Activity Journal Roadmap

We are so incredibly grateful for all our Activity Journal subscribers! Praise God, the platform is growing every day and gaining quite a bit of momentum. As we grow, we always want you to know what we’re up to and what features we’re working on next.

Our goal is for Homeschool Hall to be a comprehensive tool for homeschooling families, and we have a lot of features planned to make your life easier.

Below is our Activity Journal Roadmap, which shows the next features on our list, as well as the Release Notes for every version of the Homeschool Hall platform.

Features We’re Building Next

Current Focus

Duplicating Days & General Improvements – Recently Released!

We’ll be working on adding the ability to duplicate all the Entries in a day to make it easier to save time on entering activities.

We’re also working on other general improvements, including better handling of what subjects belong to specific school years for editing/creating Entries.

Future Additions

Here are the features we are planning for the Activity Journal, and many are member requests! We love hearing ideas from our current members about what tools they would love to have in their homeschooling.

Note: The features below are listed in the order we plan to build them, but this order may change.

Printable to-do lists where you can select a date (or week) and print the activities on the agenda
File & image upload for Activities
Access for a 2nd adult, with permissions similar to the student access settings
Ability to search for Activities in the Journal by keyword(s)
More unit & lesson plan features, so members can create re-usable units & courses and assign them to students as needed.

Activity Journal Release Notes

FOR CURRENT & PAST VERSIONS

*Note: All times are in Central Time

CURRENT VERSION

V_8.5 Released 6/17/23 @ 00:10:03

Added Ability to Copy Dates & Better Subjects Management

Additions

Members can now copy all Entries from one date to another date, either for all students or a specific student (member-requested feature).
Added: Members can now select/deselect which Subjects they want to appear in the Subjects dropdowns (member-requested feature). See Settings > My Subjects.

Changes

When the platform detects no internet (or weak) connection, we switched to a banner you can dismiss vs. a full-screen message in case the detection is incorrect.

V_8.4 Released 5/20/23 @ 21:09:01

Added Activity Statuses & Various Improvements

Additions

Members can now set the status of Activities and optionally receive notifications when students change the status of Activities (and you get to select which statuses trigger an email).
Added the ability to change the status of Activities from List View without opening the Activity.
Added a Bulk Change tool for changing the status of Activities/Entries, either for a date range or all Activities in a specific Subject.
Editing an Activity is handled better on refreshing the page, so now the same Activity you were editing will pull up again.

Fixes

Opening the Activity popup no longer clears List View filters.
Fixed an issue which prevented students from seeing the names of some subjects created by their parents due to privacy rules.
For some users who heavily grade Activities, it was taking a long time to calculate grades; we re-worked how these calculations are made (and will be monitoring to ensure this is resolved).
Some members were receiving duplicate email/text reminders.

Changes

Reset Password page now redirects to Account page, unless it’s a student logging in for the first time, in which case it redirects to the Journal.

Notes

We realize sometimes we use the terms Entries and Activities interchangeably, which might be confusing. It’s on the radar to make the language across our platform uniform, likely using the term Activities. Figured we’d mention this. 🙂

PAST VERSIONS

V_8.3 Released 3/21/23 @ 16:58:05

Performance Improvements & Milestone Celebrations

Added: Journal milestone celebrations
Added: Option to include the entire School Year in the Grades View (similar to Stats View)
Change: Major performance improvements to improve load speed and server capacity usage to ensure we keep everything stable and fast as we’re growing
Changed: Some aesthetic changes for greater consistency
Changed: Account is now on its own page instead of on the Journal page to further speed up the Journal page, esp. for mobile (less HTML and JS to load)
Fixed: When Multi-Subject Entries was turned on, creating a new Recurring Entry didn’t set the Subject Color Bar for List View. Created workflow to recursively fix Entries previously created, as well, if user’s MSE setting is turned on.
Fixed: A previous change to email reminders made some of them send on days when they shouldn’t have.
Fixed: For student access settings, the settings to allow/disallow entering Points Earned and setting up SMS reminders weren’t working properly
Fixed: Small bug with List View that didn’t show Entries created for the current day for some users

V_8.2 Released 2/2/23 @ 19:03:15

Multi-Subject Entries & Misc. Changes

Added: In Journal Settings, users can now turn on/off the ability to include multiple Subjects for Entries.
Changed: AJ Signup process no longer adds default Subjects if the user is a previous Journal subscriber who is signing back up and already has Subjects in their account.
Changed: Small aesthetic changes.
Changed: Generated Reports now have an “Additional Subjects” column, which would include other Subjects selected if the user has “Multi-Subject Entries” turned on.
Fixed: If a Subject filter was selected in List View, clicking an Entry to edit it sometimes reset the Subject filter.

