The Skills feature is optional and can be enabled and disabled via Program Options in the HSTOnline menu. By default, the Skills field is disabled.

Disabling this feature will:

• Remove the Skills field from the Assignment and Lesson Plan add/edit windows
• Remove the Skills column from the Agenda - List View and Lesson Plan grids
• Disable the Skills Progress page.
• Disable the Skills Progress Report

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Program Options.
2. On the Program Options page, click or touch Optional Fields.
3. Click or touch the box next to Skills to add a checkmark to enable the field; or to remove a checkmark to disable the field.
4. Click or touch Save to keep your changes.
5. Click or touch 'Ok' on the 'Changes Saved' window.

You can add as many Skills as you wish.

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Skills under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Skills page, click or touch the Action button and choose Add to open the Add Skills window.

   

3. Grouping: Enter up to 150 characters for your primary category. Your Grouping might be a Student name, grade level, school year, etc.
4. Area/Discipline: Enter up to 150 characters for your secondary category. You might choose to classify by Subject or Course.
5. Objective: Click or touch the Objectives field name or the pencil icon to enter the actual Skill that your student is working towards. You can use the HTML editor to accentuate your text however you like.
   • In the Skills list, the Objective field will show a preview of the Objective you have entered, up to the first 150 characters, in plain text. If your Objective is longer than 150 characters, you will need to edit the Skill to see the entire text.
6. Active: All new Skills start as Active. Click or touch the No radio button if you want to archive this Skills. You may change the status at any time in the future by editing the Skills.
7. Click or touch:
   • Cancel to abandon the new item without adding to your list.
   • Save to add this item to your list of Skills.
   • The 'Add Another' hyperlink in the top right corner to save this Skill and add another. You can click or touch 'Add Another' each time until you have entered the last new Skill and then click or touch the Save button to end the Add process.
     • When you click or touch 'Add Another', HSTOnline will retain the Grouping and Area/Discipline you entered from the previous item so you only need to enter those fields if you need to make a change. The cursor will start in the Objective field.
8. Click or touch the green Added Items notification or refresh the page to see your updated Skills list.

Editing a Single Skill

Edit any Skill to change the Grouping, Area/Discipline or Objective fields or to Archive the Skill to remove it from the active list.

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Skills under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Skills page, double-click on the item you want to change to open the Edit Skill window.

   

   • Alternatively, you can click once on the item you want to change and then click the Action button and choose Edit to open the Edit Skill window.
   • On a touch device, touch the item you wish to edit and then touch the Action button and touch Edit to open the Edit Skill window.
3. At the bottom of the edit view, you will see when and by whom the item was created as well as when and by whom it was last updated.
4. Make whatever changes are needed for the Skill.
5. To change the Active status this Skill, click or touch the Yes radio button to make the Skill Active; click or touch the No radio button to Archive the Skill.
6. Click or touch:
   • Cancel to abandon the changes and close the Edit Skill window.
   • Save to commit the changes to your Skill and close the Edit Skill window.
   • Click or touch the 'Previous' or 'Next' hyperlink in the top right corner to save your changes to this Skill and move to the previous or next Skill in the list. You can click or touch Previous or Next until you have made all the changes you want to your Skill and then click the Save button to end the Edit process. If you reach the beginning or end of the list when clicking or touching Previous or Next, the Edit window will close and you will be returned to the list view.

Editing Multiple Skills

Edit any group of selected Skills to change the Grouping or Area/Discipline fields, or to Archive the Skills to remove them from the active list.

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Skills under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Skills page, select the items you want to change. You can use the Grouping and Sorting, Filter and Search features to isolate the items you want to change.
   • Click the checkbox for each item you want to change.
   • You can use your mouse to click and drag over contiguous Subjects in the list to select those items.
   • On a touch device, you can touch and drag your finger over contiguous Subjects in the list to select those items.
   • Click or touch the 'Select All' badge to select all the Subjects in the list.
3. Click or touch the Action button and click or touch Multi-Edit to open the Multi-Edit Assignment Locations window.

