New Features for myCourses

The July 26-27 myCourses upgrade brought multiple new features that instructors and students have requested. See the New Features video, or read below for the comprehensive list of new features and changes.

Assignments
Classlist
Content
Discussions
Email
Grades
Homepages and Navigation

Assignments

Instructors can now enter Due Dates for Assignments to allow students to submit them late. *
If students submit after the due date, a red message will appear under their submission indicating the number of hours or days it was late. *
Instructors can save scores and feedback as a Draft and then Publish grades and feedback to all students simultaneously. *
Instructors can retract published feedback without deleting it.
Instructors can adjust Display Settings for Grades from the Assignments tool to prevent students from seeing grades in the grade book that haven’t been published in Assignments.

Classlist

Instructors and Students can use tabs on the Classlist to show only students or faculty in the list.
Instructors can view Progress for multiple tools and multiple students on the same page.

Content

Instructors can drag and drop one or more files from their desktop to upload them directly in Content. *
Instructors can drag and drop modules and items in the main Content page to easily move or reorder them.
Instructors no longer need to navigate through multiple pages to upload, reorder, or move Content.
Instructors can add Descriptions that will appear above Content when students are browsing it. *
Instructors can use the Course Overview page at the top of Content to add a syllabus or custom homepage.
Instructors can set Due Dates for Content that will appear in the Calendar.
Students and Instructors can view Upcoming Events from the Calendar tool in Content.
Students and Instructors can Download all Content in a .zip file.
Students and Instructors are given wider area for viewing Content.
Students can monitor what Content they viewed in each module using Completion Tracking.

Discussions

Instructor can enable a Must Post First option that requires students to post a message in a topic before they can read other students’ messages in that topic.
Instructors and Students can view all messages in a topic without clicking on the title of each message or changing their display settings to Reading Style.
Students and Instructors can Record Video for discussion messages.

Email

All myCourses users can access previously sent email using the Sent Mail button in the Email tool. *

Grades

Students can receive email or text Notifications when their Grades are released and/or updated. *
Instructors can Adjust Final Grades for students. *
Instructors can Import Final Grades using a spreadsheet. *
Instructors can Edit Grade Columns on the Enter Grades page.
Instructors can send Final Grades directly to Minerva from myCourses.
Instructors can Export Grades to an .xlsx file.
If a grade is imported from a quiz, assignment, or discussion, Instructors can see a link to the student’s work in the associated tool.

Homepages and Navigation

The overall interface is more consistent. For example:
- A More Actions button appears at the top of each page for performing general actions.
- An arrow appears beside each item that opens a drop-down list for performing item-specific actions.
- Small icons along the top of lists are now labeled.
A minibar always appears at the top of the screen with the following options:
- Messages: Shows a feed of Instant Messages and a link to Email.
- Updates: Shows a feed of all News and Notifications. Students with quiz attempts in progress will be notified until they submit correctly.
- Subscriptions: Shows a feed of new Discussion messages in forums or topics you subscribe to.
- Links to Profile, Notifications, Preferences, and Logout.
- Course Selector: Shows a drop-down list of all courses to easily navigate between them and pin the most used course(s) to the top of the list.
Instructors can access all tools from the Edit Course page. *
Instructors can use the Role Switch to take Assignments and Quizzes as a student.
Instructors can add a background image to the Course Home page. *
Instructors can drag and drop widgets to move them around on the Homepage.
Instructors can drag and drop links to move them around on the Navigation Bar.
Instructors can display multiple links in a drop-down list on the Navigation Bar.
There are contextual HELP links in the top right corner of the main page for all major tools.