| New Features, July 2009 |
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New for Teachers
iPhone Friendly — Now you can use an iPhone or iPod Touch to take roll and grade homework. Plus new shortcuts let you click to enter grades instead of typing. You don't need to download anything from the App Store — just use your mobile browser to go to snapgrades.com. See Help Scan Tests — Now you can scan multiple-choice tests and send the results directly from your test scanner to your SnapGrades account, so you don't need to manually enter scores or import data files. See Help Adding Students — Now it is much easier to add a whole class list of student names or ID's, which you can copy and paste from any document or spreadsheet. The full Import feature still exists, but only in Admin Mode. This new feature also replaces the need for the "self enroll" feature, which has been removed. Also there are more safeguards to prevent accidentally changing student data and adding the wrong students. Withdrawing Students — You no longer need to choose between Removing and Withdrawing a student; that is now handled automatically. Transfer Grades — Now when a student transfers from another teacher's class into yours in the middle of a term, it automatically transfers their grade too. Or if a student has different teachers each quarter for the same course, you don't need to transfer any grades at all because it will now calculate the cumulative semester grade based on the quarter grades from both teachers. See Help Parent Alerts — Now teachers can view and change the Parent Alert settings on the Setup Students page. (Note that alerts still apply to all the student's teachers, not just your own classes.) See Help Student Contacts — Originally each student was limited to 2 parents, but now you can add unlimited contacts, such as tutors and caseworkers. This replaces the old "Staff Email" feature, so now staff contacts can have the same features as parents to login and receive alerts. Drop Low Scores — Now it automatically finds and drops low scores every time you enter grades. You designate how many scores to drop from each category, if any. (Before you had to manually tell it to drop scores each time. If your grades are now slightly different after the upgrade, double-check how many scores to drop for each category.) See Help Student Photos — Seating charts now optionally show photos. You upload the photos in Admin Mode. See Help Special Needs — A new page lets you see special needs of all your students at once. These notes are entered in Admin Mode. See Help More File Space — File space for teachers has increased from 20 MB to 50 MB. Undelete Classes — Now you can undelete classes and gradebooks. Standards — Teachers no longer need to align their subject tabs with standards. Instead, admins do that for you in Admin Mode. Copy Assignments — Now you can copy all assignments from any class, even from other teachers! You can do this anytime, not just when creating a new gradebook, and you don't need to export/import data files. See the page. Update Button — A new "Update" button on the and pages lets you save and recalculate the grades without leaving the page. Offline — Now you can set one gradebook online and all others offline. (Before all gradebooks for the whole year were set the same.) Help Tips — Help tips now pop up by your mouse, instead of in the page footer. Just hold your mouse over something for 1.5 seconds. Plus miscellaneous bug fixes, user interface improvements, and improved security. New for Admins
Import Classes — Now when you import courses, sections, and student schedules, it goes into a Draft Schedule which you can preview and correct if needed. Then when you are ready, you can publish the schedule directly into teachers' gradebooks, so it is no longer necessary for teachers to manually load your last import. See Help Schedule Students — Now admins can stay in Admin Mode to add and drop students from any class, or add and cancel classes. You no longer need to go into teacher's gradebooks to do that. See Help Print Schedules — Now you can print schedules and locator cards for each student. See Help Reassign Teachers — Now you can reassign a class from one teacher to another. This moves all the students, assignments, and grading options into the new teacher's gradebook for one class. Also you can change a teacher's username, password, and name directly in Admin Mode, to reassign an entire account to another teacher. See Help Student Photos — You can upload all photos at once. Teachers can see photos on seating charts and the Setup Students page. See Help Student Contacts — Originally each student was limited to 2 parents, but now you can add unlimited contacts, such as caseworkers, tutors, etc. You can specify which contacts have online access and which do not. Also you can enter separate addresses for each parent/contact, which lets you mail separate report cards to each parent if needed. See Help Medical Records — Doctor contact info, insurance, immunizations, allergies, diagnoses, medications, hearing, vision, and physical exams. (This will be limited to the SIS later.) See Help Delete Students — Now you can delete a single student, even if they are already in a teacher's gradebook. See Help Fix Dupes — This is now better at finding names that are truly similar, so there are fewer false matches. See Help District Student Database — Now all schools in your district share the same student database (unless each school subscribes independently). This means you don't need to reenter anything when students graduate to a new school or for intra-district transfers. Also it keeps course info and attendance codes consistent at all schools, but still lets each school have separate grading periods and other options. See Help Import Staff — Now you can import staff names, email, and teacher codes, and you can do this for multiple schools at once. (Before you could import only email addresses, and only for a single school.) See Help Staff Restrictions — Now you have more precise control over which staff members can change which settings. And you can set which staff to include or exclude from your group license. See Help Staff Monitoring — Now admins can see how often staff members are logging in. See Help Public Downloads — Now admins can upload files (like teachers already can) for students and parents to download, or to link in broadcast email. See Help Exports — Now you can export attendance data. Also student data and grades are now separate downloads, each with additional data columns. (Since the data columns have changed, you may need to reconfigure any 3rd party utilities.) See Help Embedded Portal — Now you can embed grades, homework, etc. inside your own parent/student portal without requiring a separate login. See Help Plus miscellaneous bug fixes, user interface improvements, and improved security. New for Students & Parents
iPhone Friendly — The student/parent login pages now format automatically for iPhone and iPod Touch. See Help Multiple Children — Parents who have more than one child in the same district now have a menu to quickly view each child without separate logins. SnapGrades SIS
SnapGrades SIS is a new Student Information System, now in beta testing through the 2009-2010 school year. A Student Information System manages student records for the whole district. The SnapGrades gradebook is completely integrated with the SIS, or you may continue to use it independently. The following SIS features will be added soon: |
