The holiday season has arrived, and with it, your PlusPortals development team brings you good tidings, new features, and much-requested improvements!
For parent and teacher accounts, we simplified access to groups. For group heads, we added a new action menu, providing quick access to common group functions. For those using standards, we improved the accessibility of student progress reports. Read on for additional details!
| New Features | ||
|---|---|---|
| Added the Groups Tab | The Groups tab makes it easy for parents and teachers to access to group pages and perform other group-related actions. | |
| Improvements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Updated the Performance Tab to Include a Standards Performance Table | A Standards Performance Table is now available on the Performance tab. It replaces the Standards Live Report on the Progress Reports tab. | |
| Updated the Assignment Builder's Link Skills/Standards Button | The Link Skills/Standards button and the corresponding display grid in the Assignment Builder is now present only if the course selected for an assignment has skills or standards associated with it. | |
| Updated Coursework Printing | The Coursework box for parent and student accounts now has a Print button that allows users to print a report of the current Coursework view. | |
| Updated Narrative Default Visibility | The PlusPortals Narratives default visibility is now set to hidden to be consistent with the behavior of narratives in the TeacherPlus Gradebook. | |
| Updated the PlusPortals Database | The PlusPortals database infrastructure has been upgraded to improve performance and stability for all users. | |
| Feature Fixes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fixed Calendar Event Colors | The Calendar correctly loads & displays events with the background color associated with an event's Category. | |
| Fixed Layout of the Parent Home Page on Small Screens | The Upcoming Events box is now positioned correctly on the Parent Portal Home page for all screen sizes. | |
| Fixed a Large File Uploads False Positive | Files over 50 MB will prompt an error message. | |
| Fixed an iPad Scrolling Issue | This release corrects an issue with iPad scrolling that could cause the PlusPortals to return to the Home screen. | |
New Features
Added the Groups Tab
In our previous update, we introduced the Classes tab for teacher accounts. In this update, we're excited to introduce another new tab, Groups, for parent and teacher accounts. The Groups tab makes it easy to access to group pages and other actions.
The Teacher Groups Tab
On the Groups tab, teachers can click the name in the Group column to access that group's page.
For groups where e-mails are allowed, in the Actions column, group Members can click 
to quickly select recipients within the group and then draft and send an e-mail.
Group Heads can use the Actions menu ( 
) to access common group-related functions. These functions include adding files, links, announcements, alerts, and events, as well as initiating e-mails.
The Parent Groups Tab
Parents currently have several tabs on their home page to enable faster access to useful information. On the Groups tab, parents can click the name in the Group column to access that group's page.
For groups where e-mails are allowed, in the Actions column, group members can click to quickly select recipients within the group and then draft and send an e-mail.
Improvements
Updated the Performance Tab to Include a Standards Performance Table
To improve the usability of the PlusPortals interface, the Standards Live Report was relocated and renamed.
Moved the Standards Live Report to the Performance Tab
The Standards Live Report, located on the Progress Reports tab, is now the Standards Performance Table, located on the Performance tab.
For fully standards-based grading courses, the Category Averages, Class Scores, No Scores Posted, and Scores Chart are hidden.
Updated the Show Standards Live Report Settings
The PlusPortals Management site's Permissions Summary settings were also updated to reflect the change from Standards Live Report to Standards Performance Table. The Show Standards Live Report (Progress Reports tab) settings are now labeled Show Standards Performance Table (Performance tab).
Updated the Assignment Builder's Link Skills/Standards Button
In our October 4th release, we introduced the ability to Link Skills/Standards to assignments through the PlusPortals. While this feature is popular among teachers who use skills or standards, we understand that not all courses utilize this functionality.
The Link Skills/Standards button and the corresponding display grid in the Assignment Builder is now present only if the course selected for an assignment has skills or standards associated with it.
Updated Coursework Printing
The Coursework box (available to parent and student accounts) now has a Print button ( 
) that allows users to print a report of the current Coursework view. Updating the filter settings will change the resulting printable report.
Updated Default Narrative Visibility
Previously, in the PlusPortals, Narratives were visible by default.
Now, to match the behavior of the TeacherPlus Gradebook, Narratives are hidden by default:
Existing visibility settings for narratives remain unchanged.
Updated the PlusPortals Database
As part of our ongoing commitment to performance, the PlusPortals team completed a database upgrade for this release.
This upgrade doesn't impact the user interface; however, it does provide a more robust infrastructure to support every PlusPortals user.
Feature Fixes
Fixed Calendar Event Colors
In some cases, the Calendar loaded all events with the default orange background. Now, the Calendar correctly loads & displays events with the background color associated with an event's Category.
Fixed Layout of the Parent Home Page on Small Screens
On some small screen sizes, the Upcoming Events box was positioned incorrectly on the Parent Portal Home page. The Upcoming Events box is now positioned correctly for all screen sizes.
Fixed a Large File Uploads False Positive
In some cases, files over 50 MB provided a false positive, indicating that the file uploaded successfully when it had not. Now, all files over 50 MB will prompt the following error message:
Fixed an iPad Scrolling Issue
In some cases, scrolling on an iPad caused the PlusPortals to return to the Home screen. This release corrects this behavior.