Updates 7 Dec 2023

29 SEP 2023

Updates 7 December 2023

This list details the changes users can expect in the upcoming SLS Release 20, which will be rolled out on 7 December 2023. Please note that SLS will be unavailable from 6 December 00:00 to 7 December 23:00 to facilitate this release.

Features for All Users

Quiz
"Restart Quiz" function removed on Progressive Quizzes
  1. With the new option to retry quizzes, the function for students to restart in progressive quizzes has been removed.
Quiz Score Calculation
  1. Quiz score will exclude Free-Response Questions and Audio-Response questions that are not marked in Progressive and Auto-Graded quizzes.
  2. New indicator on quiz score will show that there are questions pending marks from Learning Feedback Assistants.
  3. Quiz score prerequisites, score requirement to retry a quiz and gamification conditions requirements will be based on the total quiz score that can be marked by the system in Progressive and Auto-Graded quizzes.

Rich text Editor improvements
  1. Users can renumber bullet points.
  2. User can right click the selected text to edit the font styling.
  3. User can right click to access the undo and redo function.

Drawing Tools
Drawing Tool and Canvas Improvements
  1. Teachers or students are able to fit the content of drawing within the drawing tool view port by clicking on “Fit to width”.
  2. Users are able to use the slider zoom to enlarge or reduce their canvas view.
  3. The canvas size has been expanded to make drawing easier.
Image Cropping Tool
  1. Users are able to crop user-generated images based on preset or custom aspect ratios.
  2. Users are able to crop uploaded images based on the preset aspect ratio for images in system, e.g. featured lesson images, game avatar images, forum topic images, discussion feature images, class group images.

Learning Progress improvements
  1. Users are able to view data on the Learning Progress donut chart for assignment or self-study based on the selected content map.
  2. Users are able to view Learning Progress data of Free-Response and Audio-Response Questions assessed by Learning Feedback Assistants.

User Interface
  1. Users can view Teachers' Preferred Names and Full Names throughout the various student and teacher views, i.e. "Teacher's Preferred Name (Teacher's Full Name)"

Features for Teachers

Lesson Authoring
Quiz Improvements
Timed Quiz
  1. Teachers can select the option “Set quiz as timed quiz” to show a timer for all quiz types. Timers will count upwards as the quiz begins, and show the recommended time below.
  2. Teachers may also select the option for quizzes to be submitted automatically when time is up to facilitate e-examinations.
Retry Quiz
  1. Teachers can allow students to retry a quiz.
  2. Teachers can make it compulsory for students to retry a quiz if marks attained are below the percentage value set by the teacher.
Randomise Pages in Quiz
  1. Teachers can select the option to randomise all pages in Auto-Graded and Teacher-Marked quizzes.
  2. Teachers can assign quiz pages at random, based on the selected number of pages, like a question bank. E.g. Teachers can create a quiz with 50 pages with 1 question per page at 1 mark each. When assigning, teachers can choose to assign 10 pages at random to each student to have a total of 10 marks.
Last worked on lessons/assignments
  1. Teachers are able to pick up where they had left off when editing a lesson or assignment via the “Edit Existing” tab after clicking on the “Create/Edit Lesson” button on the homepage.
Layered Hints
  1. Teachers are able to set up to 3 hints for these question types: Multiple-Choice, Multiple-Response, Fill-in-the-Blanks, Click-and-Drop. Hints must be progressively opened by students.
Add more than 1 Interactive Thinking Tool (ITT) in single activity
  1. Teachers are able to add multiple ITTs in an activity.
Enhanced Video and Audio Editing and Playback
  1. Teachers are able to set concrete start and end times for video or audio playback.
  2. Users are able to set different playback speeds for video or audio.
Edit lesson directly after copy is made
  1. Teachers are able to edit a copied lesson after the copy is made via the “Edit Lesson” button.
Click-and-Drop Question Enhancement
  1. Teachers can crop base images and add options by cropping from the uploaded base image.
  2. Teachers are able to customise sizes of text and image options and resize without losing placed options. Font sizes on text options will not be resized.
  3. Teachers are able to upload new base image and edit them without losing existing options, but placed options will be removed from base image.
Fill-in-the-Blanks Question Enhancement
  1. Teachers can select from two additional Fill-in-the-Blanks question types.
  2. Word Bank - Teachers are able to display all options for the blanks in a word bank, and also include distractors within the word bank.
  3. Multiple-Options - Teachers are able to provide options for each blank within the Fill-in-the-Blanks question.
Distribute Slides, Video and Audio Across Paginated Activities/Quiz
  1. Teachers are able to split slides in the form of PowerPoint files (.ppt, .pptx) across different pages by adding “Split-page Media”. Slides will be converted to images and distributed across pages, where one image appears on each page.
  2. Teachers are able to split video and audio files across different pages by adding “Split-page Media”. Teachers will need to add multiple timestamps, with strict start and end times. The video or audio file will be distributed across pages based on the indicated timestamps.
  3. The first slide, video or audio will be added to existing pages where users select the option to split media.
  4. Note that split-page media is disabled between components.
Add Multiple Pages
  1. Teachers can add multiple pages to an activity or quiz.
QTI Improvements
  1. Teachers can add QTI questions across different pages in an activity.
Featured Image Display
  1. Featured images will be displayed based on recommended aspect ratio.