V_8.1 Released 1/26/23 @ 00:41:35

Additions to Recurring Activities Feature & Misc. Changes

Added: Now members can save changes to Recurring Activities and their associated Journal Entries by applying those changes to either 1) only future Entries or 2) all past and future Entries.
Added: Now when deleting Recurring Activities and their associated Journal Entries, members can choose to delete either 1) only future Entries or 2) all past and future Entries.
Changed: In Grades View, the Subjects list now only includes Subjects with at least one Entry that is marked as a graded activity.
Changed: In Grades View, if a Subject has Entries that are assigned a Points Possible value, but no Entries have been graded in that Subject for that student yet, the Journal doesn’t assign a letter grade (vs. giving an F for 0% like it did before).

V_8.0 Released 1/17/23 @ 00:15:24

New Major Feature: Recurring Activities

Added: Recurring Activities – save even more time by creating Recurring Activities for the activities you do regularly (e.g., Tennis on Tuesdays for 60min).

V_7.5.0 Released 1/17/23 @ 00:15:24

New Calendar Feature & Small Bug Fixes

Added: Entries in the Calendar View can now be dragged from one date to another as needed.
Fixed: When not connected to internet, it seemed like you could still create Entries, but we can’t save them to the database, creating a poor experience if internet got disconnected. We added a prompt to re-connect if users get disconnected to prevent frustration from creating an Entry that can’t save.
Fixed: At times, clicking Graded/Ungraded “eye” icon didn’t show the Graded/Ungraded Activities list.
Fixed: When “Include Entire Year” was selected in Stats View, the List View was also affected and List View (Past) was including future Entries, as well.
Fixed: Calendar was loading slowly for some members (esp. members with several hundred Entries).

V_7.4.1 Released 1/6/23 @ 16:46:32

Small Bug Fixes

Fixed: After performance improvements of stats widgets, Home hours remaining was not calculating properly
Fixed: A couple Quick Stats widgets were sized 10px larger than the others
Fixed: Filter by Subject was pulling from old Entries source after revamp of how we load the Entries, causing the list of Subjects to be empty
Fixed: Subject Filter tiles weren’t using the Subject’s color for the left border

V_7.4 Released 1/4/23 @ 15:53:00

New Stats View Toggle & Small Bug Fix

Added: Stats View toggle to quickly include the entire school year’s Entries in calculations (or not). Only shows when viewing the current school year; otherwise, calculations are always based on the entire school year.
Fixed: Some users were experiencing issues with the Journal not including Entries from the current date in their Stats & List View (Past).
- Changed so the platform is now looking for all Entries in the current school year up to today’s date.

V_7.3 Released 12/29/22 @ 23:22:49

Changes to List View & Performance Improvements

Changed: Reworked all Stats & Grades widgets to calculate more quickly & efficiently
Changed: All Stats & Grades count up to the current date by default (so they don’t count future Activities/Entries anymore)
Added: Ability to switch between “Past” and “Upcoming” Entries in List View (both sides include the current day’s Entries)

V_7.2 Released 12/28/22 @ 2348

Filter Entries by Subject & Misc. Improvements

Fixed: Dropdown for Directory Listings types was showing an empty value as the first option when clicked
Added: Filter Activity Journal Entries by Subject
- Click filter icon from List View and select Subject
- Click a Subject box/tile from Stats View or Grades View
Changed: Shortened the text in the SMS Reminder message so it only takes up 1 SMS message instead of 2
Other miscellaneous backend improvements & admin tools

V_7.1.1 Released 11/28/22 @ 1612

Small Bug Fixes & Recurring Activities Feature Progress

Fixed: In some cases, after checkout when ordering Transcripts, our system wasn’t properly recognizing how Transcripts were ordered.
Changed: Some small aesthetic consistency changes and backend optimizations.
In Progress: ~40% of Recurring Activities feature complete now.

