News & Events: New Features for Summer 2010
Notify Lab Administrators
Starting with the Summer 2010 release, MathXL for School requires the use of the Adobe Flash Player version 10.0 or later. (Earlier versions of Flash will no longer be supported.) If you are teaching with MathXL for School for the first time, please refer your computer lab administrators to the installation instructions at http://www.mymathlab.com/mxlplayer_update.html. For schools that used MathXL for School or MathXL last term, please ensure that Flash Player version 10.0 or later is installed in all campus computer labs.
New Features
Personalized Assignment for Mastery (Homework for now)
To help students achieve mastery, teachers can have the program generate a personalized assignment based on a student’s performance on a test or quiz. This personalized assignment automatically includes questions from objectives the student missed on the test or quiz, and teachers have the option to add other questions from the objectives tested. Students are awarded credit in the personalized assignment for questions from objectives they mastered on the test or quiz.
Graphical "Dashboard" Display of Student Performance
A new home page—based on the current Announcements page—will use simple bar charts and other visual motivators to let students know their current status in the course, how much work they still need to complete, and what their upcoming assignments are and when they are due. An improved and detailed calendar, to which teachers can add entries, will be prominent on this page.
Enhancements to Media Assignments
Media assignments can include multiple media resources as well as publisher-provided and custom questions. Teachers can associate specific questions with specific media and require students to access the media before answering questions. In addition, teachers can link to external media as part of a media assignment.
Batch Options for Creating Assignments
Newly created sample homework assignments and sample tests that are ready to be assigned can be copied in batch mode rather than one at a time. If desired, teachers can also specify a date range within which the assignments are made available to students. XL calculates and evenly spreads out the assignment due dates, which can be modified by teachers at any time.
Automated Late Due Date Grading
For homework assignments submitted after the due date, teachers can apply a penalty by deducting points or percentages from the final score or per day from the final score. They can also specify a final submission date, beyond which assignments can no longer be submitted. Assignments submitted late with a penalty will be clearly marked in the Gradebook.
Assign Multiple Prerequisites per Assignment
Teachers can assign more than one prerequisite per assignment, with or without a minimum score. For tests and quizzes with multiple attempts, instructors can also specify which attempt the prerequisite applies to—for example, complete Sec 2.3 Personalized Homework and Media Assignment 2 before students can take Attempt 2 of the Chapter 2 Pre-test.
Manage Incompletes Improvements
When teachers submit zeros using Manage Incompletes, they will see any extension dates that have been given to students and be asked whether they want to submit zeros for those students. A "Select All Past Due" button will be added above the list of assignments that will select all students who have missed the deadline for any assignment and leave unchecked students whose assignment due dates have not yet passed. The default view of Manage Incompletes will be Show All instead of Tests.
Course Access Control
Instructors can define the type of course access section instructors have by default, such as read-only, manage student results, change individual student or class assignment settings, add announcement, create and edit own assignments, edit all assignments in the course. This ability to specify the level of access will benefit both Coordinator instructors as well as instructors of large, standard courses taught by section instructors.
Coming in August 2010
Exercise Builder for the Mac
The Custom Exercise Builder will be converted to be Flash-based like the Player, and thus will be compatible with the Mac and other browsers such as Firefox (PC) and Safari (Mac).
