What is the Intelligent Library?
Pencil’s Intelligent Library links your courses and resources together, by providing several different management capabilities at each level of the course. From creating questions to help students further their understanding to creating an entire year’s lesson plan from scratch, the Intelligent Library has everything you need and more.
Managing Courses
Pencil’s Intelligent Library helps you manage your courses by giving you the ability to create, archive, or delete courses with the click of a button. Your courses are front and center when you first log into your Pencil account, so all you have to do is click on a course and start working.
To explore this topic in more detail, check out this support Article: How to Create, Manage, and Archive Courses in Pencil.
Managing Syllabi
Within each course, you can create a syllabus by clicking on the “Syllabus” tab in the upper left-hand corner of the course page. The syllabus is created with a topics and subtopics tree. It can be as simple or as detailed as you want, providing flexibility for your teaching style.
For an in-depth explanation of managing syllabi, take a look at this support Article: How to Create a Topics Tree or Syllabus for a Course.
Creating Lessons
Additionally, you can create lessons for your course by clicking on the “Lessons” tab in the upper left-hand corner of the course page. The lesson creating system is divided into stages that allow you to create lessons that are as simple or as detailed as you wish.
A new chapter or lesson can be added to your designated course's current lesson plan by selecting the "+ Add lesson" or "+ Create chapter" button.
You also have the ability to add several different types of media and resources to your lessons, allowing you to create a variety of different lesson types.
For a more detailed look at lessons, jump to this support article: How to Create Lessons in Pencil.
Creating Questions
You can create practice questions for your students at any time by clicking the upper left-hand corner of the course page. To create a multiple-choice question, click on the respective button, and add the question, along with as many answers and hints as you wish.
To create an open-ended question, click on the respective button, and add the question and subquestions, a sample answer, and any hints you wish to give.
To learn about creating questions in detail, click on this support article: How to Create Questions in Pencil.
Creating Notes
Notes can be used to store explanatory materials and support text, equations, images, videos, simulations, and PDF files. Any of the notes you create within "Lesson" are automatically shown in the "Notes" tab. They can also be created independently from lessons. You also have the option to add any notes to "Sets" if you would like them to be used in a Space or to be combined with other materials in PDF format.
To create a Note, select which course you would like to create the Note for, and then click the "Notes" button at the top left-hand side of your screen. You will be able to see all of your previously created Notes and you will have the ability to create a new Note.
If you are interested in learning more about how to create Notes, please read the following article: How to Create Notes for Presentations.
Creating Sets
Sets are a collection of Questions or Notes that can be created to be used in worksheets and lessons.
To view your Sets, select the course with the Sets you wish to access, and click the "Sets" button on the top left-hand side of your screen. Here you will be able to open and edit previously created Sets, as well as create new Sets.
To learn more about creating and using Sets, please read the following Article: Creating Sets for Worksheets or Slides in Pencil.
Using Analytics
The Pencil's Analytics function allows you to look at student statistics from Practice Mode. It will tell you key information including how many questions they were able to answer correctly, and how long it took them to complete the question.
To access Analytics, select the course for which you want to review the Analytics, and then click the "Analytics" button at the top left-hand side of your screen. From there you can click on the participant you wish to look into. You will be shown all the sets that they have completed and their detailed results.
If you have any other questions, our support team is always happy to help!