Release Notes

Release Notes: Teacher Reflection & Acknowledgment

Overview

This release introduces a structured post-observation workflow for teachers in the Observe module. Teachers can now record their own self-reflection as part of the observation, formally acknowledge that they have read the observer’s feedback, and access their observation directly from a secure email link without needing to sign in.

For districts that require a documented, signed teacher receipt for formal evaluations, the acknowledgment becomes part of the permanent observation record — captured with the teacher’s name, the time of acknowledgment, and an optional written response from the teacher. For teachers, the workflow lowers the barrier to engaging with their feedback: a single click in an email opens their observation directly, with no password to remember.

To support this multi-party workflow, the observation page has been redesigned, the lifecycle has been simplified, and the closed-observation PDF has been updated to mirror the on-screen record.

What observers will see first

The observation page opens with a clearly labeled section layout — Details, Observation, Overall Feedback, Reflection, Acknowledgement, Closure, and Discussion — with a tab-style menu to move between sections. A state summary at the top of the page shows where the observation currently sits in its workflow, and a “What’s next?” card on the right names the next action and identifies who owns it.

The button observers previously called Finalize is now Submit. When the Form Set requires reflection or acknowledgment, submitting sends the observation to the teacher and the observation waits for the teacher’s response before it can be closed. When neither is required, submitting closes the observation in the same click — the workflow behaves as the previous Finalize button did. The “What’s next?” card on the page tells the observer at a glance whether they are waiting on the teacher and, if so, what the teacher still has to do.

Why the page was redesigned

The previous observation page was built for a single-author document: the observer wrote the record and the teacher received the result. The new workflow involves up to three participants — observer, teacher, and organization administrator — each of whom needs to know what has been completed and what remains.

The redesigned page addresses this in three ways:

A shared structure across roles. Every viewer sees the same labeled sections in the same order, so an observer and a teacher can refer to “the Reflection section” or “the Closure section” and mean the same thing.
An explicit “What’s next?” card. The next action is named directly, removing ambiguity about whose turn it is when an observation moves through multiple participants.
PDF parity with the on-screen view. The printable record mirrors the on-screen sections, so a teacher’s printed copy is structurally identical to what they reviewed on the page.

If your district isn’t enabling reflection or acknowledgment

Reflection, acknowledgment, and magic-link access are all off by default. Districts that choose not to enable them are not required to take any action to adopt this release — but two changes are part of the base product and will be visible regardless:

The observation page layout has changed. The new section layout, state summary, and “What’s next?” card apply to every observation, whether or not the new workflow features are turned on. Customers familiar with the previous design will need a brief orientation.
“Finalize” has been renamed. The single button observers used to press to finalize an observation is now labeled Submit. When reflection and acknowledgment are both off on the Form Set, Submit closes the observation in the same click — the workflow behaves exactly as the old Finalize did. The label is different; the action is the same.

No configuration changes are required, no new permissions need to be granted, and existing observations and Form Sets continue to function unchanged.

At a glance

Teachers can now reflect on and acknowledge their observations after they’re submitted by the observer.
Teachers can open and respond to an observation from an email link — no login required (configurable per organization).
Observations and performance reviews now move through a clearer lifecycle — Open → Submitted → Closed, with an optional Awaiting teacher step when reflection or acknowledgment is required.
The teacher’s view, the observer’s view, and the admin’s view of an observation are now one unified page that shows the right information for each viewer.
The closed-observation PDF now matches the on-screen audit record, and admins can choose whether to include the Discussion thread.
Admins have a new Observe Settings page to turn the new workflow features on or off per organization.
Emails to teachers now arrive at the right moment in the workflow — a reflection prompt when reflection is needed, an acknowledgment prompt when acknowledgment is needed, and a single combined close email (instead of two separate emails) when the observation closes.

Observe — Teacher acknowledgment workflow

What changed

When an observer closes an observation, the teacher can now be required to acknowledge it. The acknowledgment is recorded with a timestamp and IP address as a signed audit record — appropriate for districts that want documented teacher receipt of formal feedback.

Acknowledge — Teacher confirms they have read the observation.
Acknowledge with disagreement — Teacher confirms receipt but adds a written disagreement note that becomes part of the permanent record.
Admin override — If the teacher doesn’t respond, an admin can close the observation on their behalf with an override note. The teacher will see the override note in their view.

The acknowledgment status appears as a new status badge on observation and performance review lists, so admins can spot at a glance which submitted records are still awaiting a teacher response.

