Recent Improvements in Our Software

We hear you!

You asked and we listened: since writing all-new software to power our PoWs, we've made lots of changes based on your feedback. Many of these updates — now rolled out monthly — improve operations behind-the-scenes. Here are some of the most significant changes that you'll see.

As of December 10, 2011:

We've added a "My Students' Work" link to the blue-shaded box on all PoWs so that teachers can quickly see their students' work on that problem.
Adjusted links and spacing on the Current Problems of the Week page to improve navigation.

As of November 12, 2011:

Primary has joined Math Fundamentals, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, and Geometry on the Current Problems of the Week page.

Previous releases:

Students can always submit to the Current Pows — no more submission deadlines! Teachers with Current PoW memberships can "assign" any of the PoWs listed on the Calendar page.
Announcements about free mentoring are visible at the top of several PoW pages to alert you to those opportunities.

We now have a fifth current Problem of the Week service. Use the "Calendar" link (from the left sidebar) to view the recently added Primary level problems. By the end of the 2011-2012 school year, current PoW members will enjoy access to a grand total of 100 PoWs — all still for only $25.

A $25 membership to the Current PoWs and accompanying resources now also includes 1 class (up to 36 student logins).
Additional classes (each with up to 36 student logins) can be purchased for $10 per class.
All registered students are eligible for free mentoring when available.

Students are allowed to submit if they have previously saved a draft (even after the submission deadline).

Students can always revise — no more revision deadlines!
Students can see any of their past submissions and mentor replies.

An additional submitter can be added to a submission even if that student has already looked at the problem by themselves.
Students' school names and ages are now publicly displayed when their solutions are highlighted. (Note: students and their teachers choose how much information they reveal about themselves; and even when students furnish their last names, we never publish them.)
We've improved the display of the mentor's thread view and of the teacher resources linked from the "blue box." These are especially noticeable for Internet Explorer users.
You can now easily see when your subscriptions expire.

We've simplified the registration process for returning teachers and people signing up for our free KenKen and Financial Education PoWs, and displayed expiration dates whenever you purchase a product.
Icon guides, mentors' queue thread status, and all pages in Internet Explorer look nicer.

Teachers can now set up classes faster with improved student registration, creating multiple student accounts or adding multiple existing students to your class at once.
Mentors will see the name of the student(s) they are replying to at the top of the response page.

Teachers who archive a class will no longer see their archived students' work on their current My PoW Work page.

Students can see problems when reviewing mentor's reply or completed submissions — even after revision deadline is past.
We've simplified and improved the answer submission form.
We've clarified that drafts can be saved and edited, but they are not submitted work.

We've improved the display of our pages on the web, especially noticeable for Internet Explorer users.
Mentors can now see student ages as they respond.

In conjunction with Nextoy LLC, we've launched a KenKen service.
We've updated our left navigation menu to include this page and one for intro videos.

Teachers can edit student names and class names.
Teachers can see student draft solutions — for when students click "I'll finish later" instead of "submit" for their solutions.
Teachers can see student usernames on their class and student management page.

For increased security, we have updated our credit card handling process.
We collect and display optional student age information.
Teachers and administrators can archive old classes, so that they only see their current classes.
Teachers can assign problems to individual students as well as to groups.
Teachers can view their students' work sorted by class.

Teachers can unassign problems for their classes.
Teachers can mark threads as complete or trivial.

Teachers can control whether or not to show students their rubric scores.

Keep those comments and suggestions coming. We appreciate your feedback.