FAQ

Got some questions? We might just have the answer you’re looking for!

REconnection.online is a subscription-only online learning platform designed specifically for Australian Catholic secondary students.

Developed by Garratt Publishing, a leading provider of Catholic and Christian resources to Australian schools for over 25 years.

Currently, REconnection.online contains the two distinct subscription based learning Modules.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Unpacking the History of the Catholic Church is designed to stimulate and support an inquiry approach to the teaching of Australian Catholic Church history within a Year 9 or 10 Religious Education curriculum.

Jesus: Who Do You Say That I Am? is aimed at designed to have students ‘meet Jesus’ and discover the historical Jesus, Jesus in Scripture and his Relevance today.  Teachers will confidently meet the differing diocesan learning outcomes.

More modules are planned for 2023 and beyond.

30-day trials to modules of REconnection.online are available for you that will clearly demonstrate just how simple and beneficial the areas of inquiry will be to your students.

Contact sales@garrattpublishing.com.au to access the engaging and stimulating resources that are available.

Flexible subscription-base, per-student pricing is available. Some minimum charges may apply if the number of students requiring access to any single module in the platform is less than 60.

Teachers receive access to all student content, and the additional materials designed to ensure that educators can confidently, conveniently and charismatically, lead any given arc of inquiry, and achieve the desired learning outcomes.

Subscriptions are generally provided to schools for the whole school year, but pro-rata student access fees may be offered.

The socio-economic background of Catholic schools may be considered in establishing effective pricing for your school. The Garratt Team is here to help.

Contact us at sales@garrattpublishing.com.au to start a discussion.

No. Access for teachers is provided free of charge, but only alongside a student subscription.

REconnection.online content is prepared, and/or peer reviewed by some of the best authors, educators and theologians from across Australia, and indeed the world.

Each REconnection.online learning module is carefully researched, and challenge-based activities and arcs of inquiry have been tested in Australian classrooms. For instance, REconnection.online’s Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Unpacking the History of the Catholic Church in Australia module was almost three years in development and testing with Australian secondary students.

All REconnection.online content is reviewed by the Australian Catholic Church, and receives an Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat to ensure that all materials are doctrinally error free.

Links have been made to various Diocesan Religious Education curriculums and learning outcomes, and to the ACARA framework, including cross curriculum links throughout. Tables document these throughout each module and topics, so educators are offered the guidance they may seek.

Trials are available to see for yourself the benefits that REconnection.online will bring to your classroom – and most importantly – to your student’s understanding of faith and its role in their everyday lives.

REconnection.online is a browser-based offering, and accordingly, can work on any internet enabled device.

PCs, Macs Laptops, IPads and other tablet devices – even smartphones – can be used to access the learning platforms.

Once subscribed, schools will be provided with a number of student and teacher codes.

School administrators are encouraged to keep a record of these codes and assign them to individual students and teachers.

The first-time students or teachers logon to the platform, they will be asked to provide their assigned code, and then create their own username (for instance their school email) and secure password.

If any user ‘forgets’ their details, a simple forgot your password functionality exists to reset their password.

Suffice to say, passwords should be unique to each user.

Are we able to access REconnection.online if we are not connected to the Internet?

Unfortunately, no, you must have an internet connect to take advantage of the engaging learning material found in REconnection.online.

In short, yes.

The REconnection.online platform identifies an individual code, and then an individual username, usually an email address, and password.  No other data is provided or needed to access the platform.

All REconnection.online data is stored on servers in Australia and uses up-to-date and state-of-the-art, military-grade encryption technologies to prevent unauthorised user hacking.

Whilst Garratt Publishing retains details of school subscriptions, no further details on students or teachers using the platform are kept. Garratt Publishing supplies individual codes to schools to allow access to students and teachers. Garratt Publishing has no ability to see which code is assigned to which individual, only the code itself. Accordingly, it is the school who retains any detailed record that may be considered private under National Privacy Principles.

Naturally Garratt Publishing retains records to facilitate any orders – such as the name of your school, a contact name, etc – in line with its privacy policy, an in line with National Privacy Principles.

Garratt Publishing’s Privacy Policy may be found here https://garrattpublishing.com.au/privacy-policy/

Within the REconnection.online platform, users will note a small pen-like icon on the screen. Clicking this icon will allow teachers and students to annotate notes as they work through the content, and through any challenge based learning.

These annotations are exclusive to any particular user, and cannot be seen by anyone but the user logged in. This allows teachers to make applicable notes, add in their own links to further reading, other multimedia content, or simply their own ideas.  Students can annotate and journal their thoughts as they work through their arcs of inquiry, or record links to other material.

The annotation area is not a place to officially record their work or submit assignments etc.

The annotations are linked to particular user code. So they remain as long as that user code is an active subscription.

Importantly – especially for teachers – we advise your annotations are cut and pasted into a more lasting format, particularly towards the end of a subscription term… otherwise they will be lost.

For instance, if an educator plans on using the platform in 2022 and 2023, at the end of the 2022 school year, any annotations they may wish to keep should be transferred and saved to another document repository (such as a Word document or Google Doc). In 2023, those educators will be provided with another access code for use in that school year.

Should you have a question not already answered on this FAQ page, contact us at sales@garrattpublishing.com.au and we’ll be sure to help you.