Teacher FAQs
Course Content & Topics
This section covers general questions about courses such as getting started, duration of lessons, curriculum, etc. Click on the questions below to expand and view each answer.
Course and Curriculum
Courses are required to be a minimum of 40 video-lessons or more for grades 5 to 12 (35 lessons or more for grades K to 4). Teachers typically create courses between 40 to 60 video-lessons and even up to a 100. There is no limit to how many lessons your course can have but we stress the concept of "quality" over "quantity". For more information about course guidelines visit: http://www.lernsys.com/en/lesson-guidelines
Each video-lesson or video-lecture should be 10-30 minutes depending on the subject and age group or school grade you are teaching. Grades kindergarten to grade 2 can be anywhere between 5 to 15 minutes. Most video-lessons uploaded by teachers are between 10 to 25 minutes. Again, this depend on the target audience. Activity review videos vary in length depending on the activity being reviewed; however, as a general rule they should be at least 4 to 5 minutes long. For more information about lesson guidelines visit: http://www.lernsys.com/en/lesson-guidelines
No. You can create a course based on your own unique outline and topics, create it partly or based on “Common Core” (math and reading), or a combination of both. We sometimes provide base curriculum examples which teachers can utilize as a general "guideline" but not necessarily to replicate. You decide what goes into your course as long as the course adds value.
Yes. Foreign language, special needs and advanced courses are allowed. Moreover, you may be able to charge a premium for high-demand lessons and courses.
Most subjects including math, science, chemistry, physics, history, social studies, geography, biology and foreign languages, among others, and grade levels are needed by students of all ages, including home-schooled, special needs, or for tutoring purposes. Click on the links below to view a complete list of acceptable courses:
We provide guidelines and quality standards to meet minimum publishing requirements; however, teachers decide the exact curriculum the course will cover and whether it is based on a municipal or state-sponsored curriculum, an international variation or a custom-created one. At a minimum, your course must have at least 30 video-lessons. Lernsys Central provides additional information about course structure. You must have an approved Lernsys Teacher Account to access Lernsys Central.
There are over 60,000 public domain books you can use (works whose copyright has effectively expired). These include works in American and English literature, science, physics, and almost every subject you can think of. You can upload a copy of the work as part of the course materials.
https://www.gutenberg.org/
https://www.gutenberg.org/
Most teachers are familiar with the types of resources they can utilize already in the classroom. Although we do not provide legal advice on this point, generally speaking, under certain conditions you can use up to 10% of a work including an entire chapter (see below) for educational purposes. Legislation is largely similar in both Canada and the U.S. If you are unsure regarding "fair use" or "educational use", please consult with your corresponding copyright office. Many teachers use works whose copyright has already expired or works which have entered the public domain. If you search online, you will find hundreds of such works. Each year, new works enter the public domain after their copyright expire or their rights have been waived. You cannot, however, use materials which promote or advertise third-party services or services which compete with Lernsys.
Copyright in the Classrom
Programs-and-Initiatives-Copyright-and-Teaching
Copyright in the Classrom
Programs-and-Initiatives-Copyright-and-Teaching
Yes. Although some parents prefer a curriculum which is more general in nature and which does not adhere strictly to a particular state's guidelines, other parents may want a curriculum which is state-specific or very similar to the one promoted by a given state or province. Although most states are members of the Common Core initiative, states such as Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, Alaska, Nebraska, Indiana, and South Carolina have not adopted the initiative at a state level.
Not all states have adopted Common Core at a state level. Even among those which have, there is an ongoing debate regarding Common Core. Furthermore, some states have begun to look at other countries' math and science curriculum, specially from countries who have consistently ranked among the top 10 in OECD scores. A recent national survey of K to 12 parents found that many parents consider other important variables and prefer education which develops critical thinking skills and self-discipline, uses technology as a learning tool, holds students to high academic standards, and does not have too much homework. You can view some of the findings here: What Parents Want
Yes but the course title and description should indicate this. Among some of the top reasons why parents choose to homeschool, the lack of a religious, moral or ethical component in today's public schools is of high importance. Religion-based courses, biblical studies, theology and philosophy are accepted. Note that we will not publish any faith-based course which promotes hate, or which disparages or critizes other religions or beliefs.
