As a newcomer to Vocareum Compass, this article aims to be your guide to navigating the platform. Covering everything from the initial registration and login process to effectively submitting assignments and monitoring your grades, you'll find step-by-step instructions and helpful tips to enhance your experience.
Registration
Depending on the course, students will access Vocareum either directly or through an integration with your course's learning management system (LMS), like Canvas, Blackboard and edX.
If you are accessing assignments through an LMS, you do not need an account on Vocareum -- all access is through the links in your LMS.
If you are enrolled into Vocareum by your instructor directly and you did not previously have an account on Vocareum, you should have received (or will receive) an email invitation to join Vocareum. Simply click on the link in the email and it will take you to the login page. If you don't have the email, please go to the login page, enter your email address and choose "forgot password". If you still do not see an email, please check your spam folder. If the email is not there, please contact your teacher or Vocareum through support@vocareum.com.
Your Course
Once you login, the class should appear on your home page. Alternatively you can select "Classes" and it will take you to a page with your course and assignments.
When your teacher or TA publishes the course assignments, they become visible to you on the class page.
Note: If you are coming to Vocareum through your LMS, you will jump directly to the work space for that assignment rather than navigating through the Vocareum course page.
Your Compass Assignments
Student View
The main view of your Compass assignment includes the Virtual Tutor panel on the left and workspace on the right.
Here are some navigation tips:
Virtual Tutor — Select the Assistants option in the sidebar menu to close and open the tutor panel.
Concept Navigation — Select the concept name at the start of the main section to switch to a different concept.
Concept Questions & Mastery Level —Use the tiles next to the concept name to navigate between the current question, question list for this concept, and overall progress map.
Report Question Issues —Use the flag button next to the question number to indicate that there is an issue with the question – some questions are AI generated and may have errors.
Question Navigation —Use the Next and Previous buttons on the bottom right to navigate through each question and concept.
Progress Map
Concepts are linked via a map, shown here. These relationships are used by the AI Tutor to better respond to questions and explain concepts. Students can view their own progress and navigate to different concept’s questions by selecting a node and clicking “Go to Questions”.
A bar at the top of the progress map shows what percent of the selected concept you have completed. The threshold to unlock dependent concepts on the map is marked in green on the progress bar.
By clicking "Go to Questions" on any concept description you can jump to the question tab for that concept.
The key for progress level is in the bottom right.
Virtual Tutor
The virtual tutor is available for support when enabled in the assignment.
Note that instructors are able to configure the tutor behavior, so the tutor may not be willing to answer certain questions. For questions about the tutor behavior, contact your instructor.
You can ask the tutor questions by typing in the input area or selecting a suggested prompt. Other input options include:
Equation editor
File or image upload, QR code for mobile upload, and camera access
Speech to text
You can also rate responses you receive from the tutor to help with future improvement.
Some tutor responses will show a “Verified” tag in green, these are pregenerated and vetted by an instructor.
After submitting, graded feedback appears in the tutor window and can be displayed by clicking on the prompt “See my graded feedback.”
Compass Labs: AWS
Note: If you are using Vocareum as part of an AWS Academy course, please contact your instructor directly for support.
Some questions will be integrated hands-on labs. These questions require you to launch the AWS console to complete.
Here are some tips for using integrated AWS Cloud Labs in Compass:
Use “Start Lab” then “Open AWS console” in the AWS section above the submit button to open the AWS Console when ready to begin working.
Use “End lab” in the AWS section above the submit button to end the lab before the time expires.
View the lab timer in the top center. Once expired, the lab will end and your work will be lost.
You can submit or retry as long as the session timer is not expired.
If your session has ended and you are launching a new lab, you may be prompted to sign out of AWS. After signing out, return to Compass and simply click “Open AWS console” again.
Compass Assignment Types
Question Group
If your assignment progress bar shows a set number of questions, this is a question group assignment. Grades are based on the number of correct answers out of the total number of questions. If exam mode is enabled (timer and/or “end exam” button on the top bar), you will only have one attempt per question. If not, you can retry questions as many times as you would like.
Mastery-based Learning and Personalized Learning
If your assignment progress bar shows the concept drop-down, a percentage complete, and the “Unlock next concept” bar, then it is a mastery-based learning or personalized learning assignment type.
You can navigate through concepts and retry as much as you like. Grades are based on the number of concepts you have reached minimum proficiency in (marked by the “Unlock next concept” bar, and in purple/green on the progress map).
Mastery-based learning evaluates one concept at a time and is based on the percentage of questions in a concept you have answered correctly. Personalized learning is AI driven where you can progress more rapidly via AI review of your work. In personalized learning the next concept/question is determined by AI. In mastery-based the maps are followed without skipping concepts. In both, you can choose to skip to any concept at any time via the concept drop down menu or the progress map.