The Month in Review: July 2021 Feature Releases

Derek Nichols

Believe it or not, August has finally arrived. As we head towards another school year, let’s review everything that arrived and changed for the Education management products during July 2021.Just like that, July is now behind us. I hate to admit it but we’re now speeding towards the start of the new school year as well as the end of this here blog’s hiatus. We’ve got some good stuff planned for the month of August, but I’ll save that for a another today.

Today’s blog post is all about July and everything that went down with the Blackbaud Education Management products. It was a shorter month than typical due to the Fourth of July holiday as well as BBCON, but we still managed to add in a ton of new additions from the Files and Forms Bulk Delete in Enrollment management, to numerous quality of life updates. So, let’s jump right in to all the details.

Academics
Even with a smaller release schedule, the Academics team managed to put together some big updates in July. Arguably the biggest addition were the various improvements to the Faculty assignment details age for teachers. There’s a huge amount of quality of life updates, too many to list here, but we’ve put together a video to give you a look at all of the new additions. Have a look!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trXxu7uTodM


Gradebook was also revamped in July in an effort to provide a more robust experiencing while also filling in existing gaps. The Gradebook tab has ultimately been replaced by the Launch Gradebook button. Inside, educators will find all kinds of improvements including a consolidated settings area, new display options, save and commit options, and plenty more. Again, there are just too many changes to list individually here, so make sure to check out this release letter for a big rundown.

In addition:

• When composing Official Notes, you can now set a custom date. By default, the Date field will display the current date, but you can use the calendar picker tool to set a different date. Your customized date will appear with the note on a student’s report card or transcript if you choose to include it.
• In a previous release, we added options for displaying a student’s full or partial Social Security Number in the Student header of Transcripts and Report Cards. Now we have added an informational popover that explains the function.

Core
For July, we wanted to remind users that on October 5, 2021, dashboards for Analysis (SKY Reporting) will no longer appear within the “ON” app under Core, Academics, etc. Instead, you’ll use the Analysis option in the solutions menu and it’ll take you to the Education Area. The solutions menu appears in the top left corner (three, parallel, horizontal lines) and is where you would select to access Core, Academics, etc.
To prepare for this change, ensure users have security group rights and roles to access the Education Area and that they log in with Blackbaud ID. For details, review this article.

Also released this month:

• The List view pattern now can show and hide columns for users viewing Handle Profile changes.
• The handle profile changes export now includes the Persona column.

Enrollment management
For the Enrollment management team, July was all about Files and Forms. Under Admissions, Admissions setup, platform managers now have access to a new Files and Forms area. Files and forms compiles all files or forms that are uploaded in conjunction with the admissions process and presents them in one, easy to use list. This includes all inquiries, applications, recommendation forms, candidate attachments, and miscellaneous files.

In here, selecting a document brings up all relevant information including new ways to work with them. This includes a Share to Core profile option, View history to see all the changes made, as well as a Delete user data button which can be used individually or in bulk.

There’s a ton more to this new feature, so you’ll definitely want to visit our documentation here.

Also this month:

• We’ve updated the username generator to only use the email address.

Tuition management
In July, we finally revealed our big rebranding of the Tuition management product. When users log into the school site for Tuition Management, they will see an in-product message alerting them to the changes they will see. This message will appear every time the user logs into the school site. We would like to stress that all rebranding changes are only occurring on the school site at this time. Updates to the parent site will occur later this year.

Also this month:

• We have updated the Shopping cart Credit/Debit card convenience fee to Credit/Debit Card Usage Fee.
• Third party emails are not separated from Secondary emails. Third party emails will receive Auto Debit Reminders and E-Invoices.
• School users can now delete a note on an account if it has been added by a School user. School users can use the Remove button to delete a Note. You will need to confirm you would like to remove the note. You will need to add a Remark for the Note and then select Close.

Financial aid
This month in Financial Aid, schools using SKY school budgets will see minor changes to the Budget page and Edit awards. The Name column will be frozen on the page and will continue to appear when scrolling. In addition, the Award column will appear next to the Name column.

If you want the full and complete details of everything we’ve added to the Education management products in July, make sure to visit our What’s New letter. Use the Recent option at the top of the page to view past and archived releases. Want to stay updated whenever we have a new release? Get notified via email by signing up for our mailing list here.

That’s all for this review. Enjoy your summer and we’ll see you right back here next time. See you then!

Vicky Lopuchowycz

The updates to gradebook and assignments are great! I am curious when something might be done to enhance the backend user experience with things like grade management and the scheduling of science classes with labs. The science with a lab was on a road map for 2018 (maybe?) or 2019 but nothing has happened with it.