A round-up of all improvements and changes to the Buzz platform in versions v3.0.234 available on June 3, 2021.
Contents
Publish Better on Buzz feature highlight: Content templates!
Coming soon to Buzz!
We announce significant upcoming features and changes in a standalone Coming soon article that appears at the top of the What's new section.
Publish Better on Buzz feature highlight: Content templates!
Every once in awhile, we like to give a shoutout to some of our favorite features that have been around for awhile, but that our users might not be taking advantage of. Today that feature is: Content Templates.
Content templates make it easy for districts, publishers, and even individual content authors to establish and communicate a stronger brand, look, and feel, while improving the authoring and learning experience.
Related articles
Admins and content authors:
- How do I add activity templates to my domain?
- How do I use Content Templates?
- Video: Use Content Templates to improve branding, functionality, and authoring
Teachers
Basic workflow for Content templates
- Content authors with some knowledge of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS create the activity Content templates and add them as Activity templates in their domain. The templates should include the branding, formatting, and functionality that you want your activities to have. They also include content fields that can be easily edited by teachers and other authors.
For example, an author might create Content templates that are intended to be used for different activity types (a "Watch and learn" type for videos and presentations, a "Quick quiz" to assess comprehension, etc.). They could create the editable fields needed for each activity type, and include instructions on what content the teachers and other authors would include in each field.
- Teachers and other content author can then add the Content templates as activities from the same dialog used to add other activities. They then add content to the editable fields using Buzz's Activity editor to create a branded, standardized activity without having to know any coding or learn an external authoring tool.
For example, this teacher might use this template to create an activity where learners watch a video about common PowerPoint pitfalls called Life After Death by PowerPoint. Notice that they have replaced the bracketed directions with activity content.
- When a teacher creates all of their activities using these standardized Content templates, students are provided a smoother, easier learning experience. Every activity is formatted and branded similarly, so they know what to expect and where to look for relevant information.
For example, this teacher might then use the same template to create an activity where learners watch a video that uses effect presentation techniques, and ask them to take notes and discuss with their groups. Notice that they have replaced the bracketed directions with different activity content, but that the standardized formatting of the activity gives the learner cues about what kind of activity this is.
Updates
In this release, we fixed a style issue in the Choose supplemental activity popup.
APIs
Updates in version 2021.06.02.6190.
- General system improvements.