MathXL for School

New Features

Twice a year, the MathXL® for School product team releases new features based on stated needs of our customers. We announce these new features widely, but in case you missed the notices, here are some of the newer and cooler features from the past few years. As the next set of new features are released, we’ll add them to this page as well.

If you want to see how some of these previously-released features work, check out product tours that review some of the new features. And, as always, you can contact teacher advocates to query people on how they are successfully integrating these new features into their courses.  Good luck—and we hope you find some great ideas and solutions here.

Area Feature Name Description Issue Solved Click Path Date Introduced
Gradebook Rolled-up Item Analysis for Exports Item Analysis Exports are now available for course groups from both the Quick Exports and Advanced Exports pages. If a coordinator-instructor exports Item Analysis for a course group, he/she can get a summary of student performance across all course sections in the course group, and also student scoring details for each student. As the course coordinator, I would like access to item analysis for all my member courses in one spot. Go to the Gradebook in your Coordinator Course and click Export Data. Select Quick Export or Advanced Export. Pick the relevant member courses. Select Item Analysis. December 2011
Gradebook Tracking Time Spent on Media Teachers will be able to track how long students are spending on each media file within a media assignment. When a student tells you they watched the video, you can see if they watched the whole thing or the first 3 seconds. Gradebook - Click on Assignment December 2010
Course Admin "Ask the Publisher" Link in "Ask My Instructor" Email Teachers can easily notify the content team of any irregularities with specific questions by using the "Ask the Publisher" functionality in the "Ask My Instructor" emails they receive from students. My student had a question about a problem, but in order to "Ask the Publisher," I had to re-enter in all that same information. Click "Ask the Publisher" from the student email December 2010
Gradebook Item Analysis for Pooled Tests and Quizzes On tests and quizzes that use pooled questions, teachers now have item-level student performance statistics. This allows them to analyze how the class and individual students performed by test question and objective and also gauge the relative difficulty of questions from the same pool. I wish there was Item Analysis for Pooled Questions in my tests and quizzes. Gradebook - All Assignments - IA December 2009
Gradebook Rolled-up Coordinator Course Exports Those handling the coordinator courses can choose to generate Advanced Exports of student results for all Member courses to which they have access in one csv file. This file also contains summary information of student performance across the entire course group. The option to export member course results in a zip archive of separate csv files is still available. As the coordinator, I want to be able to export the grades for all of my member courses in one file. Gradebook - Export Data - Advanced Export December 2009
Study Plan Homework Affects Mastery in Study Plan Teachers now have the option to allow Homework to affect the Study Plan. In addition, they can control which assignment types affect the Study Plan and determine mastery. On the Mastery Options page in the Study Plan Manager, they can include Homework, exclude Sample Tests or Quizzes, and specify the percentage score needed for mastery in each assignment type. I would like students' homework to affect the study plan. Study Plan Manager - Mastery Options December 2009
Homework and Test Manager/Gradebook Ability to Hide Test Score and/or Question Results The “Results Display” section on the assignment Settings page lets teachers choose whether to show students their test scores and question results (the default display), show test scores only, or show neither. In the last case, students see their Results page immediately after submitting a test or quiz, where dashes appear in the column where scores would normally be. I don't want my students to be able to see their "Results" information following their test submission. Homework/Test Mgr - Create Assignment - Choose Settings - Review Options - Results Display December 2009
Homework and Test Manager Faster Access to Edit Publisher-provided Questions From the Preview & Add or Remove window, teachers can click the new “Copy and Edit” button to bring up the Custom Question Builder with the question already in place. From there, teachers can edit, add, or remove text in publisher-provided questions. You can also remove parts of a multi-part question and modify some of a question’s algorithms. As with other teacher-created questions, edited publisher questions will not be supported by learning aids such as Help Me Solve This, View an Example, video, ebook pages, or animations. I want to be able to edit Pearson's publisher-provided questions. Homework/Test Manager - Create Assignment - Add/Remove Content - Preview + Add - Copy + Edit December 2009
Course Admin Support for Screen Readers in Multiple-choice Questions The MathXL Player now supports the ability for students to use JAWS to read the text of multiple-choice questions. While we continue to work on providing full support for screen readers, students may come across functionality that has not yet been implemented. I want to create assignments that accessible to my visually impaired students using JAWS. N/A December 2009
Homework and Test Manager Answer Tolerance Setting for Numeric Answers Teachers will be able to view the publisher-defined tolerance for numeric answers. They can then set their own tolerance level on a question-by-question basis or for an entire assignment using either a percentage or a preset decimal value. The teacher-defined tolerance will override the publisher-defined tolerance if it is more lenient. I want to be a little more flexible in the answers that are marked correct in MyMathLab. Homework/Test Mgr - Create Assignment - Add/Remove Content - View Question Details December 2009
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