Sapling Learning v1.14 Release Notes

This week we're releasing the next update to SaplingLearning.com. We intended to only release a couple features to help with lab courses, but we ended up rolling a few extra features into this release, including one big one.

Activities

• Introducing the Activity Sidebar: In November, I mentioned we were working on the Activity Sidebar. The first version of the Activity Sidebar will be available in this release. The Sidebar currently contains up to three drawers (depending on your course and assignment settings): Assignment Information (always present, open by default), Subject Resources (present if enabled and present for this subject), Technical Support and Bug Reports (always present). We'll add more drawers in coming releases.

Groups (aka Sections)

• Student Self-Enrollment in Groups: Students can now add themselves to course sections, using a special enrollment key (password) to indicate which group they should be in. This makes it much easier to manage multi-section courses.
• Group Due Date Offsets: You can now set up a "standing extension" for a group. For example, if you have lab groups that meet on Monday and Wednesday, you can give everyone in the Wednesday section a two-day extension on every activity, automatically.

Miscellaneous Fixes

• Grades: We shortened the length of assignment titles in the gradebook, cutting down on the need for horizontal scrolling.
• Extensions: Better error-handling (mostly for old, mis-set extensions that were hard to edit).
• Profile Pictures: You can now upload profile pictures again.
• Spacing of PayPal Payment Box: The PayPal box had a big gap above it where the enrollment key box goes when needed. That space is now gone.
• Sorting Module: A rare bug in the sorting module caused images to very occasionally fail to load. This bug has been fixed.

We also released the prototype of a new feature in this release, but that isn't quite ready for general use. I'll be back next week to tell you about it, and to let you know how you can see it while we work the kinks out.

Sapling Learning Physics

Here at Sapling, we are always looking for ways to improve not just the software that runs our homework products, but also what subjects we can support with that software. Sapling's content team was initially comprised of chemists so they did what they know - write questions for chemistry courses. Since then our content team has expanded to include many science disciplines. In that vein, we are pleased to announce our newest addition - Sapling Learning Physics.

I am the team lead for our physics project and in charge of overseeing the development of the new content as well as representing Sapling physics at conferences and in meetings with professors. While in graduate school working on my physics PhD, I was a teaching assistant for many semesters. I got started with Sapling Learning in the same way as many of our current team members - as a contract author. When Sapling decided to start their physics project they brought me on full time.

We have a team of PhD level physicists developing our physics content, each with many years of teaching experience that has given them an understanding of common misconceptions held by students and what guidance will best help them learn how to work out these questions on their own. Together we are working towards an initial goal of 1200 items intended to cover both semesters of introductory level physics for both algebra and calculus based courses. These courses will be available for use starting in the fall semester of 2011.

When we develop content for new disciplines like this at Sapling, we always go through a pilot semester first. Pilots are usually arranged with professors who have previously expressed interest in a subject that we hadn't yet developed. These professors understand that the course is still in development but they have an interest in helping to develop new tools for teaching their students. Because our content is being completed while the course is in progress, these pilots are offered for free to the students in the course. In exchange, Sapling gets valuable student testing data as well as feedback from both students and professors that we will incorporate to make the courses even better for future semesters.

We currently have pilot courses starting for the 2011 Spring semester. If you would like to try out Sapling in your class for this spring, it is not too late to get everything set up. Additionally, if you are already committed to another online homework system and would like to compare Sapling to your existing system, we can set up a trial of a few homework assignments for you and your students.

If you are interested in learning more about Sapling Learning's physics offerings, we are exhibiting at the AAPT Winter Meeting that is going on right now in Jacksonville, FL. Or you can e-mail me directly at carl.knutson[at]saplinglearning.com.

Exporting Grades

We're actively testing the next release, but we wanted to give you a couple tips about exporting grades:

• Set a due date for all activities (the due date could be just before you export them). Assignments in green italics (ie, assignments for which the due date hasn't passed) aren't included in the total grade. If you need to, you can set a due date, export, then remove the due date.
• Move gray scores into ungraded categories. Gray scores are included in overall scores, but your students can't see them. If you have any activities that you decided not to use, make sure they aren't in your main grade category(ies). 
• Similarly, move any unused assignments into ungraded categories. If your students don't have scores (if, instead, they have a -), that score isn't included in the course grade, but anything your students have a score in (including a 0) is included in the course grade.

If you need help with any of these options, your TechTA is ready to help, or just contact us at support@saplinglearning.com.

Sapling Learning v1.13 Release Notes

Sometime in the next week or so (depending how soon everything passes our testing process), we'll release our latest update, version 1.13. This release includes several features that we hope will make your (or your students') life easier.

Activities (aka Assignments):

• Bigger Assignments: Since we first created SaplingLearning.com, screen technology has improved greatly. The laptop I'm typing this on has a higher resolution than the monitor I was using on a "top-of-the-line" desktop machine when I helped design the first version of the site. To reflect this change, we've updated assignments to scale to fit your browser window. We also increased the minimum size, so that superscript characters can't become unreadable.
• More Info on Main Course Page: Students want to know two things when they come to their course: What do I have to do, and what scores have I gotten on the things I've done so far? To make that information easier to find, we've put it on the main course page. For you, we show Available From and Due Date information, and highlight assignments that are available to your students right now in green. For your students, we add their score on each activity, just like they'd see in their gradebook. 

