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Looking for details on older releases? Here is a summary of Little SIS for Classroom updates by release date.
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We are excited to introduce a series of enhancements and fixes to Little SIS for Classroom, aimed at streamlining your user experience and improving functionality across various features. Here's what you can expect in our latest release:
Additional Column in Classroom Explorer
- Student Explorer now features an additional column: Class ID. This column assists in uniquely identifying SIS Classes, providing more comprehensive insights. You can customize your view by utilizing the Columns panel to show or hide this column, drag it to different locations, and filter the Explorer by class ID as needed.
Improved Sorting in Student Collections
- Previously, the collections cards in Student Collections were ordered by student count, which could be cumbersome. Now, the order is alphabetical, making it easier to navigate and find specific collections quickly.
Enhanced Filtering in User Accounts
Administration > Users > Accounts- In the suspended column filter on the user accounts page, the drop-down options have been updated for clarity. Previously showing 0 and 1, they now display N for No and Y for Yes, providing a more intuitive selection experience.
Simplified Academic Year Transition in Timeframes
Administration > Timeframes- We've simplified the Academic year transition date picker in Timeframes. Previously formatted as MM/DD/YYYY, the inclusion of the year sometimes led to confusion. In this release, the year selection has been removed from the picker. Users now only need to select the day and month for the transition, eliminating ambiguity and allowing seamless transition planning.
- Click the calendar icon, select a month, then select a day.
- See, Work With Timeframe Tags
- Click the calendar icon, select a month, then select a day.
- Student Explorer now features an additional column: Class ID. This column assists in uniquely identifying SIS Classes, providing more comprehensive insights. You can customize your view by utilizing the Columns panel to show or hide this column, drag it to different locations, and filter the Explorer by class ID as needed.
The latest release of Little SIS for Classroom, focusing on email notifications and identification of suspended teachers, includes these changes:
- Quickly identify suspended teachers in Classroom Explorer and View Class details
- Bulk Archive classes for suspended primary teachers
- Designated admin authorization notification email improvements
Quickly identify suspended teachers in Classroom Explorer and View Class details
Enhanced Classroom Explorer: With the latest update, we've included indicators highlighting suspended primary and co-teachers. This feature empowers you to stay informed about your team's status and take appropriate actions when necessary.
- Your first indicator is an Explorer column called Teacher Suspended, which is Hidden by default. To Show it, you must make the Teacher Suspended column visible by checking the Teacher Suspended checkbox.
See, Hiding/Showing Columns in the Classroom Explorer
- Once enabled in Classroom Explorer, you can filter by Y or N in that column to surface any class where a Primary or Co-Teacher is suspended. Also, note that any suspended account has italicized email with a red dotted underline.
Detailed Class Insights: Within the Class Detail section, you'll find clear indicators denoting the suspension status of primary and co-teachers with the italicized font with a red dotted underline. This visibility ensures you have the most up-to-date information at your fingertips, allowing for smoother classroom management.
See, Identifying Suspended Teachers
See, View Class Details, Announcements, Roster, and Coursework
Bulk Archive classes for suspended primary teachers
You can archive classes for suspended teachers from the Bulk Actions menu.
Bulk Actions > Suspended primary teachers > Archive classes
A stepper guides you through the process of finding classes taught by suspended teachers, selecting classes to archive, and notification emails to primary teachers.
See, Archiving Classes for Suspended Primary Teachers
Designated admin authorization notification email improvements
Our January 19, 2024, release added the Notification email list to the Settings page. This release adds the Notification email list for the Getting Started stepper and lets users opt out of notification emails. In addition, the content of the emails is more specific.
Reminder: The notification email list lets you list additional people who receive email notifications when there is a configuration issue.
Here’s what changed:
- Email notifications now appears as step 3 in the Getting Started stepper.
- The Disable email notifications checkbox lets you opt out of notification email. This field also appears with the Email Notifications list block in Administration > Settings.
- The content of the emails now includes clear language about the authorization issue to help you isolate and address the authorization. We've tailored the text of the email to the authorization error impacting you.
We are excited to announce an update to Little SIS that focuses on enhancing the user interface experience. In this release, we have optimized row height, improved button text wrapping, and adjusted spacing for a more visually appealing layout. These changes ensure a smoother and more intuitive interaction with the software without affecting its functionality.
