Release 102 Notes

Modified on: Tue, 13 Nov, 2018 at 4:12 PM

Assignments got better!

Some of the improvements include notifications in the assignment submission. For example, if a student submits an assignment after the deadline it is visibly flagged with a red exclamation mark.

If a student has not yet submitted an assignment, an information icon will appear to show if it has been saved as a draft.

For advanced assignment options, we have added clearer information to show what preconditions are required to use these. For example, setting a deadline for the assignment is required before you can enable peer assessment.
If an assignment answer is opened from the Gradebook/Assessment Record or from a notification it is now viewed in the All-in-One-Grader.
When a teacher changes the submission status of a peer reviewed answer to ‘Complete’, students cannot assess the answer or modify their existing assessments.
To better support assignment workflow, the ‘Results’ section is moved further down in the sidebar to below the section ‘Submission status’. Teachers will then find the most relevant information first in the sidebar, like visibility and deadline.
It is now possible for teachers to view the assignment as students. The ‘View as’ feature also allows teachers to answer an assignment as a student.

Audio/video feedback in the All-in-One Grader

It’s now possible to quickly record audio or video feedback when reviewing an assignment answer in the All-in-One Grader. The response recorded by the teacher will be added as an attachment that can be renamed if desired. Students can view or listen to the recording by clicking on its name.

Note that the new audio/video feedback options are only available for customers using the new plug-in free media recorder. We are in the process of rolling this out to all customers in Europe soon.

Learning Paths Improvements

View as a student

The ‘View as student’ option has been extended to show the student view of assignment and tests. Any progress the teacher makes in the learning path when viewing as a student is ignored; allowing teachers to test the learning path and make changes.

Changes on the flow of the path

If students have started the learning path, we will warn the teacher that the flow of the path cannot be changed without removing existing student progress. Teachers can always edit individual entries to fix minor issues.

Discussions and Surveys

While it was possible to include discussions and survey in a learning path, students could continue past these without meaningful contribution to the discussion or completing the survey. Now, if a discussion is included, a student needs to add at least one thread or reply. For surveys, it is required to complete the survey before they can continue.

Resources

We have improved the tooltips informing teachers if a resource could not be included in the learning path. Also, to make creating learning paths as flexible as possible, teachers can create empty steps in the path and fill in the content later. To avoid students running into empty content, teachers will now see a warning if an empty resource is detected.

Improvements for Working with Files in the All-in-one Grader

We have made working with files simpler in the All-in-one grading tool. This hides technical issues from the teachers meaning they can concentrate on assessment and feedback.

If a G Suite domain is connected – the submitted file remains on Google Drive and we set permissions on the file depending on the status. For example, if a student has submitted their answer, they can only view it. If they need to resubmit a new version, the file can be edited again
If G Suite is not connected, but Microsoft Office Online is enabled, we aim to show submitted answers in Office Online. This means that if a student submits a Google Doc, it will be uploaded into itslearning as Word document
If both G Suite and Office Online are disabled, we fall back to our own document viewer. This means that submitted documents are converted to PDF

G Suite/Google Drive Improvements

We have simplified the settings for customers when working with Google Drive. Previously administrators could choose if upload and/or linking from Google Drive was allowed. Now they can decide if they allow files to be added from Google Drive or not.

A warning is shown when any of the Google resource formats are not compatible with the Assignment tool. This includes Google Forms, Google Maps, and Google Sites among others. Teachers can use the course file or folder tool to add these types of resources to the course.
Moving an assignment with an answer file from Google Drive to the Assessment Portfolio, will create a PDF copy of the file. This ensures that the answer file is visible to everyone and that it cannot be modified after transfer.

Test-mode browser (TMB) upgrade

Users will need to have at least version 2.0.3.4 of Test-mode browser installed (Windows and Mac, both student and lab versions), after this release.

This does not apply to the TMB apps on iPad and Chromebook, however we encourage all users to always use the latest version. Depending on settings, apps will auto-update when new versions are available.

Activation of Dashboard Brandings

Customer administrators can choose whether they want to allow branding on their site or not in a single setting. If allowed, course/group managers can then choose to activate branding on their dashboard and/or homepages.

Improvements to Gradebook Plus

Teachers can export all contents of Gradebook to MS Excel. We have improved the Gradebook layout so that it is possible to view more student records on one page.

Copy a Topic from One Plan to Another

Teachers now have the option to decide which topic to copy a plan to. Resources and activities connected with this plan will also be copied to the folder of the selected topic.

Improved Calendar Layout

The calendar view will now expand to fit the screen. The layout has been improved and the addition of event titles will make reading the calendar easier. To give more prominence to the working week, users can hide weekends in their calendar view. Also, the ‘add’ button has been renamed ‘add event’. For teachers using the new ‘add resource’ button in the calendar, it is now possible to add resources from the library.

Other updates

Administrators – Easier sorting in Users and Access Rights: to help administrators view long lists in the ‘User and access rights section’ all columns can now be sorted. The first click gives A-Z sorting and the second, the opposite direction (Z-A)
Data Warehouse / OData API: to allow more in-depth analysis of student behavior two new data sources have been added to the Data Warehouse, accessed through the OData API. Documentation will be added at developer.itslearning.com
- File MIME-types – The types of files students are accessing in a course is now included
- Folder structure in courses – Some customers sort course content into named folders. We have included the folder structure in the data warehouse
Advanced Reporting: we have updated it so that ‘custom activity’ is referred to as ‘tasks’ to match the naming conventions users see in itslearning