Classroom Management

Chalkup Boosts Feature Set by User Request

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 02/15/16

A K-12 online classroom program has added new features that allow teachers to do "live" editing of Google Docs through the service and reuse assignments, among other enhancements. Chalkup, created in 2013 by two students at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, helps teachers manage their classrooms. The application brings together chat, messaging, discussion boards and other social networking tools to allow teachers to create and share assignments with their classes, store and review class materials and do online grading of student work.

The latest edition of Chalkup also gives users more options for resources within the "materials library," a repository for class files.

• Live editing of Google docs. The program already has built-in Google Drive integration. Now users with the right permissions can view and edit the documents from within the Chalkup platform;
• The ability to reuse assignments. An assignment repost feature lets the user "quickly" copy a previous assignment, tweak it and assign. Once the reworked assignment is attached to a specific class, students will be notified and the assignment is added to the teacher's calendar; and
• The latest edition of the software also gives users more options for resources within the "materials library," a repository for class files. Now teachers can add URLs and videos as resources to share with their students. The link option is converted into a resource that shows up as a button, allowing the student to visit the specified Web site.

"We released these features after seeing a high demand from our users," said Director of Marketing Jayne Miller, in an email to THE Journal. "Really think these additions offer a new world of possibility for educators using our platform."