FAQ’s
Click on a question below to see the answers to our most frequently asked questions.
Don't see the answer your're looking for? Send us a note and we'd be happy to answer your questions.
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 owned and operated by Linode.
- Please tell me about your technology.
- Your data is stored in a mySQL database accessed via Ruby-on-Rails.
- 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.
- Can I use ilessonplan on more than one browser?
- Yes, our software works using Firefox, Internet Explorer(v7), Safari,. and Chrome.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- I can't log into my account.
- If you have forgotten your password, click on the 'Forgot your password' link next to the login area. Supply the email address you have registered with ilessonplan and we will email you a new 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.
Setup Questions
- Can a non-technical person set this up?
- Absolutely. No advanced technical skills are required. If you choose to customize the software, you merely need to follow the setup ‘links’ provided to add templates, schedules, etc. No customization is required, although will save you time when lesson planning. If you need further assistance, we can help. Simply use our online chat support or e-mail us at support@ilessonplan.com.
- 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.
Billing Questions
- Is there a setup fee? Monthly 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.
- Will I be billed automatically each year?
- Yes. To help our users with the renewal process, we have moved to automatic renewal at the request of our users. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- When does my billing cycle start?
- The billing cycle starts at the conclusion of your free 30-day trial. If you choose to discontinue your subscription, please cancel your account before 11:59 p.m. on day 30 of your free trial. Your credit card will be charged at 12 a.m. after your 30 day trial is over.
- 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.
- 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. 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.
- Can I get a refund if I am not satisfied with ilessonplan?
- If you find that ilessonplan does not meet your lesson planning needs during your free 30 day trial, please cancel your account before your credit card is billed at the conclusion of your trial period. Because a free 30 day trial is offered, refunds will not be given. The free 30 day trail period should be enough time for you to play around with the software and determine if it meets your lesson planning needs. If you cancel your trail, we will ask that you complete our cancellation questionnaire explaining why ilessonplan did not meet your expectations and/or lesson planning needs. This questionnaire will be used to better serve our customers.
Free Trial Questions
- Do you offer a free trial to teachers?
- Yes. We offer a free 30-day trial to individual teachers. However, you will need to provide credit card information prior to activating your free 30 day trial. The billing cycle will begin at the conclusion of your free 30-day trial. If you choose to discontinue your subscription, please cancel your account before 11:59 p.m. on day 30 of your free trial. Your credit card will be charged at 12 a.m. after your 30 day trial is over.
- Do you offer a free trial for administrators to pilot in their building and/or district?
- Yes, we do offer a free 90-day trial for administrators to evaluate ilessonplan. In addition, administrators can add teachers to their pilot account to assist them with the evaluation process. Click on the ‘Pricing' link on the top of the page. Then click ‘Sign Up’ under the ‘Pilot program for schools/districts’.
Questions about Teacher features.
- Is there a way to reuse lesson plans that I have already written?
- Yes. You can reuse plans by using the calendar to navigate to when the lesson plan was used in the past or by searching for plans and copying them to your clipboard. Once copied to your clipboard, simply drag and drop the plan to a given day. You will need to edit the lesson plan to assign it to a specific time period for that day so your lesson plans appear in the order you will be teaching them.
- 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 the ilessonplan community. 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. While writing your lesson plan, you can select ‘private’ and your lesson plans will not be shared with the ilessonplan community, keeping them private.
- 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.
- If school is canceled due to inclement weather, is it hard for me to move my lesson plans around?
- No. Shifting lesson plans forward a day due to inclement weather is extremely easy. Simply click the right arrow above that day of lesson plans and ALL of your lesson plans will move forward by one day. For example, if school is canceled on Tuesday, you can move ALL of Tuesday’s lesson plans to Wednesday at one time. By moving Tuesday’s plans to Wednesday, Wednesday’s plans will then move to Thursday and so on.
- What if I didn’t get to teach a lesson plan at the time I had originally planned?
- No problem. You have 2 choices. You can move that individual lesson plan to the following day using drag and drop. Left click on the lesson plan and drag to the day you would like to teach it. If you aren’t sure when you will have time to teach it, you can always drag it to your clipboard. The lesson plan will remain in your clipboard until you move the lesson plan to given day or delete it from your clipboard. This will serve as a reminder that you still need to teach that lesson.
