Since your last update, it takes almost a minute to load even a small greeting. What did you do? I have a disability and cannot type after about ten minutes. This function is very important.
What Buzz is doing now is it waits until the video/audio is done processing before allowing you to leave. This is to prevent the possibility of the video/audio being saved in a bad state.
Our teachers are also noticing this slowdown. It does make it a little more challenging for rearranging workflow if they are trying to grade a chunk of student work and have to wait on the audio/video processing up front.
Unfortunately, This is one of the worst decisions they have made. They not only will not insert before it is processed, they slowed it down even farther. Two updates ago, I could not insert until it had processed. I did not mind because it was pretty fast. Then, they upgraded and I could insert before it was done, but it took longer to process. Now, it takes thirty to sixty seconds to process. I may have over one hundred assignments to grade, so do the Math. As an English/ disabled Veteran teacher with a joint disability, I am at a severe disadvantage now. This happens if all I say is 'Hello" or leave detailed feedback. This site has given me suggestions such as use templates, use Dragon Speak, or type the feedback. I do use templates, and I cannot type for long periods without pain. My feedback on writing papers can be long and detailed, so speaking directly to the student is better than trying to fit in very long instructions. Please take off the delays or your program is now useless to me.
You may or may not find this useful, I thought I would share just in case! Here is a video I made for our program teachers highlighting the issue and a suggested workflow recommendation to use 2 tabs. The idea is that while your video/audio feedback processes on Tab 1, you can start looking through the next assignment on Tab 2. Not ideal, but may help make more use of the downtime that we're now experiencing.
Unfortunately flipping back and forth between assignments all day is very inefficient. 30-60 seconds may not seem like a lot of time, but it actually is when you are working with a large number of students and hundreds of student submissions. I also worry about losing the feedback that is processing in one tab while creating feedback in another, as I have had this happen on occasion (Buzz locks up and feedback disappears).
I also use video feedback all day long and flipping between assignments and tabs is not ideal. I have experienced issues where the tab processing the video freezes while the video processes, and I lose the video feedback. But, I do not realize this right away, since I'm in another tab working with my other students' works. It not only takes more time to wait with the first attempt, but I lose additional time when I have to redo the feedback and wait again. It's quite disheartening.
Shannon and Katie - agreed. I would definitely not recommend trying to start leaving audio/video feedback on the 2nd assignment while the 1st one is still processing. Even if we're careful about that, other issues can still happen when trying to work in the same menu in two tabs, as you mentioned. Hopefully Agilix can come up with a more reliable solution soon!
I am having the same problems as Katie and Shannon above. I use video/audio feedback almost exclusively but have recently quit due to painfully slow processing speeds. I realize processing time may take longer with longer videos but my feedback is usually short and to the point (around the 15-20 second mark.) To mitigate the wait time, I, too, have been opening another tab in order to keep my flow moving. Often times I finish in the second tab, only to return to the first which is still processing. I have 100+ assignments in my grading queue daily and simply don't have the time to wait anymore. It's disheartening because my students greatly prefer audio/video feedback.
The audio feedback is a very good tool, but not in it's current state. No teacher is going to wait 30 to 60 seconds for audio processing when you may have 50 to 100 assignments to grade each day. It's really too bad as our students really like the audio feedback. They get a better understanding of the assignment and learn more. Just asking to do what you can to make it a feasible option. I won't be using it until improvements are made.
As an update, I've stopped using video or audio feedback except in very rare circumstances because it is way too impractical to use. I used to give almost exclusively video-based feedback, so this feels like a complete upheaval of my work flow. And as everyone has already mentioned, students really prefer the audio and video feedback.
Agreed, LeRoy. Yesterday it took 42 seconds to process a 7 second video I created. I have over 100 assignments per day to grade so I don't have the time to wait. I hope we will have a fix soon.