Yes. If you are accepted for participation, you can create a similar course but not one which is exactly the same as another course. Additionally, we only allow a limited amount of teachers to participate in any given subject and grade in order to protect the time and effort put into creating each course. We also don't believe it's advantageous for students to have an unlimited amount of similar courses or teachers available. Too many options can result confusing and overwhelming for students; however, there needs to be at least a few different options and choices to select from or students will go elsewhere to search for these options.
Yes. "Remedial" courses in math, writing, and science/biology are accepted for college-entry level students.
With over 50 million public school students and over 2.3 million homeschoolers in North America, there is no shortage of variety as to the exact content someone may need help with. Currently, we are only accepting college-level courses in the following business areas: business entrepreneurship, accounting, management-accounting, operations management, book-keeping, introduction to economics, economics, marketing, human resources management.
Generally speaking there are two main streams for foreign language students, the academic stream, and the survival stream.
The academic stream is usually a more step-by-step language course which goes through all the standard levels such as the ABC's, personal pronouns, verb tenses, days of the week, possessive adjectives, sentence structure, etc. The survival stream is usually intended for those who want to learn just enough to be able to interact with others at the bank, at the grocery store, ask for directions, or while meeting someone new or travelling abroad. Sometimes students take both streams as the academic stream tends to be more slowly paced. The survival stream deals with specific situations and the grammatic component is secondary.
The academic stream is usually a more step-by-step language course which goes through all the standard levels such as the ABC's, personal pronouns, verb tenses, days of the week, possessive adjectives, sentence structure, etc. The survival stream is usually intended for those who want to learn just enough to be able to interact with others at the bank, at the grocery store, ask for directions, or while meeting someone new or travelling abroad. Sometimes students take both streams as the academic stream tends to be more slowly paced. The survival stream deals with specific situations and the grammatic component is secondary.
There are plenty of proponents for both types of streams.
A typical foreign language "survival" course typically covers "situations" and basic words and grammar. For example:
The Alphabet
Numbers (1-10, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, etc, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000)
Parts of the Day
Days of the Week
Months of the Year
Colors
Months of the Year
Colors
Parts of the Body
Parts of the Face
Personal Pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
Verb to Be ("I am a student", "He is John", "She is Susan", etc.)
Personal Pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
Verb to Be ("I am a student", "He is John", "She is Susan", etc.)
Family Members (brother, father, son, etc.)
Greeting Someone (Good morning, good afternoon, good evening)
Meeting Someone (Hi. My name is "Michael". What is your name? What do you do for a living?)
Asking For Directions
Asking For Change
Greeting Someone (Good morning, good afternoon, good evening)
Meeting Someone (Hi. My name is "Michael". What is your name? What do you do for a living?)
Asking For Directions
Asking For Change
Calling For Help (Police, Hospital, Fire Department)
Making An Appointment
Shopping (How much is this?)
Returning A Purchase
Asking the Time (What time is it?)
Telling Time (It's 4 PM, It's 3 AM)
Asking About Location (Where is the book? Where is the office?)
Calling Someone (-Hi! Can I speak with John? -Who is calling?)
25 Most Common Adjectives (good, bad, ugly, beautiful, fat, skinny, fast, slow, big, small, short, long, etc.)
Asking the Time (What time is it?)
Telling Time (It's 4 PM, It's 3 AM)
Asking About Location (Where is the book? Where is the office?)
Calling Someone (-Hi! Can I speak with John? -Who is calling?)
25 Most Common Adjectives (good, bad, ugly, beautiful, fat, skinny, fast, slow, big, small, short, long, etc.)
25 Most Common Adverbs (fast, slowly, nicely, etc.)
25 Most Common Verbs (come, go, walk, work, sleep, eat, listen, talk, write, read, look, speak, etc.)
40 - 50 Most Common Objects (book, car, computer, chair, pen, pencil, door, window, table, money, wallet, paper, etc.)
10 Most Common Directional Adjectives (up, down, left, right, under, far, near, etc.)
15 Most Common Professions (teacher, student, policeman, doctor, nurse, secretary, boss, plumber, electrician, etc.).
25 Most Common Verbs (come, go, walk, work, sleep, eat, listen, talk, write, read, look, speak, etc.)
40 - 50 Most Common Objects (book, car, computer, chair, pen, pencil, door, window, table, money, wallet, paper, etc.)
