Author: Mark Salzer

What is happening?

On July 1, 2023, Illuminate DnA will be retiring Manual/Hybrid assessments. Results will continue to be available but you will no longer be able to administer these to students. No student data will be removed or deleted from the system.

Why are Manual/Hybrid assessments going away?

Flexible assessments provide the same administration options (print answer sheets, grade with camera, grade with scanner/copier, enter responses manually, and deliver online) but with an overall easier experience. 

With Flexible assessments, you can…

• Add multiple question types in mass
• Perform fewer clicks to create an assessment
• Easily upload assessment materials from Google Drive to be administered via Online Testing
• Create additional item types
• Make use of advanced scoring features

What do I need to do?

Creators/owners/editors of a Manual/Hybrid assessment: In order to administer the assessment to students after July 1, you will need to duplicate it as a Flexible assessment. You will want to convert on or after July 1, 2023 and DnA suggests you actually duplicate into flexible Please contact all users with access to view, administer, or edit an assessment to indicate when it has been updated.

How do I do this?

1. Locate your assessment.
2. In the Action column select Duplicate.
3. Click OK in the popup windows that appear.
4. Update assessment title and any other information as needed. Note: It is recommended to duplicate one assessment at a time.
5. Watch short video HERE if interested in visual steps OR this longer narrated video

• Want to know all the details about the deprecation of Manual/Hybrid assessments?
  • See Manual/Hybrid Assessment Deprecation FAQ
• Want to know more about how to administer Flexible assessments to students?
  • See Administering Flexible Assessments 
• Want to know more about how to create Flexible assessments from scratch?
  • See Creating a Flexible Assessment and all of the other Flexible Assessments resources 
• Want to know more about how to ditch paper/scanning and move to online assessment?
  • See this guide that highlights what you need to know about Online Assessment 
• Users can start duplicating their assessments beginning July 1,  2023. It is recommended that users duplicate assessment when they are preparing to administering them, not en mass.

How do I get technical support?

Contact the P-CCS service desk or DnA support 

from this document

Check out the latest BrainPop Teacher’s Lounge edition.

Say hello to summer with BrainPOP movies, learning games, and activities that take students on an undersea adventure. Strengthen literacy skills while building background knowledge, comprehension, and vocabulary—just press “play.” See screenshots below of some of what’s in the newsletter.

 

Last week’s recent ransomware attack on the city of Dallas, which has seen lingering ill effects into this week, serves as yet another reminder for us to remain ever vigilant and educated about the dangers of cyber threats, including call-back phishing attacks. Incidents can have severe consequences, affecting the daily operations and sensitive information of organizations impacted. In this blog post, we’ll recap the Dallas ransomware attack, discuss how it happened, and outline what you can do to protect our school district from similar threats.

The Dallas Ransomware Attack:

The city of Dallas was recently targeted in a ransomware attack that impacted its IT services and police communications, causing significant disruptions. The attackers used a technique called call-back phishing, which allowed them to infiltrate the city’s systems and deploy ransomware. You can read a detailed summary of the incident in this article from BleepingComputer: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/city-of-dallas-hit-by-royal-ransomware-attack-impacting-it-services/

What is Call-Back Phishing?

Call-back phishing is a type of social engineering attack in which cybercriminals impersonate legitimate organizations or authority figures, often through emails instructing recipients to call a phone number. In the Dallas incident, the attackers sent emails impersonating food delivery and software providers, pretending to be subscription renewals. These emails contained phone numbers that connected the victims to a service hired by the Royal threat actors. When victims called the number, the threat actors used social engineering to convince them to install remote access software, allowing the attackers access to the city’s network.

How Can We Protect Ourselves?
To protect our school district from similar cyber-attacks, it’s essential for all staff members to be aware of call-back phishing techniques and take the necessary precautions. Here are some tips to help you stay safe:

