--- title: "Finding and Preparing for Upcoming Classes" slug: "find-and-prepare-for-upcoming-classes" updated: 2024-09-27T17:06:58Z published: 2024-09-27T17:06:58Z --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.skillable.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Finding and Preparing for Upcoming Classes This article is intended to help instructors prepare to teach for upcoming Classes. This article covers how to navigate the Skillable Training Management System (TMS) to find upcoming classes on the Instructor Calendar as well launching labs to prepare for courses that have not yet been scheduled as classes. ## Best Practices for Preparing for Upcoming Classes - The **Instructor Dashboard** is a convenient tool that will allow you to view upcoming classes easily upon login. This feature was developed to make it easier for instructors to find everything they need for preparing and running successful classes. - Instructors have the ability to launch labs at any time outside of class times. This allows instructors to prepare for upcoming classes at their own pace and on their own schedule. Unlike instructors, students only have access to labs during their scheduled class and during their post-class access period. - If you are a contract instructor, it is best practice to login for that class using the Organization's URL as it will display the logo on the page if you are sharing your screen with students. ## How Do I Find Classes I am Scheduled to Teach? The easiest way to find classes you are teaching is through the Instructor Calendar. You can see your full schedule in a calendar format. 1. Once you are logged in, select **My Calendar** at the top of any window. 2. This will open up your **Instructor Calendar**. Navigate the calendar using the arrow keys. 3. Select **Day,** **Week**, or **Month** to display the calendar in those views. 4. Next to **Show**, select **Individual Sessions** to show Class Sessions you have been assigned as primary instructor or **Entire Events** to all view classes you have assigned to regardless of whether you are primary instructor or not. ## How Do I Get to a Class I am Scheduled to Teach? The best way to get to a class you are teaching is through the **Instructor Calendar**. You can access a class anytime once you've been set up as the instructor. From the calendar you can always see the name and start time of the class. Opening up the class will let you see these times as well as things like: - Class location - Registered students - Classroom - If the class will run in a virtual classroom You can also run labs associated with the class from the **Class** page. ### Access a Class To access a class: 1. Select **My Calendar** at the top of any window. 2. This will open up your **Instructor Calendar**. Select the name of the class to open up the **Class** page. ## How do I prepare for a Course that I am not scheduled to teach? Are you interested in preparing for a course that you are not yet scheduled to teach? As a trainer you have access to numerous courses and their Activities including labs and SCORM modules. You can preview the activities to become familiar with their content. ### Access Courses To access courses: 1. Select **Admin** to open the **Admin** menu and in the **Courses** group, select **Find Courses**. 2. On the **Find Courses** search page, enter part of the name of a course and select **Search** to view the results. 3. Select the name of the course you want. This takes you to a page with the course’s details. 4. All activities will be listed on that page under the **Activities** section. Select the name of the activity you want to open. 5. Video, document, link, and assessment activities will open. SCORM and lab activities will open to their Details page. On the Details page, select **Launch** or **Start** to start the activity in a new window. Instructor Access to Courses Instructors will only have access to courses that have been made available to the organization that their account belongs to. ## Next Steps - For more information on managing your instructor account read, [Managing Instructor Account and Class Editing](/v1/docs/manage-instructor-account-and-class-editing). A class is a scheduled instructor-led event with a start and end time/date. Typically, these include lectures and hands on activities such as labs. An organization is assigned to each entity in the TMS, such as, users, classes, subscriptions, and courses. The organization is a basis to determine access given based on roles within the organization and management over the organization. Class sessions are the individual times a class is held, a session generally equates to an individual day of a multiple day class. Bundles together content to then be set up for training through classes, subscriptions, and course assignments. Courses can include labs, videos, SCORM, LTI, external links, assessments, and documents. Courses must be assigned to a Content Provider and a Publishing Group to be available to set up for training. Activities are configured in the instructions editor and represented in the lab instructions by a replacement token. Activities fall into two broad categories: Questions and Automated. - Questions are multiple choice or short answer questions. - Automated Activities interact with the lab environment (Virtual Machine/Container/Cloud Platform). SCORM is e-Learning content that organizations can create and upload to the TMS to then be added to courses for students to access as course activities.