Use this glossary to familiarize yourself with common terms used on SkillsBuild for Students.
In queue – think of this as a to-do list. These can be a range of things: items your student has found and added (just like they would on Netflix for example), items they’ve started working on or have enrolled in.
Required learning – all items you’ve assigned your students. These will have a due date.
Learning activities – any item, text (such as document, video, or webpage), or experience that results in learning. Time for each item varies and counts toward total hours learning.
Channels – just like a channel on the TV: curated content that all pertains to one topic. Think CNN for news, Artificial Intelligence for everything around this topic, etc.
Learning plans – a specific grouping with assigned tasks that must be completed. These tasks can be learning activities, a task the learner must carry out, or a badge the learner must earn
Tags – a word that gives a category, so anything dealing with a certain topic would be tagged with that category. Think: you’re reading an article about artificial intelligence used at banks and law offices and the tags could be artificial intelligence, finance, and criminal justice
Primary Team – all of your students. ALLLLLLLL of them.
Secondary Team – your students, and then if applicable, someone else’s students you’ve also been assigned to monitor.
Badge – an industry-recognized credential earned by completing certain courses. This can really pump up your student’s resume since these classes teach skills many professionals – including IBMers – learn in the workplace.
SkillsBuild Connect – it’s all about community, right? This is where any SkillsBuild user can come and network with others, join groups based on schools or interests, and stay up-to-date on various tech topics.
Level Up – different statuses users can learn based on how many hours of learning they’ve completed on the platform and/or how many badges they’ve earned. Super Learners must complete 40 hours while Champion Learners – Gold must complete 200 hours and 3 badges.
Spotlight – items in the scrolling list of highlighted offerings; it appears right below the welcome message bar and right above the learning section – smack dab in the middle of the page!
Chronus – a virtual mentoring platform where mentees and mentors can safely and securely communicate with one another through video and text. (It’s the Fort Knox of communication platforms).
Acclaim – the site where you and your students go to claim all those lovely, lovely badges you’ve earned.
Profile – all the topics you said you were interested in when you first signed up for SkillsBuild for Students and Educators. No worries – you can update these anytime.