Thursday 26 February 2015

Smart Copy / Smart Share: Service Degradation

Introduction:
We'd like to update you on recent activities regarding Smart Share (or Smart Copy, in TD Classic). To achieve the desired effects regarding teacher visibility into student work, Smart Share uses a set of services that work through Google Drive’s API, ultimately delivering the desired document into a student’s folder. During this process, a ‘temp’ file is momentarily placed in the student's folder. It is then removed to complete the process.

What has happened:
An attempt to make Smart Share more efficient has led to undesirable results including:
  • Files not copying to selected students
  • Files taking longer than expected to process
  • Temp files (expected behavior) not being removed from students’ folders

What we're doing to resolve the issue:
We are now implementing these processes to minimize impact in the classroom:
  • Deploying new code changes to prevent errors when setting file permissions.
  • Deleting 'temp' files that are still visible in Teacher Dashboard and students’ folders.
    • Note: We will not delete temp files that have been modified.
  • Re-running failed processes to ensure that all initiated Smart Share and Smart Copy processes are complete.

What to do if you experience continued failures:
Please email support@hapara.com. To expedite the process, please include Smart Share (if using Teacher Dashboard 2) or Smart Copy (if using TD Classic) in the subject line. Also include the class ID, student or teacher usernames, and file names involved. This information will help us resolve your issue more quickly.

Thank you for your patience while we work through this performance issue. We’re very sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, and we appreciate your feedback. For the latest updates, please subscribe to this blog.

Also, please remember that Teacher Dashboard Classic retires on March 31. You can start using Teacher Dashboard 2 right now by going to www.teacherdashboard.com.

Best regards,
Hapara Support

Tuesday 24 February 2015

Release Notes - February 24, 2015

What’s new in Teacher Dashboard 2:

  • Class Color Coding
    Teachers are now able to color their classes so the classes can be easily differentiated.
  • Blogger
    A "Blogger" tab that displays student blogging activity is now available. Blogger student panels display a preview and now have an "Open" button at the top that clicks through to the top level of their blog
    • Note: Blogger is not enabled by default. Each school must choose to enable it. The school Hapara administrator can do this via the td-admin tool.
  • Item Display Settings
    How many items the teacher asked to display in each dashboard tab is now remembered. Next time the same dashboard tab is opened for the same class, the number of items displayed will default to the teacher's last selection.
    • Note: Each class plus dashboard tab combination has its own setting (each of which is now individually remembered). Changing the number of items displayed in one class will not affect other classes. Changing the number of items displayed in one tab will not affect other tabs
  • Add/Remove Students
    Teachers can now add & remove existing students via the Class Info page.
    • Note: The teacher specifies the student to add using either their Google user name or their ID#. Each school decides which identifier is used, and can elect to disable this feature for their teachers.
    • Note: It can take up to 24 hours before the student changes impact the TD2 tabs.
  • Logout
    The top right drop down menu now contains a logout button.


Other changes and bug fixes:

  • Class Info Tooltips Restored
    The Class Info tooltips on the Class list are now visible again
  • Hide Classes Function Fixed
    Clicking the 'hide' button from the My Classes page did not always hide the class. This TD2 issue has been fixed
  • Force Password Reset Enabled
    TD2 now obeys the "Force reset on login" checkbox available on the Class Info page, and used when resetting a student's password.

Wednesday 11 February 2015

Release Notes - February 11, 2015

What’s new in Teacher Dashboard 2:

  • Teachers are now able to use %F %L to put student names anywhere in a document file name in Teacher Dashboard 2 as was possible in Teacher Dashboard Classic.

Other changes and bug fixes:

  • The preview information shown when hovering over a document title in a student panel is now showing even when the student panel is at the bottom of the dashboard.
  • Teachers with uppercase characters in their email address will no longer get an error message when logging into Teacher Dashboard 2.
  • The beta feedback form now works correctly for multi-domain customers.
  • The label of "My hidden Classes" has been corrected to "My Hidden Classes"