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Families and students

Can my child take notes, and who reads them?

Written by the TestFLE team.

In short

In “My library”, the student writes their notes in the “Your notes” area next to each document; they save on their own. Their teachers and the school administration can read them, and “Download all my notes” provides them as a spreadsheet.

Who this is for, and what you need first

Who this is for
Students who view a library document, and parents who want to know who can read these notes.
What you need first
  • The Library option chosen by the school.
  • At least one document shared with the student by a teacher: notes are taken next to a document, not next to a card deck.
  • With no document or card deck shared, the “My library” entry does not appear in the menu.

The steps

  1. In the menu, click “My library”.
  2. Open a document with “View”.
  3. Click in the “Your notes” area. On a computer, it is to the right of the page. On a phone, first tap the notebook icon in the top bar.
  4. Write what you want to remember.
  5. Wait for “Saved” to appear before closing the document.
  6. To find the note again, reopen the same document: it is there.

Who can read the notes?

A teacher reads the notes of their own students, that is, those in the classes they teach, on the documents they can view: their own and the school’s. They do not receive the notes of students in other classes. The school administration can read every student’s notes. Other students never see a classmate’s notes.

The student is told before writing. A line under the writing area reminds them that their teacher can see their notes. Notes are therefore a working tool shared with teachers, not a personal diary.

Taking your notes with you

  1. In “My library”, scroll down to the bottom of the page.
  2. Click “Download all my notes”.
  3. Open the file with a spreadsheet program.

The “Download all my notes” link only appears if at least one document is shared with the student. The file is called mes-notes_AAAAMMJJ.csv, with the download date in place of AAAAMMJJ.

Going further

Understanding the settings and special cases

One note per document, saved automatically

Each document has its own note, which the student finds again every time they open it. The screen saves it 1.2 seconds after the last keystroke, or when the student clicks outside the area. While the note is being sent, it shows “Saving…”, then “Saved”.

Closing the document within a second of the last keystroke can lose the last words, because the note has not been sent yet. That is why the steps ask you to wait for “Saved”.

A note can hold 20,000 characters at most. Beyond that, the screen refuses to save it (“Your notes exceed 20000 characters.”).

When the administration deletes a note

Only the school administration can delete a note; a teacher can only read it. The student then finds a blank page, with no message. They can write again: their new note starts from scratch.

What the spreadsheet contains

The file contains the student’s notes, and only those. Each row gives the document’s name, its folder, the text of the note and the date of the last change. The column headings are support, dossier, note and modifiee_le. They stay the same whatever the language of the screen. The values are separated by semicolons, so that a French spreadsheet program can read them. The file is written in UTF-8, so that accents display correctly.

It also includes the notes on documents that are no longer shared with the student, for example a lesson recording whose end date has passed. The documents themselves are not in the file. A note the student has emptied may appear in it as a row with no text.

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