V_7.1 Released 11/04/22 @ 12:11

Small Student Access Bug Fix

Fixed: The Student Access “send invite” button wasn’t triggering student access steps at times

V_7.0 Released 10/26/22 @ 02:09

Non-Subscriber Version of Transcript Builder and LOTS of other changes

Added: Ability to add an Assignment URL to Activity Journal Entries (only editable by parents)
Added: Display letter grade in Grades View if the parent has set up a Grade Scale
Added: Transcript Builder and Order Transcripts pages (stand-alone product for non-subscribers)
Changed: Made it so Stats, Grades, and List Views are not visible if there are no Entries for the current student & year
Changed: Improved layout of Transcript Builder year sections (on both pages where it exists) for tablet/mobile
Fixed: Missing close script tag on conditional script that loads when a specific (rare) condition is true
Fixed: At times, the Activity Journal subscriber version of the Transcript Builder wasn’t properly saving Credits to Graduate
Fixed: Deleting a Transcript Course was deleting attached Course Notes even if other courses had the same Course Note
Fixed: Some small aesthetic changes to the menu on the Directory and Listing pages

V_6.1.1 Released 10/7/22 @ 1725

Additional “My Subjects” controls for students with access

Added: In the My Subjects area, added the ability to control which Subjects will show in student accounts, in addition to controlling this via the My Children > Student Access Settings area
Fixed: “Select or Create a Subject” text wasn’t hiding when editing/creating a Subject, causing it to overlap with the Subject form containers

V_6.1 Released 10/6/22 @ 1739

Improved error checks and UX for Transcripts

Fixed: Grade Scale wasn’t ordering grades properly at times (e.g., adding new grades didn’t add them to the correct place in the list)
Added: Warning if you are about to delete a Grade from your Grade Scale, and one of your students’ high school Transcripts is using that letter grade
Added: Signals within Transcript Builder if a Course’s Grade is empty (because it was deleted from the Grade Scale)

V_6.0.1 Released 10/5/22 @ 1618

Subject settings for students with access

Added: Put in a Subjects area for students who have Journal access so parents can manage what Subjects show in their student accounts
Fixed: Some students weren’t receiving the access email when parents gave them access to the Journal
Changed: Conditions for Transcript Download cancellation/refund checkbox wasn’t calculating date properly for some accounts

V_6.0 Released 10/05/22 @ 0026

Initial release of the Transcript Builder! (subscribers only)

Added: Transcript Builder tool for college-ready high school transcripts!
Changed: Some small aesthetic alignment/spacing improvements across the Journal

V_5.3.0 Released 9/29/22 @ 1706

My Homeschool section & misc. changes

Added: “Save & Add New” button to Journal Entry popup box – makes it easier & faster to add multiple Entries
Added: My Homeschool section for member homeschool details and grading scale
Changed: Removed “Log Entry Date” related workflow actions to QEs
Fixed: Similar Listings Nearby on Listings pages included the current listing (redundant); now they don’t
Fixed: Listing URLs for websites which have case-sensitive URLs were leading to broken pages because we were changing URLs to lowercase when saving to the database (primarily affected Classical Conversations Listing links because they use case-sensitive query parameters for each community’s page on the main CC website)
Fixed: Entry Delete icon wasn’t showing for parents when their student created the Entry

V_5.2.3.1 Released 9/19/22 @ 1204
Fixed Calendar “Days of Week”

Fixed: Calendar in the Calendar View had Saturday as the first day of the week instead of Sunday, making the dates below each day of the week look incorrect.

V_5.2.3 Released 9/19/22 @ 1712
Fixed Subjects Bug

Fixed: When a user needed help adding a Subject and HH admin added it for the user, the user didn’t have permission to see the HH-admin-created Subject, even when added to their profile.

