BusinessU
Contact Us
Sign UpLogin
BusinessU
Login
BusinessU
Contact Us
Sign UpLogin
BusinessU
Login

Changelog

What's new with BusinessU?

2024

Re-use class setups with Class Templates.

Teachers, you're familiar with using the Copy Class Settings feature to transfer content and settings between classes. We've enhanced this feature: now you can save a class as a template and use it to set up new classes. You also have the option to share these templates with other teachers in your site or district, streamlining your planning process.

To get started, go to class settings and click on the Save as Template button.

Redesigned groups configuration, group presets, group generation, and more.

We’ve completely redesigned the groups configuration interface for assignments, and added some powerful new features. Instead of configuring a single set of default groups for your entire class, create group presets and select them when enabling group assignments.

Shuffle groups or group leaders randomly, and automatically generate new groups with Maximum Collaboration (groups students together who have worked together the least), and Leadership Boost (assigns leadership to students who have the least experience leading).

Finally, hover over students inside the groups page to get a quick snapshot of their leader efficacy, or the average grade received on assignments where they’re a leader.

Automatically create assignment rubrics from standards.

The rubric editor has been redesigned from the ground up, and now supports automatically importing standards assigned to your license as rubric categories. When editing a rubric, click on the Import Standards button to find a standard to add to your rubric.

Complete assignments front-of-class with Interactive Review mode.

When viewing the Student View tab of assignments, teachers have access to a new Interactive Review toggle at the top of the assignment. This allows you to complete the assignment and check your answers in real time.

Better protections against duplicate students.

Previously it was very easy for duplicate students to be added to a class, especially when joining via class codes. Now, if we detect a student is trying to join a class with a name similar to an existing student, we’ll notify the teacher and have them approve the addition. If the teacher finds the student is already in the class, they can easily merge the two accounts and the student’s page is automatically refreshed once they’re added to the class.

Teachers can now rename and delete grading categories.

Previously, once an assignment was enabled inside a grading category, teachers couldn’t make changes to that grading category ever again. That’s frustrating, because things change! Now, teachers can delete existing grading categories, and then select a replacement category to move existing assignments to. Teachers can also rename existing grading categories, and map our built-in categories to their custom categories.

Reorganizing and adding content to your class is now faster and easier.

We've had the same "Use in Class" experience for a while, so it's time for a tune-up. Let's talk about a few of the improvements we've made:

No more back & forth when adding content to your class. Previously, once you clicked "Use in Class," you were taken back to your class where you can drag / drop the content into your sequence. Once you were done, you had to manually go back to where you were. That's pretty time-consuming, so we streamlined the experience to be faster and more intuitive.

Use Split View for bulk changes. When viewing a course preview from the explore tab, click on Open in Split View to open a new view: your class is on the right side of the page, and the course you're viewing is on the left. Drag content over and rearrange content as you see fit, with immediate feedback. Once you're done with your changes, hit Save Changes. Want to start over? Hit Cancel. None of your re-structuring is saved unless you hit Save Changes.

Quickly open Split View from your Course Outline. Instead of having to go to the Explore tab to find a course to be able to add content, the courses in your license are listed directly inside of the Add Content menu. Click Add Content, then Courses, and then click on a course to quickly open it in Split View.

Drag content back & forth between terms inside single-class Split View. If you want to rearrange what content is in Semester 1 or Semester 2, click on the new split view button to the right of the terms picker inside the Course Outline view, and you'll be taken into split view for your current class. One term on the left, the other on the right. Move content back & forth between your terms, and hit Save Changes when you're done.

Make your own modifications to our content.

Teachers are now able to copy BusinessU content as their own. To get started, head to your Course Outline page and click on the three dots to the right of the enable switch, then click Create a copy.

This creates a copy of our content and adds it to your My Content page. You can now make modifications to this content as you see fit!

You'll also be able to easily distinguish between BusinessU content and your personal copies, with a new icon to the left of the enable switch.

Better assignment settings, in one place.

Previously, if you were viewing an assignment you wanted to grade, you would have to click Grade Assignment, which would close the assignment content and re-open a new window with the assignment's settings and submissions.

If you wanted to go back to view the assignment's content, you would have to click View Content, which would do this same popping maneuver back to the original window.

That was a whole lot of back and forth! So we combined the two. Now, you can view your assignment content and grade it, all in one place.

We've also redesigned the assignment settings page to be simpler and more balanced for easier editing.

Grade export now supports points-based reporting.

When exporting a grade report from the grades tab in your classes, you now have the option between creating a traditional report, which shows percentages only, and a points-based report, which reports the number of points students received on an assignment instead of a percentage.

A fresh experience for LMS sync and rostering.

Our existing LMS sync / student rostering experience has served us well for many years, but it's time for a refresh. We've completely redesigned the experience with a focus on usability based on feedback we've gathered over the last few years.

Our new LMS sync / rostering experience includes an entirely new way to connect your LMS classes, a simpler rostering experience where you can make bulk-modifications to students in one place, a refreshed students table with simpler and more visible controls, and a refreshed import students modal.

A better spreadsheet tool.

We've received feedback in the past about the speed and reliability of the spreadsheet tool in our Accounting course. We've re-created the internals of the spreadsheet tool with a focus on stability in performance, so students and teachers should have a much speedier and more reliable experience when completing Accounting assignments!

As usual, if you run into any issues with our new spreadsheet tool, please let us know via our support options. We hope you enjoy the new experience!

Filter assignments with missing submissions in the gradebook.

Teachers can now filter their gradebook to only show assignments past due where some students have not yet submitted anything (otherwise known as "missing").

Sections are now synced with Google Classroom as material

Previously, if you synced a section with Google Classroom, it would appear as an assignment. That's relatively cumbersome as it assumes students are going to be "turning in" a reading for grading, when most of the time that's not the case.

We've updated it to instead create sections as material inside Google Classroom, so it still shows up inside your materials and on your stream, but not as a grade.

Assignments still sync to Google Classroom as assignments inside the gradebook.

New editing experience for custom content.

We've just released a completely redesigned editor for teachers to use when creating their own content under the My Content tab.

Create new elements using the plus button, and drag them around using the dragger that appears when you hover over them.

We hope you like it!

Change default assignment settings for each assignment category.

Teachers can now control default assignment settings for each of their assignment categories. This means now instead of setting defaults for every assignment, you can have different defaults depending on which category the assignment is created with.

For example, you can set 3 maximum attempts for Classwork and 1 attempt for Tests / Quizzes. Neat!

We've refreshed the design of the class settings page.

Class settings were getting a bit out of control, with many ways to customize your class on one page! If you click on Class Settings now, your class settings have been organized into different categories based on function.

You’ll also notice your default groups configuration is no longer on the class sidebar, and has been moved to class settings.

Teachers can now collaborate with other teachers in their class.

Teachers can now invite other teachers to their class to “team-teach” with them. The team teaching feature allows the “owner” of the class to control which teachers have access to their class, and their individual permissions as a team teacher.

To get started, go to your Class Settings and then click on Teachers & Permissions.

Teachers can now view all student attempts.

On assignments that allow multiple attempts, teachers are now able to view all of the student's previous attempts. To get started, when grading an assignment, select a student from the left sidebar. If multiple attempts are enabled, the student's attempts will pop in on the left sidebar.

BusinessU

BusinessU helps you prepare students for success with engaging, standards-based business courses, delivered through our interactive platform.

Join our 2k+ High School business, marketing, accounting, and finance teachers and sign up for a free trial today!

Copyright © 2024 Business U LLC

A Thesis Company