Dear AUHSD:
We are now 1 month into the school year and what an eventful year it has been already. Since the beginning of August, we have tripled the size of our support team and continue to improve operations to meet the demand.
Admittedly, our response times have been nowhere near the standard we set for ourselves. Please know we are working to improve our customer service and response times. If you have an open ticket with us and have not yet received a reply, please bear with us as we WILL reply to every single ticket as quickly as we can.
Below are some of the topics we have been seeing come up most often. Of course this does not cover the wide variety of requests and issues currently outstanding, but these are the most common issues we have been hearing about.
Aeries Gradebook Sync
Duplicate assignments - DO NOT link gradebooks in Aeries
The clean slate - when all else fails, it may be easiest to start with a fresh Aeries gradebook
Bi-Directional sync - The latest version of bi-directional gradebook sync is still in testing with a select focus group of volunteer teachers. If you'd like to be an early tester please reach out and let us know.
Other known issues/challenges happening right now
- Students and the Unsubmit button
- Transferring grades when students transfer periods
- Students seeing teacher comments in the Google Doc asignments
This has been resolved for all submissions moving forward. After students submit their Google Doc assignment, they will be moved from Editor to Commenter role, so they can still see any Comments you add to that Doc.
Major initiatives for the next 4 weeks
Administrators
- More privileges when impersonating user accounts
- Data management tools
- Roster and caseload import/export
- Roster sync logs - improving visibility of logs of changes
- User import/export
Teachers and Students
Integrations - Kami, Edpuzzle, Nearpod, Gizmos, Thrively, Wellnet
Assessments - work has already begun on major enhancements to Assessments, i.e. how they are scored, how they can be graded, how students can review their answers and retake assessments
Counselors and case carriers
Getting visitation notes to be bi-direction is still in R&D. There is currently no ETA but it is a high priority item.
Custom filters for caseload management
Special Ed
Improved experience with VoiceOver for VI (Visually Impaired) learners
Google classroom integration
Benchmarks, goals and trials feature
Parents
We are already working on a redesign of the parent experience, to give a more complete view of the student's class. Currently only graded work is being displayed, but a more full view of the class is coming.
Other news
- eKadence support is fully 24/7. We now have our team in rotating shifts that cover all hours of the day.
- After many months, Zoom has finally approved our integration. We expect this to become available very soon.
- Chat is coming back! The ability to chat inline between staff and students will be available again, this time with controls in place to prevent abuse.