We've been busy! Here's a sneak peek at our March - May 2024 new features and improvements:
Improved Drag & Drop Experience
Now, students can click to surface dropzones in Drag and Drop, enhancing the user experience and making interaction smoother.
We also implemented Drag and Drop navigation bar with arrows for seamless auto placement or movement of DnD images.
Introducing Slide Preview for Drawing (Whiteboard) Items:
Now, in the lesson builder, users get a sneak peek of their whiteboard drawings in the sidebar. Let creativity flow!
Google Forms Import
Teachers have widely requested the ability to import Google Forms, now they can! A Google Forms import tab is now shown where users acces their Google drive. The Form import option also appears on the shelf of the Formative landing page and in the Add+ menu.
Demographics are now available in the Summary Report
For districts using Oneroster to load demographics, they will now receive a distribution breakdown directly on the summary report, accompanied by improved graphics.
Common Assessments - Assessment Windows
Admins at Gold schools or districts can now set an assessment window on formatives tagged as Common Assessments, restricting teachers to create assignments and collect data within a specific timeframe. This enhances data integrity for administrators by preventing additional data entry after a set date. This feature was a top request from admins over the past year!
Editor Redesign
You may have spotted the "Editor Redesign" toggle. This revamped view streamlines the build process, allowing you to collapse questions for easier navigation. Plus, there's a handy sidebar for a summarized view of your formative, enabling quick navigation and drag-and-drop reordering. And stay tuned for bulk copy, delete options, and soon, the ability to add standards right from the sidebar!
Assign Settings Redesign
As of May 31st, 2024 we've switched over all our users to the new Assign Settings Redesign. Read all about it in this linked article!
Formative Header Enhancements
The Formative Header has been redesigned, consolidating student-facing instructions and notes into a single popover for improved clarity and organization.
The "Formative Type" dropdown in the overflow menu has been removed as this information can now be easily added in the Formative header. This improvement enhances user experience by simplifying the interface and reducing unnecessary clicks.
We also enhanced the text and contrast of Formative header and student question items to improve visual accessibility.
Duplicate Inline Choices
We've added the ability to duplicate the Inline Choice option in its overflow menu, allowing users to easily copy answer choices for efficiency.
Enhanced Sections
Now, users can add instructions for each section and color-code them! Easily navigate through formatives and provide clear guidance directly within each section, fostering improved teacher-student communication and understanding.
Section improvements also nclude tabs within the section UI for "Teacher Instructions" and "Student Instructions", ensuring that only student instructions are visible on student formatives. Also, users can now monitor the number or points in each section with recent Sections UI updates. These enhancements gives clarity and organization for both teachers and students, , providing greater transparency and control over formative assessments.
Retakes on Assignments
Teachers can now set the number of attempts that students get on an assignment, empowering personalized learning and improving outcomes. With this feature:
Students will see their correct answer transferred to each new attempt, allowing them to focus on the concepts that they didn't understand
Personalized learning is enhanced as students can retake assignments at their own pace, ensuring thorough understanding.
Unified Practice Sets and Formatives
Users can now access and folder Practice Sets in the same list as Formatives. With this improvement:
Users will receive an in-app announcement as notice of the change.
Look for the icon to identify Practice Set items.
Partial Credit/ Advanced Scoring
A widely requested addition, teachers can now give point values to answers that are on the right track! This grading is designed to support your students' learning journey by encouraging and allowing more accurate feedback. Add custom scoring to Multiple Choice, Multiple Selection, Short Answer or Numeric questions to help students grow and succeed.
Updated Respondus Security Level
Lockdown browser ensures distraction-free testing and prevents cheating. Explore our security levels below.
Security Levels Low: Students restricted to testing tab; no new tabs open without instructor links.
Medium: Includes all Low settings and blocks navigation from instructor links beyond original site.
High: Includes all Medium settings and prevents students from exiting browser without submission or a quit password.
Admin Navigation of Standards Progress
Admins can now filter on an organization to track standards progress across all formatives administered district-wide, building-wide, or across a department.
Duplicating Formatives / Folders Capability Enhancement
Admin and org managers now have the ability to add a prefix or suffix to the contents of a copied folder, as well as copy assessment settings such as CA types, subjects, SY, and grade level. This feature streamlines content rollover processes, saving users time and effort when updating materials from year to year.
Recently Used Standards
'Recently Used' standards have been added to the standard dropdown menu, allowing users to save time by quickly accessing frequently used standards.
More Activity List Actions
Deleted and renamed folder options have been added to the profile activity list, enhancing internal user management capabilities.
The below features have been added to our list of future features teachers can opt-in to test with us:
PDF Parsing
Revised the PDF parsing workflow to allow users to remove the PDF after generating questions, a crucial step for enhancing marketability and usability
Practice Sets
Added the percentage correct on the Last Performance to teacher reporting for improved assessment.
