Ellii Feature Updates for 2023–2024
Create & Pin Custom Folders to Your Class
July 1, 2024: Several customization features have been added to Folders allowing teachers to build their own customized courses and curriculum for specific classes. Learn all about the Folder updates here.
Preview a Task When Editing an Assignment
June 25, 2024: In addition to removing a task from an assignment, teachers can now preview questions and the correct answers for a task from the Lesson Planner when clicking on Edit tasks and then clicking on the apple beside the task name in the Edit Assignment menu.
Default Font Size Now Sticks for PDF Annotations
June 21, 2024: A teacher's font size selection now saves as default when annotating PDFs.
Flashcard Font Increased for Longer Words & Phrases
June 20, 2024: Longer words and phrases now drop down two or more lines with increased font size on printed flashcards.
Ellii Polls: New Categories & Sort Order
June 18, 2024: New and time-sensitive Ellii Polls will now be at the top of the index page and you can filter to polls by category.
View Related Videos on a Lesson or Resource
June 16, 2024: We are now adding Related Videos to Lesson & Resource pages.
NRS Levels
May 9, 2024: Teachers can now change their Level Preferences in Account settings to show Ellii levels beside an NRS equivalent. NRS refers to the National Reporting System for Adult Education in the US. The descriptors for English as a Second Language (ESL) in the NRS system are divided into six educational functioning levels: Beginning ESL Literacy (1), Low Beginning ESL (2), High Beginning ESL (3), Low Intermediate ESL (4), High Intermediate ESL (5), and Advanced ESL (6). This leveling system has also been added to Ellii's Equivalency Scale.
More Classroom Team Info Available
April 29, 2024: Besides name, email, and last active, teachers can now see the number of active students and number of active classes with the last active in the 'x days ago' format.
ELPS Standard Correlations
April 29, 2024: Teachers who use the ELPS can now choose to make them visible from their Account settings. ELPS correlations will show on lesson sections and lesson description pages.
Teacher Onboarding Improvements
New Ellii users now see tool tips to help with digital adoptions allowing them to more easily utilize many of the planning features included in their Ellii subscription.
Ellii Polls: Select Multiple Options
April 5, 2024: Students can now select multiple options for poll questions that are applicable.
Flashcard Sets: Duplicate
March 29, 2024: You can now find a "Duplicate" option inside the three dots menu for each Flashcard Set.
(Free) Ellii Polls: Plus Related Materials & Slide Counter
February 21, 2024: Ellii Polls are now free. Teachers just need to create a free account to access them. Students do not need an account. They also have a slide counter so that students know which question they are on and how many there are remaining to do. Related materials are available for the teacher to choose from.
Ellii Polls: Raise Hands & Reactions
January 17, 2024: After finishing a question in a poll, students can raise their hands to get the teacher's attention.
While discussing poll results students can send reactions™ that will pop up on the teacher's screen and all the student's devices.
Grade Feed Dismiss All Button
December 12, 2023: Teachers can now dismiss all the cards in the Grade Feed with one simple button.
Lesson Planner Automations
November 29, 2023: You can now schedule when a lesson goes live (Move to Teaching) and when it goes away (Move to Taught).
Additionally, if you are teaching a Course or Study Pack, you can choose when the assignments become Visible or Hidden
Waveform Viewable on Speaking Tasks
December 30, 2023: Students will now see a waveform moving when they are recording their voice for a speaking task. This will confirm to students that the recording is working.
Assignable PDFs
December 30, 2023: You can now add print-only lessons to a class using the Add to Class feature.
For any lesson that has a PDF option, students will automatically have access to the PDF as well as the digital version.
You can leave a note in an assignment if you need to clarify your expectations.
Polls, Packs, and Courses in Search and Collections
December 6, 2023: You will now find more great Ellii content coming up in Search and Collections. Ellii Polls, Study Packs, and Courses have their own tabs and filters in Search now. The Materials filter in Collections now includes these items too. This means you can navigate to our What's New? collection each month and easily find all the new polls and packs too!
Courses
December 1, 2023: You can now assign ready-made Courses to a Class. Courses are more comprehensive than Study Packs and may include assessment. You can assign students access to all of the content at once or release items one at a time. Ellii's publishing team is currently updating and repackaging some existing serials to be used with this new feature. Watch for many new Courses coming in 2024.
Refer a Friend
November 14, 2023: Teachers can now access a special friend-code inside of their My Account page to share with friends. When a friend buys a new subscription, they can input the friend-code to get a discount (currently 15% off). The owner of the code gets a credit towards their next renewal (currently $10, varies by currency) for each friend.
Time Spent on Flashcards & Videos
November 8, 2023: We are now showing time tracking on flashcards and videos.
Student Picks
November 14, 2023: As a teacher, you can now give students agency in what they want to learn by sharing lesson names and topics from Ellii sections of your choice. Find the Include in Student Picks button at the top of every Lesson section (Resource sections not available yet). Students will see lesson titles and graphics in the My Picks area of their dashboards (from the sections you include) and can like the ones they are interested in.
