What’s New in PressPrimer Assignment 2.1

Version 2.1 of PressPrimer Assignment is now available on WordPress.org. This is an important release that adds several improvements that will help students and instructors, including expanded support for rich text fields, more filtering options, and assignment duplication support. The release also sets up the foundation for some powerful new features and front end support that’s included in the 2.1 premium add-ons.

Here’s what’s new.

Rich text editing

In previous versions, several important fields (including assignment instructions and grading guidelines) only supported plain text. That made it hard for instructors to include things like numbered lists and bullets, or even bold and italic text for emphasis. Version 2.1 replaces those plain text fields with a proper rich text editor, and students are shown the field contents exactly as instructors entered them. Here are the fields that have been replaced:

• Assignment description
• Assignment instructions
• Assignment grading guidelines
• Grading feedback
• Email template bodies

It’s intentionally a minimal toolbar, but it covers the formatting that instructors need most without overwhelming teachers. Anything entered in the fields goes through a safety check, preserving valid tags while stripping any tags or content that could be a security risk. Any existing plain-text values for the fields are left untouched.

Submission list filters

The list of submissions in /wp-admin/ (under Assignments > Submissions) gains three new filters. They’re included at the top of the table and make finding the right set of submissions a lot easier. These are the new filters:

• Score range: Set minimum and maximum final scores to find graded submissions within a specific range.
• Has feedback: Show only submissions with feedback, submissions without feedback, or all submissions.
• Submission date range: Set a start and end date to narrow the list of submissions to a specific window.

All three filters work in combination with each other and existing filters. The filters are populated in the URL, so if you have a preferred view or need to share a set of submissions with someone, you can bookmark the URL or save it to always return to that view.

Note that the score range filter only works with submissions that have a score (meaning ungraded submissions will be excluded), and the date range filter is inclusive of the start and end date.

Duplicate assignments

The third new feature adds a way to copy an assignment without rebuilding it from scratch. There are now three ways to duplicate assignments:

1. A new row action on the Assignments list; just hover over an assignment and look for the Duplicate link.
2. A bulk action on the Assignments list, which duplicates all selected assignments in bulk.
3. A button on the edit assignment page, which duplicates the active assignment.

The duplication tool copies everything about the assignment, including the description, instructions, grading guidelines, settings, file type and size limits, etc. The duplicate is created as a draft and the word “(Copy)” is appended to the name.

While the duplication creates a copy of settings, any submissions, files, and counts linked to the original are never copied. The duplicate starts fresh.

Get started

If you’re new to PressPrimer Assignment, head to WordPress.org and grab a copy of the 2.1 release to try free on your website. If you already use the Assignment plugin, you can update now on your site to start using the new features.

Updating to 2.1 of the free plugin is required to use all of the new features in the premium add-ons (like annotations, plagiarism detection, xAPI support, and more). If there are other features you want to see in PressPrimer Assignment, leave a comment below or reach out to us with more details!