2019 has well and truly kicked off! Not only will Schoolbox v18.2 be released soon, we have also planned our focus for the rest of the year, which we want to share with you.
We’ve had countless conversations with schools, read numerous threads in our online forums, and have done hours of industry research. All of this has led us to identify several key issues schools are currently facing. So, want to know what school challenges we’ll be tackling this year? Then read on…
Enhanced Assessments
Assessment Insights
In 2018, we introduced a series of rubric enhancements to improve assessments. This year, we will work on developing new reports that will help teachers gather insights more easily from the results of assessments which use rubrics.
Improved Student Workload Overview
At Schoolbox, we know that when students are overloaded, their stress levels can go through the roof causing them to be less productive! One way to ensure students are not overwhelmed with work is to provide curriculum leaders and executives with better insights into student workload and commitments.
This is why we’ll be working on a new assessment calendar feature to show what activities students are assigned across various cohorts. This will help educators visualise a student’s workload, so that learners are not overburdened with work.
Additionally, our Schoolbox v18.2 release (out soon) will introduce filters to the Due Work calendar to help students obtain a better view of their upcoming work. To find out more about Due Work filters, visit our v18.2 Release Notes.
A Connected Platform
API First
In 2018, we committed to an API first mentality, which ensures all of our features and functions are built as a public API. In 2019, we will begin publishing these APIs, with many more to follow over the coming months. This will ensure any disparate services we use are connected and in sync.
Improving LTI Integration
Following this, we plan to connect to many of the cloud-based APIs that are currently available, with a focus on learning tool interoperability (LTI).
We have already implemented the LTI 1.2 specification, but we want to introduce the newest version, 1.3, which allows third party tools to share grades and feedback. Furthermore, we want to explore integrating OneNote, Education Perfect, and Google Course Kit as potential assessment tools that can be utilised in our assessment workflow.
Enhancing User Experience
Our page builder, used for both our ePortfolio feature and homepages, is one of our most commonly used tools, and it has more or less remained the same since the very conception of Schoolbox. With the evolution and further development of modern technologies, mobile devices, and touch screens, it’s about time we looked into enhancing this experience! This year, we will be reimagining the content creation process throughout Schoolbox.
During this process, we will specifically be focussing on junior school teachers and their use of ePortfolios to capture learning milestones. We believe we can simplify the entire process, from capture to publish, via students’ ePortfolios.
Badges!
This should make you excited! If we still have some time left at the end of the year, we’ll introduce badges to capture student awards, flags, achievements, and demerits – yay! This means that students will be rewarded on a digital platform, through the display and collation of various awards.
Meetup 2019
To find out what else is happening with Schoolbox this year, make sure you come to our Meetup on the 28th of February and 1st of March. We have invited some of our standout schools to showcase how they use Schoolbox, and you’ll also be able to catch up with the Schoolbox team. Simply register and we’ll take care of the rest. We hope to see you there!
As always, we value our schools’ input as we develop these new features and chart our way through future unknowns. If you have any suggestions for our roadmap and direction, please don’t hesitate to let us know at the Meetup or in our online forums, either by starting a new thread or jumping in on an existing one. You can also get in touch with us via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
Lastly, if you have time, please complete this quick five minute survey to help us better understand if we are on the right track. We really appreciate all of your suggestions, so thank you in advance.
Speak soon