This release adds the ability to export users from User Accounts and to create a Notification email list in Settings.
Export Users in Little SIS
Administration > Users > Accounts ~ Export Users
We're excited to announce a new feature in Little SIS. Now, you can easily export a comprehensive list of all Little SIS users, including their roles and school access. This enhancement comes as a response to your requests for a streamlined process to clean up user data before the new academic year. This new feature empowers you to filter and sort the sheet as needed, making it easier than ever to manage and organize your Little SIS users efficiently.
- To export users, go to User Accounts and click the Export Users button at the top left.
- Once complete, a popup appears with a link to the exported users sheet. The sheet includes essential information such as Name, Email, Role, Classroom Visibility, Classes, Suspended?, and Last Access.
- You can also open the export from your Gmail (an email is sent with each export), Audit Log Details, or from Google Sheets.
See Export Users.
Designated Admin Authorization Notification Email List
Administration > Settings ~ Notification email list
Previously, when there was an invalid or failed authorization for the designated admin, a notification was sent to the email saved in the Settings > Designated admin field. This release adds a Notification email list to Settings, letting you list additional people who receive notifications when there is a configuration issue.
- In the Notification email list block, enter the necessary email addresses in the Emails field, separated by commas, and click Save.
- Little SIS sends notifications to emails listed in the Designated admin field and the Notification email list. Only the Designated admin receives notifications if the Notification email list is blank.
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Audit logs show details for the notification email.
See Creating a Notification Email List
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Previously, the class list generated in step 3 of Bulk clear rosters only displayed classes associated with specific teachers. This release reworks the stepper to include orphaned classes as well. These are classes that show Unknown Teacher.
Explorer > [select classes] > Bulk Actions > Bulk classroom cleanup > Bulk clear rosters -
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Explorer columns menu format changes
Explorer ~ Columns- The list of columns in the Columns pane is reordered to match the order of columns in the grid.
Reminder: If you reorder columns in the grid by drag-and-drop, the column order will not match.
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Previously, some column names in the Columns pane were highlighted. The highlight no longer appears on any column name.
- The list of columns in the Columns pane is reordered to match the order of columns in the grid.
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Schools tags, teacher Google group clarification
Administration > Schools > Add school/ rt-click Edit school-
When adding or editing a school, and tagging classes and teachers via a teacher Google Group, it was not clear that the email for the Google group is what needed entered. To clarify, the tip in the field is updated to: Sync [year-year] with a Google Group (please provide email).
Reminder: Synching the teacher list with a Google group is only available for the current academic year.
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See Create schools and apply school tags to classes
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With our integration into CDW, it was time to shed the Amplified IT logo and coloring for that of CDW. As a part of this process the logo at the top of the login page has been updated. References on the Terms and Conditions page and Privacy Policy are updated as well.
This release has several user interface changes. Each is explained below.
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Updated 8/28/23, Reset the designated admin notification added to the main page
- Previously, if a designated admin needed reset, that notification was only visible at
Administration > Settings
Users could not perform bulk actions and could not determine the cause. - With this release, if a designated admin needs reset, that notification appears as a pop up on the main page after login, Settings page, and Classroom Explorer.
- Previously, if a designated admin needed reset, that notification was only visible at
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Audit Log users filter by email
Administration > Audit Logs > [expand filter panel} > Users
- Previously the Users filter in the Audit logs filter panel filtered by user name. With this update the Users filter now filters by user email.
See Work with Audit Logs
- Previously the Users filter in the Audit logs filter panel filtered by user name. With this update the Users filter now filters by user email.
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Update School or Timeframe tags updates
Explorer > [right click over class] > Update School or Timeframe tags
- Update School or Timeframe tags tool tip.
- Previously the tooltip did not accurately reflect the purpose of the option on the right click menu for classes in the Google Classroom Explorer. The tooltip is now Update School or Timeframe tags.
- See Update school and timeframe tags from Classroom Explorer
- Previously the tooltip did not accurately reflect the purpose of the option on the right click menu for classes in the Google Classroom Explorer. The tooltip is now Update School or Timeframe tags.
- Update School or Timeframe tags tool tip.
- Edit/View teachers for Teaching & Learning for relevant academic year.
Admin > Schools > [Right click academic year]
- The Edit/view teachers for Teaching & Learning [year] option on the right click menu of the Schools page was not working. The functionality has been restored. When you right click over any of the academic year columns, this option appears on the right click menu.
