1.1 An Introduction to your Partnership with Pamoja
Welcome to the Site-Based Coordinator (SBC) Orientation. We are excited you decided to join our team of global educators.
As a mentor for International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma students, you will liaise with the School Services (SST) and Pamoja teachers to support student learning within our platform.
This orientation will introduce you to your role as an SBC whilst supporting your student(s) through their course. It includes a simple overview of the tools that you will use. Once completed, it can be referred back to as a point of reference.
We recommend you complete the SBC Orientation course before your student starts their online course. It should take no longer than 60 minutes to do so. Note that students will have internet safety and code of conduct information included as part of their onboarding and orientation.
1.2 The SBC Role
Your role is primarily to facilitate communication between Pamoja staff, the student(s) and (when necessary) the student's parents or guardians. You will have access to reports on student attendance, engagement and fulfilment of responsibilities.
Monitoring students' progress is vital and you will be required to take appropriate action where necessary.
Ongoing communication between you and your students, the Pamoja teacher and School Services is essential. If any issue or unexpected situation arises concerning a student, all three parties must be informed.
We recommend that as part of your role as the SBC, you familiarise yourself with the School Participation Agreement:
Terms and Conditions: School Participation Agreement
Your Key Tasks and Responsibilities
As outlined in the job description from our website, an SBC has key tasks and responsibilities to complete. Review the summarised information below.
Monitor student(s) progress in the course and take appropriate action when necessary
The Pamoja academic week runs from Wednesday to Tuesday. Pamoja courses have been designed to provide students with flexibility. However, they are not self-paced 'independent study' courses. These courses require the student to attend and take part in a number of activities. Each week students will have a checklist of tasks that they will be required to complete.
Pamoja School Services conduct weekly reporting for Students failing to meet course requirements:
- Engagement: Students who do not meet assignment deadlines will be flagged, communications will detail the outstanding assignment and how many days overdue. - Attendance: Students are required to log into the platform at least 3 times a week, nonattendance will be flagged. Reporting will detail total weeks absent from the course.
Please note, Students will be contacted alongside SBC reporting.
Build and maintain a relationship with your student(s) and liaise with the School Services Team
We encourage you to partner with us in making students feel like they belong to a community of learners in a global campus. We want their experience to be one where they feel valued and have a sense of belonging. This will encourage students to reach out to teachers and the wider Pamoja community which is important in their progress throughout the course.
There are also some key tasks for you to supplement your review of student progress:
Monitor student progress in 'Student Orientation', ensuring that they acquire the information needed to fully prepare them for their course.
Schedule supervised time in their weekly timetable to work on their Pamoja course and complete the assigned tasks for the week.
Schedule regular meetings with your student(s) depending on their progress in the course.
Work with your student(s) to develop a self-management approach that works for them.
Promote independent learning
Pamoja courses are designed for student-centred learning that encourages self-direction. Students are able to control the time and place of their own learning. Therefore, all course activities can be completed at times to suit the learner (with the exception of assessments, which must be submitted in a timely manner). Any catch-up sessions between the student and their Pamoja teacher are flexible, and can be arranged at times to suit both parties.
As an SBC you should:
Encourage students to take ownership of their learning by supervising rather than tutoring
Provide support in the creation of a term-time planner, to promote effective time management
Follow students’ progress through their Pamoja courses by encouraging them to regularly update you
Set time aside with each student to evaluate their individualised study methods, and suggest improvements where appropriate
Administer internal assessments and exams
For internal assessments in the IB Diploma Programme, it is recommended that you register your students on IBIS early. Please support your students in making sure they submit their IA work on time.
All of our courses contain end of year exams in the first year and trial exams in the second year. Exams papers will be emailed to you prior to the exam period, you will then need to organise a time and place for the student to take the exam under exam conditions and, once completed, send the paper(s) to your student's Pamoja teacher.
Be aware of course-specific requirements
Some courses require additional resources, for example: IB English Language and Literature has a required book list
Please see the course descriptions on our website for the most up-to-date information on requirements. Alternatively, contact the Pamoja teacher at the earliest opportunity.
Meet to discuss reports and engagement
Following the publication of student term reports and engagement ratings, it is encouraged that SBCs meet with students to review the feedback from their Pamoja teacher.
1.3 Help
We want to ensure that as the SBC you are able to fulfil your tasks with ease. We are here to work with you and support you in ensuring your students complete their course successfully.
If you need additional support, we encourage you to view the knowledge articles in our Help Centre or to reach out to School Services at courses@pamojaeducation.com.
Academic and Technical Issues
The information below provides some examples of common issues you may encounter.
