• Added access key support (keyboard short-cuts) for all core functions of the Discussions & PM tool.
• Additionally, we refined Tabbing / Navigating in several views to aid visually-impaired users.

Under Manage >> Forums, you may now add a 'soft' due date for forums. The forum topics will not be locked when it is reached. Students will continue to be able to post and edit their topics after the due date is reached, unless you check the "Lock Forum on Due Date" box.

However, if the "Lock Forum on Due Date" box is checked, when the due date is reached, the forum and all the topics under it will be locked to further posting and editing by students.

The due date is used by the gradebook for sorting gradable discussion topics, forums, or categories by 'due date'. If no due date is included in discussions, they will be listed at the bottom of the gradebook, in alphabetical order.
 

Quick Reply used to be a hot link. It is now changed to a button to allow us to provide access key support (keyboard short-cut).

The option to set a forum's scores to be sent to the gradebook was available only in the grading view. Instructors can now check this box when setting up new forums from the Manage view, as well. You may change this setting (add or remove 'send to gradebook' check) at any time and it will be reflected in the other grading views and in the gradebook.

You may change this setting in the individual student grading view or under the main forum grading view, should you choose to remove a forum and its scores from the gradebook later.

Instructors can now choose to check "send to the gradebook" from the "Edit" topic view. This feature was only available under the grading views in earlier versions. This offers greater flexibility to instructors to establish their gradebook settings from various areas of the discussion tool. Again, instructors may uncheck or check this setting at any time from any of the views where it's available. The change will propagate across the various views where it is displayed and in the gradebook.

You may change this setting in the individual student grading view or under the main topic grading view, should you choose to remove the topic (and its scores) from the gradebook.

If you have enabled grading in a Category, check "Send to Gradebook" under Manage >> Categories, Click to Edit, in order to have the scores for all the category's contributions go to the gradebook. You may also set this setting from the "Grade Category" link located in the main Discussion List.
 

When getting notifications of new topics or PM's, it was difficult to know who had sent it or posted it, if the individual had not added a closing greeting. Topic and PM email notifications now include the "From:" field with the full name of the member who sent or posted it.

The 'Delete' button used to be available only at the bottom of the Private Messages list. If you had a very long list of PM's, you probably never made it to the bottom and didn't even know this feature was available there!

You can check one or more messages, or "check all," and click on Delete to get rid of them. NOTE: It is probably not a good idea to delete PM from your class communication. You never know when you may need them for evidence in potential disputes. This feature can help you clean up trivial PM's.

This User Interface (UI) change affects Manage functions when adding forums and categories in your discussions. The UI change was made to bring consistency in the labels of core functions across Etudes (i.e. "add" module, "add" event in calendar, "add" announcement, "add" assessment, etc.).

The same 'grade' icon was used for grading topics and for returning to the main grading view. In Jforum 2.7, you can now distinguish the functions of the two buttons: grading home and grade.

The grade-by-forum and grade-by-topic functionality in the Discussions & PM tool meets the majority of instructors' grading of discussions needs. However, there are two other use cases that were not addressed in the latter, but they are with the new grade-by-category new functionality.

USE CASE #1: You want to give one grade for "class participation" for the whole term.

To enable grading for a category, click on Manage >> Categories >> Click to Edit.

Now, add all your forums under this category. This setup  is for when you want to give one score to students for all of their contributions (topics and replies) ACROSS all the forums under the category.

There will be just one entry in the gradebook, titled: "Class Participation"

USE CASE #2: You split students into groups (or if you combine more than one section in one site), you want to send just one item to the gradebook, instead of having every group forum listed there.

Below is an example as to how you would set up grade-by-category to handle grading private groups or sections.

First, enable grading for a category. Click on Manage >> Categories >> Click to Edit.

Then, under Manage >> Forums, set up forums for each group or section, and place them under gradable categories, as in the example below.

To make your forums private (by section or group), go to Manage >> Forums >> Edit, and set group access to each forum. Check "Allow Access to Selected Groups" to choose the right group / section.

You can grade your students' contributions in context, by clicking on 'grade' on each student's post, adding more points to the previous score every time you evaluate additional contributions.

Additionally, you can click on "Grade Category" from the main Discussion List. From there, you can see the total count and view ALL of a student's posts across the forums of that category - all in one page.

The title of the category is what will be sent to the gradebook. Each student will see the title of the category there. In our example, they would see the highlighted category titles below will be sent to the gradebook. Not the forum titles.

Preview functionality has been added to PM's and new posts and replies. To preview a message or post, simply click on "Preview" prior to submitting.

At the top of the screen, you will see what your message or post will look like. Continue editing and previewing it, until you are happy. Click on 'submit' to post it.

Attachments will not show in preview. They are not part of the message. They are attachments. ;-)