Check out the new features and improvements we've made based on teacher feedback.
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September 2023
- Administrators can use the Emulate feature to log in as any teacher in their district (district admins only) or school. While emulating as a teacher, the administrator can see class- and student-level data and easily take actions the teacher can, such as adding a co-teacher to their class or assigning texts for students
July 2022
- Teachers can now integrate with Open Learning
May 2022
- Added alerts for delete actions in the Workspace
- Improved printing layout of classification questions
April 2022
- Added ability for teachers to see student drafts to questions in the grading panel.
- Added the info icon on assignment tiles in the student view so students can also access an assignment's essential question, description, and other data at a quick glance.
March 2022
- Added ability for teachers and students to move their notes within an assignment .
February 2022
- Added new info icon on assignment tile in catalog to allow for a quick glance view of the assignments essential question, description, and other data.
January 2022
- Updated the assign modal to allow for teachers to assign to individuals (Prime feature), set start and due dates, and select optional assignment settings.
- Added Grade and Lexile level information to teaching ideas within all assignments.
December 2021
- Updated lock/unlock feature to allow teachers to set start and due dates
- Added support for multiple languages in closed captions on videos when available
November 2021
- Updates to our search bar making it more prominent
- Added support for teachers to export standards from assignments
- Added support for administrators to export standards data
October 2021
- Added translation support for all languages currently supported by Google Translate
- Filter sidebar now supports filtering by assignment type
- New Present Mode added making it easier than ever to share your screen without giving away answers.
- Teachers can bulk lock and unlock the same assignment across multiple classes
September 2021
- Added support to grant partial credit for questions that have more than one correct answer.
August 2021
- New question types added
- New Summative Assessments added across all subject areas.
July 2021
- Updates to the Actively Learn workspace, catalog, and class view
February 2021
- Revamped student data page with more actionable recommendations
July 2020
- Revamp of Admin Dashboard
June 2020
April 2020
- Optimized navigation on mobile
February 2020
- Cleaned up formatting for printing text
January 2020
- Captions added to videos
- Sync assignments and grades with Schoology
December 2019
- Integration with Schoology now available for full school plans
November 2019
- Featured "New Deep Dive" articles on catalog main page
- Optimized workspace for mobile
September 2019
- Teachers can update their title and grade level under their profile section
- Districts may request (via our support team) disabling Independent Reading Library
- Students can now join Google classroom synced classes via a class code
- Languages added to our translation feature
- Telugu
- Gujarati
- Tamil
- Igbo
- Armenian
- Georgian
- Slovak
- Malayalam
August 2019
July 2019
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More "Extra Help" features
- Rocket ship icon on cover tiles of text to indicate text includes extra help
- Easier access to roster for turning on "Extra Help"
- Curriculum Units
- Admin report: New column added for admin to track "Extra Help" usage
June 2019
- Lexile Levels have been added to text in our catalog
- Sub-menus added to our catalog for an easier browsing experience
- Updates made to Edmodo login process
April 2019
- Teachers can remove embedded videos with our white out feature
- "Extra help" removes one incorrect choice from multiple choice questions
- Co-teachers can now import Google classroom course
- Suggested grading (beta)
- Small group discussions
- Add videos from Google drive
- Edit imported Google docs within Actively Learn
March 2019
- Haitian and Creole languages added to our translation feature
- New assignment type in our catalog: PhET simulator
- New extra help feature: Add text summary
February 2019
- Ability for teachers and students to tag other students and teacher in notes
- You can now split and assign Simon and Schuster text
- Improved catalog search
- Added "My data" tab for students
- Teachers can now import "flex books" from CK12
- Hungarian and Romanian languages added to our translation feature
January 2019
- You can now split and assign HarperCollins text
- Purchasing single lessons for We the People has been removed
- Text published by Highlight now available for purchase by international users
- Improvement to school and district admins signups using Clever
- Check out our text pairings in our catalog
December 2018
- Thai added to translation feature
- Teacher can import their own videos!
