March 2025 Release Notes

Updates to Async Mode course and assignment settings. These updates enhance grading flexibility, assignment creation, and review management for instructors, providing more control over the evaluation process within Async mode courses.

Async Mode Enhancements

RR-520: Set All Deadlines the Same in a Course

Instructors can now set one deadline for all assignments within an async mode course. This eliminates the need for individual deadline configuration for each assignment, saving instructors time.

RR-879: LMS Completion-Based Results

Instructors can now set up async assignments to send a completion check to the LMS upon student completion. This setting will automatically copy over when assignments are copied.

RR-880: Async with Task Completion Grade

Instructors can assign a task grade based on the completion of all required tasks rather than basing the grade solely on the submission.

RR-881: No Accuracy Check in Async

Instructors can now remove the accuracy check from async assignments. This setting is automatically applied when fewer than 3 reviewers or rating prompts are used.

RR-882: Number of Reviewers in Async

Instructors can now select the number of reviewers for async assignments, with options ranging from 1 to 10 reviewers.

RR-883: Hide Grades Card Before Assignment is Published

Instructors now have the option to hide the grades card on the student results page before the assignment is published and before results are generated.

RR-884: Rubric Comments vs. Ratings

Instructors can now choose to include either only ratings or only comments in the rubric for async assignments, provided the assignment is set for completion-based grading.

RR-885: Require Word Count for Comments

Instructors can mandate that comments meet a minimum word count before they can be submitted. Reviews cannot be submitted unless the word count requirement is met.

Review & Grading Workflow Improvements

RR-905: Release of Results for Async Completion-Based Graded Assignment

Instructors can now choose when to release completion-based results: either when a student finishes all their tasks or when they have completed tasks and received the required number of reviews.

RR-909: Configurable Async Settings

Instructors now have more customization options for async assignments. They can select whether students receive a task grade, no grade, or completion results, as well as configure reviewer numbers, resubmit button visibility, and the visibility of grades, ratings, or comments on the results page before the assignment is published.

RR-914: Turn Off Resubmit Option for Async

Instructors can now disable the resubmit button for async assignments, preventing students from submitting their work multiple times.

Completion & Notification Enhancements

RR-915: Async Completion Assignment Student Results

A new feature allows students who have completed their tasks but are waiting for reviews to receive a message indicating that they need to wait for reviews to view their results.

RR-916: Notify Students When They Can View Results for Async Completion-Based Grading

The results page now notifies students when they have received the required number of reviews to view their results. An email notification is also sent to inform them when their ratings and comments are available.

Grade Calculation & Settings

RR-1005: Select Async Grade Settings

Instructors now have the ability to select how grades are calculated in async assignments. Available options include:

Submission Grade Only: Based on the average of peer and instructor ratings.
Task Grade Only: Based on the percentage of tasks completed versus required tasks.
Ungraded - Completion Result Only: No grades, only a completion result when tasks are completed.

February 2025 Release Notes

Updates to Team Member Evaluation Assignments, including introduction of a Points Allocation Evaluation Mode. Updates to Group Formation Assignments.

Team Member Evaluation Enhancements

Partial Credit for Team Member Evaluation Completion (RR-745)
- Students now receive partial credit for partially completed peer evaluations when the grading is completion-based. For example, completing 2 out of 3 team member evaluations will result in a completion grade of 66% instead of 0%.
Self vs. Peer Evaluation Comparison (RR-719)
- Instructors can now compare students’ self-evaluation ratings with team member evaluation ratings directly in the individual scores table. A column for self-evaluation has been added, and discrepancies between self and peer ratings are flagged for easy review.
Anonymous or Non-Anonymous TME Evaluation Results (RR-723)
- Instructors can now choose whether students see anonymous or non-anonymous results for TME evaluations, offering greater flexibility in peer evaluation transparency.

