Benefit / Feature

Description

Save Time!

With a SoftChalk Cloud account, instructors can easily access and edit their SoftChalk lessons both at home and school.
Just log into your SoftChalk Cloud account and you are ready to go!
There are no "lost lessons" since the content is stored in the Cloud. You have the option to save your content to your local computer as well.
Since instructors with non-admin rights work in the Cloud, your tech support saves time from being involved in installations and updates.

Update your lesson in one place but link to it in multiple places

You can update your lesson in the Cloud but link to the lesson in many places such as multiple courses within your LMS. In other words, you can make edits in the Cloud and your linked content is immediately updated.

Collect scores from SoftChalk lessons in your LMS gradebook

First, your LMS admin would enable LTI in your LMS – that procedure usually takes about 30 minutes. The steps are listed in our LMS guides - see the earlier section in this guide LMS Guides.
After your LMS admin has enabled the LTI feature within your LMS, you can use LTI links to capture scores. When you save a lesson to SoftChalk Cloud, a hyperlink and an LTI link are generated for the lesson. Copy and paste the LTI link for your lesson into your LMS and your students' scores will go directly into your LMS gradebook.
For more details on pasting LTI links, see the earlier section in this guide LMS Guides.

Collect scores from SoftChalk lessons in your Cloud account

If you do not have an LMS (or choose not to collect student scores in your LMS), you can use the ScoreCenter feature within your SoftChalk Cloud account to collect scores. For more details, see the Track Student Scores OUTSIDE an LMS (ScoreCenter) section in the SoftChalk Cloud Guide.

Collaborate with other instructors on SoftChalk lessons

You can share create shared folders and share lessons and other content.

Reference SoftChalk Cloud Items in a Lesson

You can save files such as a PDF or an image to your Files area of your SoftChalk Cloud account. Then you can insert a reference to that file in a SoftChalk lesson. If you use the same PDF or image in multiple lessons and need to update, you can simply update the file once in your Cloud account. For more details, see the Save Content to Your Files Area section in the SoftChalk Cloud Guide.

Save Activities and Quiz Groups in SoftChalk Cloud

You can save Activities and Quiz Groups in SoftChalk Cloud and insert them in different lessons. For more details, see the Save a Learning Object or Quiz Group section in the SoftChalk Cloud Guide.

Create Online

You can create new content and make edits with our browser editor (Create Online). For more details, see the Create Online section in the SoftChalk Cloud Guide.

New Features

Description

Accordions, Tabs, Custom DIV, & Block Quotes

Present content in an Accordion or a Tabs interactive. Set long quotations with citations apart in a Block Quote. Use the Custom DIV with customizable options for use in lesson designs.

Scored Widgets

You can now embed a custom, self-hosted activity into a lesson from another source, e.g., H5P, but still allow the score to be tracked in ScoreCenter, just as scores are tracked for SoftChalk's interactives.

New Math Equation and Chemical Formula editors

Math Equation
New math editor adds the ability to quickly integrate different expressions and symbols within a math equation.
Chemical Formula
New chemistry formula editor contains a toolbar with the common chemical symbols and Periodic table symbols to create chemical notations.

Updated Activities

SoftChalk now has 30 exercises (activities and quiz items) that you can use to enliven your content and engage your students in active learning.
For a listing of these exercises, please see our FAQ I see that SoftChalk Create has a number of activities and quiz items. Do you have a list of which items can be scored and which items are for presentation?

Three New Lesson Layouts

Choose from three new layouts for your lessons:
1. Horizontal – Designed to update the 'look and feel' of your lessons with these new features: Customizable banner at the top of the page, streamlined navigation, Nav bar display on upward scroll makes navigating easy from anywhere in the page.
2. Vertical – Designed to maximize the lesson page area devoted to content by offering: elimination of the banner at the top of the page, customizable sidebar includes both a title area and footer area, and previous page navigation displayed on upward scroll allows more room for display of content on the page.
3. Classic – Designed for those who like the classic look and feel for their SoftChalk lessons, this style retains many of the classic features, but updates your lesson with streamlined navigation, and support for longer names for pages in the navigation bar.

