Digest and discuss.

Any comments as we embark on yet another journey? 4 days till we get another opportunity to help shape the future!

I thought I’d share a letter most of you probably received in your email boxes today (and promptly trashed) from Engrade. It’s worth looking over so that entering new classes and students this upcoming September doesn’t come as too much of a shock. They’ve rolled out some new features that may or may not interfere with the way you were controlling/handling things. Read over the letter, login to Engrade and see what’s changed for the better, or worse.

Hello Mr. Craig L. Moss,

This is Brian from Engrade. I wanted to let you know that we’ve just released a long list of new upgrades and features to Engrade. This is part of our ongoing mission to empower educators by providing them with the best online classroom tools possible. Here are just a few of the new features you’ll find:

* Faster. We’ve completely redone the back-end of Engrade to make it even faster than before.

* Change username. You can now change your account’s username by clicking the Account > Profile link at the top of the page.

* Conversational Messaging. Much like in GMail, Engrade now stores new messages in a conversational thread. All messages from a single back-and-forth conversation will appear as a single message in your inbox.

* Wikis. Engrade now has collaborative public wikis! You can create a new wiki and enable fellow teachers or your students to contribute to it. Use this feature to create study guides, lesson plans, and online textbooks to share with teachers and students across the world. http://wikis.engrade.com/

* New Student Access Codes. We’ve changed our access code format from engrade-username-xxxxxx to username-xxxxxx-yyyy where yyyy is a four-digit secret code automatically generated by Engrade. We added this in order to allow teachers and schools to use non-secret student IDs when they add students to classes. Note that all previously-entered access codes are still working, and new students can still use the old format until Sept. 1st.

* Class files. Your Engrade class now has a ‘Files’ tab in which you can attach all your class files so students can quickly find them when they log in. Also, when you attach a file to an assignment, it will automatically be listed in the ‘Files’ tab.

* Reading List. You can now list your class books in Engrade in the Reading List class tab. This will automatically generate links for your students to purchase the books from a range of online retailers if they wish.

* More Class Settings. You’ll notice that under the class Settings tab there are several addition option including: the ability to DISABLE student access, the ability to DISABLE students messaging you, and the ability to ALLOW students to message each other.

* Share Access to Classes. You can now allow other users to view and edit a class. Simply open a class, click on the Settings tab and then click Class Access to add more users.

* Improved Copy Class. Engrade’s improved Copy Class feature lets you not just copy your class settings to a new class, but also copy the class assignments and class calendar. To copy a class, click Classes at the top of the page then click the Copy link next to a given class in your class list.

* Non-English Characters. Engrade now better supports non-English characters.

* More School Features. Your administrators will now have many more features when they create a school account including full access to all class reports and multi-class report cards.

* Coming soon: Seating chart. In the next month or so we’ll be adding a much-requested seating chart tool.

And as always, all of our users find Engrade through word of mouth, so make sure to share Engrade with your fellow teachers and administrators for the new school year!

See for yourself: http://www.engrade.com/login.php

Thank You,
Brian
Engrade – The Classroom Community

http://www.engrade.com/

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