Classroom Salon

Classroom Salon is one of a kind learning tool. Designed around the concept of a salon, it elegantly combines the groups, documents, videos and users into a vibrant learning community. Salon is the most complete commenting system ever developed. Salon is built on the principles of social cognitive theory that we learn best by observing what others do and not do. It is the only tool that taps into the collective intelligence of a group like no other. Salon is the best tool for implementing flipped classrooms

Salon Help Index

SectionBrief Description
Get Started   Requesting Access and Gettting Started
How To   Quick Guide to Most Frequently Used Salon Features
Salon Modes   Quick explanation of Salon working modes
Student Resources   Student User Guides
Instructor Resources   Many tips and tools for instructors
Video Library   Short videos that explains various features of Salon
FAQ's   Frequently asked questions about salon
New Features   Salon frequently adds new features to improve its platform
Bugs   Details of known bugs, updated frequently
Technical help   How to get technical help


Getting Started

STEP 1 - Requesting Access:
Classroom Salon is free to not-for-profit education community (if you are interested in licensing salon technology send email to : classroom-salon@andrew.cmu.edu). Request an invite code to join Classroom Salon community. Watch the short video
Click Here to View the Video

STEP 2 - Joining a Salon:
If you are an instructor or salon moderator, you may want to create a new salon. Otherwise, your instructor or salon moderator may have shared a salon link with you. Simply click on the link and join. If the salon is private, you will have to wait for the approval. If the salon is public you will be immediately enrolled into Salon. Watch the short video. Click Here to View the Video

STEP 3 - Participating in a Salon:
Salon is about community participation. You participate in Salons through documents or videos that are posted to your salon. You highlight documents, comment on specific sections, respond to other comments, join a discussion etc. You can also respond to global questions and "like" someone's answer to a question. No matter how big or how small your contribution is, it is *important* for each person to participate and create knowledge. Then we all will benefit from the collective intelligence of our salon and its users. Watch the short video. Click Here to View the Video

STEP 4 - Viewing Comments:
Salon is about transparency. If we all do our part (say 10 minutes of commenting) then collectively we have accomplished a lot. Viewing document hotspots (where most people pay attention) and reading comments from specific users is a novel aspect in salon. We learn a lot by watching what others do and do not do. This is the promise of Salon view mode. Watch the short video. Click Here to View the Video

STEP 5 - Using the Dashboard:
Salon dashboard is unique. It is one place you can see a summary of all annotations, most active users in salon, the timeline of comments and views, who got the most helpful votes etc. Dashboard allows you to find others you may find knowledgable. "following" the people you respect intellectually can help you grow. Watch the short video. Click Here to View the Video

STEP 6 - Using Discussion Navigator:
Salon sends a 2-hour digest to when comments are made by salon users. With the digest you can access discussion navigator(DN). Discussion navigator is carefully designed to support "deep" discussions in the context of the document. Click Here to View the Video

How to Use Salon

FeatureHow to
Delete Annotation always from Participate mode Read More..
Add AnnotationFrom any mode Read More..
Modify AnnotationParticipate or view mode Read More..
Add DocumentFrom Quickstart or Salon page Read More..
Delete DocumentFrom Document Manager Read More..
Copy DocumentFrom Document Manager Read More..
Create SalonFrom Quickstart Read More..
Edit/Remove SalonFrom Salon page Read More..
Leave a SalonSend email to salon moderator/instructor Read More..
2-hr DigestTurn on and off from Click here

Salon Modes Explained

Each document in Salon can be accessed from one of 4 modes
ModeExplanation
Participate/Annotate In this mode user is expected to make annotations and respond to global questions. Users can DELETE their annotations in from this mode. Read More..
View mode In this mode user is allowed to see others comments/responses and reply to them. User can also edit comments in this mode. Read More..
Discussion Navigator In this mode user is provided with an easy to use interface for exploring "deep" discussions and responding to individual comments. USers can also filter comments by users and tags/discussion threads. Users can add new annotations and new tags, but comments with user added tags are only shown in navigator mode. They can be edited/deleted from particpate modes Read More..
Dashboard mode In this mode user can get a quick view of document and user analytics. Tags distribution, user participation, most voted comments etc Read More..

Student Resources

The following resources can be helpful for students using salon
ResourceExplanation
How to   A list of most frequently used features Read More..
Salon Modes   Understand how to work with Salon modes Read More..
User Guide   A student user guide Read More..

