Archive for the ‘Features’ Category

A few updates and we’re listening :)

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

We just updated the site with a few bug fixes and some new features today. You can now enable or disable Sharing and Grades for any of the courses you create. We realized that some users like having lots of features and some don’t so we’ll be gradually scaling back the stuff that was originally enabled by default. This will make GradeMate a little less confusing at first while still allowing anyone to “unlock” all of the features that they want (and hide the stuff that they don’t want). Grades and Sharing for courses are still enabled by default for now, but in the next release (hopefully early next week) we’ll be disabling those features for newly created courses. You can always re-enable then when you want.

Also, the course settings page got a face lift, the course info is now viewable in the “Overview” tab of the course pages, and we want you to know that we’re listening to your feature requests! We’ll be adding course dates and times to the course settings page as well as a few more informational fields for you to use. The next round of features includes a new approach to Discussions that we’ll think you’ll love :)

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Features | 1 Comment »

New Mail Contacts and Assignment Updates

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

We’ve just updated GradeMate to include a new compose mail page, assignment updates, and a slew of bug fixes — most of which you submitted :)

The compose mail page now allows you to more easily select contacts from any course that you share. We’ll be integrating a user search in the next release so that you can find other classmates, along with a host of related privacy and account settings so that you can always control who can find you on GradeMate.

Assignments are now sortable by date and name (just click the little arrows at the top of your assignments!) and we’ve fixed some annoying bugs regarding completed assignments.

You’ll also notice that Discussions has been temporarily removed. We’ve been thinking hard about how best to do it, and our next release will include a new approach to discussions: a way to share any type of media or content with threaded discussions from classmates. We’ll also be slowly rolling out a public discussions page which will allow anyone to post any media or content for the general GradeMate user-base to view, comment, and discuss it. This opens the door for homework help when and how you want it, and is one of the first steps we’ll be making in growing GradeMate into a platform for connecting teachers and students within the GradeMate network.

We’ll post more about the discussions as we finalize the updates, and provide some sneak peeks into how they’re coming along shortly!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Features | No Comments »

GradeMate iPhone App – Sneak Preview!

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

We’ve been hard at work developing the heavily requested, long awaited GradeMate iPhone application, and it’s just a few days away from being submitted to the App Store. Check out the demo below to get a first look at what you can do with the app.

Subscribe to the GradeMate blog to be the first to know when the GradeMate iPhone App is available.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Announcements, Features | 4 Comments »

Introducing Pro Support and Course Sharing

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

The latest version of GradeMate was released last night.  In addition to a slew of underlying structural changes to help the overall site performance, you’ll notice two new features:

  • Pro Support - GradeMate Pro users can now submit and track bugs and feature requests.  You’ll see every update and comment along the way as you influence the GradeMate experience.  Just another great reason to upgrade to a Pro Account!

bug report

  • Course Sharing – Any private course can now be shared with anyone else on GradeMate!  You control whether they can add/edit assignments, share it with other people, or view the course material.  Don’t worry, they won’t be able to see your grades – only assignments, notes, links, and files can be shared.

sharing

We’re taking the next few weeks to focus on incorporating feature requests and fix a few nagging bugs.  As always, anyone can submit a feature request or bug report and we’ll be sure to let you know when it’s fixed.  Thanks again for using GradeMate!

Tags: , ,
Posted in Features | No Comments »

GradeMate Pro, SMS Reminders, Mail, Announcements and more!

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

It’s been about 2 months since our last update to GradeMate and we’re very excited to announce that we’ll be launching GradeMate Pro and a whole slew of new features tonight. While you can expect some downtime tonight as we upgrade the software, here is what’s new with this release:

    • GradeMate Pro
      There are now two types of GradeMate accounts: Free and Pro. Free accounts have a 3 course limit (only on created courses, not joined courses) and restrictions on the amount of file space you can have. For $50/$5 (teachers) or $20/$3 (students) yearly/monthly you can get unlimited courses, 1GB of file storage, access to new features early, and full support. We’ll be adding live chat to this support plan in the coming weeks.
      *All current users will get free GradeMate Pro accounts for life. This is our thank you for using GradeMate.
    • SMS Reminders
      Reminders can now be set up to be delivers to your mobile phone or email account. Just add your mobile number and carrier to your Account Settings.
    • GradeMate Mail
      You can now send mail messages directly to other users inside GradeMate. Navigate to the Mail tab and just start typing your teachers’ or students’ names.
    • Announcements
      For teachers. from the Mail page simply type in your course name and enter your message. When you click Send it will be delivered to each student in that course (or courses) and it will show up on their Dashboard as an Announcement.
    • “Add New” Button
      We’ve added an Add New button conveniently in the upper right hand corner of the application. Here you can quickly add courses, mail messages, or reminders.

