Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
What can you say about the stability of the company and service?
Please tell me about your technology.
Can I download the software and install it on my server?
Can I use iLessonPlan on more than one browser?
Technology Questions
Do I have to be running DSL or cable?
What about the security of our conversations when using online support?
Will your product still work if I'm on a corporate network? Will our firewall, proxy server, or antivirus software affect it?
I can't log into my account.
Setup Questions
Can a non-technical person set this up?
Is there any software that has to be installed on my system to use your software?
Billing Questions
Is there a setup fee? Monthly fee? Are there any additional payments?
Will I be billed automatically each year?
Are upgrades included? If I subscribe now, will I automatically get any new updates?
Is there a limit to the number of lesson plans I can create and store each month or year?
When does my billing cycle start?
Are all features included in the yearly cost?
Let's say I move schools and/or school districts, will my account stay active.
How do I request a refund?
Free Trial and Live Demo Questions
Do you offer a free trial to teachers?
Do you offer a free trial for administrators to pilot in their building and/or district?
Questions about Features: Teachers
Is there a way to reuse lesson plans that I have already written?
Can anybody see your lesson plans?
How long do you store past plans even if they haven't been used or viewed for some time?
Why can't I create a lesson plan in one of the blue time slots on the weekly calendar?
Do I have to attach books and/or homework to a lesson?
Is it possible to create lesson plan templates?
Do you have full text editing capabilities?
Can I use plans that another teacher has written?
If I attach homework to my lesson plans, is there a way to post them so my students can view online?
If I purchased iLessonPlan as an individual teacher, but I know of teachers in my district that also use iLessonPlan, can I search for their plans when searching within district?
What advantages does iLessonPlan offer over traditional lesson planning techniques?
Questions about Features: Administrators
Can I create observation templates?
Can teachers view observations that I have written for them?
Can I require teachers to include specific sections in their lesson plans?
How can I tell if teachers have submitted their plans?
Can I leave feedback based on lesson plans I have viewed?
Can other administrators see the feedback I have left for teachers?

FAQ's


If you don't see the answer to your questions here, feel free to contact our online support representatives. We'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

General Questions

What can you say about the stability of the company and service?
Our service has been online since September 2005. We are a profitable company and are constantly improving our software. Our servers are housed in a data center in New York, owned and operated by Revion Solutions.
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Please tell me about your technology.
Your data is stored in an Oracle database version 10g accessed using Java Server Pages (jsp).
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Can I download the software and install it on my server?
No. We offer our software only as an online software running on our servers, as it requires a complex server-side infrastructure that needs to be maintained by our administrators. If you are a district user of our service and expect a large number of users, you can be assured that we have the server capacity to handle the load.
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Can I use iLessonPlan on more than one browser?
Currently Internet Explorer and Firefox are our only officially supported browsers. We are working on adding support for Safari in the near future.
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Technology Questions
Do I need a high-speed internet connection?
Our service works fine on dial-up modem connections, but some kind of persistent connection is preferable.
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What about the security of our conversations when using online support?
Our system supports industry-strength, 128-bit secure SSL connections. Although secure, operators will not be answering specific billing questions online. A representative will be more than happy to answer all billing questions over the phone to make customers feel at ease.
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Will your product still work if I'm on a district network? Will our firewall, proxy server, or antivirus software affect it?
Our system works over standard HTTP or HTTPS (80 or 443 ports) and does not use any incoming connections. It should work without requiring port mapping / forwarding rules on any network where you can access web pages with browsers like Internet Explorer or Netscape. If you encounter any problems connecting to our service, let us know and we will find a solution.
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I can't log into my account.
If you have forgotten your password, click on the 'Forgot your password' link below the login area. Supply the email address you have registered with iLessonPlan and we will email you your current password. If you are having other problems, please ensure you do not have your caps locks enabled, as our user names and passwords are case sensitive.
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Setup Questions
Can a non-technical person set this up?
