March Changelog: Video Links, Enhanced Notifications & Much More!

Written by Jennifer Dunn

Changelog is a roundup of what we released in the last month! Here’s what changed in March:

1. Embed YouTube or Vimeo Video on a Post

Text Editor now includes the option to link to your YouTube and Vimeo videos  

You can now embed your YouTube or Vimeo videos directly in ParentSquare posts! Recipients will be able to view the video without the need to download. To embed, select the camera option from the text editor box. Paste in the YouTube URL and select “Insert”.

Currently, only YouTube and Vimeo links are supported.

2. Enhanced Notification Preferences 

More granularity based on notification type and school

Users can now fine-tune their notification settings for both school and notification type. We break apart notification types including:

• Emergency Alerts & Notices (cannot be disabled)

• School Alerts

• General Announcements & Messages

For General Announcements, you can select turn on or off email, text, and app notifications. You can activate digest notifications for posts if you wish. These settings also allow a secondary parent contact to turn off all notification except for emergency alerts (particularly useful if their partner parent manages school-related daily activities).

Learn how to update your notification preferences here (login required).

3. Flexible Content and Resource Creation, Management and Sharing

The new Resource Hub feature was released on March 30th to a few schools for initial testing and feedback. It will be available in a few days to all schools. This feature helps organize remote learning content shared by teachers and schools.

Teachers and staff can now create, manage and share a variety of text, file and media resources with fellow staff, students and parents from within ParentSquare. Users can easily organize these resources in folders by category, subjects and grade levels.

This can replace what teachers and schools are doing now: sending parents multiple posts with links to various LMS, docs, videos, etc. which becomes very difficult to manage over time.

School Administrators will receive an email on Friday morning with more information!

4. COVID-19 Resources

First, here are some ideas on how you can use ParentSquare to navigate the COVID-19 situation.

Second, as districts and schools enter new remote learning territory, we’re seeing success stories and ideas come out of the schools and districts we work with, as well as the wider K12 community.

We’re posting them in a dedicated blog space. You can sign up to receive K12 Remote Communications Tips every weekday straight in your inbox. Also, feel free to submit your ideas and strategies, we’d love to see how you are utilizing ParentSquare in these unprecedented times.

Third, we also have general K-12 communication resources in the ParentSquare Learning Network:

• COVID-19 Communications Checklist

• Are You Ready for Online Learning?

• 8 Key Themes for School-to-Home Communication About Coronavirus (With Sample Posts)

5. Links at the District

Extended to allow links for both districtwide and district level groups

Links are now supported at the district level! Share common websites districtwide or to district created groups. District Admin or Group Owners can select Links (under Explore) and select “+ Add Link”.

Learn more about our links feature here.

6. Send Test Notifications via Preview

Preview your post notifications on email, text, or mobile app

Want to see how your post will appear in email, text, or app notification? We now allow users to see how their Post will appear in notifications by sending a test. To send test notifications, create your Post as normal and select “Preview”. At the top, click “Send me a test” to trigger test notifications. Your post will be saved as a draft until you are ready to send it to your community.

Learn how to send a test post here.

7. iOS App Upgrades

Improvements and Functionality Upgrades on iOS app

The home feed has a faster load time as only the newest posts are displayed when opening the app! Older posts can be found using our search function or by tapping “Load more posts” at the bottom of your feed.

Also, you can now join public groups directly from the App! Public groups are a great way to establish communication channels that are opt-in such as school committees or neighborhood opportunities. Users can join public groups from the “More” tab under Participate.

Admins & Post Authors can view Delivery Statistics, Form Reports, and Payment Reports for their submitted Posts!

Here’s some other iOS improvements we made in this release:

• Quicker Photo Attachments for Messages: We now support multiple selection for attaching more than one photo/video at a time with fewer taps.

• Direct Message Changes: We now show a red dot next to a chat thread to indicate unread. Also, we include a date header and “Parent of” to help give message context.

• Dark Mode Improvements: More readable colors for links and form report fixes for those users who use Dark Mode.

8. Additional Changes

• Single Digest Email: For digest email users associated with multiple schools and districts, we now send a single digest email in the evening instead of one per each site.

• API Update for eSchoolPlus: Section number can now be included in the class name for districts that sync data through our eSchoolPlus API.

• Aeries Student Communication Groups: We can now automatically sync Aeries Student Groups marked as Communication Groups for targeted communication to specific students and parents.

• Newsletter Template renamed to “Newsletter/Post Template” – use this feature for any post templates for consistency among those that send out communications. Some examples include Field Trips, Meeting Minutes, Curriculum Updates, etc.

• Calendar Improvements: Parents and Teachers can now subscribe to their ParentSquare calendar without an .ics extension.

• School Directory Updates:

• Class and Grade Directories URLs are now distinct and allow the ability to bookmark the directory.

• For Small Schools (<250 Students), the entire school directory will appear with the option to filter by class or grade on the left.

• A scrollbar is now displayed to provide better navigational support on any size screen.

If you are a ParentSquare user, you can login to ParentSquare and click the “Help & Support” icon to connect! You can also get a deeper dive into these new features by looking at our “What’s New” page in ParentSquare.

If you’re not a customer and want to take a closer look, please contact us to organize a live walk-through of these features or any other functionality.