Managing Textbooks

Textbook Page Policy

Textbook pages should be listed on ALTopedia when it's likely that a teacher would want to use or make an activity based on that page.

In general, this means that most pages with content on them are eligible. Every teacher won't use every page, but across thousands of classes and schools, it's likely that someone would be searching for an activity for a particular page, as long as it's something that might be used in class.

However, ALTopedia doesn't need to have listings for these kinds of pages:

  • Publishing information
  • Table of contents
  • Chapter listing pages (for example, a page that just says “Chapter 3” with a full-page image)
  • Page 4 of a 6-page story (the first page of an extended section should be enough)

It's possible to add or remove pages later, so the textbooks will be adjusted over time. We want to try and avoid situations in which there are pages missing that other teachers might want to use, but we also don't want textbook listings to get extremely long and hard to search through.

Managing Textbook Pages

Users that are assigned as a Textbook manager can add, edit, or remove pages on their textbook. Go to the textbook page and you'll see some icons that let you edit each page. The "Add page" link is at the bottom of the page listing.

For the page's theme or grammar point, use double asterisks like ** to bold the key point for each page:

I **am going to** play tennis.

will become…

I am going to play tennis.

Assign a tag to each page if there's an appropriate tag. If there isn't, leave it blank. There are still some grammar points and themes which don't have tags, but we can create more in the future. The tough thing with tags is that if there are too many of them, it becomes really hard to search for anything.

If one page has multiple potential tags, create a separate page listing with the same page number and the alternate tag. Please keep this to a maximum of 3 entries for one page. In the future, pages should really be able to have multiple tags, but that will require more technical development.

Applying to be a Textbook Manager

If you'd like to be a manager for one particular textbook, please get in touch via the email on the Contact page. Please send an email since the in-site contact form doesn't allow multiple messages yet.

A manager needs to meet the following criteria:

  • Have the actual physical copy of the textbook at school or in your possession.
  • Be a regular user of the site who can check in from time to time on the textbook to address concerns like mismatched tags or missing pages. If we appoint managers who don't do anything, it just becomes a big waste of time for everyone involved.
  • Ideally, you can demonstrate that you're a productive user of the site through uploading your own activities, acting as a Community Moderator, or leaving productive comments on other people's activities. If you routinely get into arguments or mischief then it won't benefit anyone in the end.

Textbook managers manage the textbook for a certain period of time, currently until the end of the current school year. Not every textbook needs to have a manager, but they're important when a textbook is new and needs to have its info filled out.

Please give the name of the textbook that you want to manage. If possible, please explain a little about your history with the site as well.

Managers that successfully fill out a textbook's information will receive a 2-month Subscriber Token for their trouble.