Absolutely. No advanced technical skills are required. You merely need to follow the initial setup steps outlined in our User Manual. After you have initially setup your lesson plan software, there are help menus provided on each page to assist you with screens. If you need further assistance, we can help. Simply use our online chat support, e-mail us at support@ilessonplan.com, or call us toll free at 1-800-817-9067.
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Is there any software that has to be installed on my system to use your software?
No installations of software are needed. This is a web-based lesson planning software. Therefore, all you need is an online connection and a web-browser
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Billing Questions
Is there a setup fee? Monthly fee? Yearly fee? Are there any additional payments?
There are no setup fees for individuals, although the option is available to school districts to have the initial setup performed by iLessonPlan professionals. Contact somebody in our billing department (billing@ilessonplan.com) if you are interested in multi-year discounts. See our 'Pricing' page for an updated listing of our yearly subscription and setup costs.
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Will I be billed automatically each year?
No. At this time we do not store any of the payment information provided by our customers. As a favor to our customers, reminder e-mails will be sent prior to the expiration of your yearly subscription. You may also cancel your subscription at any time, although no refunds will be given for a partial year subscription. There is no additional costs associated with the cancellation.
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Are upgrades included? If I subscribe now, will I automatically get any new updates?
Yes. All future updates are free. Improvements to our software will occur automatically, because pages are loaded from our servers each time you log in. We will send you periodic notifications when improvements have been made.
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Is there a limit to the number of lesson plans I can create and store each month or year? .
There is no limit. You may have an unlimited number of lesson plans. Your subscription package defines only the number of users within your account.
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When does my billing cycle start?
The billing cycle starts when you subscribe for your yearly paid subscription package.
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Are all features included in the yearly cost?
Absolutely! iLessonPlan has been created to make lesson planning and collaborating easier and less time consuming. In order to accomplish this goal, all features are needed. Enjoy your time planning and the time you'll save.
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Let's say I move schools and/or school districts, will my account stay active.
If you purchased a subscription as an individual teacher, YES, your account will stay active. You will need to notify iLessonPlan of this change in order for account information to be updated. If your subscription was purchased by your school district, then NO, the subscription belongs to the district. In order to keep your account active and keep your lesson plans stored on our database, you would need to purchase an individual subscription. We can transfer your lesson plans from your district subscription to your individual subscription. To eliminate delays in service, we recommend this change to be made before the start of the new school year.
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Let's say I move schools and/or school districts, will my account stay active.
If you find that iLessonPlan does not meet your lesson planning needs, please contact billing@ilessonplan.com to request a refund. You will be refunded the full amount of the original purchase price.We only ask that you complete our refund questionnaire explaining why iLessonPlan did not meet your expectations and/or lesson planning needs. This questionnaire will be used to better serve our customers.
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Free Trial and Live Demo Questions
Do you offer a free trial to teachers?
We do not offer a free 30-day trial to individual teachers. However, we do offer a 30-day money back guarantee. If you are not 100% satisfied with your online lesson planning experience after a month of usage we will issue a full refund of your annual license fee.
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Do you offer a free trial for administrators to pilot in their building and/or district?
Yes, we do offer a free 30-day trial for administrators to evaluate iLessonPlan. In addition, administrators can request for teachers to assist them with the evaluation process. Click on the 'Request Trial' button on the top/right hand side of the page.
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Questions about Features: Teachers
Is there a way to reuse lesson plans that I have already written?
Yes. You can reuse plans by searching for plans you have used in years past and copying them to your current week, or desired week you would like to use the plan.
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Can anybody see your lesson plans?
Who can see your lesson plans is up to you. After you write your plans, you can choose to anonymously share your plans with either your grade level, your district, and/or the iLessonPlan community. For example, If you choose to share your lesson plans with your grade level, then only those members within your district at your grade level can view your plans. We encourage all teachers to share their lesson plans with the iLessonPlan community so that we can build a repository of high quality lesson plans available for all to use.
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How long do you store past plans even if they haven't been used or viewed for some time?