Activity Editing:

• Minutes: Minute will roll from 55 minutes to 0 minutes and 0 minutes to 55 minutes when setting due dates in the activity editor, rather than 55 minutes to 59 minutes (and then "stuck").
• Scrollbar: We've made the scrollbar in the Library portion of the Activity Editor (hopefully) make a bit more sense. It's no longer hidden off the right side of your window.
• Quick Editing: You can now set all available from and due dates on the "Activities and Due Dates" page, for (much) faster editing.
• Due Date Extensions: You can also see a count of due date extensions you have granted to students for each activity on the "Activities and Due Dates" page.

Grades:

• Hidden Grades: If your totals include hidden grades (for example, grades on activities you decided not to assign), we'll tell you about those hidden grades, and help you fix them if you want to fix them.
• Student Review Links: If you click "User report" from the gradebook, you can see individual-student score reports (useful, for example, for reviewing work with a student at office hours). You'll now be able to click the score on that report to go to that student's version of the assignment, just like you can in the "Grader report."

Other:

• Logging In: We've improved the functionality of the login box at SaplingLearning.com. You can now use your tab key to move quickly between Username and Password, and you can click enter in either box to log in.
• Support Email Link on Course Enrollment Page: We've added an extra support@saplinglearning.com link on the course enrollment page to help students find us if they're confused about what to do.
• Icons for Common Filetypes: We added icons for common filetypes like Microsoft Word documents or PowerPoint presentations. If you upload files of this type, they'll now have an icon indicating what they are for your students.
• Participation Reports: Go to "Reports" then "Participation report" to see when your students accessed any particular assignment.
• Activity Reports Graph: Click any student's name in your gradebook, and go to "Activity reports" then "All logs." A graph of that student's activity now appears at the top of that page.

We have more exciting features in the works for next month's release, including the Activity Sidebar. If there's anything you'd like to see in an upcoming release, let us know in the comments.

Want More Questions? We Have You Covered

The central feature of SaplingLearning.com is the content used to build your online homework assignments and quizzes. We assembled a top-notch team to write that content, composed of the people who wrote much of the content for other online homework systems. While we tried to write everything you might need for your course, you may want to ask something we don't have. If so, we have three options available to you: content requests, editing existing questions, and writing questions from scratch.

Option 1: Content Requests
The first place to turn if you can't find the question you're looking for is your TechTA. Usually, they have provided a link on the right side of your course(s) with information about how to contact them (or you can just call or email them as normal). If you describe the question you want, they can usually get it to you within about a week (but the sooner you let them know you'll need the question, the better). They'll check whether we already have what you want (for example, maybe we already wrote it for a different subject or for a different instructor). If we don't have it, they'll write it for you. Note that this is generally handled on a first-come-first-served basis, so it's definitely best to figure out what you want as early in the semester as you can.

Option 2: Editing Existing Questions
If you just want to put your own touch on an existing question, you can edit any question in our content bank:

1. Open the assignment where you want to add the question (any assignment will do, but this way you can assign the question when you're done).
2. Find the question you want to edit in our library. Usually you can use the magnifying glass icon in Your Activity. If you can't find it that way, click the brown book on the left side of the activity to open the Library, then browse through the sources on the left to find it. Tip: You can click the arrow next to the title of a book, chapter, or section to drill deeper into the Library, and you can use the filters at the bottom of the Library to limit the question list down based on title or description.
3. With that question selected, click "Create a copy of a question and edit it" at the top of the window (the double-page icon pointed out at the start of this section). Your copy of the question will open in a new window.
4. Make the changes you desire. Check all of the tabs of the question in case your change affects them. It's probably a good idea to call your TechTA the first time you do this, so they can walk you through everything and make sure you understand what everything means. Note: The question saves every time you change to a new tab (from Question to Correct, for example).
5. Close the question, and reload the activity (your question will show up in the Library when you reload).
6. Add your copy of the question. Unless you changed something on the "Information" tab of your question, it's most likely saved in the same part of the book as the original question (so you can find it the same way you found the original question).
7. Very important: Double-click the question to view it as a student. ALWAYS do this to make sure the question works the way you think it does, no matter how certain you are. You might have missed something, and it's always possible you'll find a bug in our authoring. It's far better that you find mistakes before your students do.
8. Remove the original question.

You can also edit an existing question to create something brand new. This might be a good idea for your first few questions, so you can see how our feedback and variables work. In some cases, though, it might be easiest to start from scratch.