   

   • HSTOnline will show you how many items have been selected for editing.
4. Click or touch the box to each field you want to change for all selected Skills. Enter your changes for the Grouping and/or Area/Discipline fields and check or uncheck the box to hide these items from the Active Skills list.
5. To change the Active status of the selected items, click or touch the box to the left of Active.
   • To make all the selected items Active, click or touch the ‘Yes’ radio button.
   • To Archive all the selected items, click or touch the ‘No’ radio button.
6. Click or touch:
   • Cancel to abandon the changes and close the Multi-Edit Skills window.
   • Save to commit the changes and close the Multi-Edit Skills window.

When you add, edit or multi-edit Assignments or Lesson Plan items you can choose which Skills to associate with them. When editing items which already have Skills attached, you can choose to remove or add to the existing items. When using multi-edit, all of the selected Assignments or Lesson Plan items will receive all the Skills listed in the Current Skills area when you click Save.

1. In the Add/Edit window for your Assignment or Lesson Plan item, click the Skills icon to open the Choose Skills window.

   

2. If you are editing an Assignment or Lesson Plan item that already has Skills attached, those Skills will be listed in the 'Current Skills' section of the Window. You can remove any existing Skills by clicking the X button to the right of the Skill you wish to delete.

   

3. At the top of the Choose Skills window, you can use the controls to refine your selection. The settings start in a way to show all of your created Skills. Use the Grouping and Area drop downs to select specific options and/or type into the Filter box to refine the list. HSTOnline will use the text you enter into the Filter box to search the Grouping, Area, and Objective (Preview) fields for exact matches.

   

4. Check each Skill that you want to add to the selected Assignment(s) or Lesson Plan item(s) and click or touch the Add Selected Objectives button. The items you have chosen will now appear in the Current Skills area along with any pre-existing Skills.

   
   

5. Click or touch:
   • Cancel to abandon the selections without adding them to your Assignment(s) or Lesson Plan item(s).
   • Save to add the Skills to your Assignment(s) or Lesson Plan item(s).

   

6. The selected Skills will be displayed on the individual Assignment/Lesson Plan add/edit windows. The number of attached skills will appear in the Skills column of the Agenda - List View.

You can delete any Skill, or any group of selected Skills which are not attached to any Assignments or Lesson Plan items in your database. Skills which cannot be deleted can be removed from the active list using the Archive feature. Deleted items cannot be retrieved.

Deleting a Single Skill

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Skills under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Skills page, click or touch the item you want to remove and then click the Action button and choose Delete to open the Confirm Delete window.
3. Click or touch:
   • 'Never Mind' to cancel the delete process.
   • 'Yes, I'm Sure' to complete the deletion process.
     • If the Skill is being used in Assignments or Lesson Plan items, you will see a message that the selected item cannot be deleted. Click or touch the 'Never Mind' button to return to the Activity List. From there you can choose archive the Activity to hide it from your list.

     

Deleting Multiple Skills

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Skills under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Skills page, select the items you want to remove. You can use the Grouping and Sorting, Filter and Search features to isolate the items you want to remove.
   • Click the checkbox for each Skill you want to remove.
   • You can use your mouse to click and drag over contiguous Skills in the list to select those items.
   • On a touch device, you can touch and drag your finger over contiguous Skills in the list to select those items.
   • Click or touch the 'Select All' badge to select all the Skills in the list.
3. Click or touch the Action button and click or touch Delete to open the Confirm Delete window.
   • HSTOnline will show you how many items have been selected for deletion.
4. Click or touch:
   • 'Never Mind' to cancel the delete process.
   • 'Yes, I'm Sure' to complete the deletion process. HSTOnline will delete any of the selected Skills which are not being used in Assignments or Lesson Plan items. Skills that are in use will not be deleted.

Archiving allows you to de-clutter your Skills list of items from previous years or terms that will not be used in the current year, while preserving records from previous years. When you archive a Skill it will still be attached to any Assignments or Lesson Plan items where it was selected previously. It will no longer be available for selection for other items unless and until you choose to reactivate it. Use the Edit or Multi-Edit directions above to change the Active status of your Skills.