New lesson features available in all lesson layouts

• New overview page replaces old table of contents page
  
• Support for more than 25 new font choices and new default fonts style text and headings in lessons
  
• Support for additional heading styles (H4, H5, H6)
  
• New page designs that provide more whitespace on the page
  
• New color options for page designs with higher color contrast for better readability and accessibility
  
• Updated Textpoppers to Tooltips with more modern and responsive design
  
• QuizPoppers and QuizGroups have been updated to a more modern and responsive design
  
• Tables have been updated to a more modern and responsive design
  
• New option to add captions to images
  
• New sidebar options include:
  
  • Sidebar visibility open/close options
    
  • Table of Contents within sidebar with show/hide options
    
  • Customize sidebar width
    
  • New styling
    
  • Customizable panels replace stock options
    
  • More control over heading and content display

More Responsive Features

• Lesson page content responds to the device screen size, platform, and orientation
  
• Built into every lesson so content author does not have to do anything to ensure responsive lesson content

More Accessibility Features

• Visible "Skip Navigation" feature
  
• Simplified Table of Contents (TOC)
  
• Improved accessibility for TOC elements
  
• Improved and corrected page landmarks and ARIA
  
• tagging
  
• Changed the illogical tab order of the page
  
• Enhanced the visual focus indication
  
• Alt Tags added for Logo images
  
• Banner and Sidebar heading structure corrected
  
• Improved contrast for text and background color
  
• combinations for styles
  
• For more details about SoftChalk Create's accessibility, please visit https://softchalk.com/cloud/accessibility for information.

New Features

Description

New Designer Headers and Callout Boxes

Select from new styled headers and coordinating callout boxes that complement the theme (or style properties) of your lesson.

New Activities and QuizPoppers

SoftChalk Create now has 30 exercises (activities and quiz items) that you can use to enliven your content and engage your students in active learning.
For a listing of these exercises, please see our FAQ I see that SoftChalk Create has a number of activities and quiz items. Do you have a list of which items can be scored and which items are for presentation?

Enhancements to Activities and QuizPoppers

Not only have we added more activities and quiz items, but we have also enhanced previous activities and quiz items.
Below is a quick listing of some of the enhancements:

• Add more answer choices when building activities and quiz items.
  
• Ex. Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer, Matching, Labeling, Matching, Ordering
  
• Add feedback for individual multiple choice answers
  
• New icons for non-embedded items

Feedback Questions QuizPopper

Create a question that provides feedback to your students that is based on the answer chosen.

Multiple Blanks QuizPopper

Create a question that requires your learners to complete sentences by typing the correct word or phrase in the blank(s).

Sentence Completion QuizPopper

Create a question that requires your students to complete sentences by selecting the correct word or phrase from a drop-down menu of choices.

Streamlined Process for Creating QuizPoppers

Creating QuizPoppers is easier than ever with clearly organized tabs guiding you through the setup process.

New QuizPopper and Activity Display Options

You now have three options to display your QuizPoppers, Quiz Groups and Activities: Pop-up from Icon, Pop-up From Clickable Text and Embed in Lesson.

Enhancements to QuizPoppers

Add more answer choices or possible answers when building QuizPoppers.

Mobile Devices

• As the mobile device market evolves, we continue to keep pace with the modern technology. For info on supported devices, please see our System Specifications page.

Web Browsers

• We continue to keep pace with updates to web browsers so that our software is compatible with the major web browsers – Chrome, Edge, Firefox, IE, and Safari.

Accessibility Improvements

There have been many improvements in our accessibility features. The improvements include:

• Improved experience for users with screen readers for table of contents, sidebar contents, print all link and the main lesson content.
  
• Banner title improvements
  
• Keyboard controls for activities
  
• MathML functionality ensures that when math equations are used in a SoftChalk lesson, screen reader software can read the equation.
  
• Students can view text descriptions of audio and video content as well as content presented in iFrames and widgets. For more details about SoftChalk Create's accessibility, please visit https://softchalk.com/cloud/accessibility for information.

New Features

Description

Support for Chrome Browser

Chrome browser support is now available for students viewing your lesson. In other words, once your lesson is online (either in SoftChalk Cloud or available in a learning management system) then the content is viewable on Chrome.

Major Accessibility Enhancements

Frame free lessons and fully HTML5-compliant content.

Google Analytics

Add Google Analytics for your SoftChalk lessons, allowing you to measure and report student use of your learning content.