Turning it on

Off by default. An organization admin turns it on under Form Set → Edit Form set → Require teacher acknowledgment. The setting only applies to observations created after it’s been turned on — switching it on does not retroactively pull thousands of older observations into teachers’ to-do lists.

Heads-up for support

Teachers will start seeing an “Awaiting your response” card on their dashboard, with a count badge in the sidebar. This is expected.
If a teacher emails saying “I can’t edit my acknowledgment after I submit it” — that’s by design. Acknowledgment is a one-time signed action. If they need to change it, an admin must reopen the observation.

Observe — Teacher self-reflection

What changed

Teachers can now write a self-reflection as part of the post-observation workflow. Admins can customize the reflection prompts (the questions the teacher answers) for each Form Set. If the admin hasn’t customized them, the prompts come pre-loaded with a sensible default set.

Reflection prompts are configured under Form Sets → Edit → Reflection prompts.
Teachers see the prompts on their observation page once the observer submits the observation for their review.
Reflection can be required before acknowledgment so the teacher must reflect first, then acknowledge.
Reflection answers support rich text (bold, lists, links) using the same editor used elsewhere in the product.

Turning it on

Off by default. Turn it on under Form Sets → Edit → Require teacher reflection. As with acknowledgment, this only applies to observations created after it’s been turned on — already-closed observations are not pulled in.

Heads-up for support

Some teachers will ask, “What do I write here?” The default prompts are designed to give them a starting point. Admins can rewrite the prompts to match their district’s professional development framework.

Observe — Magic-link access (open an observation from email, no password)

What changed

When an observation is submitted and the teacher needs to take action (reflect, acknowledge, or read the closed feedback), they get an email with a secure link that opens the observation directly. They do not need to log in to the platform.

Links are valid for 30 days.
If the link expires, the teacher can request a fresh one from a friendly “this link has expired” page.
The page they land on shows the same observation content they’d see if they logged in, without the rest of the site’s menus and navigation.
Teachers using magic-link access can reply in the Discussion thread, submit a reflection, and submit an acknowledgment — all without an account.
Once the workflow is fully complete, the magic link is retired. Visiting an old link shows a calm “no further action needed” message with a “log in” option, not an error page.

Turning it on

Off by default. Enable under Observe → Settings → Allow magic-link access. If turned off, teachers receive emails with standard login links instead — same email flow, but the link routes them through normal sign-in.

Heads-up for support

If a customer says “I never received my observation email,” check first whether the organization has teacher email notifications turned on. That setting controls whether the system emails teachers about their observations at all.
“My link doesn’t work anymore” — most likely the workflow is already complete, or it’s been more than 30 days. Both states show the user a clear next step. They can request a fresh link directly from the page.
Districts with strict authentication policies will want to keep magic-link off so all teacher access flows through district sign-on.

Observe — Cleaner observation lifecycle

What changed

Previously, an observation moved through several states with overlapping terminology (“close,” “finalize”). The lifecycle is now simpler and the words match what’s happening:

Open  →  Submitted  →  (Awaiting reflection / acknowledgment)  →  Closed

                                                                     ↓

                                                                Reopen → Open

An observer submits the observation when they’re done writing it. The teacher then receives it for reflection and/or acknowledgment (if those features are on for the Form Set).
If neither reflection nor acknowledgment is required, the observation closes in the same click as submit — there is no intermediate state waiting on the teacher. This is the same one-click behavior the previous “Finalize” button had.
When reflection or acknowledgment is required, the observation closes only once the teacher’s required actions are complete, or when an administrator overrides on the teacher’s behalf.
An administrator can reopen any submitted or closed observation at any time from the always-visible toolbar on the observation page (see “Reopening an observation” below for the details).
The same flow applies to Performance Reviews in the Review module.

Reopening an observation

Who can reopen: Organization administrators and system administrators (for observations inside their organization), plus reseller and platform staff. Observers cannot reopen their own observations on their own, and teachers cannot reopen at all — reopen is an admin-level action by design, so the audit record can’t be quietly rewritten by either party.

What’s required: A written reopen note explaining why the observation is being reopened. The reopen is recorded with the admin’s name, timestamp, and the note as a permanent audit row — so even after the observation is re-closed later, you can still see that it was reopened, by whom, and why.

