Blackbaud’s Education Management Solutions: What’s New For December 13, 2022

Derek Nichols · December 2022

Here are the latest changes, updates, and new features for the Education management products for December 13, 2022.

Academics

New Assessment experience

Beginning with this week's release, a new Assessment experience is available for teachers and students. We’re releasing this new feature in “waves”, so some of you will see it immediately on December 13^th and others will have access to it over the coming week. When creating assessments, teachers will have the option to select the new experience or continue using the old assessment builder.

The new assessment builder features several usability enhancements, including:

Matching question type
Ability to print assessments
Ability to edit questions after students begin taking the assessment
Ability to copy questions
Option to randomize multiple choice answers
Auto-save for students completing assessments
Option to allow students to resume assessments on their own after they select Close
Summary comments to provide feedback on a student’s overall assessment performance
Ability to filter the Evaluations page to show only essay questions that still need to be graded
Teacher comments visible by default on the student Results page

Once the new Assessment experience is available for your school, teachers accessing the Assignment Center or Assignments tab on a class page will see a one-time pop-up that includes this video highlighting the new assessment features.

To learn more about the new Assessment experience, check out the New and Improved Assessments webinar on December 14^th at 11:00 a.m. EST.

Billing management (Early Adopter Program)

Payment methods are now reusable for payers

We’ve added the ability for payers to save and reuse payment methods, expediting the process of making payments. Payment methods include credit cards, debit cards (US only), and bank accounts (US only); the options available to payers to save are based on payment methods approved by your school.

Payers create and manage payments on the new Payment methods page, accessed by payers by hovering over Billing in the navigation and selecting Payment methods. Payers store payment methods using either the Add credit card or debit card or Add bank account buttons and manage saved payment methods under the corresponding sections on the page. Saved payment methods can be modified (e.g., change whether the payment method is default or the payment method’s name) and deleted.

Payers select and use payment methods in the Make a payment screen via the Current bill. Payers can additionally opt to save a payment method at this point in the payment process, circumventing the Payment methods page entirely.

Core

Social Security Numbers (SSN)

Over the next few months, users may notice small changes that improve our alignment with privacy laws and best practices. The first change will be on Tuesday, December 13.

With this release, we’ll mask social security numbers in all advanced list outputs, including spreadsheet exports and API outputs.
Users with permission to view SSNs can still view the information in user contact cards, the user list, the students list, and the candidates list.

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) for Blackbaud ID (BBID)

Previously, we released the first of multiple updates that make it easier for platform managers to manage user security roles and tasks.

As of this release, platform managers can now use the list in Core, Security, Roles to enable a new option for Blackbaud ID. When enabled for a role that does not login with a single sign on (SSO) or a “social sign in,” all users in the affected role will be required to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) with their BBID login.

For example, a platform manager could require users who have the nurse role to login with MFA and BBID. The nurse could complete the login using a numeric code sent to their phone for additional security.

Platform managers can also disable the MFA requirement for the same roles. When disabled, users in the affected roles may still be prompted to login with MFA. However, after logging in, the user can go to their individual BBID profile to opt out of MFA.

When MFA is required for a school role, those users can view their BBID profile, but can’t opt out of MFA.

Consider testing MFA with a cloned role at your school’s convenience. As a platform manager, go to Core, Security, Roles, and search for a role. On the role’s row, select more (…) and then select to Enforce MFA. You can also Remove MFA enforcement from here.

Please note:

Users who login with single sign on (SSO), Sign in with Google, or Sign in with Apple, will not be prompted to use MFA, even if the school enforces MFA for one of their roles.
Users who are already required to use MFA because they also use their BBID for other Blackbaud applications, such as Raiser’s Edge NXT, will still require MFA, regardless of their MFA settings for their roles in Education Management.

To learn more about multi-factor authentication for Blackbaud ID, view the online help.

Map custom user fields to integration equivalents

Schools leveraging integrations can now benefit from a new settings page, Integration mappings. Integration mappings enables schools to associate their custom user fields with available integration equivalents, resulting in the expected user data syncing and appearing as expected across integrated services.

To access the new Integration mappings settings, navigate to Core, hover over Settings in the navigation, and select Integration mappings.

Enrollment management

Financial Aid Awards List

Admissions managers can now filter the Financial Aid Awards list for School year, Grade level, Role, and Financial aid type. Please note that the School year defaults to the current academic year.

Tuition management

NACHA regulation updates

Beginning on December 15^th, in compliance with NACHA regulations, all new bank accounts will now go through a validation process to ensure the account is open, active, and can receive ACH transactions prior to a payment being processed. Validation is done by sending a file to the receiving institution to confirm the accuracy of the account information entered. Once the bank account passes validation, payments will be processed on the fourth business day and follow the standard remittance process.

Any bank account sent back with a correction or C -Code from the payer’s bank will be voided, the bank account information will be removed from the system, and the payer will be contacted via email and/or text message, alerting them to the error.

During the validation period, payers and school users will see an Account validation in process note on the family's account stating, “The bank account has been updated on this account and is going through validation. If a payment has been submitted, please see payment history for more details."

Any payments made with a bank account during the validation period will display as On Hold in Payment History. Users can also hover over the On Hold status to see a message indicating the payment is on hold until the bank account validation is complete.

Late fees are not assessed while a payment is on hold and will be assessed based on the payment submitted date once the bank account validation is complete. Late fees are only applied to an account if the payment is marked as failed or the payment was submitted after the due date.

Additionally, Buy Now Give Now (BNGN) payments will also go through the ACH validation process the first time a bank account is used. Subsequent BNGN payments made with a previously validated bank account will not go through validation again if the same email address is used. BNGN payments will display as On Hold in Buy Now Give Now Manage Transactions during the validation period.

API and Integrations

School API and OneRoster API Changelogs

For information about recently added endpoints and updates, view the Education management SKY API changelog.

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What’s Recent

Missed any of our weekly releases? You can catch up on everything in our Month in Review blog posts, which cover every feature and update Education management releases each month.