Academic issues include:
Course content related questions
Questions or clarification on feedback
Advice relating to your end of year or trial exams
IA or predicted grade support
Questions on university applications
Questions on other courses
Advice or support when changing schools
Technical Issues include:
Inability to log in
Internet problems
A video or sound file in your course which doesn't work
Inability to submit an assignment
'Zoom' issues affecting Student live lessons
Course and Technology Requirements
These are our standard technology requirements for our courses.
Information for Students and their Site Based Coordinators (SBCs) on Group 2 Languages.
For 'Live lessons' Pamoja teachers and students use a communication tool called Zoom.
Lesson 2: Your Account and Essential Processes
2.1 Key Information
Students will complete Pamoja courses over two years. Each academic year is made up of two semesters and three semester breaks.
There will be a general introduction to the subject in week one.
The first year will finish with an end of exam and the second year will finish with a trial exam. End of year and trial exams are taken under exam conditions in the school.
For IB Diploma courses, there is normally internal assessment (IA).
Please review our Pamoja Academic Calendars for all Key Academic dates.
2.2 Your Account
Pamoja Account Functionality
In this section we will introduce how to use the functionality of your Pamoja account.
Please note that we recommend using Google Chrome as a browser while working with Pamoja's platform. This will minimize any browser incompatibility issues that may occur when using other browsers.
SBC Profile
Please ensure the information kept for your account is accurate and up to date. In order to review your account information, select the thumbnail located in the top right hand side of the page:
Selecting your user account will take you to the 'Profile Information' page, listing all relevant 'personal information', 'contact details' and 'work details'.
You may also personalise your user interface with a number of pre-set colour themes, to do so simply select 'themes', your colour preference and finally click 'save changes' to apply.
The Dashboard
All Pamoja enrolments can be viewed by selecting individual student accounts from the top left drop down menu, students are ordered alphabetically (by their first name):
The Dashboard for each student provides the following information:
1. 'My Full Calendar' - A calendar overview which can be ordered by Month or Week. The Student Calendar will show all events, tasks & deadlines from your student's classes and year groups. Subscribe to the calendar to push these deadlines to any external iCalendar,
Google Calendar or other local calendar
Month
Week
2.Timetables - View the selected Student's class schedule by date, week or for the next '3 days'.
3. Calendar - A limited view of the Student calendar, presenting a Student's timetable for the 'Next 2 Weeks'.
4. Upcoming - A detailed breakdown of all upcoming Online lessons, deadlines, events and tasks.
The 'Upcoming' section of the student dashboard will play a key role when supporting student online engagement. Each listed activity will state the date set, deadline for completion, activity type, title and whether the activity was 'submitted' (green), 'pending' submission (grey) or submitted 'late' (orange). This area will also provide the score for all assessed work, a speech bubble will appear below the score if Teacher feedback has been given.
By selecting the hyperlink embedded in the task title you will navigate to the course unit and may review lessons in full.
5. Classes - Presents all Pamoja Online Courses allocated to the selected Student, this list can be filtered by the desired Academic Year.
This area provides a clear overview of Units, Tasks and messaging within each course. By selecting 'Units' you will be given a full breakdown of each Unit covered in the selected Academic Year and can navigate to any Unit page by selecting the hyperlink embedded in the Unit title.
By selecting the 'Tasks' tab you will be given a list of all requisite activities with a similar view to that presented in the 'Upcoming' area.
Profile
Select 'Profile' from the left hand side navigational panel to view Student personal details. If any of your Student's information requires updating, please contact Pamoja School Services via courses@pamojaeducation.com to request the records be updated. The information presented will be populated from forms submitted during student registration, it is important this information remains accurate and kept up to date to avoid miscommunication.
Message
This is the Student Year Group Message Board, where students and teachers can contribute to the discussion forum and share announcements or updates with their year. As a SBC you will not be able to respond to any of the messages, but you can monitor all messages that your students post to their year group.
Help Centre
To access useful knowledge articles for a wide range of FAQs and processes followed at Pamoja please utilise the Help Centre. To access, select the 'Help & Support' tab located in the top right hand side of the page:
From the drop down menu select 'Help & Support', this will redirect you to our tutorials page here. For Pamoja specific queries please select 'Pamoja' under the 'Products' dropdown:
By selecting the Pamoja product you will be able to navigate through all our Help Centre articles for Pamoja Online Courses, please enter here to view the Help Centre.
The Help Centre also enables users to submit support tickets to Pamoja School Services, agents will do their utmost to support your request in a timely and effective manner.