Past lesson plans will we stored for as long as you are a member of the iLessonPlan community.
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Why can't I create a lesson plan in one of the blue time slots on my weekly calendar?
You can only create lesson plans in time slots that are associated with a subject. If a time slot is not associated with a subject (i.e. lunch, recess, etc.) you can only store notes.
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Do I have to attach books and/or homework to a lesson?
Attaching books and homework to lesson plans is optional. It is up to the individual teacher to make this decision.
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Is it possible to create lesson plan templates?
Yes, lesson plan templates can be created for each subject. A template consists of a lesson plan header and defined sections. You can create default text in each section that will pre-populate a specific section of the lesson plan every time you create a lesson plan from that template.
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Do you have full text editing capabilities?
Yes, most commonly used text editing options are available. For example, you can change font, colors, highlighting, bold, underline, italics, alignment, add bullets, numbers, etc. This feature is only available for text areas on lesson planning and observations.
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Can I use plans that another teacher has written?
Yes. All teachers are encouraged to share their plans with grade level, district, and the iLessonPlan community. If teachers anonymously share their plans, then you can search for them, copy them to a time slot, or save them in your Favorites to use at a later time.
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If I attach homework to my lesson plans, is there a way to post them so my students can view online?
At this time, this feature is not yet available, but is currently being worked on. Users will be notified when this is available through periodic newsletters detailing updates to functionality.
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If I purchased iLessonPlan as an individual teacher, but I know of teachers in my district that also use iLessonPlan, can I search for their plans when searching within district?
Yes. If the teachers in your district have shared their plans, then you should be able to view their plans when performing a district wide search.
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What advantages does iLessonPlan offer over traditional lesson planning techniques?
iLessonPlan offers flexibility with schedules, templates, and searching. Traditional methods of lesson planning make it difficult to reuse plans from year to year, especially if written in a daily format. With iLessonPlan it is easy to search for past plans and copy them into a current week. After you copy the plan, you still have the ability to add and/or make changes to the plan according to the needs of your current class. iLessonPlan allows you to view your plans in a weekly format, showing you only the lesson title, or in a daily format, displaying the entire day in detail. The following year, it is almost a guarantee that you will teach different lessons for each subject on different days. But with iLessonPlan it doesn't matter when you teach a lesson, you simply search for a lesson and reuse it whenever you would like.
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Questions about Features: Administrators
Can I create observation templates?
Yes. Your district may create an observation template for all administrators to use, or you may create your own. You have the ability to add or delete observation sections.
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Can teachers view observations that I have written for them?
When you feel the observation you have written is ready for teacher viewing, you simply click, 'Allow teacher to view'. This does not mean that it is done, but rather allows the teacher visibility to prepare themselves for a post-observation. After you have finished your post-observation write-up, you and the teacher can digitally sign the observation (which locks the observation), and the teacher can view the observation at any time thereafter.
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Can I require teachers to include specific sections in their lesson plans?
Yes. As an administrator, you are able to require your teachers to include specific sections in their lesson plans. If you choose to add required sections, this will automatically add the section to all lesson plan templates in your school and/or district. Your teachers will be notified of the new and/or changed requirements. When your teachers are writing their plans, the required sections will be identified as required. In order for teachers to save the written plan, the required sections must then be completed.
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How can I tell if teachers have submitted their plans?
After you log in as an administrator, your Admin Tree View will identify for you the teachers that have or have not yet submitted lesson plans for that week.
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Can I leave feedback based on lesson plans I have viewed?
Yes, you are encouraged to leave feedback for your teachers. You can leave feedback for a specific lesson or a general comment for the week. Positive reinforcement goes a long way in keeping your teachers happy and productive, which in turns produces a healthy learning environment for children.
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Can other administrators see the feedback I have left for teachers?
When writing feedback to your teachers, you may mark the feedback as private so only you and the person the feedback was left for can view it. If not marked private, all other administrators will have access to view the feedback as well.
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