It has now been about 5 months since Wurkbuk Beta 2 launched, and after intensive testing by over 200 students and teachers, lots of feedback, features and bug fixes, Wurkbuk Beta 3 is finally ready. This is the biggest update yet and brings us much closer to the final finished product. You can use and try it out right now, by clicking on the links to the Wurkbuk Beta 3 and to the Demo on the top right. But for more information and to find out what has changed, let's look at the details...

The changes below will be listed in order of Wurkbuk section, Plan, Teach, Mark, Admin and Profile. The home page is the only section that has not had any feature changes, just a few bug fixes. But for the rest...

Plan

• Delete folders: Folders for subjects and submenus now have a delete function along with the existing rename function (which was introduced in Beta 2), giving you more control over how you want to organise your lessons. However, folders must be empty of lessons and subfolders before they can be deleted.
• Delete lessons: Lesson resources can now be be deleted enabling you to clear your folders of unused lessons. However, be warned, if they have been shared, deleting the teacher lesson will disable the update and unshare/student delete features, and possibly the marking features.
• Last Modified: The lesson information (author and date) in this section has been changed slightly, so when you hover over the date for the lesson, the last modified date will now pop up.
• Easy Embed: Along with the Google Doc button, there is now an easy embed button. This will allow you to embed features from other websites and tools, such as Prezi presentations, App Inventor Apps or Scratch apps without having to go into the code window.

Teach

• Simpler UI: The previous array of three buttons (Share, Update, Delete) has been replaced with just one button 'Set'. This has the features of the share and update buttons all in one. The delete button has been relegated to the hidden section which used hold just the Google share and unshare features.
• Advanced features: There is now an advanced features section, which used to be just for Google share and unshare features in Beta 2. This now holds those same Google features, and the delete button. This was moved out of the way, as it should only be used rarely and could be quite problematic if used by accident.
• Set Date: This features also in the advanced features section allows you to choose a date in the future to release work to students that has been shared. This allows you to plan ahead and set multiple lessons at once. The lessons will only be visible to students at the given set date and time. This can be changed anytime after the work has been shared.
• Due Date: This feature also in the advanced features section allows you to inform the students the date the assignment is due to be submitted. This can also be changed anytime the work has been shared, even if students have already started work on the assignments.
• Shared work panel: This section shows all the work that has already been shared, showing the group, the lesson, the set date and the due date. Clicking on the group will take you to the student management console (introduced in Beta 2 update 2). Clicking on the lesson name will take you to the lessons for that class/group. Clicking on the set or due dates will take you to the new calendar feature explained next.
• Calendar: This new feature allows you to see all the lesson set dates and due dates in a monthly calendar (or weekly if viewed on mobile devices). The set dates are in yellow, and the due dates are in red. Clicking on the lesson events, which should show the lesson name and group (and subject when you hover over it), should lead to the actual group of lessons for the class/group, similar to clicking from the shared work panel. You can cycle through months (or weeks on mobile devices) using the left and right arrows and you can go back to the current date by clicking on the today button.

Mark

• Updated feedback module: The feedback section, which is featured underneath each lesson has undergone probably the most important and useful update for teachers. This section now allows teachers to update and save feedback without reloading the whole page. This will save lots of time and allow the marking process to be much smoother. It will also allow teachers to mark way more lessons at a time, in a more managable way. There are also added notifications to show when the mark or feedback is saving (animated saving image), and when it has finally saved (green tick). The same update has been given to the delete feature, which shows the same animation when the message is deleting, and a white tick when the delete is completed.

Import

•  Google Classroom Import: The Google contacts import feature has been replaced by import directly from Google Classroom. It features the exact same functionality, where you must first authenticate with Google, before showing your Google Classroom classes. Once a class is selected the students in that class are shown and can be imported to Wurkbuk, and can be used with the Wurkbuk Google assignment sharing and copying features.

Student Management

• Updated Student Management: The Student management section, introduced in Beta 2 Update 2, now has the ability to rename and delete student groups. This further enables teachers to manage student groups which improves the ability to differentiate within the same class. With the updated features, you can now change the groups within the class more deleting and renaming them when needed or totally removing them when no longer needed.
• Teacher Group Sharing: Groups can now be shared with other teachers. When inside one of your groups, you will see the share groups button, which will allow you to enter another teachers email address. The teacher must already have a Wurkbuk account. Once this is confirmed, the work you manage for that group for all your subjects will be shared with that teacher.

Profile

• Additional Options: The option to change your display name and to turn on and off Google features has been added. This way, you can keep your full name in the system, but also use a teacher name such as Mr, Mrs or Dr your name. Clearing the name field in this setting returns your regular name. The Google features options turns on or off, all the Google features on Wurkbuk. This is for those that do not have or do not want to use their Google account with Wurkbuk. With this setting off, all Google authentication is disabled, the Google Embed button in the Plan section is hidden, the Google docs copy feature in the Teach section is disabled, the Google Docs share and unshare buttons are hidden, and the Google classroom import tab is hidden. All Google functionality is returned when the setting is turned back on.

General

• Larger work area: The main UI area has been enlarged by 25%, allowing more room to show content and resources.

This update makes Wurkbuk much more useful, but maintains the same simple functions for planning, teaching and marking. Of course, there are more improvements to come but that will be for another blog post.