Reflection Phase for TME Assignments (RR-711)
- A new reflection phase option has been added to TME-only assignments, configurable in the "Build a Custom Assignment" settings.
Points Allocation Feature (RR-717, RR-828, RR-829, RR-830, RR-831, RR-832, RR-856)
- Points Distribution: Students can now allocate a specific number of points (100) among their team members based on contributions.
- Self Review Inclusion: Instructors can enable or disable self-assessment as part of points allocation.
- Comment Prompt: A new required comment prompt asks students to justify their high and low point allocations, visible only to instructors.
- Grading & Results: The points allocation feature contributes to a task completion grade but does not factor in ratings.
- Instructor View: Points Distribution Results: Instructors now have access to a table displaying student points distribution results, including total points received, percentage of total available points, and the Peer Evaluation Factor (PEF). This allows for insight into group dynamics and point distribution.
Grade Weight Setting for TME Assignments (RR-827)
- Instructors can set grade weights for task completion vs. ratings data in TME assignments. When using the points allocation model only, the grade weight is set to 100% task grade.

Group Formation Enhancements

Group Formation Notifications (RR-893, RR-916)
- Students now receive email notifications about upcoming group formation deadlines and after groups have been assigned when results have been released.
Instructor Aggregated Results (RR-896)
- Instructors can now view high-level aggregated group formation data, including percentage breakdowns of student responses, schedule availability, and ranked preferences.
Similar/Different Grouping Option (RR-897)
- Instructors can now designate whether students should be grouped based on similar or different multiple-choice responses.
Set the Priority or Weight of Individual Survey Questions
- Instructors can now set the priority or weight of individual survey questions so that certain data can count more or less when the algorithm is forming the groups.

September 2024 Release Notes

Instructor and Student User Interface Enhancements

RR-748: Added a "Group Name" column to the Individual Assignment Grades table on the instructor results page for easier grading and organization by group.
RR-708 & RR-709: Improved the TME student interface to highlight assignment completion more clearly and reduce the number of clicks for enhanced usability.
RR-710: Added Group Comparison features, including sorting options, to aid instructors in evaluating group performance.
RR-712: Introduced a toggle to control the visibility of individual rubric items in student results, allowing for tailored feedback display.
RR-714: Enabled hiding portions of the results page (grades, comments, ratings) before results are fully generated, giving instructors greater control over the student view.
RR-720: Added a self-evaluation vs. peer-evaluation comparison view in the student UI for more insightful self-reflection.
RR-743: Implemented a student peer selection feature, allowing students to choose peers for assignments.
RR-715 & RR-716: Added the option to display Whole Group Evaluation data to both students and instructors for a more holistic view of group contributions.

Group Formation and Management

RR-718: Added group formation capabilities, allowing for organized group work within assignments.
RR-890 to RR-901: Launched a new Group Formation assignment type with full functionality, including task grading, specific assignment settings, and rank-order selection options. Instructors and students now have dedicated results pages, email notifications, and a feature for managing non-grouped students. Additionally, a survey feature was added to the rubric tab for capturing group formation feedback.

Administrator Dashboard and Reporting

RR-481, RR-485, & RR-486: Updated the administrator dashboard and assignments page to display the number of assignments and users per semester, allowing for more accurate semester-over-semester comparisons.
RR-495, RR-496, & RR-497: Introduced new analytics on the Admin Dashboard to view average mastery of rating prompts, course-specific mastery data, and mastery data segmented by instructor for comprehensive performance monitoring.
RR-498: Added an option for administrators to delete course templates, simplifying template management.

Permissions and Role Management

RR-669, RR-670, & RR-671: Enhanced instructor control over roster roles, enabling the management of TA/Grader permissions, changing user roles, and adding TAs directly to rosters.
RR-672: Enabled reading of LMS roles on LTI Launch to align user roles between systems.
RR-662: Introduced an indicator for the lead instructor on the roster, clarifying instructor hierarchy for course management.

Template Management

RR-370: Enabled automatic sharing of school admin templates across domains, promoting template consistency across campuses.
RR-517: Enabled instructors to create their own assignment and course templates, offering flexibility and customization in assignment design.