Option 3: Writing Questions from Scratch

If you can't find a question close to what you want (or you don't want to deal with the variables and feedback in existing questions), you can write a question from scratch. We have more information about this on our support website, but these are the basics:

1. Open the assignment where you want to add the question (any assignment will do, but this way you can assign the question when you're done).
2. Open the Library (using the brown book icon).
3. Click "Create a new question from scratch" (the blue + button at the top-right of the Library)
4. Write your question. Be sure to include a Solution (the answer), a Correct tab (the answer with tolerance), and at least a Default Incorrect tab (feedback your students will receive if they get the wrong answer). After you start your first question, it's a good idea to call your TechTA to make sure you didn't miss anything.
5. Close the question, and reload the activity (your question will show up in the Library when you reload).
6. Find your question in the Library. Unless you specified a location on the "Information" tab of your question, the question will appear in the "Your Questions" topic in the first section of the first chapter of every book in the Library.
7. Very important: Double-click the question to view it as a student. ALWAYS do this to make sure the question works the way you think it does, no matter how certain you are. You might have missed something, and it's always possible you'll find a bug in our authoring. It's far better that you find mistakes before your students do.
8. Add the question to your activity.

Any questions you write or edit will be available in any future courses you teach, but they are private to only you. We have plans to eventually allow you to submit your questions to your colleagues for use in their courses. If you think you would use that feature, or have any questions about authoring, let us know in the comments.

Seedling: Activity Sidebar

This is the first article in the Seedling series. Seedling articles offer a preview of new features that are in the works.

Today's Seedling is a new suite of features for students working on assignments: the Activity Sidebar. The Activity Sidebar will consist of a series of drawers, each containing helpful information for students working on that particular activity.

We currently have at least 6 drawers planned: Assignment Information, Scoring Information, Technical Support, Help Entering Your Answer, Help With This Topic, Subject Resources, and Web Help & Videos.

The Assignment Information drawer will contain important information about the assignment: the name of the assignment, when it's due, any description the instructor gives it, and the grading policies that will be used on the assignment. Except for the scoring policies, all of this information is already shown to students in the current assignment view, but it can be a little hard to find; we'll put the information front-and-center.

The Scoring Information drawer will give students information about where their score on the assignment is coming from. We'll show students their individual scores on each question, with an explanation of why they received that score.

The Technical Support drawer will give students quick links to support topics, as well as an easy place to email our support team with any questions they might have. We pride ourselves on quick support replies, so we want to make it easier for students to find us.

Help Entering Your Answer will offer information about the specific modules used in the question. For example, if the question involves molecule drawing, this drawer will have videos explaining how to use the molecule drawing module.

The Help With This Topic drawer will contain links to helpful reference materials, such as sections from ebooks or online video lectures. These resources are keyed to the specific topic of the question. You can see some examples of these resources in the Resources button currently available in organic chemistry courses.

For each subject (such as General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Introductory Chemistry, GOB, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering: Mass & Energy Balances, or Physics), the Subject Resources drawer will have links to general references pertaining to those subjects. These aren't keyed to the topic of the particular question, but might be helpful if students aren't sure where to start.

Finally, the Web Help & Videos drawer will contain the results of a targeted web search for the topic of the question. The web is a rich source of helpful information, but here we help students sift through that information.

The Activity Sidebar is being designed to be extensible, so that we can add additional drawers as new types of resources become available. If you have any ideas for resources that students might find helpful, please let us know in the comments.

Improving Questions: Sapling’s Quality Control Process

Sapling Learning is committed to creating the highest quality content, but we also devote a considerable effort towards maintaining and improving the efficacy of the existing questions. This post covers what happens to a question after it is "live" (available for use in assignments).

There are two opportunities for question revision during a question's lifetime: revision prompted by instructor or student comments, and revision through periodic, statistical reviews. The types of question flaws caught in each instance tend to be very different in nature.

Occasionally a Tech TA or Sapling Support will receive an email or call from an instructor or student alerting us to a potential error with a question. The question may have a wording issue, the tolerances on the question may be too tight, or, rarely, the correct answer may be incorrectly coded. Regardless, the issue with the question is often specific and the action is immediate: we may remove the question from the assignment, or replace the question with a corrected version.

There can be other issues with a question that are more subtle, and that is why we perform periodic, statistical reviews. During these reviews, Sapling analyzes statistical data for the questions that we have written. The question statistics include information about how many students have viewed the question, the average number of attempts per student on the question, the average number of points each student got on the question, and the difficulty rating that the original question author projected the question to have.* For each difficulty rating (easy, medium, and hard) within a discipline, we look for outliers—that is, questions for which students have taken significantly more or less attempts or have received more or less points than average for that difficulty rating. Those questions are flagged, and we examine the questions to see if we can find anything that might cause the unusual behavior. Sometimes the incorrect feedback could be improved, sometimes an issue only occurs for some values of a randomly generated variable, and sometimes question tolerances are too tight. In the instances where we cannot find a flaw in the question, we consider giving the question a new difficulty rating.

Quickly addressing potential question flaws, regardless of how the flaw is brought to our attention is one way that we continuously improve our question bank.  However, there are always opportunities to make this process better. As an instructor, what would you like to see us do to improve our content? Are there any statistics, like average time spent on a question, that you feel we should analyze when determining what questions should be flagged for review?

* The number of attempts on a question and the number of points received for the question are not necessarily giving you the same information if a question has more than one part.