- Split longer free text by text sections
- Teachers on the Actively Learn free plan can now integrate with Clever through the Clever Library
- Admin report: Admins now able to view students' Proficiency by Standard across grade level or subject
- Teaching ideas available to help teacher get started with our popular text
November 2018
- Admin report: Teacher Activity Reports now display co-teaching reading times in parentheses
- Admin report: Admins can view "Proficiency by standard" for each student across all their classes
- Option to restore student responses that are awaiting revision
October 2018
- Default note categories have moved
- Admin report: Two new columns added to student activity in School Reports. "Note replies/reading times" and "Notes/Reading times"
September 2018
- Bug fixes and product enhancements
- New Jersey standards now available
August 2018
May 2018
- Video assignments
- Use text-to-speech for entire text sections
March 2018
- Re-designed Actively Learn catalog
- Added Florida state standards
January 2018
- New features
- New set
December 2017
- New features
- Co-author folders Team Plan and Up
- New sets
November 2017
- New Instructional Resource section in our help center
- Option for words to be highlighted as they are spoken when using text-to-speech
- Added key vocabulary for assignments Team Plan and Up
- Minimizing questions
- Ability to add images to question response (must be enabled by teachers)
- Split your assignments in the Gradebook
- User names added to Gradebook export file
- Limit students access by grade level to independent reading catalog
October 2017
- Added Turkish and Greek to translation list
- Implement videos added for "Activate Thinking" section in professional learning center
- Filter by Depth of Knowledge and standards in question summary view
- Admins can view last signed in date under manage users
August 2017
- Folders have been added to Workspaces
July 2017
- Added ability to merge duplicate student accounts
- New professional learning center section
June 2017
- Added citation styles to student research section. APA and Chicago now available
- New Teaching Guides
May 2017
- Archive and unarchive assignments
- Notes are included when printing out assignments
- Microsoft Office 365 login
- Students will have access to notes and questions in rental text with expired licenses
- In co-authored text the original creator of the assignment can remove invited co-authors
April 2017
- State standards added for Texas, Virginia and Missouri
- Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) added
- Teachers can reply to student notes in research texts
- Added 2 more note categories for student research
- Notification of updates made to text added from School/District Libraries, and ability to download updated versions to workspace
- Ability to select multiple assignments when assigning to individuals Team Plan and Up
March 2017
- Exporting grades for assignments Team Plan and Up
- Customize set default note categories
- Added tab in teacher reports to view teacher feedback to students
- Teachers can respond to "I don't understand" flags in quizzes
Feb 2017
- Track the number of student retries in the activity report Team Plan and Up
- Hide text sections Team Plan and Up
- Schedule lock and unlock periods for assignments
- Timestamps on student revisions
January 2017
- Create custom grading labels Team Plan and Up
- Tie teachers to multiple buildings School/District Plan
- Knowledge sets added to the catalog. Articles in each set include annotations and questions to help guide and activate student thinking.
December 2016
- Display only model answers for your students by making changes to your reading settings
- Questions can now be added at the beginning of the text
- Merge multiple texts into a single assignment Team Plan and Up
- Penguin Random House titles to the Actively Learn catalog
November 2016
- You can now export the activity report to review your class' progress Team Plan and Up
- Multiple Choice quiz questions are now randomized to prevent cheating Team Plan and Up
- Quiz settings: reveal multiple choice answers, enable reading aids, etc.
- Whiteout feature expanded to allow for whiteout of images
October 2016
- Mobile-optimized experience: Actively Learn is now fully accessible on smartphones
- Turn off text-to-speech from reading settings
- Students can adjust the speed of text-to-speech, and change the voice of reader
- Add directions to quizzes
September 2016
- New Grading options, including the addition of a 5th grading option
- Added the option to turn off the dictionary in reading settings
- Option to add 2 standards per question
July 2016
- Switch a student from one class to another
- Easily move questions within the text
- New Google Classroom features: assignments now saved as drafts and grades can be synced with Classroom
- Students can now archive classes
June 2016
- Actively Learn Chrome Extension for easy upload of internet articles
- Rental period for teachers and students now begins when the text is opened
- Note categories can now be edited
May 2016
- Questions can be weighted in an assignment.
