April Showers!!!

It's April and here at School Island it means a shower of new features. In this newsletter, learn about our latest features for teachers and administrators as well as out about future trends in education.

New Features & Updates

For Teachers

Student Responses

Two new Student Response reports have been added to the Assignment Student Results page.

1. The Reports column now shows two links:

   • The Session link replaces the icon formerly used to display the Session report.

   • The Responses link displays the entire assignment along with scoring information, including each question, the correct answer, and the student's responses (first and retry). Student information displays below the question.

2. A new Export all responses as a spreadsheet file link, located near the bottom of the page, exports all student status indicators and responses to all questions in an assignment as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file .

The reports in #1 above are also available from the Classes View Sessions page.

For English Teachers: "The Great Gatsby"

A new unit, "Literature: The Great Gatsby", has been added to the English course. This is the first in a series of literature short answer questions, which will be added to the English course on a continuing basis. Each section in this unit contains questions covering a chapter of this classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.

To add these questions into an assignment:

1. Go to the Add Question page.

2. Select the "Literature: The Great Gatsby" unit.

3. Select a section for the desired chapter.

4. Use the Browse and Select option to select the questions to include in your assignment.

Note:  The order of the literature questions for a particular chapter parallels the sequence of events in the book. Thus, the use of randomization is not recommended in assignments with literature questions.

Export Results Report

The Results Report, accessed from the Assignment Results page, now has an Export link at the top of the page. This link allows you to export report results into a spreadsheet format.

French and Spanish Salutations

The Profile page allows teachers (and administrators) to select the following French and Spanish salutations, in addition to the standard English salutations:

• M.

• Mme

• Mlle

• Sr.

• Sra.

• Srta.

Since the salutation displays along with the teacher's name on various Student pages (as well as some Teacher and Administrator pages), French and Spanish teachers may want to use one of these salutations.

For Administrators

Export as Spreadsheet

At the bottom of the Questions Summary Report page is an Export as spreadsheet file option. This new function exports the question summary data directly to your spreadsheet program or hard drive.

Export Assignment Summary

Export Accounts

On the Accounts page, the Create Download File option has been replaced by the Export all accounts as spreadsheet file option. This new function directly exports data to your spreadsheet program or hard drive.

View / Search Accounts

A new View/Search Accounts Report allows an Administrator to search for an account by user name within the district (when the Administrator has district rights) or school. This report looks similar to the standard Accounts page, but is not limited to the currently selected school. To access this report:

1. Click the Reports link on the Administrator Home page.

2. Click the View/Search Accounts link.

3. Click the Edit icon for a specific user on this page to display the Edit Account page for the specified user.

This report is helpful if you need to move a student to another school within the district and you are not sure which school the student is currently enrolled.

Assignment Verification

It can often be difficult to check whether all students are working on the correct assignment when administering a class assignment in a computer classroom environment. To confirm all students are working on the same assignment, an Assignment Verification Number now displays on the right side of the title area of a Short Answer Question page. This number is large enough to view from a reasonable distance away. In addition, this portion of the screen may be set to one of a number of colors. Screens for all students working on the same assignment contain the same Assignment Verification Number and color, making it easier for you to visually verify they are working on the same assignment. This Assignment Verification Number also displays on the teacher's Edit Assignment page.

Vocabulary Study Sheet

You can now view and print a Vocabulary Study Sheet, which includes vocabulary terms related to questions all students in a class answered incorrectly on an assignment. The Assignment Results page has a Vocabulary Study Sheet link located below the Student Results table. Vocabulary terms along with their definitions display in a separate window. From this window, you may print and represent results from the students in the currently- selected class.

For Teachers & Administrators

Spell Checker in Personal Content Sets Editor

The Personal Content Sets Editor now includes a spell checker option. To check spelling, click the Spell Check icon in the editing toolbar.

Pre-Calculus Complete

As a member of the School Island family, this is your newsletter. If you have any comments, ideas for future newsletter articles, or suggestions for a School Island product feature or enhancement, please send them to support@schoolisland.com. We would love to hear from you!