We are pleased to announce another update to the PlusPortals. This update features several important enhancements and fixes:
- Group Heads can now be given the ability to add/remove Group Members.
- Parents of Group Members can now be e-mailed without copying Heads or Members.
- PlusPortals users can now successfully reset their own passwords from the login page.
- Categories for Homework and Quizzes added to the TeacherPlus Gradebook from the PlusPortals will now be reflected properly in the gradebook.
- Changes made by teachers on their Settings page are now saved properly.
The PlusPortals will be updated during the early morning (EDT), May 31st, 2017.
Features and Enhancements
The Permissions Page for the Groups Feature Has Been Improved
This update renames and reorders several controls and adds new controls. These new permissions settings provide Administrators with more control over Group Heads’ abilities:
- Administrators can give Group Heads the ability to add/remove Group Members.
- Administrators can disable Group Heads’ ability to change the e-mail permissions of Group Members and the Group visibility.
The permissions for existing groups are not affected by this update. If you want to adjust the permissions for any group that existed prior to this update, please visit the Setup >Groups area of the PlusPortals Admin Site and click Edit 
for a Group. You can make any necessary changes from there.
Group Heads Can Now Add and Remove Group Members
This permission can be enable by checking the Add/remove Group Members (students only) option in the Group’s Permissions tab. When enabled, teachers will see an Edit Member List button above the list of members.
When clicked, a menu appears, where the teacher can modify the member list. The menu features several 
icons, which display helpful information when the teacher points the cursor at them.
Users Can Now Select the Parents of Group Heads and Group Members When Sending an E-Mail to the Group
This only applies to student Group Heads and Group Members.
This update also enhances the recipient selection menu. Users can now make any combination of multiple-recipient selections.
You can now select from multiple options can to create the list of e-mail recipients. Each option will function as specified below:
E-Mail Recipient Options
| Selection | Recipients |
|---|---|
| Group Heads | Adds all Group Heads to the list of recipients. |
| Group Members | Adds all Group Members to the list of recipients. |
| Parents of Group Heads | Adds all parents of all student Group Heads to the list of recipients. |
| Parents of Group Members | Adds all parents of all student Group Members to the list of recipients. |
| Individuals | Opens a menu where you can select specific Group Heads and/or Group Members as recipients. Using the Include parents of selected student(s) setting on this menu, you can add parents of the selected student Group Members as recipients. |
If both Group Heads and Group Members are selected in this menu, the Individuals option will become inactive.
Feature Fixes
- Users will now be able to reset their own passwords using the Can’t access you account? button.
- Prior to this update, the user was able to submit a new password request, but the password change did not take effect.
- Teachers will no longer experience issues with the categories for homework and quizzes added to the TeacherPlus Gradebook from the PlusPortals.
- Previously, in some instances, the categories were being duplicated or reflected improperly in the TeacherPlus Gradebook.
- The Count in Averages setting that appears when a teacher adds a PlusPortals Quiz or Homework/Assignment to the TeacherPlus Gradebook as an assignment column will now adhere to the default settings in the TeacherPlus Management Site (General > Columns).
- Changes made by teachers on their Settings page will now be saved properly.
- Students and parents of students that are Group Members will now see the Groups e-mail option in the Select Recipientsmenu of the E-Mail feature.
- Prior to this update, the option appeared only for Group Heads. Now the option will appear if the student is a member of at least one group where students or parents can e-mail Group Heads, Group Members, or Parents of Members.
- Saved e-mail drafts will now appear properly in the Drafts folder.
- Prior to this update, while all drafts were being saved, only drafts with recipients added appeared in the Drafts folder.
- The Remove Students button in the Setup > Course Requests > Publish Forms area will now consider the column filters when the checkbox to select all students is checked.
- Previously, even when the list of students was filtered, when the Remove Students button was clicked, the selected course request form was removed from all students.
- User accounts will now always appear on the individual pages of the Manage Accounts area of the PlusPortals Admin Site.
- Previously, accounts were not appearing for schools that have a very large number of accounts on an individual page.
- Students’ averages and grades for their classes will now appear in the Automated Notifications that parents and students can opt into.
- Prior to this update, the section that contained this information did not appear in the e-mailed report.
- Assignment scores will now be sorted in descending order by date in the Automated Notifications that parents and students can opt into.
- Previously, the assignment scores were not sorted in chronological order on the e-mailed report.
If you have any questions related to this update, please e-mail [email protected] or call Tech Support at 800-882-2994.