A huge thank you to everyone who participated in our recent survey about Discussion Checkpoints! Your feedback is invaluable, and we're excited to share how it's shaping this feature. Based on your input, we're making some key improvements that will be released to the beta environment on February 26th and to the production environment on March 12th behind the Checkpoints feature flag.
More Control Over Your Gradebook Experience:
- Toggle and Setting for Default View: We heard you! You'll soon be able to choose your preferred default view for the gradebook (either the condensed or the in context view). The set default is the condensed view. And don't worry, you can still easily switch between the two views whenever you like.
Improved Navigation in Discussions:
- Smarter "Previous" and "Next" Reply Buttons: Navigating long discussion threads just got easier. The updated buttons will clearly show you how many total replies an individual has and which reply you're currently viewing.
- "Go to First Post" and "Go to Last Post" Buttons: Jump to the first or last post of an individual with a single click.
- No More Endless Clicking: We've fixed the issue where you can continuously click the "next" button even after reaching the last reply.
Accessibility is a Priority:
- Thorough Accessibility Audit: These changes to Speedgrader for Discussions have undergone a full accessibility audit by our internal team to ensure everyone can use this feature effectively. The audit focused on key accessibility areas, including how keyboard and screen reader users navigate the interface. Specifically, we addressed navigation between views and how the previous and next reply buttons facilitate moving between posts.
These improvements will be released to the beta environment on February 26th and to the production environment on March 12th behind the Checkpoints feature flag. Users who kept the Checkpoints feature on can expect to see these updates on March 12th. For users who would like to have the Checkpoints feature flag turned on in their account please reach out to your CSM. We're committed to making Discussion Checkpoints the best they can be and will have additional improvements in future deploys. This feature is currently available at the root account level. We encourage you to consider this as your institution discusses enabling the feature.
Stay tuned for these updates, and keep that feedback coming!