What happens to the existing content:

The observation goes back to Open state. The observer (or an admin) can edit any of the form data and re-submit when ready.
The previous submit and close records are cleared — submit and close need to happen again before the observation can be a final record.
The teacher’s previous acknowledgment is cleared. If acknowledgment is still required on re-close, the teacher will be asked to acknowledge again.
The teacher’s previous reflection text is preserved on the record. It’s not erased by the reopen.
Any outstanding magic link the teacher had is retired. If the teacher had an email link they hadn’t used yet, that link will no longer work — they’ll get a fresh email if the workflow puts them back in the loop after re-submit / re-close.
No automatic email is sent on reopen. If the admin wants the observer or teacher to know the observation was reopened, they should communicate that out of band.

Heads-up for support

The word “finalize” is gone from the Observe interface. We now say “submit” when an observer is done writing, and “close” when the observation is locked as the final record. Customers who’ve used the system for years may need a brief orientation.
The Reopen button is now always visible to admins in the observation toolbar (it used to be hidden in some states).
Screenshots in older training materials will no longer match the live product. Resellers may want to refresh customer-facing documentation alongside this release.

Observe — PDF export improvements

What changed

The closed-observation PDF now includes the same audit record the on-screen view shows:

Information → Total Points → Forms → Overall Feedback →

  Reflection → Acknowledgement → Closure → Discussion (optional)

New Reflection, Acknowledgement, and Closure sections appear automatically when those features were used.
When downloading from the toolbar, admins are now asked: “Include Discussion comments?” (off by default). The Discussion thread is a living conversation and may continue after close — leaving it out keeps the PDF a clean snapshot.
Close emails to teachers and observers always send a clean PDF (no Discussion comments), regardless of the toolbar choice.
The PDF now formats Forms the same way the on-screen view does — Form Sets with a single Form display the Form’s content directly (no extra heading), and Form Sets with multiple Forms get one labeled panel per Form.

Heads-up for support

If a customer asks “Where’s the Discussion in my PDF?” — they need to re-download with the “Include Discussion comments” checkbox turned on.

Observe — Observe Settings page

There’s a new Observe → Settings page for system administrators, separate from the existing organization settings. It shows the settings that are observe only. The only new setting that you will see is Allow magic-link access.

Switches save automatically — there’s a green “Saved” indicator next to each one. No “Save” button to click.

Heads-up for support

Only system administrators can see and change these settings. Organization administrators of sub-organizations cannot.
These settings used to live under My Organization. They’ve moved to the dedicated Observe Settings page.

Observe — Customizable reflection prompts (admin)

Form Set admins can now write their own reflection prompts on the Form Set edit page. The page comes pre-loaded with a default set of prompts (drawn from research-based teacher reflection frameworks) so admins have a working starting point if they don’t write their own.

Each prompt has its own text box that grows automatically as the admin types more.
The prompts section appears and disappears right away as the admin turns Require reflection on or off for the Form Set.
A short note clarifies: “Applies only to observations created after this is enabled.”

Observe — Smarter email timing

Emails to teachers about their observations have been reworked so they show up at the right moment in the workflow — and so a teacher with one observation open doesn’t get a flood of emails for a single workflow.

| When this happens… | The teacher gets… |

| --- | --- |

| Observer submits the observation, reflection required | A “please reflect” email |

| Observer submits, only acknowledgment required | An immediate “please acknowledge” email |

| Teacher submits their reflection, acknowledgment still pending | A “please acknowledge” email after a short delay (so a teacher who reflects and acknowledges back-to-back doesn’t get a stale email) |

| Observation closes | One close email with the PDF attached and the magic link included in the message body (previously two separate emails) |

If teacher email notifications are turned off for the organization, the system sends no teacher emails at all — the admin has chosen to handle communication themselves. If magic-link access is turned off, the same emails go out, but the buttons inside route through the standard sign-in page instead of opening the observation directly.

Heads-up for support

When the observer closes the observation, the teacher will get an email with the PDF and a link to the observation.
If a teacher acknowledges quickly after reflecting, they will not receive a “please acknowledge” email. The short delay before that reminder is sent is intentional, so the teacher doesn’t get a stale reminder right after they’ve already finished.

Other improvements

Comment errors land in the right place. If a comment can’t be saved, the error message now appears inside the discussion panel where the comment was being written, rather than as a generic banner at the top of the page.

Historical observations

Existing created observations are mostly unaffected by this release. Their status labels and their content will remain the same. Exporting a new PDF of an older observation will be generated using the new format. New lifecycle states (Awaiting reflection / Awaiting acknowledgment) apply only to observations created after the corresponding feature has been turned on, so districts that enable reflection or acknowledgment will not see thousands of older observations suddenly appear in teachers’ queues.ck