Learning
As we approach the 2021 year end, we wanted to take a moment to review our most important releases, and share a preview of our roadmap as we look forward to 2022.
With your feedback & insights across the community of ManageBac schools, we have listened and redoubled our efforts during the past year, improving usability with our All New Design across Web & Mobile, supporting Pamoja on ManageBac, and integrating your teaching & learning journey with AssessPrep, Oxford Study Courses, Study & Presentation Mode and much more!
Our five key focus areas in 2021 were:
- Usability
- Mobile
- Pamoja on ManageBac
- Teaching & Learning
- Integrations
Usability
Beginning with 
Quick Add in April and the new 
Dashboard & Calendar in July, we introduced our 
All New Design in August and October, which improved navigation & usability across Classes & Year Groups with a ‘less is more’ approach.
This redesign refreshed almost the entire Student, Parent & Teacher interface providing a simpler, more intuitive experience with fewer clicks and maximum clarity of focus.
For our IB Coordinators, the Reviews & Progress pages were also refreshed along with Project-based Learning worksheets (Extended Essay, Personal & Community Projects, Interdisciplinary). You will find greater visual consistency & personalisation with a faster & smoother approvals process.
Improving the Dashboard > Calendar and providing one-click access to Study Mode, where students start their Learning Journey, was our next challenge. In tandem, we fully refreshed the Study Mode for Students and the Presentation Mode for Teachers, providing a full-screen, immersive experience where Students can chat, take notes, bookmark & save, and where Teachers can safely launch Zoom Online Lessons and present their Unit at-a-glance.
Mobile
In November, we released our redesigned 
Mobile iOS App, which like our All New Design on Web, provides a fast native experience with our new Mobile Home Menu.
Students, Parents & Teachers will find a familiar ‘look & feel’ à la Facebook with easy one-click access to everything 
Calendar, Attendance, Timetables, Units, Tasks and more.
Pamoja on ManageBac
As you plan your IB DP Subjects for rising MYP5s / Grade 10s, the entire Pamoja Online Course registration process is now seamlessly integrated within your DP Plan worksheets. Interested in exploring Pamoja to expand your Subject Choice? Enable it with one-click from your Service Manager.
The Pamoja Student experience has been seamlessly integrated:
- Single-sign-on from in-person school to Pamoja
- Pamoja subjects appear natively in subject group order within student class lists
- Pamoja tasks & deadlines appear directly within the in-person school Calendar
- Messages & Notifications are unified within one Inbox
For our Site-based Coordinators, we apologise for the delayed release in October. The SBC Dashboard provides powerful, real-time engagement insight and full visibility into student progress at a Lesson and Task level. SBCs can browse Term Grades, Engagement Ratings and dive deeper to view Assessment Tasks in one-click with single-sign-on to Pamoja directly from their ManageBac account.
We have been delighted to work with so many SBCs personally to refine & improve this feature.
Teaching & Learning
We started the year by releasing Assessment Task differentiation. While we had supported this differentiation in HL & SL within the IB DP and Phases in Language B of MYP for many years, there was a clear need to refine this further.
You can now fully differentiate across all Assessment Tasks in all Programmes & Levels. Through collaboration with our Pamoja colleagues, we introduced a neat Task Extension feature that allows Teachers to grant Due Date extensions to students with automatic notifications.
In October, we released our end-to-end integration with 
AssessPrep encompassing streamlined account provisioning with instant setup, seamless single-sign-on, gradebook & coursework annotations sync. Teachers can easily create online assessments or link existing assessments in AP within their ManageBac class.
Key Highlights:
- Instant Setup & Classroom Sync: with all students & teacher accounts created automatically.
- Create an AP Assessment: directly from within ManageBac Tasks
- Gradebook Sync: for auto-scored point scores and more.
- Split-Screen Gradebook: to easily mark AP formatives and quizzes from within the ManageBac Gradebook
Improving performance and reliability of 
Term Gradebooks was our first priority, our enhanced auto-save has been designed to work around poor Internet connectivity. Together with a refreshed ‘look & feel’ you will find a minimalist approach with powerful analytics & error-check options one-click away.
Within Term Gradebooks & Reporting > Proofing & Review, we have aligned our approach for Term Grade Analytics allowing you to toggle on & off views easily, so you can decide whether you want to view Grade Distributions, Performance Trends, etc.
With built-in Error Checking, ManageBac delivers first-to-market innovation, where you can easily filter your Gradebook and Proofing & Review to check for missing grades, teacher comments and much more. These handy Analytics will help avoid embarrassment and help catch accidental typos efficiently and at scale throughout your Reporting lifecycle.
Class Architecture Coming Soon
The third stage of our journey towards the Learning Tree: allowing Teachers, Heads of Subject and Leadership to Explore Subjects in depth (initially available for the IB DP and MYP) with integration across your Plan, Teach, Assess & Reflect lifecycle.
Stay up-to-date with Newsfeed (Official Coordinator Notes, built-in Subject Guides), Share & Add Exemplar Units + Lessons from Pamoja and our Global ResourceBank, Browse a curated collection of Subject Resources, Explore Unit Calendars & more.
Monitor Student Engagement, Review Curriculum & Assessment Analytics, and Streamline Reporting > Proofing & Review with built-in Error Checking.
Integrations & More
IB Concierge
In May, our Exam Systems Team successfully delivered IB Concierge’s new Programme Standards & Practices. As you undergo your next 5-year IB evaluation, ManageBac integration will be here to support you every step of the way together with Accreditation Leadership on MiniPD.
After 15 years, ManageBac is now in MYP approaching DP and ending its adolescence. This past year has been marked by significant change – we like to think of it as a metamorphosis.
Stay tuned for our 2022 Product Roadmap update in early January for a full preview of what’s coming in January and beyond. Feel free to contact us at product@managebac.com or continue the discussion on our Discord.