Instructor Resources



STEP 1 - Why should you use Salon?:
Salon is different. It is not a course management system or a google doc or a WIKI. But it does combine some of the best features those products have to offer. Instructors use Salon, because they are looking for ways to improve instruction by creating better communication channels that allows them to assess what students know or don't know. By using salon for reading and annotation activities, instructors get to understand where students actually need help, individually or collectively. Salon is also an ideal platform to "flip the classroom". In a flipped class students are responsible for reading text and watching videos to prepare for class. But how do you know they actually do that? Or what parts of the content they are having trouble with? Salon has a rich analytics engine that allows you to quickly access all of that is needed to understand your students, individually and collectively. Salon is very flexible. Thousands of instructors and s tudents use Salon for many reasons. Whether it'd be document review, pre and post lecture reading, crowd sourcing homework or just designing activities to get to know your students, Salon can help. Request a teacher account (classroom-salon@andrew.cmu.edu) and you can manage your students and see the dashboard for each student. There is no need to change your course management system.All salon activities can be SHARED by using its activity URL (just like a google doc). All students do is to click and participate in the activity ONE OTHER THING. You can take salons, documents and annotations from semester to semester, allowing a document to "grow" as many of your students interpret the document. or critique the video. Find our which content is worth keeping and which content are worth discarding or editing. Watch the short video (COMING SOON)



STEP 2 - Deciding how to get Started:
You will be amazed at what Salon can do for you. But you want to keep it *simple* to start with. You are introducing a new concept, you are encouring students to be more transparent. There can be push back from students. But you want to emphasize the value of Salon. The mantra, is that salon is about "collective intelligence" that can raise the standards of all your students. The best way to get started is to pick an activity that currently does not work well at all. For example, we all assign reading but have no way to keeping students accountable. With Salon, you know which students actually read, what they read, where they have questions. If you keep the "view" mode of the activitty open, students can also see what others are reading, or where they are having problems.
Another activity that might work well is asking students to watch a video and make comments and/or respond to your questions at specific parts of the video. Before you go to class, you know which part of the video students find useful or have questions. "Hot spots" from documents and videos can be the basis for your class discussion.
You can design learning activities using participate mode (students only get to comments), view mode(students get to see others comments) and discussion navigator (students are able to take a discussion manay levels down, yet find an easy way to navigate there these discussion threads) Watch the short video (COMING SOON)



STEP 3 - Using the Dashboard:
Each student is accountable for some contribution. Once students have annotated a document or watched the video, simply visit the view mode to see where students are paying attention (hotspots), or hwat they are saying. Filter by users to see where one or more users highlight and comment on. Filter by tags (eg: this passage confuses me, discuss in class etc..) to see where you should focus on. You can use the dashboard to decide what to cover. Watch the short video (COMING SOON)



STEP 4 - Export the Grade book:
Salon provide easy to use tools to analyze your student comments. You can generate tables to grade your students on participation, and contributions. You can analyze them quantitatively or qualitatively. You can see how
by clicking here watch the short video(COMING SOON)

Videos

VideoBreif Explanation
Creating and Managing Salons How to create a Salon See Video
Joining and Invite to Join Salons Join an existing Salon or invite others to join your Salon See Video
Adding Documents to Salon Learn how to add documents into your Salon. See Video
Adding/Editing/Deleting Annotations Add annotations to documents and videos from participate and view modes. Edit or delete annotations from participate or view mode See Video
Integrating images into documents Import and insert images into your documents. See Video
Adding tags and questions to documents Add tags and questions to your document to discover corse analytics See Video
Setting Access Restrictions Set time limits to participate and view comments. See Video
Copying and Recycling Documents Reuse your documents from semeter to semeter. Improve documents using course analytics. See Video
Share and Embed Document Links Salon activities can be emailed or embedded in your course web page See Video
Finding user and Document Analytics Use document dashboard to find user and course analytics See Video




Frequently Asked Questions

QUESTIONANSWER
How can I get Salon accounts for my students?Two ways
(a) Ask them to create their own account with the code : popcity
(b) Email (classroom-salon@andrew.cmu.edu) us for a teacher account. You can import a roster to createstudent accounts.