Your students will only see sections and lessons that match your class's level and have been added by you (from your chosen sections). To see what your students are interested in, go to the Saved & Recommended area of your class's Lesson Planner and choose Student Picks. Note that this feature is only available for classes that have been created after March 8, 2023. You must set a class's age and level in the Details area of your class for this feature to be available. We recommend only including one or two sections at a time so that you don't overwhelm your students with choice. You can unshare sections in the Saved & Recommended | Student Picks area of each class if you want your class to pick from a different section. Watch demo.
Ellii Polls
October 2, 2023: Teachers can now launch a sessions-based activity that lets you conduct real-time interactive polls in your classroom (virtual or in person) to spark lively discussion, debate, and conversation with your English language learners. Students join the activity in on their mobile devices by scanning the code with the camera app on their phone or typing the link into a browser. New Ellii Polls are added weekly and can be used as a warm-up or cooldown activity. Watch demo video...
Study Packs
July 18, 2023: You will now find a new way of assigning content in the Materials dropdown menu. Study Packs are small bundles of related lessons that you can bulk assign or release one at a time by adding them to your Class Lesson Planner. Each pack has 4–6 lessons related by theme or target. We launched with 40 Study Packs in 4 categories: Grammar, Dialogues, Topic-Based, and Vocabulary. Watch for weekly releases of Study Packs as we make more packs for other levels and ages!
Add Videos & Flashcard Sets/Categories to a Class Lesson Planner
July 18, 2023: You can now add Videos and Flashcard Sets from the Media Gallery to a Class Lesson Planner. When you move content from the Media Gallery into the Teaching column, students in that class will automatically see the Video or Flashcard Set on their Student dashboards. They can click on an Ellii Video and watch it or they can launch a Flashcard Set to view and listen to it. You can add an optional Due Date or Note to the media assignment just like you can with a Lesson.
Export Activity
June 5, 2023: An Export Activity button has been added to the Details | Participation section (in new Classes).
Filter Enhancement
June 3, 2023: When you select a filter and navigate to a lesson and then go back to a section, the filters you previously chose will remain in place. Be careful to adjust the filters if you want to see the full results for a section.
Notifications for Pending Cards in Grade Feed
June 1, 2023: Teachers will now see a notification on the Leson Planner of a Class if there are pending items to grade in the Grade Feed.
Student Onboarding Enhancements
May 31, 2023: The onboarding process for students has been updated to make it even easier for English learners to sign up to Ellii. Translation tips in some common first languages have been added.
In addition, a simple 5-step sign-up guide has been redesigned. Please note that students must now have an email to sign up to Ellii when you invite them to a new Class. They will need the class code that you provide via email, QR code, or link (find this in your Classes area).
Finally, if you have younger students who do not have an email (or students who have very low literacy and struggle to sign up themselves), you can now manually sign up students with a username and password that you make. They can then skip signing up and just go straight to logging in at ellii.com/students.
Related Help Docs
- How to Sign Up as a Student Using a Class Code
- How to Sign Up as a Student Using an Email
- How to Log In as a Student
Student Task Player Enhancements
May 23, 2023: After starting a digital lesson, students can now move through tasks in a sequential order by simply clicking on a button that says Next task. The Task Player will jump the student to the next incomplete task. In addition, students can see a Partial and Final Score for a lesson (included detailed information about the weighting if they choose). Lastly, the tasks now appear identical to how teachers see them, which includes some improvements for the students, such as a more visible instructions button.
Videos in Search Results & Collections
April 1, 2023: You can now find Ellii videos in our search results. If you search for a topic, theme, or target that relates to one of our videos, it will come up in the Ellii search results. The link will take you to our Media Gallery where you can launch the video. There is also a new Materials filter for Videos in our Collections. In addition we have a new Now with Video label for digital lessons that have been revised with the addition of a new video.
Note: The Ellii dropdown that listed the Media Gallery has been separated out for easy access to Flashcards and Videos.
Grade Feed
March 12, 2023: Assigning grades to open-ended writing and speaking questions has never been easier! Watch for notifications on your new Grade Feed inbox to see when something needs your attention.
All submitted tasks that are not autograded will appear in this feed. You can easily assign a star rating/percentage, leave a written comment, or record audio feedback. Watch the video tutorial and review our Help Doc for more information.
Ellii for Teachers (YouTube channel)
March 10, 2023: Ellii has a new YouTube channel with helpful videos specifically related to using Ellii as a teacher. Watch for regular demos and updates on youtube.com/@elliiteachers.
Our existing Ellii YouTube channel (youtube.com/@ellii) will continue to feature content for learning English. Encourage your learners to watch for new videos each week. Ellii learning videos without ads are available for subscribers in our Media Gallery and within digital lessons.
Lesson Planner
March 8, 2023: Ellii's new Lesson Planner is designed as a kanban board with three lanes: Prepping, Teaching, and Taught. First, create a new class. Then add lessons or resources to the Lesson Planner for that class. Drag Ellii content across any lane to effortlessly prepare for a class ahead, instantly assign lessons to your students, and see what each class has been working on recently. There is also a folder for Saved and Recommended within each class's Lesson Planner so you can plan further ahead. Learn more and watch the video tutorial here.
Note: Classes created before March 7, 2023, do not have a Lesson Planner and will need to be re-created in order to use this feature. When creating a new class, your settings will default to this new style. However, you can unselect this default to create a new class in our legacy style if you prefer.
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