Changes in the new Schoolbox (v15.0 to v15.6+)
- Folder Actions
- Add to My Links
- View Files
- RSS
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We've updated Schoolbox to a new, more responsive look! With v15.6 we’ve listened to our community and have integrated many popular feature requests. So, whilst there are some changes to get used to, there are also many fantastic new features to improve how you use the system. Through this article we will look at the main changes between the old and new interface and the advantages of moving to v15.6.
New Responsive Skin
Overview
The new skin in Schoolbox is mobile friendly, meaning all features are now available on any sized device. From your laptop to an iPad, down to a mobile phone. You’ll notice as the screen size gets smaller, some things may become hidden. But they’re still easy to find!
Menus
You can click the hamburger menu () and your side menu will reappear, you may find some items from your top menu in here too, like My Files, see the images below. The top navigation menu has had a facelift too and now features easy to recognise icons that are much easier to click on when using touch devices (NOTE: the icons in your top menu will differ depending on your school). We've removed the 'Home' button from the top menu and instead created a link by clicking the image in the top left corner (usually a school logo). You’ll notice your profile picture and options have moved to the side menu too. Additional actions are still available by clicking on your name, including access to the administration system for superusers.
So, that the system is responsive on touch devices, you will now need to click on headers to see sub-menu options.
Notifications
You can also click the bell icon, in the top right corner, to see your notifications. On larger screens, notifications will always be visible and you will see the notifications from the last 14 days. The image below shows the interface on a large screen and includes the notification panel on the right hand side.
Tooltips
To help you maximise your use of the system, we've added more tooltips throughout the system. They're easy to locate and access, simply hover your mouse over any question mark symbol . This is a great way to access extra information and understand different areas.
TIP: So, if you're ever stuck, or unsure, keep your eye out for the tooltip!
Homepages
When setting up pages you’ll notice a few changes in the user interface, see image below. Customising options are available by clicking on the controls icon in the top right. To adjust column widths use the slider, just like before. You can adjust the colours of the component headers by selecting which columns you’d like to adjust using the tick boxes and then using the colour palettes to change the text and background colours. Play around with customising your page and then click save. You can always undo, by clicking undo, or reset to the default settings by clicking reset.
To view your page from a student’s view, click on the three dot menu and click ‘Switch to Student View’, see image below.
Three dot menu
You’ll notice that most interfaces in Schoolbox will have a three dot menu in the top right of the page, circled in the image below. In this menu we have packaged up additional actions. For example, when on a home page you can locate the page actions. When creating a quiz additional actions such as modify, view results, delete, export and add a section can now be found under the three dot menu.
Or, in your submissions area, you’ll find additional actions for the progress report, marksheet, creating a quiz or posting due work is available by clicking on the three dot menu.
TIP: If you’re looking for additional actions on the page, look for the three dot menu.
Quizzes
There have also been some changes to the user interface when you are creating a quiz. All functionality has been retained, but looks different from the old version. One key change is instead of clicking 'Return to homepage', you can return to different sections of the quiz or your homepage by using the breadcrumbs menu at the top of the page, see image below. As you create your quiz and move through each section, your work will automatically be saved, so there is no need for a final save at the end of creating your quiz. You can learn more about this interface by reading about quizzes and watching the video available here.
Submissions
In v15.6 we have made it easier for both students and teachers to view the plagiarism score for a piece of work. For a teacher marking work, you’ll see a percentage score for cheat checker under where you write your comments, see image below. If students have the ability to see the plagiarism score, they’ll also see a percentage in a large font size. This improvement makes the plagiarism score much more visible for both teachers and students.
Another improvement in this area is the addition of a box and whiskers graph on a student’s grade report, see image below. The box and whiskers plot visually represents a student’s achievement in relation to the class average on a per assessment basis. Parents, teachers and students can view this data by accessing the student’s grades.
Rubrics
Rubrics in v15.6 now offer more functionality and a more intuitive interface. We've changed our language around rubrics a bit, so keep in mind that:
- Groups are now called Capabilities.
- Criteria are now called Indicators.
