload your browser page to clear the issue and try again. Failing this, load the page in a different browser.

 

Recording, Sound and Microphones

Q: My recording has a lot of background hiss, how do I get rid of it?
Q: My recording is poor quality, how do I improve this?
Q: My recording is distorted, what is happening?

A: See How to adjust the microphone level