When clicked, Edit School opens with that academic year pre selected. - See Create schools and apply school tags to classes
- The Edit/view teachers for Teaching & Learning [year] option on the right click menu of the Schools page was not working. The functionality has been restored. When you right click over any of the academic year columns, this option appears on the right click menu.
- Active filter indicators added
User Accounts, User Roles, and Classroom membership pages now show the active filter at the bottom left of the page.
Insights > Roster/Teacher Changes
Administration > Users > Accounts
Administration > Users > Roles
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UI/UX changes:
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Show/Hide Columns, Saved Views, Filters, Saved Filters
- Previously, a slide-out panel at the left housed the Columns, Saved Views, Filters, and Saved Filters tabs. You can expand and collapse the panel when needed. With this release, the slide-out panel moved to the right of the page, and you can access each panel independently.
- Click the name of the panel, at the top left of the Explorer grid to slide it out; Columns, Saved Layouts, and Saved Filters.
- Click a panel name once to reveal the slide-out panel.
- Click a panel name again to close the slide-out panel.
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Reorder columns from the Columns panel: With the Columns panel open, you can drag and drop column names in the panel to change their order in the Explorer grid. To move a column, drag the 12-square icon to the left of the column name and move the column to a new position.
- Click the name of the panel, at the top left of the Explorer grid to slide it out; Columns, Saved Layouts, and Saved Filters.
- Previously, a slide-out panel at the left housed the Columns, Saved Views, Filters, and Saved Filters tabs. You can expand and collapse the panel when needed. With this release, the slide-out panel moved to the right of the page, and you can access each panel independently.
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Saved Layouts:
- Any user can create and save layouts.
- Saved layouts are only visible to the user who created them.
- To delete a saved layout, hover over the name, then click the Delete icon.
- To filter the layouts in the panel, click the Filter icon.
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- Core Layouts are read-only system generated layouts.
- My Layouts are all layouts created by the current users, including shared layouts.
- Shared Layouts are all layouts shared by or with the current user.
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Saved Filters:
- Saves the applied filters so you can quickly reapply them.
- Any user can create and save filters.
- Saved filters are only visible to the user who created them.
- To delete a saved filter, hover over the name, then click the Delete icon.
See the Filtering in Little SIS for Classroom article.
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Classroom Actions changes
- Previously, the Bulk Actions menu at the top gave access to action classes; Classroom Actions, Teacher actions, and Student actions. With this release, those actions no longer appear in the Bulk actions menu. When classes are selected, the Classrooms, Teachers, and Student actions become visible at the right of the page.
Depending on user permissions the following menu items appear:- Classroom Actions
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Refresh / Update tags / Archive / Delete
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Teacher Actions
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Join / Add co-teachers / Remove co-teachers / Change primary teacher
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Student Actions
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Join / Add students to / Remove students from
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- Classroom Actions
- Bulk Actions
- Bulk actions menu now contains only these actions; Bulk clear rosters, Bulk archive classes, Bulk delete classes
- Bulk actions menu now contains only these actions; Bulk clear rosters, Bulk archive classes, Bulk delete classes
- Previously, the Bulk Actions menu at the top gave access to action classes; Classroom Actions, Teacher actions, and Student actions. With this release, those actions no longer appear in the Bulk actions menu. When classes are selected, the Classrooms, Teachers, and Student actions become visible at the right of the page.
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Show/Hide Columns, Saved Views, Filters, Saved Filters
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Explorer Column Changes
- The Primary Teacher Profile column is renamed to Teacher Name. When filtering, a match on first or last name will be returned.
- The Primary Teacher column is renamed to Teacher email.
- The Go to Classroom column is removed. To allow for access to Classroom, for members of the class, the Classroom name column now contains a bolded hyperlink to the class.
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Announcements Improvements
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Classroom announcements no longer appear in the Explorer, they now appear in View class details, on the Announcements tab. With this improvement, the following changes were made to Explorer.
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Explorer grid
Explorer-
Announcement Count and Most recent announcement columns no longer appear in Explorer grid, the show Columns menu, existing filters, and saved views.
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Refresh class data
Explorer > [right-click class] > Refresh class data-
When refreshing class data, Announcements no longer appears as a refresh option.
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Explorer view class details
Explorer > [right-click class] > View class details-
The Announcements tab of view class details, shows the number of announcements on the tab.