Assessment
Marking Using Drawing Tool via Teacher feedback
  1. Teachers are able to mark images submitted by students (student drawing, uploaded image) and provide feedback.
  2. Teachers or students are able to reply to the drawing.
Teacher Marking on PDF
  1. Teachers are able to make a PDF copy of the student’s answer to a Free-Response Question. The PDF file will be created in the Teacher’s Comments response box for annotation and posting.
Submit Quiz on behalf of students
  1. Teachers can submit Teacher-Marked quizzes on behalf of the student via the Monitor Assignment page by selecting the student(s), regardless of the students’ completion. Draft responses saved by the student will be submitted.
Short Answer Feedback Assistant(ShortAnsFA)
  1. Teachers are able to provide feedback more quickly by using ShortAnsFA with Free-Response Questions in Teacher-Marked Quizzes.
    • to grade student responses
    • auto-generate content-related feedback

Class Groups
Switch to Teacher-student account via Class Group page
  1. Teachers are able switch to their Teacher or Teacher-student accounts via the Class Group page.
Different Class Group Types
  1. Teachers are able to create new group types
    • Professional Development Groups
    • Staff Groups
  • Note: Assignments and Learning Progress are not available for Staff Groups.
Class Group Feature Image
  1. Teachers are able to upload a group image for their Class Group.
Cutover Improvements
  1. The Class Group academic year will be updated after the system cutover takes place in mid to late-December 2023. The following data for each Class Group - Teachers and students, Class Group details and Class Group Resources - will be added to a new Class Group for 2024. The Class Group for 2023 will be archived in Past Class Groups. This automatic transfer will take place as long as the Class Group has not expired.
  2. Teachers and students are able to search, filter and view assignments from the past three years in their Current and Past Class Groups.
  3. Teachers are able to move assignments in their Past Class Groups to the current academic year’s Class Group.

Print-to-Scan
  1. Print-to-Scan can be used for Multiple-Choice Questions and Free-Response Questions in a Teacher-Marked Quiz only.
  2. Teachers are able to print:
    • Question paper - identical copy for all students
    • Response Sheets - personalised copy for each student which includes the Assignment ID, a unique Student ID, and Question ID for each question. Unsupported question types will be labelled.
  1. Teacher can scan the Response Sheets to populate the student’s response in the Teacher-Marked Quiz in an SLS assignment.
  2. Teachers will be able to see the draft status of each student’s attempt in the Assignment Monitoring page after the Response Sheet is uploaded and processed.
  3. Teachers are able to submit quizzes for students in bulk, and apply the existing marking flows.