I agree with you 100%, LeRoy. The audio feature is impossible to use in its current state. I have also stopped using it since I type faster than it can process. This, however, affects my students who NEED audio feedback (as per their IEP/504). I would consider this to be an excellent example of a "fix" that actually "broke" something that made grading both efficient for the teacher and beneficial for the student. I am extremely disappointed that this issue has not been addressed by Agilx.
I hear you Shannon. Tools like the audio feedback should be designed to increase efficiency, not create inefficiency such as the current version of the audio feedback. I used to use the Windows Voice Recorder and there was little to no processing time involved with that. I'm confused why this system is taking so long. At any rate, won't be using it until it is improved for efficiency. Great hearing from you Shannon.
Hi Mariah. It doesn't make a lot of sense to spend 42 seconds for a 7 second audio file. If we all grade 100 assignments in a day, the wait for the audio feedback processing would be right around an hour per day. I don't think any of us has a full hour waiting for audio processing. I don't think anyone will be using it as it just wastes too much time.
Agreed. I've stopped using it all together since then. I don't have an hour/day to wait for processing times.
Now, if I need a student to have audio/video feedback (because of IEP accommodations like Shannon mentioned above) I use a third party video processor (like Screencastify) then copy the link into my feedback. Still too time consuming to use on a regular basis, but more efficient then what Agilix is offering at this point.
I like the idea of using a (much faster) third-party video processor to create videos; I wonder if students click on the links, though. Often, students don't click on the hyperlinks I give them for resources, so I would worry that they'd no longer be getting the feedback I want to give them if it were in a hyperlink, too. But, I guess it's better than the option we have been forced into with losing an hour or more out of our days.
I completely agree. I rarely use hyperlinks because of that!
Therefore, in my feedback I created a (somewhat obnoxious) canned response that says, "Click HERE for important feedback!" that is bolded, highlighted and with downward pointing emojis so they don't miss it! (Quite the work around I've been forced to come up with to deal with this issue.)
Hey everyone, Brad from Agilix here. I wanted to jump in.
When we first started hearing the feedback about the delayed audio/video recording due to processing, we were concerned on how detrimental the experience had become for especially teachers that may use the feature regularly. We were trying to solve one significant problem and caused another.
We have been working on an enhancement so that the recorder would not have to wait for the processing while also making sure the recording saved properly. I am happy to say that we had a breakthrough for this and anticipate releasing it soon, my best estimate would be in two weeks. While this date is not set in stone, I wanted each of you to know that we are aware of this challenge and are actively working to resolve it. We normally stay silent on future updates but I've seen how disheartening this has been for you. So, I apologize and want to reassure you that we are working to making it better.
I hope that this future enhancement will help improve your feedback and assessment of your learners.
Thanks Brad. That sounds very good. I'm sure we are all looking forward to the time we can start using this tool again. I really appreciate you hearing our concerns and taking action to resolve them. That is very impressive in a company.
As a business that depends on customer satisfaction, I would suggest you guys let your customers know you are working to fix the problem. I left three posts and while you guys did give me sympathy, you did not give me hope. If you had said we are working to fix the problem, I would not have been thinking you guys just did not care. It never hurts to let your customers know that you are trying to fix a problem with your system. Thanks for working on it, just next time, let us know because I have been researching a writing program that would have cost me three hundred dollars. I do appreciate that you are fixing the problem.
I saw this improvement in the Buzz Release Notes and tested it out today! Looks like we are back to the "insert now, process later" workflow that helped teachers move from assignment to assignment more quickly. Thank you, Agilix, for fixing this!! Our teachers will be so relieved!
Yes, this was changed in yesterday's update. We were able to successfully fix the problem we were initially needed to fix while retaining the ability to process the videos asynchronously.
Thank you as I too saw it in the release notes and it is a great update to allow those workflow efficiencies for many. The update will definitely make the holidays brighter! Thanks for listening to the voices from the field.
Comments (26)
Hello Jeffery!
What Buzz is doing now is it waits until the video/audio is done processing before allowing you to leave. This is to prevent the possibility of the video/audio being saved in a bad state.