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The Announcements tab grid automatically loads with announcements for the selected classroom. There may be a small delay depending on the number of announcements.
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- See the View class details article.
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Explorer Filter Improvement
- In the Explorer, the Join Code column previously could not be filtered. A filter is now available for this column.
- See the Filtering in Little SIS for Classroom article for information on using filters.
- In the Explorer, the Join Code column previously could not be filtered. A filter is now available for this column.
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Clear rosters from archived classes
Explorer ~ Bulk Actions ~ Bulk classroom cleanup ~ Bulk clear rosters
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Bulk clear rosters option and wizard helps you remove students from ARCHIVED classes in bulk.
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Step 1: Find archived classes that contain students. Select a date to return archived classes created on or before that date. Optionally limit to classes provisioned on managed by Little SIS Premium, classes from one or more schools, and classes taught by specific teachers.
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Step 2: In the list of classes, confirm classes you want to remove students from.
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Step 3: You can choose to notify the primary teacher that students have been removed from their archived class. The notification email can be customized. An email is also sent to the user who initiated this bulk action.
Note: If a teacher has multiple classes included in this bulk action, they will receive only one email. -
Step 4: Review the changes and perform the bulk action.
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Clearing rosters action gets logged to the audit log. Click View More to see the course ID and course name that had cleared rosters.
- See the Bulk clear rosters article for more information on this bulk action.
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Orphaned Classes Improvements
Explorer > [Primary Teacher column] ~Filter- Little SIS Classroom Explorer is updated to allow users to filter for orphaned classes. These are classes with unknown teachers. Once the list of orphaned classes is isolated, teacher actions allow the new Remove co-teacher's option.
- Use unknown in the primary teacher contains filter to return a list of orphaned classes. You can archive them as well as remove students. Improvements to the process of removing students is coming soon as well.
- See the Orphaned Google Classroom Classes article for tips on avoiding classes becoming orphaned and addressing existing orphaned classes.
- Use unknown in the primary teacher contains filter to return a list of orphaned classes. You can archive them as well as remove students. Improvements to the process of removing students is coming soon as well.
- When in view class details mode, a new message alerts on the Information tab if a primary teacher is missing.
Explorer > [right-click class] > View class details
- Little SIS Classroom Explorer is updated to allow users to filter for orphaned classes. These are classes with unknown teachers. Once the list of orphaned classes is isolated, teacher actions allow the new Remove co-teacher's option.
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Classroom Alias Filter Improvement
Explorer > [Aliases column] ~Filter
- The Little SIS Classroom Explorer Alias is updated to allow users to filter for classes with or without an alias.
- Using unknown in the Alias contains filter returns classes without an alias.
- Using exists in the Alias contains filter returns classes with an alias.
- See Filtering in Little SIS for Classroom.
- The Little SIS Classroom Explorer Alias is updated to allow users to filter for classes with or without an alias.
Little SIS for Classroom > Sync > Support > Feedback
Do you have a suggestion that could improve our tools? We would love to hear from you. We’ve added the Feedback icon to the sidebar of our Labs Tools to give you 1-click access to our feedback form.
- See the What is the best way to submit a feature request? article.
Previously when refreshing classes, individually or in bulk, aliases was not an option for refresh. With this release, Aliases as been added as an option when refreshing classes in Classroom Explorer. This change includes individual classes and those selected for Bulk Action.
Explorer > Bulk actions > Bulk classroom cleanup > Bulk archive classes
- The Bulk archive classes and Bulk delete classes wizards have been updated so that you can find classes that have been provisioned or managed by Little SIS Premium.
Explorer > Bulk actions > Bulk classroom cleanup > Bulk archive classes
Explorer > Bulk actions > Bulk classroom cleanup > Bulk delete classes- In both wizards, a new field appears in step 1 below the Please provide a date field. Check the Limit to classes managed by Little SIS Premium checkbox to find only those classes.
- See the Bulk archive classes and Bulk delete classes articles.
- New Article: See the Filtering in Little SIS for Classroom article for tips on filtering with examples for filtering Little SIS Premium provisioned classes/filtering by aliases.
Here's what we've changed:
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Previously withdrawing and removing guardian invitations was logged at a job level. With this release, those actions are logged at an individual student/guardian level.
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See the Work with Audit Logs article.