release notes initial draft

docs/en_us/release_notes/source/08-26-2014.rst → docs/en_us/release_notes/source/08-27-2014.rst

 ###################################
-August 26, 2014
+August 27, 2014
 ###################################
 
 The following information reflects what is new in the edX Platform as of August
-26, 2014. See previous pages in this document for a history of changes.
+27, 2014. See previous pages in this document for a history of changes.
 
 ****************************************
 edX Release Announcements Mailing List
@@ -33,55 +33,58 @@ edX Studio
         icon at all three levels is available to publish all content within
         that level.
 
-    The "Publish" icon is also available on the **Course Outline** page for
-    individual units.
+    The "Publish" icon is also available for 
+    individual units on the **Course Outline** page.
 
   * You can now hide all of the content in an entire section or subsection on
     the **Course Outline** page. To ensure that students cannot see a part of
-    the course, select the "Settings" icon and in the dialog that opens select **Hide from students**. The same feature is available for units.     
+    the course, select the "Settings" icon and in the dialog that opens select
+    **Hide from students**. The same feature is available for individual units.
   
   For more details, see our most recent `edX Product and Engineering
   Newsletter`_.
 
-* You can now build content experiments (also known as A/B tests) entirely
-  within edX Studio. With a content experiment, you show different course
-  content to different groups of students. Research teams can compare the
-  performance of students in different groups to gain insights into the
-  relative effectiveness of your course content.
+* You can now build content experiments (also known as A/B tests or split
+  tests) entirely within edX Studio. With a content experiment, you show
+  different course content to different groups of students. Research teams can
+  compare the performance of students in different groups to gain insights into
+  the relative effectiveness of course content.
 
 * A defect in the drag and drop feature for course content on the **Course
   Outline** page has been fixed. Dropping a unit into a collapsed subsection
-  now adds that unit without changing any existing content in that subsection.
+  now adds the unit without changing any existing content in that subsection.
   (TNL-56)
   
 
-  
-
 *******************************
 edX Learning Management System
 *******************************
 
+* When you click **Sent Email History** on the Instructor Dashboard **Email**
+  page, the list of messages now identifies the sender of each message in a new
+  **Sent By** column.  
   
-* When you click **Sent Email History** on the Email page of the Instructor
-  Dashboard, the list of messages now identifies the sender of each message in
-  the new **Sent By** column.
-
-
-* Bulk email now available for all courses? Instructor Dashboard , Email page. %%%%%
-
-**************************
-edX Data & Analytics
-**************************
+* The Instructor Dashboard no longer displays instructions on how to access an
+  older version. The **Revert to Legacy Dashboard** button is still available
+  to provide access if needed.
   
-* 
+* The computations for demographic distributions that are reported on the
+  **Analytics** page of the Instructor Dashboard have been updated. The level
+  of education and gender distributions now include currently enrolled students
+  only. Previously, these distributions were computed for all students who were
+  ever enrolled in the course. (LMS-11228)
 
+.. * Bulk email now available for all courses? Instructor Dashboard, Email page
 
+.. **************************
+.. edX Data & Analytics
+.. ************************** 
 
 **************************
 Coming Soon
 **************************
 
-We're pleased to announce these upcoming changes, which will release in the
+We're pleased to announce these changes, which will be released in the
 next few weeks:
 
 * In addition to the existing Discussion post type, course discussions will
@@ -96,44 +99,51 @@ next few weeks:
   able to both register and log in to the edX.org and edX Edge web sites with
   their existing Google or Facebook IDs.
 
-
-
 **************************
 edX Documentation
 **************************
 
-Some of you have had problems with bookmarks and existing links to the edX
-`Building and Running an edX Course`_ guide. These were the result of a
-reorganization that we made as part of pur preparations to expand the
-documentation set. A redirect is now in place for this guide in its new
-location, at http://edx.readthedocs.org/projects/edx-partner-course-
-staff/en/latest/. And, you can always find the complete documentation set at
-`docs.edx.org`_.
+All guides now include a section that lists browsers supported for
+use with the edX platform.
 
 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.
+  Update your bookmarks and links! To prepare for some upcoming additions to
+  the edX documentation set, we recently changed the location of this guide
+  and its URL changed as a result. You can always find `Building and Running an
+  edX Course`_  and the rest of our documentation set at `docs.edx.org`_.
+
+  You can also click **Help** in the upper-right corner of any page in the edX
+  Studio user interface to access relevant sections in this guide, and download
+  the entire guide as a PDF as needed.
 
   Recent changes include: 
 
+  * The chapter on "Developing Your Course" has been updated to include the new
+    capabilities for publishing and hiding multiple units on the **Course
+    Outline** page.
 
+  * A new chapter on "Creating Content Experiments" is now available.
 
-* `Creating Peer Assessments`_
-
-.. Recent changes include: 
+  * An additional sample email message for students, announcing a new run of a
+    course, is now available in the "Course Launching Activities" section.
 
+  * Messages about the effect of changes to the grading policy, graded
+    subsections, or graded components in a live course are now included.
 
+* `Creating Peer Assessments`_
 
 * `edX Research Guide`_
 
    Recent changes include: 
 
-   * Removed chapters on "Course Grading" and "XML format of drag and drop
-     input". These topics are covered in the `Building and Running an edX
+   * The "Tracking Logs" chapter now includes a section on open response
+     assessment events.
+
+   * Chapters on "Course Grading" and "XML format of drag and drop input" were
+     removed. These topics are covered in the `Building and Running an edX
      Course`_  guide.
 
 * `edX Developer's Guide`_

docs/en_us/release_notes/source/index.rst

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ email message when we have updated the edX Course Staff Release Notes.
    read_me
    preface
    browsers
-   08-26-2014
+   08-27-2014
    08-12-2014
    08-07-2014
    07-30-2014