2.3 Essential Processes
This section covers:
Registering students and requesting courses
Managing your school account
The application process for transfer students
Withdrawals
Invoicing
Exam administration
Academic Honesty procedures
Essential Processes
Look at the questions and answers below that cover the processes related to student enrolment and updating information. You can find all the articles and more in our Help Centre.
Additional Processes
Transfer Students:
A transfer student is a student who joins Pamoja Education four weeks or more after the start of Year 1or at the beginning of Year 2.
One of our Business Development Consultants (BDCs) and/or the Admissions team will liaise with you to support your application. When you contact
Admissions@pamojaeducation.com for information regarding enrolling a transfer student, we will send you the following documents to complete:
A completed Subject Guide questionnaire
A completed Internal Assessment progress report (for year 2 students only)
A completed diagnostic test, if required, for the subject.
We will also require from you:
An academic recommendation from the subject teacher describing the student's performance to date
The student's latest subject report
We will send these documents to the relevant Course Advisor for review and will communicate their feedback and recommendations accordingly.
Enrolment into the Course
If approved, students are enrolled into a Transfer Student Orientation (TSO) before they are enrolled onto their online course.
The orientation course will help transition students into their subject course(s) and inform them about the Pamoja platform.
Please note an additional transfer fee will be charged per enrolment for all transfer students.
Withdrawals:
If a student wishes to drop out of their Pamoja course, SBCs should notify the School Services Team immediately. SBCs should also notify School Services Team if the student doesn't wish to go into year two at the end of year one.
They will explore all options necessary to support a student in completing their course.
As per our Terms and Conditions, fees may apply when a student is withdrawn from a course.
Invoices:
Invoices will be sent annually, after the Year 1 Drop Date. The Year 1 Drop Date is four weeks after the year 1 course start date.
For transfer students, the invoice will be sent immediately after enrolment.
Read: When are invoices issued?
End of Year Exams and Trial Exams
End of year exams and trial exams are requisite components of our courses and must be administered under exam conditions, replicating external examinations. The exam release will be sent to your account ahead of the Exam window, guiding you through our exam processes and providing exam files.
As SBC you will be required to schedule exams within the established exam window and inform Pamoja School Services of the chosen date. Once exams have been completed, scanned PDF copies are to be returned to the responsible Pamoja Teacher for moderation.
Academic Honesty
Pamoja values honesty and academic integrity. We encourage all students to conduct themselves in a responsible way and expect all students to avoid academic malpractice.
Review:
Lesson 3: Feedback and Reporting
4.1 Types of Assessment Feedback
The assessment guide below will explain what kind of feedback students can expect from their Pamoja teachers in the different types of summative and formative assessments.
This includes major and minor assessments, journal entries, self-assessed or peer assessed activities. Click on the blue bars below to learn more about types of assessment feedback.
Teacher Graded
Major assessments (such as End of Year Exams and Trial Exams) and minor assessments (such as End of Unit tests) are graded by the teacher and individualized feedback is provided.
Grades assigned are reflected on the grade book and contribute towards the total average.
Teacher-reviewed
Teacher-reviewed assessments are stated as being Complete or Incomplete in the relevant entry in the Gradebook. They do not count towards the average grade.
General feedback is given to the entire Learning Space in the form of an Announcement.
If your student struggled with an activity, the Pamoja teacher may decide to intervene to give more individualised feedback.
Peer-reviewed (IB courses only)
Peer-reviewed assessments are encouraged via informal group work assignments within classrooms.
Within the Learning Space, each student is a member of a virtual classroom along with classmates based around the world, allowing students to develop the ability to objectively evaluate their peers’ work.
This also provides an excellent opportunity for students to learn about different cultures and understand varying global perspectives, further promoting their international education within a collaborative global community.
Automated Assessment
This is a quiz that is built into the content of the course for a particular week.
In cases where they have performed poorly, the Pamoja teacher will follow up with your student(s) about an automated grade.
A team of Pamoja teachers in a Learning Space may decide to give general feedback as an announcement if the automated grade calculated requires review.
Other Formative Assessments
An example of this is a discussion or wiki.
Feedback will tend to be general and focus on promoting activity within the discussion or wiki.
If your student(s) are failing to contribute adequately, the Pamoja teacher will investigate the reason.
.
4.3 Reporting
Engagement Ratings and Semester Reports
Reporting happens on average every five weeks and will be entered into the student's gradebook. The Engagement Rating, linked to a series of weeks, is determined by quality and quantity of tasks required for completion during this time period.
Review:
Pamoja Education Academic Calendar
Reporting Overview
Formal reporting is the face of assessment to students, parents and schools. While teachers individually assess both formative and summative tasks, formal reports reflect overall student achievement using a criteria at that point in time.
