SB2000 Classroom and Parent/Student Portal Status - October 18, 2010 AM  from Chris Long, Educational Technology Coordinator

Based on parent, teacher and student feedback there were some significant changes made to both the Portal and SB2000 Classroom this weekend. Things should be much better for us at this point but there are a few more changes that will be made to improve the system. Please see the items below for the specifics.

NOTICES:   [additional notes added by Info Services at 10 am, Oct. 18]
  1. The assignment links on the teacher pages of the school websites are now viewable outside the portal. It is still best for students to view these when they are logged into the portal, but for now they can view them both ways. Sorry for the pandemonium this created. Going forward as new features are added to the Portal system, we are going to want the students and parents logging into the portal on a regular basis. We learned this week that many of them are not logging into the portal at all and just getting their assignments off the public teacher pages. This means those students are not checking their grades, attendance, etc. We will need to devise a strategy that will encourage them to log into the portal on a regular basis.
  2. Firefox is the best browser to use with SB2000 and the Portal [for MAC users definitely, but Windows users can use IE8 or IE7 or FireFox]. If you are having trouble with pages loading slowly or file attachments not sticking please use Firefox! It is a free program and you can download it and install it in a few minutes by going to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ 
  3. We no longer need the district customized version of EGP so please go to the Easy Grade Pro Resource Page and download the latest version of Easy Grade it fixes some problems with XML file creation. SB2000 is now applying 2 different sets of rules for XML files created with the old an new version. If you want the best grade display in the portal, you should update your EGP to version 4.0.3 [try to do ASAP but not needed before doing the next item]
  4. To apply the first fix mentioned below, all the progress grade details on the portal had to be cleared out. Please re-upload with a new XML file to refresh the data in the portal as soon as you can [In a pinch you could just upload, via the new SB2000 Classroom Import EGP GradeBook XML task, the last XML file you created, however, the results will look better with a complete refresh].
FIX UPDATES:
  1. FIXED: Assignment Duplication from Easy Grade Pro. From this point on when you import XML files from Easy Grade Pro it will no longer group them together with the assignments you created in ECS or in SB2000 Classroom. In other words, it will keep your grade book assignments separate from your online (portal) assignments, and you no longer have to worry about trying to set up the External ID numbers to be the same. Too much was trying to be done here, and the limitations in Easy Grade Pro made the linking feature very troublesome, so for now we are back to the workflow that we were accustomed to in ECS. Sorry about the confusion this created.
  2. FIXED: Special Scores like drop (dr), excused (ex), absent (ab), etc… Should now be displaying correctly in the Portal. If this is not the case, please let me know what the problem is.
  3. FIXED: Extra Credit grades and categories in the portal no longer show up as zeros and "F" letter grades. If you mark a category as Extra Credit it will not display a grade or percentage.
  4. FIXED: File manager now defaults to the Private folder, because that is the only folder you can use the assignment attachment tool on. We will be re-examining the file manger logic, but for now this will be the best setting. TIP… You may find adding the files as links using the HTML editor window works much easier. Simply follow this tutorial to give this a try.
  5. IN PROGRESS: Attachments are not being added when you copy an assignment from one class to another in SB2000.
  6. IN PROGRESS: Quick way to edit assignments  that are for multiple classes all at once. This is coming, hang in there. We know this is a hassle right now.
  7. IN PROGRESS: Sub page ordering coming soon.
  8. FIXED: Assignments no longer require a user to input points or a short title.
  9. OTHER ISSUES REPORTED: there have been a few other issues reported to me that are important as well but not as critical as the ones above. These will be addressed once things are more stable. I will list them below if you have found something that is not on this list please send it to me.
    • File Manager: users should see the last view they selected (public or private)  when they login to the system.  We should be able to sort the files we post by either date or title.  Include a search tool for that list.  Multiple file deleting by way of check box. Should be a way to organize and move files into folders. The little link "--" to go back once you are in a folder needs to be larger and more obvious.
    • Archiving Sub pages and Assignments: Why can’t we hide my archived pages? I have about 50 sub pages and it’s hard to remember which ones are which.  I know you have these little boxes showing which pages are hidden and which are public. They need to be not so faint and I’d like a drop down box so I can just see hidden or public pages.
    • Staff Profile Preview: The Preview Link makes a page that is not the same as the one in the portal. Colors, and the sub pages that are hidden are all showing. When we hit preview it should just take us right to the portal and we shouldn't have to log into the portal if we are already logged into SB2000. They should talk to each other.
 
Chris

-- 
Chris Long
Physics Teacher
HBUHSD Educational Technology Coordinator

Marina High School
15871 Springdale Ave.
Huntington Beach, CA 92649

 clong@marinavikings.org
(714) 893-6571  Ext. 4216