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August 12, 2014
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The following information reflects what is new in the edX Platform as of August
12, 2014. See previous pages in this document for a history of changes.

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edX Release Announcements Mailing List
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These edX Course Staff Release Notes are always available and are updated with
each release of the edX Platform on `edx.org`_ and `edX Edge`_.

You can also sign up for the `edX Release Announcements mailing list`_ to get
an email message when we update the edX Course Staff Release Notes.

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edX Studio
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* This release includes a redesigned user experience for publishing. 
  
  *  The process for creating, releasing, and updating content has been
     streamlined and simplified.

     .. image:: images/techdocworkflows(v2)_New-workflow.png
       :alt: Flowchart showing the process of creating a unit on the Course Outline page, adding components on the Unit page, and then publishing the content. Modifications made on a Unit page can be published immediately.

  *  Visual cues are now present on the **Course Outline** page and on
     individual unit pages to indicate whether your content is published and
     whether students can see it.
  
      .. image:: images/PubChange_NewOutline.png
        :alt: The Course Outline page with release dates indicated and callouts for the "Settings" icons that allows you to change it

  *  You can select the **Hide from students** check box on a unit page at any
     time to immediately remove that unit from student view.
  
      .. image:: images/Hide_from_Students.png
        :alt: The unit page indicating the new check box on the right side of the page

  For more details and a comparison between the new publishing workflow and the
  previous workflow, see our most recent `edX Product and Engineering
  Newsletter`_.

* A graphical user interface is now available for creating and maintaining open
  response assessment problems. 

  You now define the open response assessment rubric in the following page:

  .. image:: images/PeerRubricGUI.png
   :alt: The Open Response Assessment editor Rubric tab

  You now define settings for the open response assessment in the following page:
  
  .. image:: images/PeerAssessmentSettingsGUI.png
   :alt: The Open Response Assessment editor Settings tab


* A new setting, **Enable video caching system**, is now available on the
  **Advanced Settings** page. When set to true (the default), HTML5 videos use
  video caching. (BLD-1207)

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edX Learning Management System
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* When course discussions are closed, the **New Post** button is no longer
  included in discussion components. (FOR-108)

* When an incomplete course URL was entered in a browser, the error page that
  displayed included incorrect information. This defect has been corrected.
  (LMS-11189, LMS-11205)

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Coming Soon
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We're pleased to announce these upcoming changes, which will release in the
next few weeks:

* In addition to the existing Discussion post type, course discussions will
  soon include a new Question post type. Students and course teams will also be
  able to filter posts to find unanswered questions easily.

* A new user experience design for course discussions is coming! The new user
  interface controls will provide consistent methods for taking action on
  posts. A set of colorful badges will also make it easier to identify posts.

* A new bulk publishing feature will soon be available to enhance the changes
  that you see to the publishing workflow today. With bulk publishing, the
  process of releasing your course content to students will be significantly
  streamlined.


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edX Documentation
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The following documentation is available:

* `Building and Running an edX Course`_ 

  Click **Help** in the upper-right corner of any page in the edX Studio
  user interface to access relevant sections in this guide. You can also
  download the entire guide as a PDF.

  Recent changes include: 

  A new section, `Developing Your Course`_, that provides documentation on
  using the new publishing workflow and the enhanced outline and unit pages.
  These enhancements resulted in extensive changes to the organization and
  content of this guide.

* `Creating Peer Assessments`_

  Recent changes include: 
  
  The `Create an Open Response Assessment Assignment`_ chapter has been
  completely revised to document the work you do in Studio to create and test
  this assignment type.
       
* `edX Research Guide`_

.. Recent changes include: 

* `edX Developer's Guide`_

* `edX XBlock Documentation`_

* `Installing, Configuring, and Running the edX Platform`_  

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Other edX Resources
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You can access the `edX Status`_ page to get an up-to-date status for all
services on edx.org and edX Edge. The page also includes the Twitter feed for
@edXstatus, which the edX Operations team uses to post updates.

You can access the public `edX roadmap`_ for details about the currently
planned product direction.

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