Dear users,


This October was a busy one! And we are not slowing down one bit. There is still much to do in the coming months - and we hope to get back to regular weekly release notes - but for this month, here is the digest of all the new things that went live.




Teacher Experience


IEPs / 504s / EL flags

  • Acknowledge IEP/504 Plans - you can now remove the IEP alert box from your class homepage by acknowledging each student's IEP
  • Added IEP / 504 tab - Improved accommodation view allows viewing by student or by accommodation
  • Improved IEP/504 plan setup to have a pre-defined list of accommodations
  • Show case carrier name for each IEP/504 plan uploaded
  • Display when students are "English learner": The indicator from Aeries SIS is now coming over into eKadence. In the Students tab of your class, English learners are indicated with a blue "EL" icon next to their name, and their avatar also displays a subtle blue ring. 


Class Content (Modules)

  • Custom colors for module folders
  • Added "Export" button on Modules tab: You can now export the entire class content to another class, instead of copying one folder at a time.
  • Improved Copy action to support copying modules/activities to multiple classes at the same time
  • Upload multiple files at a time
  • Importing common cartridge (IMSCC):
    • Allows you to choose whether content will save to Instructions or Work/Questions
    • Improved support of CSS from outside sources
  • Content Editor
    • Improved resizing embedded videos
    • Container height now expands to full height to show full math formula, avoiding unnecessary scrollbars
    • Video and audio playback now allowed directly within the edit mode


Discussions / Assignments / Assessments

  • Added Copy button directly inside activity editor
  • Assign to individual students: The list of students now includes students from linked sections as well
  • Due Date and Submission Cutoff Date are allowed to be the same date
  • Added support for square image banners
  • Multiple choice questions now support answer choices that contain the same text but differ in UPPER/lower case (for case-sensitive requirements)
  • Timed assignments/assessments - Added "seconds" to the time limit setting
  • Fill in the blank questions - Add case sensitive option setting
  • Added "Print" option for assessments
  • Highlight Text Question now available
  • Improved matching question to allow unmatched pair options.
  • Discussions:
    • Changed text editor to show the advanced editor by default
    • Improved ordering of Discussions list to sort by newest first as default, and also display other sorting options.
    • Share outside class button now shows links for each linked section, so you can choose specifically which section's discussion to share.
    • "Students can update posts" setting is now enabled by default
    • Moved Previous / Next navigation links to the bottom


Class Rostering

  • Acknowledge when new students are added to a class
  • When a student is added to a class, they will be automatically excused from prior gradebook activities. Any graded activities with due date prior to the student's enroll date will be excluded from their grade calculation.
  • Added "Migrate scores" button in Students tab to transfer all their activity scores from a prior class
  • Added option to show inactive students (that have already dropped the class) in the gradebook


Grading and Comments

  • Gradebook improvements:
    • Reduced wasted white space, optimized for faster loading
    • Student name display/sorting options are more obvious with a visible pulldown menu
    • Added option to show Future assignments (activities not yet published)
    • Comment icons refresh automatically after applying Global grade and comment
    • Global grade "overwrite existing" setting now respects Excused flag (keeps those students as excused)
    • The active row is highlighted more clearly, to see currently selected student
  • "Unsubmit All" action: Added option to keep current scores
  • Treat Offline graded activities as completed if they have a score in gradebook
  • Automatically prompt to Mark grading completed when the last student's score has been entered
  • Grade comments for Group Discussions should be associated to the individual group member, not the entire team/group
  • When an extra credit assignment is marked Grading Complete, will no longer set Missing flag for students who didn't submit anything
  • Default Grading Scale - Changed threshold between D/F to 60% instead of 61%


Aeries SIS Sync: 

  • Investigated scores not pushing
  • Automatically retry pushing scores every 5 minutes if Aeries fails
  • Improved handling of linked sections
  • Show SIS mapping for grading category
  • Grade comments now fully pushing to Aeries
  • Display Aeries Gradebook ID in Sync setup


Miscellaneous

  • Announcements - Added support for embedded Slides
  • Display student nicknames - student nicknames now come from Aeries (Alias) and prioritized for display over "legal name"
  • Improved View Stats for Conferences
  • Co-teachers can now remove themselves from the class
  • Profile review and opt-in: The first time teachers log in, they will be presented with an opening screen to review their basic profile information before continuing. This happens only once upon the first login. All existing users are exempt.
  • Linking Sections: Teachers can only select sections where they are the teacher on record. (Selection of co-teaching classes is no longer allowed.)
  • Class setup - "Delete Google Calendar" option is checked by default for new classes moving forward. This setting is to automatically clean up Google Calendars for classes after the grading term has ended.
  • Create Conference - "Students can view recording" default setting is enabled
  • Added ability to include Co-teachers in the class homepage "About me" section
  • Group Owners - can now edit/delete all discussions within their Group



Student Experience


  • Email notification about grade - Changed link in email to redirect the student directly to see their submission, which will also include the score and grading comments.
  • Student avatar - Students can change their profile image, but their official school photo is what remains in the display to teachers. Only upon mouseover, the teacher may view the student's custom image, next to their official school photo.
  • Prioritize display of student nicknames over legal name
  • Added teacher information to Overdue Activities section in dashboard
  • Removed ability to create Groups and Events
  • When assessments timer runs out, the assessment will auto-save and submit
  • Allow students to unsubmit even if teacher has scored the assignment
  • Students can now choose which classes they want displayed on their dashboard
  • Class homepage - Include grade-only activities in the missing activities
  • Assignments list - To help focus on outstanding tasks, the list will now show Current assignments apart from those that are already Completed
  • Assessments - Improved button navigation and style


Parents

  • Remember grading term setting 


Admins

  • Admins can now impersonate multi-role users, and then switch between Faculty/Learner modes


System improvements

  • Improved roster backups in case of data discrepancies or emergencies with Aeries roster sync; we can now quickly revert any changes to rosters.
  • Optimized system performance


Other Minor Fixes: 

  • Grades not scoring automatically in select cases
  • Graded conferences were showing the wrong timestamp in title
  • Discussion HTML was broken for certain content
  • Save/Submit buttons missing at the bottom when re-taking assessments
  • Due date on dashboard showed as default 1970 timestamp for activities without a due date
  • Student - Missing activities display was including past grading terms
  • Improved handling of 1000+ students in a group
  • Fixed issues with Quick Grader slowness when proceeding through many students
  • Random Group Generator appeared to give same result each time
  • Fill-in-the-Blank question was not displaying math formulas in full/original format
  • Update URLs of existing links was not working
  • Grades that showed Late even after the teacher cleared the flag
  • Unsubmitted work in progress was showing as "Submitted"
  • Teacher/student could not click icon on the toolbar to exit "Subscript/Superscript" mode
  • Improved organization of Google Drive folders created by eKadence
  • Quick Grader could not switch class sections, in select cases
  • Grading comments icon was occasionally not reflecting correct status