Our teachers are also noticing this slowdown. It does make it a little more challenging for rearranging workflow if they are trying to grade a chunk of student work and have to wait on the audio/video processing up front.
Unfortunately, This is one of the worst decisions they have made. They not only will not insert before it is processed, they slowed it down even farther. Two updates ago, I could not insert until it had processed. I did not mind because it was pretty fast. Then, they upgraded and I could insert before it was done, but it took longer to process. Now, it takes thirty to sixty seconds to process. I may have over one hundred assignments to grade, so do the Math. As an English/ disabled Veteran teacher with a joint disability, I am at a severe disadvantage now. This happens if all I say is 'Hello" or leave detailed feedback. This site has given me suggestions such as use templates, use Dragon Speak, or type the feedback. I do use templates, and I cannot type for long periods without pain. My feedback on writing papers can be long and detailed, so speaking directly to the student is better than trying to fit in very long instructions. Please take off the delays or your program is now useless to me.
Hi Jeffrey,
You may or may not find this useful, I thought I would share just in case! Here is a video I made for our program teachers highlighting the issue and a suggested workflow recommendation to use 2 tabs. The idea is that while your video/audio feedback processes on Tab 1, you can start looking through the next assignment on Tab 2. Not ideal, but may help make more use of the downtime that we're now experiencing.
https://www.loom.com/share/1719717af81b43969bc2d3ca8e00863b
Unfortunately flipping back and forth between assignments all day is very inefficient. 30-60 seconds may not seem like a lot of time, but it actually is when you are working with a large number of students and hundreds of student submissions. I also worry about losing the feedback that is processing in one tab while creating feedback in another, as I have had this happen on occasion (Buzz locks up and feedback disappears).
I also use video feedback all day long and flipping between assignments and tabs is not ideal. I have experienced issues where the tab processing the video freezes while the video processes, and I lose the video feedback. But, I do not realize this right away, since I'm in another tab working with my other students' works. It not only takes more time to wait with the first attempt, but I lose additional time when I have to redo the feedback and wait again. It's quite disheartening.
Shannon and Katie - agreed. I would definitely not recommend trying to start leaving audio/video feedback on the 2nd assignment while the 1st one is still processing. Even if we're careful about that, other issues can still happen when trying to work in the same menu in two tabs, as you mentioned. Hopefully Agilix can come up with a more reliable solution soon!
I am having the same problems as Katie and Shannon above. I use video/audio feedback almost exclusively but have recently quit due to painfully slow processing speeds. I realize processing time may take longer with longer videos but my feedback is usually short and to the point (around the 15-20 second mark.) To mitigate the wait time, I, too, have been opening another tab in order to keep my flow moving. Often times I finish in the second tab, only to return to the first which is still processing. I have 100+ assignments in my grading queue daily and simply don't have the time to wait anymore. It's disheartening because my students greatly prefer audio/video feedback.
The audio feedback is a very good tool, but not in it's current state. No teacher is going to wait 30 to 60 seconds for audio processing when you may have 50 to 100 assignments to grade each day. It's really too bad as our students really like the audio feedback. They get a better understanding of the assignment and learn more. Just asking to do what you can to make it a feasible option. I won't be using it until improvements are made.
As an update, I've stopped using video or audio feedback except in very rare circumstances because it is way too impractical to use. I used to give almost exclusively video-based feedback, so this feels like a complete upheaval of my work flow. And as everyone has already mentioned, students really prefer the audio and video feedback.
Agreed, LeRoy. Yesterday it took 42 seconds to process a 7 second video I created. I have over 100 assignments per day to grade so I don't have the time to wait. I hope we will have a fix soon.
I agree with you 100%, LeRoy. The audio feature is impossible to use in its current state. I have also stopped using it since I type faster than it can process. This, however, affects my students who NEED audio feedback (as per their IEP/504). I would consider this to be an excellent example of a "fix" that actually "broke" something that made grading both efficient for the teacher and beneficial for the student. I am extremely disappointed that this issue has not been addressed by Agilx.