These are the main types of reports received throughout the two years:
Engagement Ratings (ERs)
Pamoja Education teachers report on student performance in formative activities on average every five weeks with an Engagement Rating of engaged, insufficiently engaged or not engaged. These relate to specific descriptors regarding the student’s completion of course activities and engagement with course content and classmates’ contributions.
The primary source of data when teachers need to decide engagement ratings (ERs) will be the Course Analytics available in the Pamoja platform.
Top Tips:
Engagement Ratings are reported for the most recent period, and do not take into account previous Engagement Ratings.
Engagement Ratings of insufficiently engaged and not engaged should be accompanied with comments or feedback on how a student can become engaged.
We encourage students to reflect on their Engagement Rating and communicate with their Pamoja teacher and SBC regarding this.
Semester Reports and Term Grades
In addition to the Engagement Ratings, teachers provide Term Grades and written reports at regular intervals during the two year course. These can be located in the platform by reviewing the Grades and Reports page.
The Term Grade is an Attainment Level (Grade A–G for CAIE and Level 7-1 for IB). This generally encompasses the term’s attainment and teachers provide these six times over the two year course.
A teacher written narrative comment. These are provided once a semester, therefore four times over the two year course.
Read: Why is there no grade in a Term 1 student report?
Semester reports are available to download (pdf.) in the 'Reports' tab located in the left side navigational panel. School Services will notify SBCs by email Semester Reports have been published.
Important note: Language students must have completed at least one assignment in each of the four skills to receive a numeric Term Grade.
Written comments procedure
Teacher written reports will initially appear in the Pamoja platform as an 'assignment' and students and teachers can comment and discuss the report to engage in discussion about student progress and learning.
The reports are then transferred into the Student Information System (SIS) for administrative review and publication. Reports are reviewed by the Academic Team doing spot checks, before being published.
Student self-reflection comment
Students are encouraged to participate in the reporting process through a self-reflection assignment.
There are three student self-reflection opportunities throughout the two year course which is located in the platform as an assignment. It is a chance for students to reflect and communicate with their Pamoja teacher about their progress.
Pamoja Grades
Pamoja Education appreciates that schools, for reasons of their own reporting schedules or school grading systems, may want either a grade conversion or a predicted grade at points in the course.
Schools need to be aware of a number of factors however in making requests either for grades or grade conversions and should also be aware of what is already offered by Pamoja Education in this area.
Projected Grades
This is the best case scenario prediction of the grade the student is likely to get if they continue to achieve at the level when the grade was given. It can be used to support university applications and may be accompanied by a reference.
Registering students in the International Baccalaureate Information System (IBIS) for their exams
The Diploma Programme Coordinator (DPC) and/or you as the SBC are responsible for registering students for final exams on IBIS. Students need to be registered as online students and Pamoja must be indicated as the online course provider.
It is imperative that students are registered properly to ensure Pamoja teachers and the SST are able to submit Predicted Grades and IA Marks on IBIS, and upload the selected samples.
Predicted Grades
The predicted grade is assigned to each student for each of their subjects close to the end of the course.
The IB requires this to allow them to check students whose grades when marking is complete are much lower than predicted, to ensure it is not an error in the marking that is at fault.
What this means is if a student is predicted a grade 7 and their final mark is a grade 4 the IB will automatically remark their work before grades are published.
It is not Pamoja policy to inform students of this grade. SBCs can contact courses@pamojaeducation.com if they wish to inquire regarding this.
Grade Conversions
The grade book in Pamoja's platform includes a % total of all the student’s marks for summative assessments. As zeros are not given for unsubmitted, late or incomplete work, the grade book entry is simply left blank. In order to calculate the current grade schools need to ensure the percentage score reflects all the assessments given during the assessment period.
Where students have failed to submit an assessment this will give a misleading percentage score and before a predicted grade is given the percentage score needs to be modified (where a missed assessment will be counted as zero and the total number averaged). This final percentage can be compared with the current IB subject grade boundaries to give a 'best fit' grade for the student.
Additional Resources
Pamoja Education Policies
SOP - Students on Academic Review
Helpful Articles
Predicted Grades, Projected Grades for University, and Grade Conversion How to Obtain a Predicted Grade for a Student Who is Applying to a College? (IB students only)
4.4 Contacting Us
Thank you for completing the SBC Orientation
If you need support from School Services, please contact us on the following:
Telephone: +44 1865 636 100
Admissions (for new enrolments): admissions@pamojaeducation.com
School Services (for general support): courses@pamojaeducation.com