10 Most Common Directional Adjectives (up, down, left, right, under, far, near, etc.)
15 Most Common Professions (teacher, student, policeman, doctor, nurse, secretary, boss, plumber, electrician, etc.).
The xlsx document is meant for reference purposes only. You have final say on the order of the topics, which topics to include, and how much emphasis you will put into each lesson and topic.
No. Copyright law gives ample latitude to teachers to use a wide variety of materials and texts under certain conditions for academic purposes. For more on this, see FAQ above "Can I use materials from other sources in my lessons?". It is up to you to require the purchase of a book in order to take the course. However, requiring the purchase of separate material is not recommended.
Yes. However, keep in mind that many parents believe that resolving math problems "manually" instead of using a calculator is far more rigorous and ensures that the concept has been truly mastered. On the other hand, it is also a reality that using external devices to aid in problem resolution is standard nowadays. If you decide not to require an external aid, it's fine as long as the difficulty of the exercises takes this into account; however, if you decide that an external aid should be employed, make sure to list this under the Course Description (Requirements For This Course). Finally, you can also have a combination of the two methods. For example, under the Course Description you can indicate "This course requires both manual resolution of exercises as well as resolution using a calculator".
General Guidelines
You can create a course based on your state's curriculum, or a variation of it, your own unique outline and topics, create it partly or entirely based on “Common Core”, or a combination of the above. We sometimes provide base curriculum examples which teachers can use as a rough "guideline" but not necessarily to replicate. You decide what goes into your course as long as the course adds value and it contains a minimum of 30 video-lessons. For more information about course guidelines visit: http://www.lernsys.com/en/lesson-guidelines
The subjects currently allowed, in no particular order of relevance, for grades Kindergarten to Grade 12 are: Math (including Algebra, Calculus, etc.), Science, Physics, Reading, History, Chemistry, Geometry, Social Studies, Geography, Biblical Studies, Business, Foreign Languages, Art, Computer Science.
If the subject you wish to create is not listed in the pages per the links below, you must first contact us to get pre-approval:
Yes. Each individual video-lesson file cannot exceed 30 minutes of duration and/or 10 MB per each minute of recording. For example, a 15 minute video file cannot be larger than 150 MB; a 20 minute video file cannot be larger than 200 MB. We provide teachers with free video optimization software and easy to follow tutorials to help you shrink file size and convert its format to .mp4. Sometimes, depending on the settings you set in your recording device such as file type and video quality, file optimization isn't necessary at all. Nevertheless, the process to convert or shrink video files is easy, can be done in batch, and only takes a few minutes. Videos which exceed the size limit will not be published. You can download video optimization software for free direcly from the tutorial page (please log in to access the tutorial videos): http://www.lernsys.com/en/optimizing-output-video-size
We recommend .mp4 as this format has the highest compatibility across different browsers and devices. We can provide you with free file conversion software in case your output file is rendered in a different format. For more on this visit: http://www.lernsys.com/en/video-format-tips.
No. Please remember that you must send us one short example video-lesson (2 to 3 minutes) before recording the entire course. Our Review Team will let you know if there are any audio-video or size format issues that need to be addressed before you continue with the rest of the course. To submit your example video-lesson, please see Submitting Test Video.
We want lessons to be natural, smooth and welcome improvisation. Sometimes having to stop to edit or do another recording because of a small error can make the lesson appear too rehearsed and static. We want teachers to be themselves, relax, laugh, joke, improvise a bit, but overall have a bit of fun. Teachers in classrooms will often write typos or need to correct themselves on the spot; your lesson should be no different. Obviously, the fewer mistakes the better. However, you are not aiming for perfection; you are aiming for an engaging and pedagogic video-lesson.
Presentation, Profile Picture, Profile Video, Tutorials
Yes. You can download it here: PDF Tutorial How to Create a Course
Yes. You can download it here: PDF Tutorial How to Create a Lesson
Yes. You can download it here: Lesson Component Details
Yes. You can download the steps here: Re-using a Video
Yes. You can download it here: Course Description Template
Yes. You can download tips, guidelines and best practices here: Teacher Profile Video Guidelines
Yes. You can download tips, guidelines and best practices here: Teacher Profile Picture Guidelines