Hello eKadence user,


Thanksgiving is coming up! We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break. We have made a lot of updates over the semester.


Here is a list of our updates:

Teacher Experience

Activities

  • Create Screen - The setting sections on the creations screen are now collapsible
  • Create Screen - Added "Student Submission" section to creation screen settings
  • Create Screen - The Work/Questions and Settings tabs are now visible before the create action
  • Activities - Some settings for assignments, assessments, and discussions will use the settings of the last created activity
  • Activities - Right-clicking in the title text box allows you to use the special character option
  • Activities - UI update for action buttons; Preview, Print, and Quick Grader
  • Activities - "Import Content from" now supports shared resources and attachments
  • Assignments - Added "Allow student to revisit previous questions" setting
  • Assignments/Assessments - The action links on the list pages are now consolidated into a dropdown
  • Assignments/Assessments - Force submit all students and Unsubmit all students action added to the actions list
  • Discussions - We have added the discussion settings to the creation screen
  • Discussions - Teacher's posts will no longer be flagged as late
  • Discussions - Teachers can edit students' posts and see an edit history for that post
  • Settings - The Grading Category will no longer default to empty but instead default to the last category used
  • Settings - When copying an activity and there is only one grading category in the destination class the grading category of the activity will default to that single category
  • Settings - Group Activities has now received its own section in activity settings to reduce the confusion of individual assigning and group assigning
  • Settings - For the Submission Type setting, the options have been changed to 'In eKadence', 'In Person', and 'None'
  • Scores Report - Now we show data for activities with 1 question
  • Submissions - The submissions page has been added as a new tab to activities for easier access
  • Submissions - Show status indicator under the Submissions column


Content

  • Content - Added geometry symbols to our math keyboard

  • Content - New action to copy content block to an ePortfolio
  • Content Editor - Autoplay for video and audio files is now supported
  • Embed External Link - Invalid URLs will not allow saving
  • Multiple Choice Questions - Unlocking all answer choices is also now supported


Quick Grader

  • The Grading Rubric popup has now been added to make it easier for teachers to view both the rubric and activity at the same time

  • Quick Grader sidebar has received a UI cleanup

  • Moved the Unsubmit button outside of the actions dropdown

  • Inactive students no longer show up on the list unless they have a previous submission


Modules

  • Importing modules from another class is now supported

  • A new setting has been added to allow students to preview unpublished modules
  • The recycle bin and export button has been moved to this action menu
  • New Export to Common Cartridge option

  • The Progress column now shows the number of ungraded submissions and links to the Quick Grader

  • New dropdown to filter activities by activity type and activity title


New Student Alerts

  • Teachers will be alerted of students' birthdays
  • Teachers won't be alerted of dropped students if the class has ended already
  • UI update to acknowledge button to make it more visible
  • Student lists are now collapsed by default
  • UI update to make student information to be more legabile
  • UI update for showing linked sections
  • Change IEP/504/BIP section to direct them to the IEP/504/BIP tab to acknowledge students' IEP/504/BIP


IEP/504/BIP Tab

  • The number of students with an IEP/504/BIP is now shown on the sidebar

  • IEP/504/BIP - New Toggle to hide IEP/504/BIP/EL flags from view in the classroom


Students

  • Class Roster - The student list is now paged and a search bar has been added
  • Class Roster - Major UI update for the "Import from CSV" screen
  • Group Configuration - UI update for group configuration tabs
  • Automatic Rules - New custom rules to auto-enroll students based on selected criteria
  • Student Profile - In the class tab there is a new "Force sync roster" button to update a student's classes if their classes have yet to be updated from the SIS sync
  • Student Profile - Students' ePortfolios are listed and public ones are clickable
  • Student Class Grades - A new checkbox called "Include Ungraded Activities" has been added to turn on and off ungraded activities

  • Student Class Grades - Grade breakdown has been improved with a new design and we have added grade statuses for teachers to view student activity


Classroom

  • Homepage - Added a Copy button to copy the homepage to another class making that copy the new homepage of the destination class
  • Homepage - UI update to make the Recent Submissions and Missing Activities widgets popups instead of blocks

  • Calander - New Classroom tab to have your class calendar inside your class
  • Announcements - Add Survey Poll
  • Announcements - Engagement stats now show the counts for who has viewed the announcement and who has not
  • Conferences - New notes column to record what the completed meeting was about and let students see what you wrote
  • Gradebook - New UI for making comments from the Gradebook
  • Gradebook - Filter options selected are saved to your device for when you open the gradebook again
  • Gradebook - The average grade row now shows the average score that students received for that activity
  • Tools - Textbooks have been moved to the submenu of Tools


Setup Class

  • General Information - UI update to custom grading terms
  • Features - The "Delete Google Calendar at end of grading term" button will only be visible when the teacher is the primary teacher on record and if the class has a Google Calendar linked to it
  • Features - Google Calendar for classes is turned off by default. Users will need to turn it on to use it.
  • Grading - New Hide Percentages from Students toggle will hide percentages from students but they will still be able to see their points earned
  • Custom Tabs - The class bar in the v2 class layout has received a UI refresh
  • SIS Sync - New Gradebook Sync Discrepancy Checker

  • Co-teaching - UI updates for managing co-teachers have been made

  • Co-teaching - Combined edit activities permission into one "Edit Course Material"
  • Co-teaching - The teacher on record appears in the list


Miscellaneous

  • Dashboard - UI adjustments to class cards and a tooltip has now been added

  • Dashboard - Both Learner and Faculty class cards appear at the same time without having to toggle between Learner and Faculty. In the learner portal only learner class cards appear
  • Dashboard - Class card schools can now be reordered
  • Calendar - New dropdown to filter events for activities types
  • Chat - Teachers can now message students outside of grading comments. Teachers can create group chats for students to talk to each other.
  • Groups - UI update for member list
  • ePortfolios - New 'Make Copy' action on the list page
  • ePortfolios - Any user with editor status of an ePortfolio can share the ePortfolio with other users
  • ePortfolios - Users' avatars are now adujstable
  • ePortfolios - Customize the background with colors or images
  • Resources - New Comment Bank section in a resource group that can be shared with other teachers
  • Resources - Added recycle bin to recover deleted resources
  • My Profile - Comment Bank section shows you your comments and comments from your resources
  • New UI for selecting comments from the Comment Bank throughout the system
  • UI update for email notifications

Student Experience


Classroom

  • Homepage - UI update to the page header
  • Announcements - New Survey/Poll option
  • Modules - New dropdown to filter activities by activity type
  • Assignments/Assessments - The Review Assignment/Assessment button is now green
  • Discussions - When editing a post you can see the edit history for that post
  • Grades - A new checkbox called "Include Ungraded Activities" has been added to turn on and off ungraded activities
  • Grades - Grade breakdown has been improved with a new design and we have added grade statuses to view student activity

  • Conferences - UI update to the completed conference list


Miscellaneous

  • Dashboard - Aligned due dates on class cards
  • Calendar - New dropdown to filter events for activities types
  • Chat - Students can now message teachers outside of grading comments. A Faculty member will always need to be present
  • Groups - UI update for member list
  • Conference - Export to Calendar button UI update
  • ePortfolios - New 'Make Copy' action on the list page
  • ePortfolios - Any user with editor status of an ePortfolio can share the ePortfolio with other users
  • UI update for email notifications

Parent Experience


  • New My Learning tab for classes for parents to take classes
  • New UX for registering students

For more articles please visit support.eKadence.com