Gamification
XP Modifiers
  1. Teachers are able to set XP modifier bonuses based on the number of consecutive correct responses (streaks) in a Progressive Quiz.
  2. Teachers are able to set XP modifier penalties for quiz retries for Auto-Graded or Progressive Quiz.
  3. Teachers are able to set XP modifier penalties for opened hints.
  4. Teachers are able to set XP modifier penalties for exceeding the recommended quiz time.
New Conditions for Game Stories, Achievements and Game Avatars
  1. Teachers can now add new conditions for the awarding of Collectibles or Game Stories, including
    1. Lesson Start
    2. Lesson Progress
    3. Level reached
    4. Quiz score
    5. Quiz ranking
    6. Collectible awarded
  2. Teachers can specify the relationships between selected conditions using AND/OR operators.
Customisable Game Avatars for Gamified Lessons
  1. The Game Avatar is a new type of award in Gamification lessons. Game Avatars can be used as a condition, similar to Achievements, for other Collectibles. Both Achievements and Game Avatars are shown under the “Collectibles” tab.
  2. Teachers can create Game Avatars with user-uploaded images.
  3. Students can use awarded Game Avatars within the same gamified Assignment.
Competitive Quiz
  1. Teachers can choose to award XP based on the quiz ranking attained by the student (e.g. top 1-5 ranking).
  2. The Quiz Leaderboard will be available if the Quiz’s ranking has been selected as a condition for a Game Story or Collectible.
Branches in Game Stories and Collectibles
  1. Teachers are able to create game branches for Game Stories and Collectibles.
  2. Students are able to select the game branches when Game Stories or Collectibles are awarded. These game branches can be used as a condition for other Game Stories and Collectibles.
  3. Teachers can choose to set either Game Choices or Short-Response Text to create game branches.
  4. Using Game Choices, teachers can set concrete options for students to select when the Game Story or Collectible is awarded.
  5. Using Short Response Text, students are required to input text to select the game branch.

Assignment
Conditional Activity Access
  1. Teachers are able to add prerequisites to Activities, in addition to Sections (existing functionality).
  2. Prerequisites for Activities and Sections now include:
    • Completion
    • Quiz score
  3. Teachers can set sequential Section access for Sections within a lesson and sequential Activity access for Activities within a Section.
  4. Teachers can specify the relationships between selected prerequisites using AND/OR operators.
Open Teams Setting in Team Activity
  1. Teachers are able to turn on the setting for SLS to auto-assign students into Teams in Team Activities.
  2. Teachers set a number of Open Teams. Teachers do not have to group students into different Teams. As each student accesses the Team Activity, they will be assigned to the team with the lowest number of students.
Direct assignment from Class Group Resource
  1. Teachers are able to directly assign from class group resources.

Learning Progress Report
  1. Teachers are able to download Learning Progress reports in the form of .csv files for Class Group Assignments and Self-Study, including data on Adaptive Learning System (ALS) practices.

Notifications
  1. Teachers are able to create announcements for all or selected teachers in their Class Groups.
  2. The “Created by me” tab in Notifications will display notifications created by the user only, instead of displaying all notifications created by teachers in participating Class Groups.

Password Reset
  1. Form Teachers who are teaching their form class can reset the passwords of students in their form class.

Features for Students

Copied Teacher-Marked Quiz converts to Auto-Graded Quiz
  1. Teacher-Marked Quizzes in Lessons that are copied to students’ My Drive are converted to Auto-Graded Quizzes.

Features for Admin

Generate Usage Reports
  1. School Admin users can generate SLS usage reports by month, user role (student or teacher) and Level (for students only) for their school.
  2. Usage reports include data on the following:
    • Number of days logged into SLS for teaching and learning
    • Total number of page views related to teaching and learning

Permission to add, edit and remove teachers from Class Groups
  1. School Admin users can add, edit and remove teachers from Class Groups in their schools.