The Month In Review: October 2022 Feature Releases
Published
Wow, is it already time for another Month in Review?! Alright then, let’s get to it! Before the holiday season really gets going later this month, let’s take one look back at everything that launched in October.
Feel that chill in the air? We’re rapidly approaching the end of the year and I don’t know about you but it’s a bit hard to believe that it’s November. Naturally, this means the holidays are right around the corner as well as plenty of vacation time.
However, before we start thinking about all those holiday festivities, we have some business to take care of first. Yes, that’s right, it’s your monthly recap, where we compile a big list of everything that released for Blackbaud’s Education Management Solutions during October 2022.
Let’s get started!
Academics
This month, we made it so Faculty can now switch between marking periods within an individual student’s gradebook. Previously, faculty had to close the individual gradebook, select a different marking period in the full gradebook view, then reopen the individual student gradebook to see a different marking period.
Also this month:
This month for Billing management, alums and past students with a $0 balance are now automatically excluded when printing statements.
Statements will still print for past students and alums with a $0 balance if the Billing clerk specifies to print a custom statement date range and the past student was a current student.
More updates in October:
Core
Following the BBID rollout in September, Core turned its attention to OneRoster in October. They made several changes to the Add OneRoster settings prompt, including renaming the Options tab to Rostering options, changing some of the text under Rostering Options to enhance clarity, and adding an all-new tab, Gradebook options.
In addition, a new Gradebook options tab was added, where you can define a default Assignment type. The Assignment type setting is meant to act as a catchall for instances where an assignment has an undefined assignment type; assignments with undefined types are automatically assigned the specified type. Although this setting is optional, if left unset, those assignments lacking assignment types will be omitted from gradebook results.
Enrollment management
Did you miss it? The biggest news for EMS this month was the arrival of a brand new feature: Event management! This is a brand-new event registration experience that was created from the ground up specifically for admissions managers. Not only can admissions managers expect a more modern admin experience (with easy to use check in and reporting features), but candidates will have an easy to fill out form with plenty of reminders. Thankfully, we have you covered with additional details including our online help, handy video overview, as well as a blog post.
That wasn’t all. Even though we launched the feature, we weren’t done making continued updates to it. This includes:
Yes, an Extracurricular update! Through October, the team was intent on giving Athletics setup a new look and creating a more streamlined experience. First off, they consolidated the old Manage coaches, Manage rosters, and Teams pages into the new Manage teams page. In addition, users can now select a team from the list to access the team Overview and Team details.
Overview displays Team statistics, including the number of coaches and players, and the team’s win-loss record. Under Upcoming events, Athletic Group Managers can quickly see the next five events on the team’s schedule. Team details displays general setup information configured under Sports & teams, such as the Level of Play, Gender, and team Status. Grading details also displays information from the setup in Sports & teams, including the Total credits, Transcript category, Print on report card, and Print on transcript settings for the team.
Tuition Management
In preparation for Mastercard’s recurring payments requirements that go into effect next year, an email receipt is now sent to payers when their automatic debit payment using a credit card is processed. Previously, email receipts were only sent for one-time credit card payments.
Financial Aid Management
With the end of the year coming up, the 2023-2024 rollover was on the mind of Financial Aid management. On October, 4, 2022, school accounts rolled over and the financial aid application for the 2023-2024 school year will be open and available to parents.
This rollover process was automatic, and all 2022-2023 settings roll forward to 2023-2024. Before parents begin applying, we recommend reviewing your school’s settings and making any necessary changes under the Settings menu. If you do not know your tuition amounts for 2023-2024, you can update them later.
Also this month:
That’s going to do it for this week, but thanks, as always, for stopping by to check out the blog. There’s a stream of content on the way throughout November, so stay tuned!
Also, if you haven’t yet, do make sure to subscribe to stay up to date on all of the upcoming content as well as (likely) putting a smile on our faces for the support. See you next week everyone!
However, before we start thinking about all those holiday festivities, we have some business to take care of first. Yes, that’s right, it’s your monthly recap, where we compile a big list of everything that released for Blackbaud’s Education Management Solutions during October 2022.
Let’s get started!
Academics
This month, we made it so Faculty can now switch between marking periods within an individual student’s gradebook. Previously, faculty had to close the individual gradebook, select a different marking period in the full gradebook view, then reopen the individual student gradebook to see a different marking period.
Also this month:
- While editing a Report Card or Transcript template that includes an Attendance section, you can now edit the styling of individual columns and column headers from the Style form.
- When using Edit student enrollment, the “Requested courses” column now displays as Courses. The Settings menu includes settings for Courses column display. The functionality of Edit student enrollment has not changed.
