After you sign up for a teacher account, we'll send you a more detailed .pdf guide and video all about how your Teacher account works.
There’s not an answer key for missing/scramble badges, so try to have as many badges unlocked on your teacher account as possible in case students have questions. But if students gets stuck, it's possible to look up the correct answer on their programs page by searching for the badge id number. (First, press the student should press mod/play button on the badge they're stuck on).
Before your class starts, decide how to handle your students' login emails. Each LearnToMod account needs its own unique login email - as part of the sign up process we'll send a verification email to their account. Here are some ideas on how to go about it.
On Day One of your class, introduce and familiarize the students with all parts of LearnToMod, including the Simulator and the Freeplay modding area and walk them through completing the Getting Started badges. Remind them they won't be able to connect to their private Minecraft world until they've completed the Server Admin page (click on the green box on the LearnToMod homepage) and until you've switched the 'server access' button to on.
A playlist of Intro to LearnToMod videos you can show your students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6o67Wp8cE4&list=PLYjfACrYo0CbsfUNeScFi9gbiMvAhIR2i
Don't forget to give them the access key so they can sign up. Show them how to sign up and log in. Afterwards, add their login emails to your LTM class roster page; this way, you can keep an eye on their progress.
Some sign up guides you can pass out to students are here.
If the focus of the class is ONLY on badges, the course should take about 33 hours to complete.
Need more course content?
- Our book Minecraft Modding for Kids for Dummies can be used as a teaching resource on how to run mods (however some of the mods and the screenshots in the book may be outdated)
- Visit our blog for more ideas: www.learntomod.com/blog
- To lengthen or supplement your instruction, consider using the videos that are provided on the main LTM Youtube channel and "LTM For Educators" channel. Here's an list of the videos organized by concept and badge. These videos will help explain some of the fundamental concepts students will learn about in the badges, such as Drones, Nested functions, etc. Between those and the videos/instructions that are provided for each of the lessons, you may not even need to create your own slides or power point presentations for the class.
- Add your own content by using our new Build Your Own Badges tool! It’s a custom badge sequences feature**
- It's very important to put together a rainy day plan. Have some offline activities planned in the event of server issues or shortening attention spans. If you need some ideas here, join our free self-paced edX course here: https://www.edx.org/course/minecraft-coding-teaching-uc-san-diegox-ltm1x -- there's an "Unplugged Activities' .pdf at the end of the week 6 section.
- Another idea is to assign short challenges during class. Ask them questions or make predictions about the material or let students build a structure in the freeplay modding area.
A few more tips:
Make sure all of your students have a Minecraft account and know their login if you plan to have them test their mods in Minecraft rather than the simulator.
Some type of classroom management software will be a godsend if you need to get your students' undivided attention at some point during the class (not an easy task when Minecraft is involved). Netop has a 30-day free trial and lets you control every computer in your network. This will allow you to lock the keyboard/mouse or black out everyone's screen with one click (among other useful tools).
For younger students, consider having 1 helper for every 5 or so kids.
Consider using a screen capture software such as Camtasia, Activepresenter, Obs, Debut during presentations. (Note: since most screen capture softwares overbrighten the screen, don't forget to set the saturation to -20 so the white text on Blockly blocks is readable,)