V_5.2.2 Released 9/19/22 @ 0325
Misc. Improvements

Fixed: Misc. HH admin tools improvements

V_5.2.1 Released 9/19/22 @ 0157
Fixes for Scheduled Reports, Misc. Performance Improvements

Fixed: Reports file creation failed if one or more of the Entries contained double quotes (“) in the description
Fixed: For Reports which only included one child, the email sent before the Report files finished generating, resulting in an email with no file attachments
Fixed: Small typo in Reports email body/content
Changed: Performance improvements for HH admin tools

V_5.2.0 Released 9/18/22 @ 0431
New Feature: Scheduled Reports, New Feature: In-App Alerts

New Feature: Scheduled Reports with weekly & monthly options
New Feature: Alerts notifications shown in the platform, not just sent via email, for easier access/reading later

V_5.1.0 Released 9/16/22 @ 0435
New Feature: On-Demand Reports, Misc. Changes

Moved “My Children” section to top of Settings page for easier access of new Reports feature
Fixed: Removed duplicate Settings icon on Desktop view (from 5.0.1)
New Feature: My Reports section; has on-demand reports, and scheduled reporting will release 9/18/2022

V_5.0.2 Released 9/15/22 @ 1244
Misc. Improvements & Prep for Exports Feature

Change: Made Duration an optional field for Entries (small change in prep for scheduling/assigning future activities)
Change: Redesigned My Family section to get ready for Student Schedules addition
Fixed: Quick Entries date field was resetting to the current date after clicking “Save”, causing users to have to set the date again between each “Save” click when adding Entries from QEs for other dates
Staging Server: Completed most backend work for Journal Exports and some frontend work for the export workflows

V_5.0.1 Released 9/9/22 @ 0323
Misc. Improvements

Changed: Made a few small changes to improve loading speed of List View when a date has several Entries

V_5.0 Released 9/9/22 @ 0238
NEW FEATURE: Student Access & Misc. Changes

Added: Student Access (beta) so students can record their own activities
Fixed: some small bugs related to resetting passwords
Changed: A few small aesthetic things and wording on some elements

V_4.2.3 Released 9/3/22 @ 1533
Adding Children & Misc. Fixes

Fixed: Privacy rules were preventing users from adding additional children to their own account during the account setup process
Fixed: Clicking the grade container inside a List View Entry didn’t properly display the Entry details in the popup box

V_4.2.2 Released 9/1/22 @ 1827
Minor List View Fixes and Changes

Fixed: Sometimes changing the date of an existing Entry didn’t show that Entry in the List View after fixing the List View loading bug
Changed: Made some performance improvements for the List View

V_4.2.1 Released 9/1/22 @ 1758
List View Bug – All Items Loading at Once

Fixed: List View was attempting to load all the year’s Entries at once, causing the app/browser to freeze due to overload
Changed: List View now loads 3 days of Entries at a time vs. loading when you scroll to improve performance and load time.
Fixed: Sometimes Entries were not showing in List View for some users

V_4.2.0 Released 8/31/22 @ 2243
Calendar View Small Change

Added: Creating a new Entry after clicking a date in the calendar will make the new Entry’s date default to the calendar date clicked
Potential Fix: List View trying to load all items at once even though it was set not to; will need to test on live version to confirm fix

V_4.1.2 Released 8/22/22 @ 1629
Home vs. Away Entries

Fixed: Creating a new standard Journal Entry (using + Entry button) with “Away” selected was saving the Entry as Home for some users

V_4.1.1 Released 8/21/22 @ 1502
Journal Setup Wizard Fixes

Activity Journal Setup Tool

Fixed: Duplicate “Create Subject” button showing during Journal profile setup
Fixed: Journal setup didn’t require any children to be added before proceeding, creating a poor UX if you went through the rest of the steps and arrived in the Journal

V_4.1.0 Released 8/19/22 @ 2214
Journal Improvements & Misc. Directory Fixes

Activity Journal

Added: For Quick Entries (QEs), there’s now a setting to either show all QEs in the Quick Add popup or only show QEs for the current student selected
Fixed: Clicking Graded activities opened Ungraded activities in slide-in panel
Fixed: Quick Add popup had unnecessary horizontal scroll