2023 Platform Updates

November

New features/functions and improvements

• Our all-new Teacher interface is now available in BETA! The new interface is ready for teachers to try it out and give their feedback. Featuring:
  • New left-hand navigation
  • Class-centric view
  • A brand new Discover tool
  • Check it out!
• We've rolled out our brand new Experiments tool. New EP features (including our new teacher interface) will be offered as BETA and can be easily accessed through this tool. Learn how to access Experiments.
• With the rollout of our new Discover tool. we've made some updates to the Content Library. All tasks can now be performed in one area, with no need to toggle between Edit and Browse mode. In addition, Feaured and EP Content are now grouped together, as are My Content and My School's Content.
• We're ending support for EP for Home. Learn more.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue in Assessments where PDF exports returned an error instead of downloading.
• Fixed an issue in the Enrolment Portal where the Cross-Curricular subject was not accepted.

October

New features/functions and improvements

• Clever Roster Sync is now live! This integration enables schools using Clever to seamlessly enrol their classes on EP. Subsequent updates are synced with EP automatically, making class management easy. Learn more here.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug in Assessments where teachers were unable to export PDF copies of Assessment content or student attempts.
• Fixed two issues in Classes for Canadian based users where:
  • Classes were not displaying correctly on some teacher dashboards.
  • The Sync from Google Classroom button did not appear until after a cache clear.
• Fixed a bug in the Student Zone where users were unable to record audio in Smart Lessons that included audio recorder components.

September

New features/functions and improvements

• Google Classroom Sync is no longer in [beta]! Schools will need to opt-in to enable this enrolment method. Learn more here.

Bug fixes

• Fixed multiple issues in the Student Zone where:
  • Students were unable to load their assessments for a short period of time.
  • Students were unable to join a class via Class Join Codes if using certain web browsers.
• Fixed an issue where teachers were unable to sort students by Last name when assigning a Task or Assessment.

August

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue in the Student Zone where answers in Extended Response type questions wouldn't save when navigating back and forth between questions.
• Fixed an issue in the Content Library where some teachers were unable to save Assessments or Smart Lessons they were working on.

July

• Google Classroom Sync [beta] is now live! Teachers can now import their to EP classes directly from Google Classroom.

• Fixed a bug in the Student Zone where the final score dialogue after an Assessment wasn't displaying correctly for some students.

June

• In Assessments, teachers are now given the option to include model answers when exporting content.
• We've improved our onboarding flows for new teachers to EP. This includes:
  • Emails: We've introduced an updated welcome email and subsequent guidance emails to help new users find what they need as soon as possible.
  • In-app assistance: New users will be shown through the key areas of EP when they begin their journey.
  • Help Guides: A new series of guides has been introduced, offering step by step guidance that can be referred back to time and again.

May

• In the EP Enrolment Portal, accepted data has been made more friendly to various Student Management/Information System formats. Headers are more flexible, and variations in text are now accepted.

Bug fixes

• In the Student Zone, an issue was fixed where the Make Payment button wasn't appearing for those who needed to pay for a subscription.

New features/functions and improvements

• In the Classes tab, the Who's Online Now feature has been updated, bringing it in line with other UI updates across EP.
• School teachers can now access our brand new product roadmap from their account’s dropdown menu.
• Microsoft Login has been launched on EP, where users now have the option of logging in to EP using their Microsoft account.
• In Tasks and Assessments:
  • If there are more than 10 students assigned, we'll now show the list of classes instead of individual student names.
  • Changes have been made to make these areas quicker to load.
• In the EP Enrolment Portal:
  • We now support file submissions where teacher names are supplied in two columns.
  • The create a teacher form in the teacher picker has been simplified, reducing the number of fields to fill out.

Bug fixes

• Fixed wording in Tasks, where in the Edit area for a Learning Mode Task, it now correctly states that previous points are not included.
• Fixed a bug in the Content Library where teachers would encounter a white/blank page when clicking Add to my content and then Create new folder.
• Fixed an issue that prevented school IT departments from whitelisting our transactional emails.
• In the EP Enrolment Portal:
  • Subject fields submitted to the portal are no longer case sensitive.
  • We've made the messaging clearer when a teacher is missing from a class and fixed an issue where the Edit link for the teacher picker wasn’t displayed in some cases.
  • Files that are submitted with duplicate LTI Identifiers now show a specific error (instead of a generic error).