• Remain cautious when it comes to your emails and phone calls: Always be skeptical of unexpected or unsolicited emails and phone calls, especially those that ask for sensitive information or urge you to take immediate action.
• Verify information: If an email or phone call seems suspicious, contact the person or organization directly using known contact information, not the information provided by the sender or caller. This is crucial for ensuring that you are communicating with a legitimate representative and not disclosing information to potential scammers.
• Don’t follow instructions blindly: If an email instructs you to call a phone number, make sure to verify the legitimacy of the number before calling. If you’re unsure, reach out to the company or individual using previously known contact information to confirm the request.
• Be wary of installing software: Do not install remote access software or any other applications at the request of a caller unless you have verified their identity and confirmed the legitimacy of the request. When in doubt, don’t.
• Use strong, unique passwords: Create strong passwords for all your accounts, and avoid reusing the same password across different platforms services.
• Keep software updated: Our school district uses SentinelOne as our endpoint detection and response solution, which is remotely managed and updated by the IT department. This helps ensure that your district devices are protected against known security vulnerabilities. While this helps mitigate against bad actors, it’s also critical to keep software up to date on both district and personal devices.
• Report suspicious activity: If you encounter a potential call-back phishing attempt or believe your account has been compromised, report it immediately. If you ever feel that you have mistakenly disclosed private information or granted unauthorized access, please submit a service request. Remember, the sooner we address the mistake, the safer both staff and student information will be. Please don’t worry about being chastised for a mistake (we all make missteps); our priority is the safety and security of our digital environment including student and staff data.
  

Thanks for continuing to stay informed and vigilant!

Next week your District voicemail will start syncing with your Gmail inbox. This means that actions taken in one of these systems will affect the other.

 

Voicemail/Gmail Functionality PRIOR to May 1, 2023

When a voicemail is left in a staff member’s District voicemail mailbox, that staff member receives an email notification with a copy of that voicemail. Actions taken, such as listening to or deleting the voicemail, in our voicemail system do not impact the email notification in Gmail. Actions taken in Gmail also do not impact our voicemail system.

 

Voicemail/Gmail Functionality AS OF May 1, 2023

When voicemails are left, staff will be emailed a notification in their Inbox AND actions they take on that message will affect the message stored in the District voicemail system (and vice versa).

 

ON THE GMAIL SIDE

By default the message in the Gmail account will have the VoiceMessages label applied (see image below).

The email notification will look similar to the notification shown below. Hovering over the attachment will allow you to download or save it to Google Drive. Clicking on it will allow you to listen to the voicemail message.

Like other email messages, voicemail notifications will be marked as unread when they are received. However, unlike other email messages, voicemail notifications are subject to the aging policies associated with the District’s voicemail system. The 3 points below describe what happens to unread, read, and deleted voicemail notifications in Gmail and the District’s voicemail system.

• If a voicemail notification is opened OR left unread for 40 days, the email will be marked as read and the corresponding voicemail in the District’s voicemail system will be marked as Saved.
• If a voicemail notification is deleted OR left as read for 60 days, the email will be moved to Trash and the corresponding voicemail in the District’s voicemail system will be marked as Deleted.
• Deleted messages will be permanently deleted from Gmail AND the District’s voicemail system after 5 days. 

 

ON THE PHONE SIDE

Similarly, actions taken in the District’s voicemail system will impact voicemail notifications in Gmail.

• If a voicemail message is listened to OR left ignored for 40 days, it will be marked as Saved and the corresponding email notification will be marked as read in Gmail.
• If a Saved voicemail message is deleted OR left ignored for 60 days, it will be marked as Deleted and the corresponding email notification will be moved to Trash in Gmail.
• Deleted messages will be permanently deleted from the District’s voicemail system AND Gmail after 5 days.

 

Keeping Voicemail Messages Beyond the Defined Aging Policy

While most voicemail messages only need to be kept for a short period of time, there are some voicemails that might need to be kept for longer periods of time. To keep a voicemail message beyond the District voicemail system’s aging policy, it is recommended that you download it from Gmail to your computer. It is also possible to save the voicemail message to Drive or to forward the email to yourself.

 

REMINDER: Voicemail Message Quotas Still Apply 

As a reminder, your voicemail mailbox has a quota for the total amount of storage it can use. Mailbox quota warnings will be emailed out should your mailbox approach or reach its limit. Please note that once your mailbox has reached its limit, you will no longer be able to receive new voicemail messages.

 

The ‘Why’ for Voicemail Aging Policy and Storage Quotas

The District’s voicemail system has an aging policy and storage quotas for voicemail messages due to the total storage limit for District voicemails. While it is possible to increase the District’s total voicemail storage (up to a point), doing so would incur additional ongoing costs to the District.

Questions or Issues

If you have any questions or issues related to your District voicemail, please submit a service ticket.