PlusPortals Release: August 9, 2019

New Feature: Discussion Builder
	Discussions Box	Teachers can view discussions on individual class pages.
	Create a Discussion	Teachers can create and edit discussions from the Discussions box.
	Assign a Discussion to Multiple Classes	Teachers can assign a discussion to more than one class. However, replies to one class's discussion won't appear in the same discussion for a different class.
	Generate Discussion Notifications	When saving a discussion topic, teachers can choose to send email notifications to students and/or parents.
	Receive Discussion Notifications	Teachers can choose to receive a PlusPortals message or an email notification when students reply to a discussion.
	Access Discussions	Students and parents can access discussions in the Coursework box. Permissions for discussions are set in the PlusPortals Management Site.
	Moderate Discussions	Teachers can edit and delete student replies, lock student accounts to prevent them from submitting replies, lock discussions to stop students from submitting replies, and set a date and time to close a discussion.
	Discussion Settings	Administrators can choose whether to make discussions active for student, parent, and/or teacher accounts. Administrators can also decide whether users' avatars display next to their username in the discussion.

Improvements
	Course Request Export	Added two fields to Course Request exports, Student Submitted Time and Parent Submitted Time, to allow schools to use a first-come, first-served selection process.
	Performance Section Assignment Access	Added a functionality that allows students and parents to download assignments from the No Scores Posted and Scores Posted modules on the Performance tab.
	Policy Page Email Address	Updated the email address referenced in PlusPortals Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Bug Fixes
	Unread Messages	Redesigned the unread message pop-up window to fix an issue where the last message in the list of unread messages displayed a "null" error.
	Calendar Event Interaction	Changed the calendar event controls to fix an issue caused by the ability to single-click and double-click.
	Removed Teachers Showing in Message Address Book	Resolved an issue where inactive teachers could appear in the address book for email and messaging.
	TeacherLists Admin Pop-up Window Correction	Made a small change to the wording of the TeacherLists admin pop-up window.

New Feature: Discussion Builder

Using the Discussion Builder, teachers can create and moderate topics for their classes. Students can access these topics to interact with their peers and teachers.

Discussions Box

Teachers can view discussions on individual class pages in the PlusPortals.

Create a Discussion

Teachers can create (and edit) discussions from the Discussions box.

Assign a Discussion to Multiple Classes

When creating, or editing, a discussion, teachers can assign it to more than one class. However, discussions are class-specific. Replies to one class's discussion won't appear in the same discussion for a different class.

Generate Discussion Notifications

When saving a discussion topic, teachers can choose to send email notifications to students and/or parents.

Receive Discussion Notifications

Teachers can choose to receive a PlusPortals Message or an Email Notification when students reply to a discussion. Teacher accounts are set by default to receive PlusPortals Message notifications. These notifications contain a link to the relevant discussion.

Access Discussions

Students and parents can access discussions in the Coursework box.

Students can view and participate in active discussions.
Parents can only view active discussions.

Permissions for discussions are set in the PlusPortals Management site.

Moderate Discussions

Edit or Delete Replies

Teachers can edit and delete student replies.

Locking a Student

Teachers can lock student accounts for a specific discussion to prevent those students from submitting replies.

Closing Discussions

Discussions can be set to close at a specific date and time. Closed discussions are no longer visible to students and/or parents.

Locking Discussions

You can lock discussions to stop students from submitting replies. Parents and students can still see locked discussions.

Existing replies to a locked discussion are opaque and This Discussion is Locked appears in the top right corner.

Discussion Settings

Administrators can navigate to Manage Accounts > Account Management Settings to choose whether to make discussions active for student, parent, and/or teacher accounts. Yes indicates that discussions are active for that account type.

Administrators can also decide whether avatars (user images) display next to usernames in the discussion with the Show Avatar setting. Currently, a user's avatar is their initials inside a circle.

Improvements

Course Request Export

Course Request exports include two new fields: Student Submitted Time and Parent Submitted Time. These fields allow schools to use a first-come, first-served selection process.

Performance Section Assignment Access

The Performance tab contains No Scores Posted and Scores Posted modules. Students and parents can download the original assignment resources from these modules.

Policy Page Email Address

We updated the email address referenced in PlusPortals Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Bug Fixes

Unread Messages

The unread message pop-up window experienced an issue where the last message in the list of unread messages would display a "null" error. This issue was resolved with the following redesign of the unread message pop-up window:

Simplified the pagination controls at the bottom into a Next button.
Added a link to the Email & Messages page.

Calendar Event Interaction

When editing calendar events, single-click and double-click behavior was inconsistent. To resolve this issue, we made the following change to the calendar event controls:

Mouse Action	Old Behavior	New Behavior
Mouse-over		View Tooltip
Click	View Tooltip
Double-click	Edit Event	Edit Event

Removed Teachers Showing in Message Address Book

We resolved an issue where inactive teachers could appear in the address book for email and messaging.

We made a small change to the wording of the TeacherLists admin pop-up window.