Fillable Activities

The update of activities from PDFs to HTML allows users to complete activities within their browser as an alternative to printing them out and filling them in by hand. Currently the update is active for all courses within the Infants & Toddlers, Preschool, School-Age, and Family Child Care tracks. 

It is important to note that information entered into the activity while in the browser is not saved to the VLS servers. As soon as a user navigates away from an activity, all entered information is lost and cannot be restored unless the user has saved a copy of the filled-out activity to their local machine.

Furthermore, depending on individual installation's policies, any files saved to local computers may be automatically deleted overnight. In order to prevent data loss, the Virtual Lab School highly recommends users send their completed activities to their Training & Curriculum Specialist as soon as they are completed and saved.

If you encounter any issues while printing or completing your activities, please email support@virtuallabschool.org for support. Having your reports on errors or bugs is critical to making sure the fillable activities work for all users. As this is a new feature, we ask for your patience while we work through any errors or inconsistencies that may arise across different devices, browsers, or installation computing policies.

Please note that you must be logged into the VLS site to fill out activities, view the suggested answers, or use the custom print function.

Viewing suggested Answers

Some activities include suggested answers that may be viewed in the activity. Activities that contain suggested answers will have a button with a key icon next to the print button on the top right-hand side of the activity. Clicking the Answer Key button suggested answers icon will show or hide answers inline on the activity. Suggested answers cannot be printed or saved using the custom print capability and will be hidden when the print button is clicked.

Inputting information into an activity

In order to input information into an activity, click on the input button on the top right of the screen. Remember not to navigate away from the page while you're filling out your information, otherwise your data will be lost. When the Input button input data icon is clicked, the activity will change from a display version to a version with fillable form elements such as checkboxes and text fields that can used to input your answers. Clicking the Input button again will reformat your activity to a display version with your answers intact.

Printing or saving your activity

If you wish to save an unfilled version of the activity suitable for printing and filling out by hand, simply click the print button print icon in the top right hand corner of the activity without filling anything out.

To print out a copy of an activity that you have filled out, make sure all sections of the activity have been filled in while in input mode, then click the Print Icon and choose the printer you would like to send the completed activity to. Please make sure that the document has printed successfully before navigating away from the activity page or your answers will be lost.

To save a PDF of your completed activity, you must click the Print icon and then choose to save the document as a PDF in your browsers print window. These PDFS are suitable for emailing to yourself or your Training and Curriculum Specialist. The PDFs cannot be edited once they are saved to your device.

Please check below for explicit directions on saving an activity to a PDF file. We have included directions for a number of popular browsers. If you are using a browser that is not listed below and have trouble saving the document, please contact support@virtuallabschool.org.

  1. After completing your activity, click on the Print button on the top right of the page.
  2. Click on the “Destination” drop down menu and select “Save as PDF”.
  3. The right side of the window will show a preview of the printed or PDF document. Scroll down to make sure the document is acceptable before proceeding. If the document is displaying incorrectly, you must adjust the settings before proceeding.
  4. Once the document preview screen displays an acceptable copy of your completed activity, select the Save button.
  5. A Save As dialog window will appear to help you select where to save your file. Note that many installations wipe their computer’s hard drive daily, so your data may be lost if only saved to a work computer.

chrome browser save to pdf screenshot

edge browser save to pdf screenshot

Please Note: There is a known bug with some version of Microsoft's Edge browser that can prevent the print menu from appearing when the print button is clicked and instead only show a print-suitable page.  If this happens, you can right click on the printable page and select 'Print' to initiate the print menu in the browser.

  1. After completing your activity, click on the Print button on the top right of the page.
  2. Select “Microsoft Print to PDF” under the “Name” drop down menu.
  3. The right side of the window will show a preview of the printed or PDF document. Scroll down to make sure the document is acceptable before proceeding. If the document is displaying incorrectly, you must adjust the print settings before proceeding.
  4. Click on “Print”.
  5. A Save As dialog window will appear to help you select where to save your file. Note that many installations wipe their computer’s hard drive daily, so your data may be lost if only saved to a work computer.
  1. After completing your activity, click on the Print button on the top right of the page.
  2. Click on the “Name” drop down menu and select “Microsoft Print to PDF”. Click Ok.
  3. A Save As dialog window will appear to help you select where to save your file. Note that many installations wipe their computer’s hard drive daily, so your data may be lost if only saved to a work computer.

firefox browser save to pdf screenshot

  1. After completing your activity, click on the Print button on the top right of the page.
  2. Click on the “PDF” drop down menu in the lower left of the window and select “Save as PDF”.
  3. A second window will appear with options for saving your completed document. After selecting a name and location to save your document, select the “Save” button. Note that many installations wipe their computer’s hard drive daily, so your data may be lost if only saved to a work computer.

safari browser save to pdf screenshot