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Updates to the OneNote Class Notebook add-in—read/unread indicators in Review Student Work and more
Since the school year started, we’ve been making improvements to the Class Notebook add-in for OneNote on the desktop. Here is a summary of the highlights—as well as details for the update releasing today. To update your OneNote Class Notebook add-in, just click the Update button on your toolbar to download and install the latest version. If you’ve never installed the Class Notebook add-in, you can get it from the OneNote Class Notebook website.
Improvements to Review Student Work
The most exciting new feature is being released today. Teachers now can quickly and easily see updates made by students in the Review Student Work pane.
Some common requests from teachers have been to:
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Easily see when students have started their work in a distributed page or assignment.
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Quickly see which pages you, the teacher, have already reviewed.
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See if a student added any new content after a teacher has already reviewed or graded a page.
These requests are all now possible with the new OneNote Class Notebook add-in (version 1.4.5.0) and use the familiar bold convention to denote the unread status.
Read/unread support in the Review Student Work pane.
Improvements to notebook and student mapping
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Notebook mapping—If your notebook name and LMS/SIS course name match, the Class Notebook add-in will automatically map the two together.
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Student mapping—If the format of your students is <LASTNAME>, <FIRSTNAME>, the student names will be automatically mapped.
A few more improvements and detailed summary
We have provided additional LMS support for SEQTA by adding assignment and grading integration. Also, we made some performance improvements to help speed up page distribution.
Here is a detailed summary of all the new capabilities and improvements to the Class Notebook add-in over the last few months. This list can also be found at the bottom of the Class Notebook add-in support page.
Version 1.2.0.0—September 2016
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SEQTA assignment/grading integration.
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Automatic mapping of Class Notebooks.
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Automatic mapping of students by last name, first name.
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Refresh tokens so teachers only need to sign in to the LMS/SIS once.
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Display a warning when distributing pages that contain attachments.
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Apostrophes in section names now preserved correctly during page distribution.
Version 1.3.0.0—September 2016
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Fixed an issue with grading in MS Classroom courses with many assignments.
Version 1.3.1.0—October 2016
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Fixed issue affecting Schoology sign-in.
Version 1.3.2.0—October 2016
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Fixed issue preventing student mappings from getting saved.
Version 1.4.0.0—November 2016
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Fixed bugs that happened with certain content types for page distribution.
Version 1.4.5.0—December 2016
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Read/unread state for Review Student Work assignments and distributions.
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Performance improvements for page distribution.
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Parent Focus groups reveal three important factors when parents are choosing a school. *
Among the top ten things parents in focus groups say they care about are the strength of the academic program, the vibe they get when the visit the school and how proactive teachers are in their communication about their children in particular.
The classroom is changing and schools that get ready for the next generation of educating will undoubtedly be on top with parents when they are on the search for a private school.
The focus study also revealed that parents mostly hear about schools from word of mouth. What elicits more parental chatter than parents described the new "flipped classroom" their kids participate in or the parent teacher conference they held over Skype, along with virtual field trips with great minds from countries across the globe and after school virtual homework help.
The strength of your school’s academic program is the primary reason most parents are searching for your school. Parents are searching for a school that will meet the needs of their child and challenge them to reach their potential. They want the best school that their money can buy. They want something different and better.
Here are just some of the way Technology will make the difference in academic programs moving forward.
1. Virtual FieldTrips/Visits: Classes host a museum curator from France, who gives a short lecture on the museum’s collection from the period.
2. Flipped Classroom - Students watch the lecture off campus and work on the assignment, share notes, research findings etc.. As a group in the classroom with the teacher there to interact and push students to their full potential.
3. Virtual after school help
4. Lesson plan dashboards that include mixed media and are shared and accessed by students and parents anytime on any device.
Parents have high expectations of the faculty in that they desire to receive frequent updates on their child. Parents are paying a lot of money for a private school education. As a result, they have high expectations from the faculty. These expectations include timely communications from their teachers about their child.
Here are some ways technology will help teachers communicate efficiently with parents:
1. Automatic Translation Services - Available through Skype for Education
2. Virtual or in person parent teacher conferences - Available with Skype for education
* Parent Focus Group information sourced from http://www.enrollmentcatalyst.com/2015/01/29/10-things-ive-learned-about-marketing-from-parent-focus-groups
HOLOGRAPHIC Technology for education!
Microsoft recently unveiled Hololens, holographic technology that will transform life, business and education. Check out how Case Western is using it here.
Skype for Business Customer story
Globe University is constantly looking for ways to improve student learning experiences and extend the reach of its instructors. Globe adopted Skype for Business Server 2015 for lecture delivery, staff communications, and voice capabilities across its 19 locations. Faculty and staff appreciate the product’s better cross-platform support, more intuitive interface, and integration with Microsoft Office 365, which will be used by the university’s students.
"From online and remote learning to connected faculty members to recruiting, we’ve made Skype for Business absolutely critical to our business.” -Adam Hite, Globe University - Director of IT
Business Needs
Teaching without borders
Globe University is as expansive as its name. People seeking careers in everything from business administration to veterinary technology turn to this family-owned system of five career colleges, universities, and training centers. With campus locations spread across five states, Globe looks for ways to share knowledge among its faculty and staff and to make it easier for students to take the classes they want without having to travel.