How can I get users to join MY SALON?Two ways
(a) Ask them to search for your salon and request to join
(b) Share the salon URL with students and ask them to join. If your salon is private you will get an email with a link to salon page. Authorize them from the salon page "MANAGE THIS SALON'S USERS"

What is the best way to introduce students to salon?Show students where to find documents and videos (or share the document or video URL). You may want students to annotate on their own in participation mode (they do not see others annotations) and then take them to view mode or discussion navigator.
What is the best way to keep students engaged?Salon sends a 2-hour digest when there is activity. So students will know the latest activities on salon and respond to comments or questions. Discussion navigator also allows discussions to extend to multiple levels giving an easy way to follow a "deep" conversation w/o losing its context
What is the best way to use Salon?The power of salon is its ability to sort through all discussions using tags and questions. if you upload a document or video, you can add tags, so students can use them to communicate with you about course content. For example, a tag like "discuss in class" or "i dont get this" will show which parts of the readings that students don't understand. Tailor your instructions accordingly.
Can I import a pdf document into salon?Not directly. If your pdf is mostly text, you can save the pdf as "text" and then import the text into salon. You may have to do some formatting to make it look good. If the document is something you plan to use in future semesters, it is worth converting the document to text (even insert images). However, we are releasing a pdf ONLY tool by Feb 15th, 2013. You will need to contact classroom-salon@andrew.cmu.edu to request access to the new tool.
What is the Difference between Salon and a WIKI? Here is what one of our users say
 Salon falls short of something like PBWorks as a composing space, for two
main reasons.  First, the composing tools just aren't there yet, because
they're not a priority (yet) for you. Second, Salon doesn't really have the
whole page history element or the ease of tweaking text at the line level
by toggling back and forth between edit and view (yet?).

 Where Salon easily outdistances both wikis and any learning management
system like Blackboard are in the very areas where I'm using it this
summer:  as a hub for classroom readings and annotations (and, at your
suggestion, for peer reviewing).
Can Salon be used as a Dist Education tool? Here is what one of our users say
I'm convinced in just four days of use with my distance students, none of whom I've even met in person, that this weekend will be a much more connected experience for them (as they plough through the hundreds of annotations they've already collectively produced) than any live classroom discussion or than any previous distance ed experience.. Salon turns distance learning into "connected learning."
How can I leave a Salon?If you know how to contact Salon owner, ask them to remove you. If not send email to classroom-salon@andrew.cmu.edu with salon ID (get from salon page) and your email.
How can I edit/delete and annotation?Go to Document, switch to PARTICIPATE/ANNOTATE mode. You will be able to remove edit annotations.
What do I do, if salon is NOT working for me?See Technial Help Section
Recent Activities (annotation, responses, messages) do not seem to load. Is this a bug?This is most likely due to javascript NOT enabled in your browser. Make sure Javascript is enabled. You can find this from browser options menu


New Features

FeatureRelease Date Description
Forming Work Groups March 2012 Allows you to save view state so you only see your groups comments Read More
My Notebook April 2012 Now access all your notes in one place. Filter and sort your annotations by time, salons and documents Read More
The Wall feed May 2012 When you login to Salon now you can see all comments responses and messages from your salons and documents. Sort by Salon, or documents. Reply to specific comments Read More
Mobile Salon June 2012 Access Salon thru your mobile device, tablet or phone. Nothing to install. Just create a shortcut in your mobile browser to http://classroomsalon.org/mobile and access. Or click here
Processing Analytics August 2012 Salon is about analytics. Now easily export your salon activity excel file (instructor accounts only) and submit this link to see comprehensive reports Read More
Video Annotations (Beta) October 2012 ow you can embed youtube or vimeo videos and use salon annotation tools. Read More
Discussion Navigator (beta) November 2012 A state-of-the-art discussion navigator like no other. Read More
Improved Analytics February 2013 From Salon page (owner only) you can graph user activities, compare users to class, see annotation trends, filter questions, export activity excel and much much more.

Technical Help

How to get Technical help
We only provide email support. We also do our best to respond to all emails within 24-hours sometimes within a few hours. To get technical help, please email:
classroom-salon@andrew.cmu.edu. In your email, be sure to provide the following information.
  • Nature of the problem
  • Your operating systems
  • browser and version your are using
  • Any other information
  • The problems we have seen so far are related to dropped connections, incompatible browsers, trying to access salon without login etc.






























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