Attention eClass Users,

The latest version of eClass is now live! This upgrade has introduced major functional and usability improvements to the gradebook and quiz as well as a large number of feature improvements across the site.

The main system features that have changed in the new version of eClass are listed below. For a series of quick video highlights of the major changes, see this article.

New login portal

• The eClass login portal now has a new look and feel, with optimization for mobile users

Gradebook

• The eClass gradebook user interface has been improved. It now allows fills the whole window, allows stable scrolling in all directions with locked column and row headings, and adds support for mobile devices
• Instructors can now filter by student name
• New gradebook ‘Single view' to view any column (grade item) or row (single student) - a great improvement for simplifying grade entry for a single activity and for performing bulk actions
• A new aggregation method called ‘Natural Weighting’ has replaced the 'Sum of grades' aggregation with better support for weightings, extra credit, excluded grades, and hidden grades
• New Grade History report which lists the full details of all grade changes
• Simplified design and clearer terminology for gradebook construction
• New design of User Report with clearer layout and better breakdown of grade calculations for students
• New option to import grades via copy/paste of data directly from spreadsheet
• Improved system handling of gradebook imports (better error messages for null or bad data; protections for locked grade items)

Quiz

• New question strikeout feature for multiple choice questions enables students to eliminate distractors in multiple choice questions
• Quiz construction interface is streamlined and more clear
• Question bank interface has been improved allowing for easy duplication of questions and drag and drop reorganization
• Improved quiz reports
• Essay questions can require an attachment with optional text
• Random short-answer matching question type has returned
• Instructors can view all tries in the responses report

Forum

• Improved navigation
• New option to subscribe to individual discussions in a forum
• New discussions now display in recent activity report
• Attachments are now displayed in the same order they were uploaded

Assignment

• Instructors can now edit or delete student submissions
• Assignment submission notifications are now only sent to specific roles
• Instructors can now enable a setting to provide inline feedback by directly marking up online text assignment submissions.
• Word limit setting added to online text assignments
• File upload built into assignment description
• Instructors can customize which roles in their course receive notifications

Groups

• Instructors can now ignore users that are already in groups when auto-creating groups
• Instructors can now auto-create groups based on an existing group or grouping membership

Misc.

• New default HTML Editor (Atto) featuring automatic text saving
• New restrict access settings  to allow conditional release of resources and activities based on more complex Boolean combinations (ie. OR and NOT statements).
• One-item scales have been added to eClass (instructors can now add a ‘Like’ dropdown rating to Forums)
• Instructors can now enable Choice activities to allow students to make multiple choices

If you have any questions about this upgrade, please contact us at eclass@ualberta.ca.

Regards,
IST eClass Support