That’s why the university participated recently in the early adopter program for Skype for Business Server 2015, the successor to Microsoft Lync Server 2013. By upgrading its communications solution, Globe can make its instructors more available, streamline internal operations, and enable colleagues to work together more easily, whether they need to track down the right resource to answer a prospective student’s questions or solve an IT issue for a remote faculty member.
There’s plenty of communications and collaboration among the university’s colleges. “We have a common curriculum and a shared faculty, so we offer some of the same courses at multiple schools,” says Dave Hagel, Director of Technology Services at Globe University. “Instead of having to shuttle among multiple campuses to reach their many interested students, our instructors use Skype for Business as a powerful, convenient technology to teach and transfer knowledge. A seasoned instructor who is an expert in her field can teach a course from one of our campus classrooms, and students from all over our college system can watch her lectures. By using Skype for Business, we can make the best instructors available to the greatest number of students without inconveniencing either instructors or students. This gives the college the flexibility to teach more efficiently, reach students in remote locations, and increase the quality of educational opportunities.”
Solution
A tradition of advanced communications
Globe University has long been an early adopter of unified communications technologies, going back to its implementation of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. The university’s first step was to upgrade 10 Globe datacenter servers to Skype for Business, which is now used by 1,500 faculty and staff. “With the in-place upgrade path, we had an easy move to Skype for Business,” says Adam Hite, Director of IT at Globe University. Globe plans to set up a hybrid environment in which staff and faculty can use either Skype for Business on-premises if they need enterprise voice capabilities or the online version available with Microsoft Office 365.
The university plans to roll out Office 365 to approximately 15,000 students. The goal is for students using Office 365 to be able to use Skype for Business to collaborate on class projects, get help from classmates, and work more closely as a team, even if they don’t sit in the same classroom on a daily basis.
The university’s Skype for Business environment works with Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013, which means that employees can view each other’s presence information from within their messaging and collaboration systems. Globe also plans to have Skype for Business interoperate with its customer relationship management (CRM) solution, public-facing website, and learning management system.
Benefits
Flexibility and collaboration
Many of the university’s faculty and staff have already embraced Skype for Business instant messaging, presence, and conferencing functionality, and some employees also opt for its voice capabilities instead of using the university’s PBX telephony system. Elaine Settergren, Online Librarian at Globe University, relies on Skype for Business to curate electronic resources, support instructors and other colleagues, and help students with research. “I use Skype for Business all day, every day, to help faculty figure out the best ways to incorporate digital library content into their courses, coordinate the efforts of our dispersed library staff, and respond to calls from students,” says Settergren. “If another librarian or faculty member needs help finding information for a student, she checks to see if I’m available; then we both can put on headsets for an audio call, share our screens, or quickly exchange instant messages.”
Globe also uses Skype for Business to conduct virtual faculty and staff meetings to minimize travel. Settergren, who works at home—more than an hour away from many of her campus-based colleagues—uses Skype for Business to participate in nearly all her meetings, from weekly team check-ins to faculty conferences with more than 100 attendees. “We share presentations right from Microsoft PowerPoint as well as share desktops, which helps us work more consistently as a team, advise on best practices, and resolve issues quickly,” says Settergren. “Without Skype for Business, I wouldn’t be as responsive to my colleagues, and our team couldn’t provide the same level of student and faculty support.”
Enhanced community interactions
Globe University has noted significant improvements in Skype for Business, particularly on Apple iOS devices—important because every student and faculty member at the university is given an iPad. “We considered the cross-platform capabilities good in Lync Server 2013, but they’re even better in Skype for Business,” says Hite. “It’s more reliable, the web interface is cleaner and more intuitive, and we get a richer experience for presentations. Because Skype for Business is so much more compatible with our devices, I expect its adoption to rise quickly among faculty.”
University employees also appreciate the flexibility to choose the right communication mechanism for each interaction. “For example, a member of our IT help desk may start by instant messaging with an instructor who’s having trouble, then decide to share desktops to get a better sense of the problem,” says Hagel. “The freedom to shift among modes of communication also helps faculty members assist students effectively during online office hours.”
Faster service and responsiveness
Globe uses Skype for Business to care for prospective students, as well as current ones. At the university’s call center, an agent receives a call, learns the caller’s areas of interest, and uses presence to identify a colleague with relevant expertise who’s available to speak to the caller. “We consider presence through Skype for Business an integral part of our business,” says Hagel. “Calls can be transferred to the right person right away, so prospective students get information immediately. If they had to leave a message and wait for a call back, they might lose interest. We want to capture their attention and keep it by being responsive to all their needs, and Skype for Business helps us do that.” In fact, the university’s international recruiting team plans to take advantage of Skype for Business to interview prospective students from other countries, who can easily participate using the Skype consumer product.
With its upgraded platform in place, Globe is poised to run even more cohesively across its 30 locations, increasing the quality and convenience of its educational experience. “From online and remote learning to connected faculty members to recruiting, we’ve made Skype for Business absolutely critical to our business,” says Hite. “Not only does everyone use it, but they’re using it in new, creative ways to serve our students.”
Read customer success stories to learn how Managed Solution helps businesses implement technology productivity solutions.
