Public Blog 
Software update 17 November 2011
itslearning has been updated! More information below:
Software update 24 March 2011
A new version of itslearning has been released. In this version we've made it easier to change skins for individual users or groups, improved the attendance, assessment and behaviour systems and made enhancement to the planner and more.
Time-saving improvements to the attendance, assessment and behaviour system
Do you use systems other than itslearning to manage attendance, assessment and behaviour? You can now use itslearning's built-in systems and save money on your software expenses. The last couple of releases we have focused on increasing the efficiency of our attendance, behaviour and assessment systems. Read more…
Planner and progress report
The planner is now easier to work with. In order to help teachers get started with the planner, we have now added a hideable tip box on the planner page with a link to the help system. Also, when working with the planner, all changes are now saved in the background. Read more…
Miscellaneous news and enhancements
Administrators can now select which skin will be used by different users at their site, so they can differentiate the look and feel between schools and different age groups. There's even a new skin called Animal Misfits.
Many users want to use itslearning on their mobile devices. Users logging on with a mobile device – such as an iPhone or Android phone – can now use the simple editor to when working in itslearning. (The rich-text editor does not support mobile devices.) This gives mobile users almost all the same functionality as computer users. Read more…
Attendance, behaviour and assessment
Timetable for alternating weeks (A-B weeks)
Course teachers can now easily switch between week set-ups if they use alternating timetables in their courses. When the teacher defines the timetable for a course, they get the option to define one or more week templates. This will save the teacher time because they don't have to manually change the lesson set-up for each week.
Staff can view logs
It is now possible for staff to view logs for attendance, behaviour and final course assessments. The logs contain information about when the remark was last changed and what was changed. This is important for staff so that they can control and document changes.
Group filter on reports
Course teachers can now filter behaviour and attendance reports according to course groups.
Attendance
Correct attendance records for deleted courses and courses with attendance disabled
Attendance records are now correctly implemented in courses which have been deleted and courses with attendance disabled.
Ability to change submitted attendance
A new option that allows teachers to change submitted attendance is now available in the Workflow settings. This means they can correct mistakes and make alterations.
Teachers and mentors can delete remarks
Teachers and mentors now have the option to delete a comment from an attendance remark. To delete a comment, click the Delete icon.
Better information with tooltips
Tooltips are now included in the week report table in the attendance system. This gives users a quick explanation of the table contents.
Select multiple students when keeping day absence
To make attendance keeping easier, it is now possible to select more than one student when registering day absence.
Separate day remarks from hour remarks
Previously, when a learner, teacher or supervisor viewed a learner's course absence report, it was not possible to see which absences were a result of an hour absence or automatically generated as a result of a day absence. To improve this, we have added an icon next to the date on day absences, a tooltip on the icon and a help text beneath the attendance grid.
Supervisors can no longer complete multiple weeks
It is no longer possible for supervisors to complete multiple weeks in the attendance report. But why have we removed this feature? To keep the workflow flowing, it is necessary that supervisors follow-up on a weekly basis. Based on the workflow settings, parent, students and external systems will see the attendance when the week is completed. For example, if the mentor does this once a month, students and parents will only get a monthly update, instead of a weekly overview.
Better attendance report overview
We’ve shortened the list of hierarchies in the attendance report overview. The user can choose to see the full list of the hierarchies by clicking a link.
Breadcrumbs
The breadcrumbs, or navigation paths, now look the same throughout the attendance mentor and attendance course overviews.
"Send reminder" text enhancement
The texts in the Send reminder messages that were sent from the attendance system have been enhanced.
Behaviour
New behaviour content block
Behaviour remarks that are set as visible to parents and/or learners, are shown on the parent’s/learner’s dashboard. The content block is automatically added to the summary dashboard.
Easier to read behaviour reports
The readability of the behaviour report overview has been improved by giving the term assessment columns a different colour. It should now be easy to separate behaviour remarks from the term assessment A link to the online help is also added to this page.
Change behaviour assignments from the behaviour overview report
It is now possible for supervisors to change the behaviour grade directly from the behaviour overview report. This means that they don't have to go through the detailed report, for example, when assessing a number of learners at once.
More efficient behaviour assessment
Mentors can now assess a number of learners in the behaviour overview.
Decide who sees the behaviour remarks
Users have told us that they would like the behaviour remark visibility to be set to "Visible to learner" by default. We agree, but to make everyone happy we have created a configurable setting in Administration >> Terms.
Assessment
Connect final term assessments to terms
Course assessments for terms are now connected to the "Use terms in grade book" setting. Previously, the Course assessment was an option when adding/editing a term, even though "Use terms in grade book" was not enabled on Site.
Show or hide average or mean grades
It is now possible to choose whether to show or hide the average and count in personal grade book for teachers as well. The setting affects the grade book overview page, grade book personal page and the assignment report.
Planner and progress report
Planner
Getting started with the planner made easy
In order to help teachers get started with the planner, we have now added a hideable tip box on the planner page with a link to the help system.
Planner saves automatically as you work
When working with the planner, all changes are now saved automatically as you work. For the user, this means that the browser will keep the position the user was working in, and not jump back to the top of the page when the user adds a new lesson or topic.
Inline lesson date editor
It is now possible to set the date for a lesson directly from the planner grid. In previous versions you had to go into each lesson to set the date.
Progress report
Progress report: Now with inactive tasks
Inactive tasks now appear in the progress report as short grey bars. They change status to Open (tall grey bar) when the teacher activates them. This gives students a clear impression of their overall status in the course, even if the teacher hasn't activated all the activities.
Progress report: Tests with multiple attempts
In a test with multiple attempts where the best attempt counts, the progress report always shows it as Completed after the first attempt. Previously, the status reverted to "In progress" when the student began a new attempt.
Progress report: Change the text in the progress report
The text "An activity is completed when it is submitted" was incorrect and is now removed. Tests may also require a specific score in order for it to be complete, and assignments are based on the submission status.