You can choose whether you want to mark per capability, an option that allows you to have a sub-total grade for each capability, so IB schools can now mark each capability out of 7. You can now add as many levels to your rubric as necessary, this number can be defined by your school in the administration area. More than this, it is easy to reorder columns, so you can have your descriptors ordered from high to low or low to high. Best of all, you can export the rubric for reuse and import it later. After you import the rubric, you can make minor changes as necessary. This is great for assessment tasks that only have a few minor differences or use the same rubric. You can learn more about the updates to rubrics by watching the video available here on our rubrics article.
Components
In v15.6, we have also improved the features of some popular components. Many of these changes have been in response to feedback we've received from our customers.
- The 'Post Multiple Files' button has been removed as this did not work on iDevices, but you can now drag and drop multiple files onto any files based component (images, files, videos, audio)
- The Image Gallery and Image Slideshow homepage components now accept drag and drop for single or multiple images.
- The Image Slideshow homepage component also accepts links. You can read more about the potential of this feature here.
- The Audio and Video components, see image below, now easily allow you to modify or delete content.
- The Tiles component now enables you to set the font sizes to scale depending on the size of the screen.
Text Editor
The new text editor makes embedding content much easier! To embed content, such as YouTube videos and Flickr images, simply paste the link in to the text box area and your content will automatically embed! The embed link also allows you to browse resources stored within your Schoolbox instance, access your Google Drive or Office 365 account. You can learn more about the updates to the text editor by reading about it and watching the video available here.
Resource Browser
The resource browser also has a new look in the responsive skin and is now easy to use on touch screens. Now when you click on a folder or page, your options for use will be visible beneath the folder tree, in the resource’s ‘info pane’, see image below. To go to a page click on the house icon or the name of the page. Options for modifying, posting files, adding folders and more are available in the bottom info pane as well. The options visible to you will depend on your screen size, so if you’re looking for an action that is not immediately visible, click on the three dot menu icon to see more. To view permissions for the page you can click on the eye icon.
As the resource browser is now fully functional with touch screens, it is no longer possible to select multiple files, meaning you can’t bulk delete files. To delete an individual file, you can click on a file so that it is highlighted, then select delete. You are also now able to preview audio, video and image media in the resource browser. When you click on a file, you will see the preview load within the info pane, you can click play to listen to the audio or watch the video.
Manage Group Interface
The manage group interface, see image below, is now much easier to navigate with information and settings easily organised under tabs. With these tabs you can easily view and manage current members, see a waiting list of users who have requested to join, add members by name, group, role or list and adjust the settings of the group. Hovering over the question mark will display a useful tooltip to help you better understand the options available. To disband the group, click the three dot menu and select ‘Disband Group’.
News & Calendar Events
When you create news and calendar events, all options are now available on the one page, there is no need to click on the advanced settings option to be able to set publish and expiry dates for news or whether an event recurs for a calendar event. All these options are available on the one page. You can learn more about creating calendar events here, and more about creating news events here.
Resource Booking Availability Calendar
To improve the functionality of the resource booking system, we’ve added an availability calendar, see image below. With this, you can select a resource category and easily see when a resource is or is not available. To access this, first go to the resource booking page, and then click the calendar icon in the top right corner. Then, select which category of resource you would like to view to see the availability of each resource in that category. You can then click on the calendar to create the booking. You can apply filters to view the status of the resource booking, or filter the calendar by month, week or day.
Admin System
We’ve also added some great new features in the Administration System to help improve your school’s use of the system. The engagement report, see image below, offers an overview of how the system is being used at your school. You can look up and get reports on information such as the login rates of each role at the school, or the usage of assessments (due work/quiz).
Administrators can now also hide contact details and timetables for certain users. The hide timetable function is particularly useful for the end of year/summer holiday when you don’t want students to see their timetable just yet. These have been a popular feature suggestion that we’ve taken on board and implemented in v15.6.
You can find out more about changes in the new responsive skin by checking out the Schoolbox Help Center or our YouTube channel which has updated instructional videos on how to create a quiz, tiles, news, events and more.