New Release: Sprint E20

Azroy Kandan2 Comments

Sprint E20 was delayed due to the extensive testing required for improvements to our core modules, in particular Attendance and Standards-Based Gradebook modules. We hope you enjoy these new improvements.

So here’s a list of the latest improvements in QuickSchools:

  • Standands-Based Gradebook Improvements (See below)
    • Tool Tip when you hover over a grade for a students performance in a standard.
    • Improve the way standards are added/imported to the Gradebook
    • Ability to select specific standards within a Standard Set
    • Organize the way Standards are displayed for Parents
  • New Attendance Calendar (See below)
    • Configure School Days and Holidays
  • Subject Attendance Improvements (See below)
    • Indicator for Taken Attendance
    • Optional Submit Attendance
    • Roster respects students Enrollment Date
  • Updated Data Dictionary for Report Creator now includes support for:
    • Number of Columns in Gradebook
    • Gradebook Comments
    • Homework
  • Miscellaneous Bug Fixes / Improvements
    • Student Importer now supports reactivating existing student records (See below).
    • Course Importer (For Master Scheduler and New Transcripts)
    • Preview Email Fix for WYSIWYG Editor
    • Bug fix for Submit Grades
    • Bug fix for Auto-Fill on Locked Columns
    • Option to show running GPA on Student Portal (BETA)
    • Fee Tracking bug fixes for Payment Allocation

Standards-Based Gradebook Improvements

On the Standards-Based Gradebook, you can now mouse over the grade for a standard, and it will display the calculation for that grade:

Mouse over a cell to see the calculation for students performance for a certain standard

You can still of course click on a cell to see the full detail behind the calculation:

View all Assessments for a Standard, along with calculation for the selected student

We’ve also simplified the way teachers can add standards to the gradebook. Here what you see when clicking on “Add Standard”:

Add standards from a Standard Set, or create your own standard

When adding standards from a Standard Set, you can now select specific standards from within the set:

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The A-Ha / Eureka Moment

Azroy Kandan2 Comments

So we had a chance to visit a few schools in Boston last week, as we made our way from Albany to Louisville for conferences. We don’t usually come on-site to meet with schools, seeing as QuickSchools is primarily an online service/product (to keep costs low). But when the opportunity presented itself, we were greatly appreciative of the hospitality provided to us.

First off, one consistent feedback we get from schools we spoke to is that the Live Chat support is super responsive. It’s there when you need it, all day every day. The support personnel are knowledgeable and understanding of the issues faced by users. Thank you for letting us know. It warms our hearts that we’re heading in the right direction when it comes to support. But I digress…

The other common theme that we’ve encountered, which is the topic of this article, has to do with the vastness of our product. There’s so much that the system can do, coupled with the fact that new improvements are being released on a regular basis, schools don’t necessarily realize the full potential of our product. 

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Subject-Based Lesson Plans App

Emily H.6 Comments

In QuickSchools we have two different options when it comes to Lesson Plans tracking.

The newer version is our Subject-Based Lesson Plans app which allows you to create lesson plans that are directly linked to subjects. Our normal Lesson Plans under the Athena plan allows you to create Lesson Plan Sets, which can be applied to multiple subjects across different semesters.

To learn more about the differences to find out which is best for you, check out the table below:

Lesson Plan (Athena Plan)Subject-Based Lesson Plans (App)
You have to create a Lesson Plan Set first, and then apply it to a subject. You can re-apply the same lesson plan set to multiple subjects across different academic terms.You simply select a subject, and the Lesson Plan Set is already created. When you select a different subject, you get a different Lesson Plan Set.
When you move to a new academic term/year, you can re-use the same Lesson Plan Set, and apply it to the new subject.When you move to a new academic term/year, the old Lesson Plans are automatically archived, and you get a new (empty) Lesson Plan Set for the new term (similar to getting a new Gradebook for every term).
Lesson Plan Sets are always private, and are not shared with parents / students (EXCEPT when you post homework assignments to the Homework module)Lesson Plans can be shared with parents / students (just like Gradebook and Homework can be shared with parents and students)

New Release: Sprint E19

Azroy KandanLeave a comment

Here’s a list of the latest improvements in QuickSchools for the New Release: Sprint E19:

  • Google Classroom Framework Improvements
    • Ability to auto-map students and teachers
    • General bug fixes
  • Gradebook Improvements
    • Relabel configuration elements
    • Bug fix when admin access is removed from teachers
    • Bug fix for Submit Grades
    • Bug fix for alternating colors
  • Mobile API Support for Homework and Attendance Notifications
  • Miscellaneous Bug Fixes / Improvements
    • Option to show running GPA in Parent Portal (Beta)
    • Bug Fixes and Improvements for WYSIWYG Editor (Beta)
    • Bug fix on Posting Homework to Subject
    • Center the Period Name in Simplified Scheduling
    • Show Subject Abbreviation in Dropdown for Subject-Based Report Cards
    • Remove Save Button for Online Forms Tab for Student
    • Fix Status for Parent Portal Invite
    • Fix support for Pre-Enrolled Students in Messaging module
    • Fix to enable paid messaging when credit is purchased for new accounts

This Sprint has mainly been focusing on bug fixes and minor improvements. The WYSIWYG Editor in the E-Mail Messaging module has been improved greatly since the last Sprint. And the Google Classroom app is also developing nicely. In the upcoming Sprint E20, we are working on several more substantial improvements related to the Attendance module. Stay tuned for those.

Google Classroom Integration

Azroy Kandan10 Comments

After several months of work, we now have a working (LMS) integration app with Google Classroom. This is currently still an early Beta version, but the app is able to pull data from Google Classroom to your QuickSchools Gradebook.

Google Classroom with QuickSchools
Google Classroom Integration (Beta) App

Some things to note about this app (as it currently works):

  • The app cannot EXPORT the roster. App assumes that you have already created student, teachers and courses in Google Classroom.
  • However, once students, teachers and courses and mapped, when Synchronizing the Gradebook, the roster will be pulled into QuickSchools. This means that if a student gets enrolled into a course, you can invite the student in Google Classroom, and the student will be automatically enrolled into the mapped subject in QuickSchools when the Gradebooks are synchronized.
  • Currently, the app does not support mapping of Mark Categories from Google Classroom. The API is not yet available, but when it does, we will be mapping and pulling this data as well.
  • The app assumes a SINGLE Google Classroom account for the entire school. This means that teachers cannot use their own Google Account to map data. But with a single school-wide Google Classroom account, you can still map individual courses to specific teachers.
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See you in Albany!

Azroy KandanLeave a comment

QuickSchools will be exhibiting at the 35th Annual Religious and Independent Schools Educators Conference in Albany, hosted by the New York State Coalition for Independent and Religious Schools (NYSCIRS). Conference runs on November 4 and 5 at the Albany Marriott Hotel. If you are in the area, or would like to have some face time with live folks, please drop by our booth, or let us know via email / chat.

QuickSchools Flyers, Brochures and Giveaways
QuickSchools Flyers, Brochures and Giveaways

For those of you in Louisville KY, we’ll be heading there next on Nov 7 – 8 for the 2019 Annual Conference hosted by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS). Hope to see you guys there!