The educational landscape continues to evolve as we all navigate AI’s growing presence in education. Many educators are responding by returning to proven assessment methods: in-class essays, Blue Books, and live presentations. Annotate PRO’s latest release, version 7.2, directly supports this shift with powerful new tools designed to make real-time feedback faster and more effective than ever.
Note: minor bug fixes and improvements will be released as 7.20.#
Feedback Forms: Your New Grading Companion
We’ve transformed how you provide personalized feedback with our enhanced Feedback Forms feature. Building on AP’s existing Forms and Checklists capabilities, we’ve created something new: a persistent, floating feedback tool that stays with you as you move through student after student.
Picture this scenario: your students have just completed an in-class essay, or you’re reviewing a series of video presentations. Instead of typing the same constructive feedback repeatedly, you can now open a Feedback Form once and use it continuously. The form stays open, can be moved to another monitor, and works seamlessly across any Chrome tab. Whether you’re working in Canvas Speedgrader, reviewing Google Classroom submissions, or grading Blue Book responses, your customized feedback templates are always ready.
Right-Click Editing: Quick Tweaks, Better Workflow
Sometimes you need to make a small adjustment to a comment or update a frequently-used piece of feedback. We’ve made this effortless with right-click editing, now available to all users. Simply right-click on any AP Comment Button, search result, or Library menu item to instantly open the edit form.
Combined with our recent toolbar customizations and the ability to create new comments directly from the AP Extension, you now have unprecedented control over your feedback workflow without leaving your current task. These small improvements add up to significant time savings over the course of a semester!
Knowledge Base Mode: Curated Information in the AI Age
In an era where information authenticity matters more than ever, we’re introducing Knowledge Base Mode. This feature transforms AP into a reference tool for any text content, making it particularly valuable for institutional clients who need to share curated resources across their faculty and staff.
Switch from Insert to Knowledge mode through the AP popup menu or the Lightning menu in the sidebar. Institutions can create centralized libraries containing policy information, library guides, facility details, contact information, and other crucial resources. Individual users, including those on our Forever-Free plan, can use KB mode to quickly access and copy AP content for use in applications beyond Chrome or Word.
Enhanced Platform Support
We’ve significantly improved AP’s integration with the platforms you use daily. Canvas Gradebook now works flawlessly with AP’s toolbars and Comment History feature, creating a seamless grading experience. Our improvements extend to Google Classroom, where you can now comment on Word documents and PDFs in addition to Google’s native file formats.
Schoology and D2L’s Brightspace users will notice better toolbar behavior and fewer bugs, while our ongoing commitment to platform compatibility ensures AP works where you need it most.
Performance and Polish
Behind the scenes, we’ve made numerous speed improvements and bug fixes, including resolving a double comment insertion issue from our previous release. We’ve also added a new debug mode accessible through the Support section in the AP gear menu, helping us provide better assistance when you need it.
These updates reflect our ongoing commitment to supporting educators as they adapt to new challenges in assessment and feedback. Whether you’re embracing traditional evaluation methods in response to AI concerns or simply looking for more efficient ways to provide meaningful feedback, Annotate PRO 7.2 offers the tools you need to succeed.