- 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.
- 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 pre-populated text in each section that will appear in your lesson plan every time you create a lesson plan from that template. a href="#">Question 8?
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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.
- Can I use plans that another teacher has written?
- Yes. All teachers are encouraged to share their plans with the ilessonplan community. If teachers anonymously share their plans, then you can search for them, copy them to a calendar day, or save them in your Favorites to use at a later time.
- 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.
- 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?
- Yes. If the teachers in your district have shared their plans, then you should be able to view their plans when performing a lesson plan search.
- Can I print my lesson plans for personal use and/or my principal?
- Yes. Hover over a day on your calendar and your tools will appear. Click the magnifying glass above your calendar for that day and this will display all lesson plans on that day. Then hit ‘export to pdf’ and a printable version will appear. You can either print the pdf or save it and send as an attachment to your principal. ilessonplan is an ecco-friendly company and we highly recommend that you only print when necessary. If your school/district administrator reviews your lesson plans, encourage them to check out ilessonplan. We have an administrative side to ilessonplan for reviewing lesson plans, providing feedback and writing observations online.
- When I search for lesson plans, how do I search for the ‘good’ lesson plans?
- As users search and view lesson plans, we encourage them to score the lesson plan on a 5 star rating system. This allows users to then search for lesson plans that have earned a specific rating. For example, if you are searching for a lesson plan on ‘telling time’, then you would type ‘telling time’ into the search field. Next select a rating of ‘4’ or ‘5’ to find higher quality lesson plans on the topic of telling time. If lesson plans were not rated or have received a lower rating, they will not appear in your search results. That is why it is so important that you become an active part of our community and help evaluate and rate lesson plans.
- What is ‘Community’ and should I be a part of a group?
- ilessonplan prides itself on being a collaborative online lesson planning software. To be collaborative, it’s important to be in communication with other teachers within your school, district, grade level, subject department, or interest group. Lesson planning is just a part of your teaching responsibilities; therefore, group threads are not limited to lesson planning talk. We encourage teachers to build relationships with teachers you may or may not know personally. If you find a teacher in our community who writes excellent lesson plans, become a friend of theirs. This will give you easy access to their lesson plans and allow you to easily message them with comments, questions, and lesson plan recommendations. In return, if teachers like your lesson plans, you will quickly grow your own group of followers.
- My schedule changes daily. Can ilessonplan accommodate for the flexibility that I need?
- The calendar is extremely flexible and you can build your schedule completely different each day. If you have set time periods that you teach lessons throughout your semester or school year, we highly recommend that you add those time periods by going to tools and then schedule. Add each period that you teach and then when you create a lesson plan you can assign lessons to the added time periods, rather than entering a start-end time for each lesson. By allowing you to add your own schedule or adding a start-end time to each lesson, you can build your schedule to meet your lesson planning needs.
- Can I add state standards to my lesson plans?
- ilessonplan 1.0 allowed teachers to add state standards to their lesson plans, however, as we moved to ilessonplan 2.0 we experienced a problem with adding state standards. We are working very hard to bring this feature back to our lesson planning community and will notify all users through our system alert announcement when the feature is available. For now, we suggest that you add a state standards section to you lesson plan templates and when creating lesson plans, simply add the state standard # to your lesson plans.
- 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.
Questions about Administrator features.
- 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.
- Can I create evaluation templates?
- Yes. Your district may create an evaluation template for all administrators to use, or you may create your own. You have the ability to add or delete evaluation sections.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- What is ‘Community’ and should I be a part of a group?
- ilessonplan prides itself on being a collaborative online lesson planning software. To be collaborative, it’s important to be in communication with other teachers and administrators within your school, district, grade level, subject department, or interest group. Reviewing lesson plans, providing feedback, writing observation and evaluations is just a part of your administrative responsibilities; therefore, group threads are not limited to evaluation talk. We encourage administrators to build relationships with teachers and/or administrators you may or may not know personally. If you find teachers and/or administrators in our community who have similar views or interests, become a friend of theirs. This will give you easy access to their lesson plans and allow you to easily message them with comments, questions, and lesson plan recommendations. In return, if teachers or administrators find you interesting, you will quickly grow your own group of followers.
