This week when giving pretests for AP French, a teacher found they needed the ability to leave notes directly on individual student responses. Today I rolled out a new feature that makes that possible.
What’s New
When reviewing a student’s short answer question, teachers will now see a “+ Comment” button alongside the scoring tools. Clicking this button opens a simple dialog where you can type in your feedback.
- Comments are saved directly to the system, so they’re always there the next time you revisit the student’s work.
- Each comment is linked to a specific student and specific question, so there’s no confusion about what the feedback refers to.
- You can edit or delete your comment at any time.
- An optional toggle lets you make the comment visible to the student, so it can be private teacher notes or shared feedback.
Why It Matters
This update is designed to give teachers more flexibility:
- You can jot down quick reminders for yourself (“Check this student’s phrasing with the rubric later”).
- You can leave direct feedback for students to help them improve.
- You can build up a history of feedback that follows the student across sessions.
Keeping It Simple
I’ve worked to keep this feature as lightweight as possible:
- Comments save instantly, no extra steps required.
- The display is clean, with a simple box showing the comment, teacher name, and timestamp.
- For students, if you’ve chosen to make a comment visible, they’ll see it in their results view — but private notes stay private.