This month for Billing management, alums and past students with a $0 balance are now automatically excluded when printing statements.
Statements will still print for past students and alums with a $0 balance if the Billing clerk specifies to print a custom statement date range and the past student was a current student.
More updates in October:
- Previously, payers with terminated Auto-Pay statuses could not be reenrolled in Auto-Pay for the current school year. Now, payers with terminated Auto-Pay statuses can be reenrolled in the current year in the same way as their initial Auto-Pay enrollment.
- Credit balances are now reflected in summary balances on statements. This change applies to the summary balances on printed statements and the statement summary on the statements page in the payer portal.
- Billing clerks now have more flexibility when determining the charge dates and due dates for fees generated through contracts. Schools can enable Automatically generate charges when a contract is returned and processed, under Generating fees on the School year settings page.
Core
Following the BBID rollout in September, Core turned its attention to OneRoster in October. They made several changes to the Add OneRoster settings prompt, including renaming the Options tab to Rostering options, changing some of the text under Rostering Options to enhance clarity, and adding an all-new tab, Gradebook options.
In addition, a new Gradebook options tab was added, where you can define a default Assignment type. The Assignment type setting is meant to act as a catchall for instances where an assignment has an undefined assignment type; assignments with undefined types are automatically assigned the specified type. Although this setting is optional, if left unset, those assignments lacking assignment types will be omitted from gradebook results.
Enrollment management
Did you miss it? The biggest news for EMS this month was the arrival of a brand new feature: Event management! This is a brand-new event registration experience that was created from the ground up specifically for admissions managers. Not only can admissions managers expect a more modern admin experience (with easy to use check in and reporting features), but candidates will have an easy to fill out form with plenty of reminders. Thankfully, we have you covered with additional details including our online help, handy video overview, as well as a blog post.
That wasn’t all. Even though we launched the feature, we weren’t done making continued updates to it. This includes:
- When processing a prefilled event registration and selecting to update another existing user account, the two users will now merge.
- Admissions managers can now copy Registration options (including notifications) for better consistency and without needing to recreate an option from scratch.
- When an admissions manager selects an event from the admissions calendar, the attendee list now populates.
- From the Attendees list when viewing an event, we've added more options to the Nametag print modal including Preferred name, Last name, Pronouns, Entering Year, and Entering Grade.
- Added the location placeholder for reminder and confirmation notification templates in Event Registration.
- Added a setting for admissions managers on a checklist step to automatically waive it. Please keep in mind that all previous steps will be auto-waived as well.
- The new Auto Waived filter option on the checklist helps to visually indicate steps that have been automatically waived.
Yes, an Extracurricular update! Through October, the team was intent on giving Athletics setup a new look and creating a more streamlined experience. First off, they consolidated the old Manage coaches, Manage rosters, and Teams pages into the new Manage teams page. In addition, users can now select a team from the list to access the team Overview and Team details.
Overview displays Team statistics, including the number of coaches and players, and the team’s win-loss record. Under Upcoming events, Athletic Group Managers can quickly see the next five events on the team’s schedule. Team details displays general setup information configured under Sports & teams, such as the Level of Play, Gender, and team Status. Grading details also displays information from the setup in Sports & teams, including the Total credits, Transcript category, Print on report card, and Print on transcript settings for the team.
Tuition Management
In preparation for Mastercard’s recurring payments requirements that go into effect next year, an email receipt is now sent to payers when their automatic debit payment using a credit card is processed. Previously, email receipts were only sent for one-time credit card payments.
Financial Aid Management
With the end of the year coming up, the 2023-2024 rollover was on the mind of Financial Aid management. On October, 4, 2022, school accounts rolled over and the financial aid application for the 2023-2024 school year will be open and available to parents.
This rollover process was automatic, and all 2022-2023 settings roll forward to 2023-2024. Before parents begin applying, we recommend reviewing your school’s settings and making any necessary changes under the Settings menu. If you do not know your tuition amounts for 2023-2024, you can update them later.
Also this month:
- We removed the COVID-19 question under the Special Circumstances section of the application. Schools wanting to ask this question can add it as a custom question.
- A user survey is now displayed on all pages for school users. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey and provide feedback on the areas of the product you want to see updated next.
- In response to feedback, the Pre-Filled status has been removed from the status bar and Manage Families no longer includes a list of Pre-Filled families.
That’s going to do it for this week, but thanks, as always, for stopping by to check out the blog. There’s a stream of content on the way throughout November, so stay tuned!
Also, if you haven’t yet, do make sure to subscribe to stay up to date on all of the upcoming content as well as (likely) putting a smile on our faces for the support. See you next week everyone!
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Blackbaud K-12 Solutions™ Blog
11/01/2022 9:00am EDT
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