      Not only that but we’re moving GradeMate to a brand new server at the Rackspace Cloud. We’ve noted much faster page load times and much fewer down time with this host.

      That’s all for now but thanks again for your continued support for GradeMate. These next couple days might see surprises or bugs crop up that we didn’t catch so we’d greatly appreciate any feedback or bug reports. Thanks again!

      Tags: , , , ,
      Posted in Announcements, Features | 1 Comment »

      Updated Assignments List and a New Tour Video

      Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

      If you head on over to your course assignments pages you’ll see we updated the assignments list. It’s a little more intuitive thanks to feedback from you guys. Also, we took down the Grades Page and merged it into the Courses Page. You’ll see it contains the same information but we thought it was a better way to organize it.

      Other changes include a spruced up home page and a brand new Tour Video. Andrew and Alex did a tremendous job with it. We’re hoping to roll out a set of video tutorials too a little further down the line.

      Tags: , , ,
      Posted in Features | No Comments »

      The Brand New GradeMate

      Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

      GradeMate went through a beautiful make-over today. We’ve spent the past six months improving the site functionality and look/feel of the application and we’re incredibly proud to release it to you. Changes and upgrades include a new Bookmarks feature, a brand new layout and user experience, enhanced and heavily updated security features, edit undo/redo in the Grades Manager, and a new view of your course pages.

      And the fun doesn’t stop here! We’ll be making large improvements and additions to the service from now through the summer. Some additions include:

      1. Reporting tools for teachers and students
      2. Exporting and importing GradeMate courses and information
      3. Parent accounts and increased communication from Teacher <-> Parent <-> Student
      4. Blog pages, Project pages, and new, exciting ways to share and collaborate

      We do all of this for you, for free, and would love your feedback and support. Don’t hesitate to send us bug reports and feature requests or let us know what you think of the web site!

      Tags: , , ,
      Posted in Announcements, Features | 5 Comments »

      A Wonderful New GradeMate

      Sunday, April 13th, 2008

      We just finished up the newest version of GradeMate and it went live this morning. Most of the changes were behind-the-scenes improvements, but there are a lot of great new features we added for you. Here are a few:

      • Hide old assignments from your Upcoming Assignments list on your Dashboard
      • Rewrote and remodeled the Help Topics
      • Drag and reorder the courses in the File Manager
      • Each course now has its own settings page where you can customize new aspects of your courses
      • Assignment types are fully configurable – change names, weights, and even colors!
      • Added a feature request page for all of your ideas
      • Changed the visuals and added nicer graphics

      And many, many more. Soon we’ll be adding more languages to the GradeMate application. If you know another language and would be willing to help out a great cause, send us an email at help@mygrademate.com with your information.

      Feel free to browse the Help Topics for more information on the new features. Enjoy!

      Tags: , ,
      Posted in Announcements, Features | 4 Comments »

      A new way to use assignments

      Saturday, January 12th, 2008

      GradeMate went through a much anticipated update today with the new beta release of version 0.9.5. Now users can choose which type of assignment they create, be it homework, test, lab whatever. Also, assignments have their own individual pages where you can add assignment specific notes or upload files for that item. Hopefully, this will allow you to be a little more organized and have more control over specific assignments.

      Not only that, but we’re preparing for the next release which will see a complete makeover of the Grades page. You can expect more updates on that in the next post.

      Tags: , ,
      Posted in Features | Comments Off

      What we’re working on right now

      Saturday, December 1st, 2007

      Some of the things that are keeping us busy right now:

      1. Fixing all of the time zone issues. Right now, if you signed up before we released that feature and have not set your time zone, there could be some display issues for assignment due dates.
      2. Updating the site tour and adding video demonstrations of using some GradeMate features.
      3. Setting up e-mail and text message reminders in conjunction with the reminders you can add on GradeMate.
      4. Letting you have the option to share your reminders on your Public Page as well.
      5. Fixing up some small usability quirks in the Shared page settings and adding a course pages.

      Thats about it. Once we clean up the site we’re going to go full blast at releasing a Calendar. Hopefully it will be out early 2008.

      Tags: ,
      Posted in Features | Comments Off

         |