New Media Search Repositories – Khan Academy and Getty Images

Access to thousands of new resources through SoftChalk's integration with Khan Academy and Getty Images.

Equella Repository

Access to Pearson's Equella Digital Repository using your Pearson account.

New Fluid Layout

Our new fluid layout will automatically adjust your lesson display on any screen size for any device.

No duplicate files for pages on mobile devices

With the new fluid layout, we have removed the Include mobile pages option, so that there are no duplicate files for pages on mobile devices.

Fonts Listed by %

Fonts are listed as a % to be compatible with HTML5.

Two Additional Fonts

Euphemia and Trebuchet MS have been added as fonts

New Features

Description

All Content Is Mobile Friendly

All activities can now be viewed on mobile devices. Additional accessibility features are available.

Save Items to SoftChalk Cloud and Reference the Items

Within your SoftChalk Create lesson, right-click on an item (see below) and choose Save to SoftChalk Cloud. Items that can be saved to the Cloud include:

• Activity
  
• Quiz Group
  
• Image
  
• Widget
  
• Equation
  
• Media (audio, video, flash)
  
• Files (such as PDF files put into lessons via Insert/Hyperlink and Select File)
  
• Hyperlinks to websites

Insert an Item from SoftChalk Cloud into Your Lesson

You can easily insert content from the My Content area of your SoftChalk Cloud account into your SoftChalk lessons. Within your SoftChalk Create lesson, choose Insert/SoftChalk Cloud Item. (You can also right-click within your lesson and choose SoftChalk Cloud Item.)

Page Names

Name the page links in the navigation areas (nav bar and drop-down navigation).

Include Bottom Navigation

Option to NOT show the bottom navigation links (Return to Top, Previous and Next links) for a styled lesson.

How To Tutorial and Example for Each Activity

All the Activity creation windows have a How To tab with images and links to online working Activities and videos.

Enhancements

Description

Media Search – Insert an Editable Activity or Quiz Group from SoftChalk Cloud

When searching SoftChalk Cloud with the Media Search, you have the option to insert activities or quiz groups as editable items.

Media Search – Learning Registry

The Learning Registry (www.learningregistry.org/) is now searchable from the Media Search tool, providing access to thousands of digital learning resources including the National Archives, The Library of Congress, and PBS Learning Media.

Media Search – Alt tag and long description

When inserting images found in the Media Search, the alt tag is automatically populated with the image title and the longdesc is populated with the image title and description.

Media Search – URL links

URL links found in the Media Search can be inserted into a lesson as a link or embedded as an iFrame.

Save to SoftChalk Cloud – Folder Tree

From File/Save to SoftChalk Cloud, you can select a folder to save your content in. To replace a lesson, click on the lesson name in the folder tree at the right and click the Save button at the left.

StyleBuilder

Includes the ability to add a background image to the banner and the footer. There is an option to have this image repeat. Choose Tools/StyleBuilder and select the Banner or Footer tab.

Package Lesson – Choose Location to Save a Packaged File

You can select where to save a packaged lesson.

Quiz Pools

Importing and exporting questions as quiz pools is available in both the desktop and web launch versions of SoftChalk.

Accessibility - Activities

There are now keyboard controls for activities. For details, please see the section Keyboard Controls in the Student Guide to SoftChalk Lessons.

Accessibility - MathML Functionality

New MathML functionality ensures that when math equations are used in a SoftChalk lesson, screen reader software can read the equation.

Accessibility – Text descriptions

Students can view text descriptions of audio and video content as well as content presented in iFrames and widgets.

Mobile Lesson Pages – Color Style Enhancements

Color is used from the style for the lesson.

iFrame – Scrolling Options

There is an option for a frame border and scroll bars.

Quiz Groups and Activities - Text Link Option

There is the option to create a text link to open a Quiz Group or Activity. You can designate the text for the text link. (This feature exists with QuizPoppers as well.)

Manage Publish Accounts

There is a separate window to manage your accounts where you save to SoftChalk Cloud or a learning management system. Within SoftChalk Create, this window is found under File/Manage Publish Accounts. (This window replaces the Accounts tab in the File/Publish Lesson window in SoftChalk 7.)

How To Tab - Tutorials

Convenient links to tutorials are found under the How To tab for Media Search, Widget, Iframe, Quiz Group and Activities.