With a free account on our STEM Resource Finder, teachers can create classes, assign activities, track progress in real time, and provide their students with timely feedback. We are excited to announce new features in our class management system and dashboard, inspired by teacher requests. Best of all, they’re ready just in time for the start of the new school year!

Controlling student access to materials

In the past, when teachers assigned materials to their classes, they were able to make them available or lock them only at the whole class level. Even before the recent rise in student absenteeism, teachers told us they wanted to make resources available to students on an individual basis.

We’ve added the ability for teachers to lock and unlock assignments for specific students. Look at the example below where the teacher has adjusted these two settings differently for each of her students.

The teacher’s view of the AI in Math Pre-Survey with custom visibility and lock options. Rosie Jetson can see the Pre-Survey but cannot run it.

Here’s how to do it for your whole class:

• Log in to your teacher account, select a class in the left-hand menu, then click Assignments.
• To the right of the assignment name, look at the CLASS SETTINGS.
• Check “VISIBLE” if you want your students to see and run the assignment.
• Check “LOCKED” if you don’t want your students to run the assignment.

To adjust the settings for individual students, first click +SHOW DETAIL. Now you can select VISBLE or LOCKED on a per-student basis.

In the student view below, Rosie Jetson can see, but not run, the locked AI in Math Pre-Survey. However, she can run the AI in Math Module.

The student view reflects the settings the teacher has selected.

Locking and unlocking assignments for individual students can be helpful in several scenarios, including:

• Allowing students who have been absent to make up work without reopening materials to the entire class.
• Managing pre- and post-assessments for students who are working at different paces.
• Providing optional assignments for student enrichment or remediation.

Student status at a glance

We’ve also added new features to the Class Dashboard that is included in many of the curriculum activities on the STEM Resource Finder. We recently shared an improved flow for giving students feedback on their work. Now, we’ve added a column showing the date and time that each student most recently logged in and ran the assignment.

To show or hide this option, open the menu in the upper right corner of any of the three dashboard views and click “Hide Last Run column.” This feature was designed to help teachers have a better idea of who is actively working on an assignment both during and after class.

The Last Run column can be shown or hidden.

Multiple-choice summary graph

Finally, we’ve added a multiple-choice summary graph to help teachers quickly assess misconceptions in students’ understanding and address issues through whole class discussion or individually as needed. For multiple-choice questions, a Class Summary chart of students’ responses is displayed along with the individual student’s response. In the case of multiple-select questions with more than one correct answer, all correct responses are displayed along with the number of students who selected each.

The Class Summary view (center right) shows that 11 students responded correctly, 1 incorrectly, and 8 haven’t answered the question yet. Student 5’s response to Question #5 is also shown (bottom right).

Let us know how you use these features. Write to us at feedback@concord.org.