A new software release is now available in the Edsby Sandbox. It is expected that this release will be going into production across all customer sites in the January 3 to January 5 timeframe.
New features in this release
Report card publication notification options
Customers now have the option to publish report cards without sending notifications. This option has been requested by customers who want to republish report cards without notifying parents and students. The options are visible after the Publish button has been clicked.
District News notifications
The option to receive notifications for district level News has been added. The new option will need to be enabled by users. However, when the new school year begins, all users are asked if they wish to enable the default set of notifications. The new district level News Published option is included in the default set of notifications.
Attendance schedule enhancements
District IT Admins can now configure the period consolidation gap and start and end times for daily attendance. The form can be found by navigating to the Manage page and clicking the Edit button in the Edsby Features panel. In the Core Features section, click the Scheduling Configure button.
Period consolidation gap
If the same class is scheduled for two consecutive periods, they can be treated as a single period for attendance purposes if they fall within a defined number of seconds of each other. The change will be applied after the next synchronization.
For example, Mr. Hussain’s grade 8 class has Language Arts for Period 1 and Period 2 on Day 3. There is a five-minute gap between each period. Currently, Mr. Hussain would be prompted to take attendance for Period 1 and Period 2.
Setting the Period Consolidation Gap to 300 seconds would treat the two consecutive periods as a single meeting for attendance purposes. Once set, Mr. Hussain would be prompted to submit attendance for Period 1 and 2 at the beginning of Period 1.
Daily attendance start and end times
The Schedule settings form also includes the ability to set the start and end times for daily attendance for a specified Schedule ID. For most customers, this information is supplied by the SIS.
For a few customers where this information is missing from the SIS schedule information, the Edsby Support Team can set it on behalf of the customer.
However, if needed, District IT Admins are now empowered to set this information through the Schedule settings form. Enter the name of the default schedule ID and fill in the time for Day Start Time, Morning End Time, Afternoon Start Time, and Day End Time. The times will control when the Attendance button appears on the home screen for the morning and afternoon sessions.
The schedule IDs can be found at the bottom of the Schedules page.
At this point in the school year, the start and end times for daily attendance have been set by the Edsby Support Team. Where needed, it will be the responsibility of the District IT Admin to set up this information. District IT Admins may wish to set an annual reminder for themselves to update the Schedule ID before the start of each school year.
For most customers, this information is supplied by the SIS and no action is required.
Controls for averages on Panorama and Zooms
Customers now have the option to suppress averages on the Classes panel of the Panorama, Students and My Student Zooms for all user roles.
The District and School Setup form now has a Display Overall Results in Panorama and Zooms field. This form is accessed by navigating to the district or school page, then opening the Information panel.
Set the field to Don’t Show if you wish to remove the averages from the Panorama and Zooms for all users. You can also continue use a specified grade scheme for the averages. Previously, this field was named Default Grade Scheme.
The field is available on both the District and School Setup forms. The District IT Admins can set the form at the District and School levels. The School IT and Senior Admin can set this field at the school level.
Teachers are empowered to display the class average to parents and students through the class Setup form. If the Show Averages to student and parents is not set to Don’t Show, the average will appear on the Panorama Classes panel.
Credit Recovery enhancements
Reporting periods now have the option to control how Credit Recovery is applied. Credit Recovery can be applied to all sheets, final sheets only, or disabled. If the Final sheets only option is chosen, only classes with a term end within two weeks of the Reporting Period’s end date will trigger the Credit Recovery workflow.
For example, Semester 1 ends on January 30th. The Semester 1 mid-term reporting period ends on November 30th. The half credit courses end on November 30th.
Setting the Semester 1 mid-term reporting to Final Sheet only would trigger the Credit Recovery workflow for the half credit courses that end on November 30th but not the full semester courses.
For reporting periods that include only elementary schools, the Credit Recovery field could be set to Disabled.
The Credit Recovery field is in the Advanced options of the Reporting Period Setup form. The field can be set for existing reporting periods by clicking the Edit button in the Report Cards Zoom.
Class Weighting form
When the recovery class is created, it will now include the weighting buckets from the original class.
Gradebook Summary columns enhancements
Grade mapping schemes can now include values defined as null. For example, Not Assessed might be defined as null.
The gradebook summary columns will not include assessments that have been graded with a null value in the median and mean average summary methods. For example, if a student has been given Not Assessed on an assignment, this assignment will not be used in the calculation of mean averages or medians.
District IT Admin Notes
None in this release.
Training implications and resources
Edsby Release Reviews for 2023-24 videos can be found here.
Permission and roles changes
None in this release.
Quality improvements in this release
Android Samsung internet browser can be used to log into Edsby.
Attendance: Improved handling of late arrival time within the attendance sheet.
Attendance: Repeated planned absence displays the date of the repeated event.
Attendance Sheet: Pre-existing late is retained when sheet is submitted.
Copy links: Fixed crash when link referenced itself.
Credit Recovery: Formatting improvements to zoom layout.
Credit Recovery notifications: Clicking bell notification opens workflow item in Messages.
Edsembli/School Messenger: Resolved the issue with reason codes not being imported for planned absences.
Gradebook: Added tooltip to status field.
Group recommender: Improvements to the recommendations when a user has hundreds of groups.
Groups: Fixed erroneous error message seen when selecting a closed group.
Interests: Setting new interests are retained for both groups and personal settings.
Monitor Groups: When deleting a student, the student list is updated without needing to log out and log in.
Library: Fixed icon issues for uploaded files.
Messages: Dark mode formatting improvements to distinguish between outgoing and incoming messages.
My Work: Long grade comments no longer spill over margin.
My Work: An assessment using the default Yes/No grade scheme will be counted in the Graded category when the student’s grade is entered as No.
News River: Notifications of a new article is sent on the submission of an article and not on the creation of an article.
Online Tests: Fixed issue with drop-down questions with distraction answer stems.
Panorama Report Cards: District IT Admin can view report cards from all archived years.
Parent Teacher Interviews: Teachers and parent see the correct dates if the dates are changed after the campaign has been opened.
Parent Details Page: Fixed issue with the Show History button for District IT Admins.
Parent Teacher Interviews: Notification email messages now include the district name.
Perspective Analyze: The student list is loaded when the page is opened for the first time.
Question Sheet Preview: Inline images are now visible.
Portfolio: Article retains colored text and indents.
Portfolio: Subject list is no longer editable.
Report card sheets: Formatting improvements to the comment search box.
Report card sheets: Issue with switching between a drop-down field and the comment box has been resolved.
Report cards sheets: Excluded and re-included assessments display in chronological order.
Reporting Periods: Archived periods no longer display unlock, publish, or delete buttons.
Social Emotional Learning: Teachers are no longer listed and dropped students are labelled as such in Check Ins.