Field Guide: Students

Welcome to Basecamp 👋

Projects, tasks, homework, schedules — whatever happened to the days when choosing what to watch on TV was the hardest to-do of the day?

Basecamp can’t take you back to that time, but it can help you manage your schoolwork so you have more time for the things you want. 😊

Jump to:

• Getting started with projects
• Working with others
• Keeping track of your work
• What’s coming up
• Your files and resources
• Staying on top of things

Getting started with projects

As a student, you may have been invited to work in your Teacher’s or another student’s Basecamp account or maybe you’ve created your own to manage all of your schoolwork. Maybe all three!

When you have access to multiple accounts using the same email address, you’ll see icons for each when you log into Basecamp using a web browser:

Every account you have access to is completely separate, i.e. the work in one account cannot be accessed from a separate account. So if you need to see what your teacher has posted, you’ll need to click the icon associated with your teacher’s account. In the example above, that’d be the Rydell High School account ✨

Once you’re in the right account, your work is organized into projects and this is where your work happens in Basecamp.

In your Teacher’s (or another student’s) account, there’s likely a shared project they’ve created for you to work in. If you have any questions about the project setup, just post your question within the project's Chat (if it's available), or send them a Ping.

In your own Basecamp account, you’ll likely have two types of projects — ones for working alone and ones for working with others.

Here’s an example of a solo project:

And one for a group project:

Both projects look somewhat similar at a glance, but take a closer look — the tools being used vary between the two. You'll get a hang of which tools work for specific projects and if you find yourself using the same tools over and over again, create a project template.

Working with others

In or out of the classroom, communication is key when working with others. Basecamp makes this easy with Chat, Message Board posts, and comments.

The Message Board is the tool you'll want to use in projects you're working on with others. Why? Because this is the ideal spot to post announcements, ask one-time questions, and share any important information you’d like your team to know.

In this example, Rob posted a message introducing his Basecamp (and Basecamp in general) with everyone on the project:

You and your team can discuss any message by leaving a comment below, just like Min did 👩🏻‍💻

The Chat is another tool you’ll most likely use in group projects. This is the best place to have casual conversations in real time:

I don't know about you, but I'm curious to see just how "extra" Mr. Y's is being with this new update 🤔

You can discuss a project item by posting a comment. If you just want to acknowledge someone's work or comment, leave a Boost!

Keeping track of your work

Whether it’s a quick assignment or a bigger project, Basecamp gives you a couple of ways to keep track of your work.

To-do lists are best for tasks that are completed in one step, e.g. scheduling a meeting or completing a reading assignment.

In solo projects, you may want to get in the habit of assigning the to-dos to yourself. That way, you'll see them in your My Assignments page and get notified when the due date approaches.

In Rob's solo project, he decided to group to-dos within a list like this:

The highlighted headers within his to-do list are helpful to see each assignment's associated unit. These to-dos aren't dependent on each other, so if Rob wanted to read the chapter on "The Brain," this list isn't going to stop him from marking it as complete.

Alternatively, you can make separate lists like Rob did for his group project — each project member has their own to-do list:

Each of the project members can group their to-dos if it makes sense to them.

As you get started on your projects, you may find yourself asking, "to group or not to group to-dos?" This really all depends on what works best for you and your team. Play around with it and you'll see what'll work best for the project. 😊

For tasks that happens in multiple steps or stages, you can use the Card Table.

The Card Table is Basecamp's take on the Kanban and, like To-do lists, can be customized to fit you and your team's needs. You can rename the tool itself and the columns. The colors of the columns can be changed too! You can see these changes in the Card Table Rob created for his research papers:

And here's his group project:

Often times, a Card will be comprised of multiple steps like this:

Hopefully, Cindy can help with those missing parts 🤞. Someone better add 'reach out to Cindy' to their to-do list before it slips through the cracks!

What’s coming up

It's always good to see what to expect in the near future so you can plan accordingly. Just head to your project Calendar to see all dated assignments and events relevant to the project. You can also set it up so that you have two Calendars in a project like Rob did in both his solo and group projects — one for dated assignments and the other for events only.

In Rob's solo project, he renamed the Calendar he's using for his homework assignments to "Assignment Due Dates" — this Calendar will auto-populate with all dated assignments from the project's To-dos and Cards:

For his events-only Calendar, he renamed it to "Meetings/Events" — this is the Calendar he'll use to add events:

Your files and resources

You'll find your project's documents and files Docs & Files tool.

Here's a look at the items Rob's team added to their Solar-powered robot project:

The document with the embedded video allows you to play the video right from Basecamp:

Sometimes, you’ll need to access another service that’s related to your project. This is when you’ll want to add an External link.

Both project examples have External links that open to different services. In the solo project, Rob added a External link to his teacher's most recent slideshow for reference:

In the group project, two External links have been added — one for the coding program they're using and another for their budget:

Basecamp also has a place to organize any emails related to your project.

Before you can forward emails into your project, you'll need to add the Email Forwards tool. After that, you can forward emails directly to save@3.basecamp.com or you can send it directly to the project by using your personalized address.

Here's how a forwarded email looks in a project:

With the email stored in Basecamp, the group can discuss in the comments below and if they wanted, they can reply to Mr. Y. there too!

Staying on top of things

Once everything is in place, Basecamp helps you stay on top of what’s happening without needing to check every project.

At the bottom of your screen, the "My" bar gives you quick access to everything that’s relevant to you — your tasks, events you're part of, pages you've bookmarked, and notes you've left for yourself. On the right, you'll see what's "New for you" and your Pings.

In addition to the notifications you've set, you'll receive an email with the latest activity every morning, and an email with your upcoming assignments every week. If you don't need those email notifications, you can always turn those off. You're in control here!

If you're leading a group project, you may have some recurring questions you'll want to ask your team. So, instead of creating a recurring to-do to ask your teammates, you can use Automatic Check-ins to ask alllll the questions.

That's it for now! We hope this guide helps you with your schoolwork. And if you need any help, you can check out our learning center, help pages, or hit us up at Support. Happy Basecamping!