- You can filter on standards in the Catalog.
- Improved label management to add and remove labels separately.
- Note summary views now show note replies.
- Add question rigor to reporting by including DoK Levels.
- Replies to notes now visible in the 'Notes summary'.
- Research labels now included under the student report section.
- Clever students can now join classes that are not in Clever.
- All Text Settings now apply to Google Docs.
- Redirecting students now works for portions of the text students have not unlocked.
- Teachers and students can print quizzes Team Plan and Up
- Students now have one-click citations for their research texts.
- Inclusion of a Professional Development Category.
April 2016
- Teachers can now Customize reading settings for individual assignments.
- Extended student aids: Students can now use hear it, define, and translate in notes and questions.
- Student can print assignments.
- Sign in - Has checkbox for "Show" when typing password
- New additions to translate: Hebrew and Urdu now included for a total of 21 languages.
- Student Reports can now be filtered by your classes in addition to all classes.
- Shared assignments include all original labels.
- Grading includes old grade with each reset response.
- For texts with multiple segments such as novels, Assignment Data now includes section-specific data.
- Skip questions you don't want to grade.
March 2016
- Locked student names - Student names are now locked at signup, and only teachers can edit them.
- Collapsable notes - Shows a note preview to allow more notes to be visible at once.
- Simplified text views - Including student view, authoring view, and grading views.
- Improved Notifications for students.
- Additional translation added: Hindi.
- More note taking options for students including media use.
- Extra Help in questions - Provide students who receive extra help additional support when answering questio
February 2016
- New definitions from the Merriam Webster Learner's Dictionary.
- Students can bring in their answers, highlights, and notes from Actively Learn into Google Docs with our Add-in Team Plan and Up
- Students can collaborate with their peers while researching Team Plan and Up
- Students can add Google Docs to Research Team Plan and Up
- Teachers can now see what texts students are adding to Research Team Plan and Up
January 2016
- Directly clarify passages with students when they say they "don't understand".
- Expanded Independent Reading Library.
- Teachers can now add articles to the Independent Reading Library School/District Plan
- New student reading setting to control students' ability to translate.
December 2015
- Additional languages available for translation - Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Latin, Vietnamese, Somali, Filipino, and Ukrainian.
- All get on the same "page" by redirecting students to a specific line.
- Collaboration across schools in a District - search for teachers by name School/District Plan
November 2015
- Pin questions, to keep them at the bottom of your screen while you browse the text.
- Improved smartphone experience - now supporting pinch & zoom.
- Change Username from your profile - for those times emails change.
- Assign to individual students Team Plan and Up
- Student Research Report Tab - To see what texts students are importing Team Plan and Up
October 2015
- Student Mode - now every teacher can read as a student!
- Text translation - currently only English/Spanish (more languages coming soon!)
- Improved iPad highlighting
- New Collaborate menu in the Workspace
- Updated grading look and feel
September 2015
- Google Classroom improvements
- School & District Admin dashboard updates School/District Plan
August 2015
- Pin labels in your Workspace to quickly access groups of texts.
- A simplified and modernized UI.
- Google Classroom integration.
July 2015
- You can now manage more than one text at a time! (Assign to class, share, delete, etc)
- Assignments can now have multiple labels to help with sorting & identification.
- Students can now request a question be reset for them to re-attempt their answer.
- New student portfolio to show growth over time through question responses Team Plan and Up
June 2015
- Improved catalog with faster searching and easier filtering.
- Students can now see when they have unanswered questions in assignments.
- New help menu behind the "?" on every page.
- Differentiate instruction by giving selected students extra help notes Team Plan and Up
May 2015
- Teachers can have an assignment locked after a due date.
- Teachers can whiteout text in an assignment which prevents students from seeing it.
April 2015
- Teachers can bulk grade unanswered questions by question number, in addition to text section
- Teachers can add co-teachers to a class Team Plan and Up
- Teachers can print out assignments and student work Team Plan and Up
- Students can import texts to the "My Research" section for independent annotation Team Plan and Up