Added "dark mode" background
New background theme for Student Practice adding a touch of fun and variety to their learning experience.
Introduction of the Create Practice Shelf (Student Side): As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance user experience, we've added a dedicated Create Practice shelf on the student side, making it easier for students to access and engage with practice materials.
We Added students' previous attempt scores to practice start screens in order for students to challenge themselves!! The COMPETITION on!
We improved the AI generation experience for practice sets. The generator now persists so that users can continue to add generated cards to the set. Users can also select which generated cards should be included and return to Ai generation at any time during editing.
Slide Bar
Also new to our early access features is the "Lesson Editor," or "Presentation View". It offers a more slide-like experience, focusing on one question or content block at a time. We're enhancing it with more lesson functionality, emphasizing Formative's role as both an assessment and instruction tool.
AI Update
We have updated our Ai to GPT-4. "It's smarter, understand images... can speak more languages.", ChatGPT.com. This means that users can use GPT to:
Offer a wider range of concepts for accurate question generation.
Create more complex, multi-step problems for various difficulty levels.
Generate relevant questions linked to real-world applications.
Tailor questions according to specific student needs, grade levels, and learning objectives.
Increase accuracy to minimize errors in problem statements and solutions.
Every technological tool runs into hiccups here and there. If you run into any technical issues please submit a report to our team so we could go ahead and fix it!
Support for French - Canada
Added "French - Canada" to language codes, ensuring it appears correctly in the profile
Oneroster Auto Archive Notification
When a class is scheduled for auto-archiving, a notification is now sent to the section owner, ensuring clear communication and awareness- more rostering notifications coming soon.
Friendlier Cloning Republish Error
Cloning formatives error just got friendlier! Now, if there's an item that can't be republished, we'll give users a heads-up in a way that's as clear as day. No more head-scratching moments!
Expanded Color Options for Drawing / Show Your Work
We've included a 'white' color value in the SYW (Show Your Work) color options, allowing items to stand out clearly against dark backgrounds for improved visibility.
Teacher Paced Mode Navigation
As part of a series of improvements to the Teacher Paced Mode (TPM), we've relocated the "End Session" option to the floating navigation bar in the teacher view. This enhancement provides users with easier access to end a TPM session, offering four options to choose from.
We also relocated Teacher Paced Mode 'Restart' button to the navigation bar and added End Screen variants according to chosen end flow.
Teacher Feedback to Unanswered Questions
Teachers now have the ability to provide feedback to all unanswered questions at once! With the new "Select Unanswered" option, teachers can conveniently choose and deselect questions as needed, streamlining the feedback process.
Class Archiving Metadata
Class archiving notifications will include contextual information explaining why a class is being archived, enhancing clarity and understanding for users
Failed Video Uploads
An improved error message has been implemented for failed video uploads, providing guidance on potential issues related to video length. Users will now receive a clear message advising them to upload videos less than 10 minutes long.
Disabled Actions
Disabled actions have been removed from the action bar to streamline its functionality and improve user navigation.
🐞 Bugs
The below bugs were resolved throughout the month
Addressed an issue where filling out section titles in between formatives only saved the last section title if the user left the formative and returned
Disabled the file picker for students in Show Your Work (SYW) when the lockdown browser is turned on, rectifying a previous implementation
Fixed a bug that allowed students to skip questions even when prevent skip was enabled
Fix alert icon appears over an answer that was erased saying it was "submitted unanswered" even though it was not submitted
Fix: Incorrect Answer Auto-Grading when Fraction has No Denominator
Fix video player for iOS not working with prevent skip.
Fixed formative Search field returning error
Fix Now users can delete a fraction by repeatedly pressing the backspace key.
Fixed a bug where the move option was displaying the create team modal instead of the team
Fixed the ubiquitous showing, in disregard of whether a question has been answered, of "question unanswered" in the Drawing questions.
Fixed: Formative Type Tags are Removed when Published in Bundle
Fixed: Practice Sets Results scrolling
Fixed: Assign Settings | No Scroll for Google Topics
Fix FITB input box to prevent text from erasing in FireFox
Fixed an issue preventing simultaneous "Hidden after submission" and "Return correct answers after submit" options in the new assign modal.
Resolved an issue causing inability to create assignments from the Settings List View.
Addressed a bug where text was not visible on text+audio sides in mobile match mode, improving overall usability and accessibility.
Fixed, students were unable to reach the bottom of the passage using only the left scroll bar.
Fixed student presence indicator
Formatives can now be found in the tracker filter by users other than the owner or collaborator, addressing a limitation in search functionality.
Autograding now functions correctly for students whose answers were deleted and later provided a new response for the same question, ensuring accurate assessment results.
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