I hear you Shannon. Tools like the audio feedback should be designed to increase efficiency, not create inefficiency such as the current version of the audio feedback. I used to use the Windows Voice Recorder and there was little to no processing time involved with that. I'm confused why this system is taking so long. At any rate, won't be using it until it is improved for efficiency. Great hearing from you Shannon.
Hi Mariah. It doesn't make a lot of sense to spend 42 seconds for a 7 second audio file. If we all grade 100 assignments in a day, the wait for the audio feedback processing would be right around an hour per day. I don't think any of us has a full hour waiting for audio processing. I don't think anyone will be using it as it just wastes too much time.
Hi LeRoy,
Agreed. I've stopped using it all together since then. I don't have an hour/day to wait for processing times.
Now, if I need a student to have audio/video feedback (because of IEP accommodations like Shannon mentioned above) I use a third party video processor (like Screencastify) then copy the link into my feedback. Still too time consuming to use on a regular basis, but more efficient then what Agilix is offering at this point.
Mariah,
I like the idea of using a (much faster) third-party video processor to create videos; I wonder if students click on the links, though. Often, students don't click on the hyperlinks I give them for resources, so I would worry that they'd no longer be getting the feedback I want to give them if it were in a hyperlink, too. But, I guess it's better than the option we have been forced into with losing an hour or more out of our days.
Katie,
I completely agree. I rarely use hyperlinks because of that!
Therefore, in my feedback I created a (somewhat obnoxious) canned response that says, "Click HERE for important feedback!" that is bolded, highlighted and with downward pointing emojis so they don't miss it! (Quite the work around I've been forced to come up with to deal with this issue.)
Hey everyone, Brad from Agilix here. I wanted to jump in.
When we first started hearing the feedback about the delayed audio/video recording due to processing, we were concerned on how detrimental the experience had become for especially teachers that may use the feature regularly. We were trying to solve one significant problem and caused another.
We have been working on an enhancement so that the recorder would not have to wait for the processing while also making sure the recording saved properly. I am happy to say that we had a breakthrough for this and anticipate releasing it soon, my best estimate would be in two weeks. While this date is not set in stone, I wanted each of you to know that we are aware of this challenge and are actively working to resolve it. We normally stay silent on future updates but I've seen how disheartening this has been for you. So, I apologize and want to reassure you that we are working to making it better.
I hope that this future enhancement will help improve your feedback and assessment of your learners.
Happy learning!
Brad,
Thank you so much working on this! I appreciate the update and take comfort knowing a fix is in the future.
Mariah
Thanks Brad. That sounds very good. I'm sure we are all looking forward to the time we can start using this tool again. I really appreciate you hearing our concerns and taking action to resolve them. That is very impressive in a company.
Thanks again.
Yes, thank you for the update.
Brad,
As a business that depends on customer satisfaction, I would suggest you guys let your customers know you are working to fix the problem. I left three posts and while you guys did give me sympathy, you did not give me hope. If you had said we are working to fix the problem, I would not have been thinking you guys just did not care. It never hurts to let your customers know that you are trying to fix a problem with your system. Thanks for working on it, just next time, let us know because I have been researching a writing program that would have cost me three hundred dollars. I do appreciate that you are fixing the problem.
I saw this improvement in the Buzz Release Notes and tested it out today! Looks like we are back to the "insert now, process later" workflow that helped teachers move from assignment to assignment more quickly. Thank you, Agilix, for fixing this!! Our teachers will be so relieved!
Thank you for fixing this problem. I take back all of the bad things I thought about you guys. :) :)
Yes, this was changed in yesterday's update. We were able to successfully fix the problem we were initially needed to fix while retaining the ability to process the videos asynchronously.
Happy holidays!
Thank you as I too saw it in the release notes and it is a great update to allow those workflow efficiencies for many. The update will definitely make the holidays brighter! Thanks for listening to the voices from the field.