March

New features/functions and improvements

• In Tasks and Assessments, quick links to the Task Completion Report and Assessment Report have returned.
• In the Competitions tab, the header/navigation has been updated to match the new layout that exists in the Tasks and Assessments tabs. 
• In the Student Zone, if a student encounters an error when submitting a Peer Review response, they'll see clearer error messages prompting them to try again.
• In the Enrolment Portal:
  • If a teacher cannot be matched from a spreadsheet submitted via the portal, users now have the option to click Edit and either:
    • Choose from the existing teachers at the school
    • Create a new account then and there.
  • The school template columns have been reordered. They are now grouped by student/class data and have had some name updates.
    • These changes are backwards compatible, so anyone using a template downloaded before this change will still work.

Bug fixes

• In Assessments, teachers can once again refresh Assessment Access Codes for Assessment-based competitions (including Brain Bee). This is done via the three-dot menu on the Assessment tile.
• Fixed a bug in Competitions where the View full scoreboard button in the Results tab was pointing to the incorrect place.
• Fixed a bug in Tasks where progress bars in the Results tab were displaying incorrectly.
• Fixed a bug in the Enrolment Portal where a submission that contains numbers (or is empty) in the subject field would freeze when processing.

February

New features/functions and improvements

• Further improvements have been made to the Enrolment Portal:
  • Flexibility in subject naming has been improved, with variations now accepted (e.g. Math, Maths, Mathematics).
  • Notification emails are now sent to all teachers who had classes enrolled for them through the portal, confirming that they’re ready to go.
  • Various validation error messages have been made clearer, including what action needs to be taken. Where relevant, help guides are provided alongside errors so users can get more clarification on how to resolve them.
  • Additional tweaks to the overall UI and flow of the portal have been made, further improving the enrolment process.
• The Insights feature has received a visual and experience upgrade, bringing it in line with recent design improvements to Tasks and Assessments. No functionality has been removed, but Insights now has a more fresh and modern feel.
• In Tasks and Assessments:
  • Cards in these tabs have been updated to match the updated designs. The cards are now responsive to screen size, better accommodating for those who prefer zoomed in screens or are using iPads/tablets.
  • Cards are now ordered differently, and will now appear in the order of Active, Upcoming, and then Finished.
• In Tasks, the ability to filter to specific classes in the Report tab when multiple classes and lessons have been assigned has been returned.
• In Assessments, when assigning a Quiz, the ability to see the number of lessons selected has been returned.
• Tasks, Assessments and Competitions have all had an update to their view filters. These are now consistent across all three features, are screen responsive, and are in line with the rest of the design changes that have been made. 
  • This change is most prominent in Tasks and Assessments, as the sidebar has been retired in favour of a classes dropdown. Functionality remains the same.

Bug fixes

• Multiple bugs were fixed in the Enrolment Portal where:
  • Some users were receiving a no response from server error.
  • The view template and download template headers were shown after files were uploaded to the portal.
  • Educators would sometimes see success confirmation but no actual classes added to the platform. They'll now see an error message if classes are unable to be created, and in future, this will be made more specific to the error that has occurred.
• Fixed a bug in Classes where Class Join Codes could not be refreshed on the Full Screen Class Code page.
• Fixed several bugs in Assessments when using the Recommended Next Steps feature where: 
  • When opening the Assign Recommendations dialogue for the first time, the ability to filter to specific students wouldn’t appear and the class name was replaced with a students name.
  • The option to Assign Recommendations wouldn’t appear immediately and required a refresh to be visible.
  • Recommendations that were removed wouldn’t disappear immediately and required a refresh in order to see changes.

January

New features/functions and improvements

• Further to the Enrolment Portal release in December, various improvements have been made:
  • The acceptance of year/grade level formatting in submitted files has been made much more flexible. Examples of accepted formats include Year 07, Year 7, Y7, Y07, 07, 7 (the same behaviour applies to grades).
  • The notes field character limit has been extended to 300 characters.
  • Various other fixes and improvements have been made to the portal, further streamlining the enrolment process.
• In EP Studio and the Student Zone, M4A audio is now supported in lessons through the File Uploader component.
• The Classes and Content tabs have had a visual upgrade to match the recent Tasks and Assessments refresh. Existing functionality remains the same, but each feature now has a fresh and modern look and feel. 
• In Assessments:
  • The Assessment Result table export now includes all student results per question, making it easier to identify specific success or development areas for students.
  • Educators are now notified when they try assign a quiz with 0 questions.

Bug fixes

• In Tasks, the Export answers as pdf button no longer disappears when clicked. 
• Live Assessment monitoring is now working for those using Safari browsers with Mac OS 13.