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September 4, 2014
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The following information reflects what is new in the edX Platform as of September 4,
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 Website
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* Users who signed up for a verified course sometimes saw an incorrect 
  price. This bug has been fixed. (ECOM-113)

* A problem with auto-registration sometimes prevented verified courses from 
  appearing on a user's dashboard. This bug has been fixed. (ECOM-199) 

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edX Learning Management System
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* This release includes changes that improve student and staff experiences with
  course discussions. These new features take effect immediately in all courses.

  * When a discussion participant adds a post, the participant must now identify the post as
    either asking a question or starting a discussion.

  * Controls for actions that discussion participants can take on posts, responses, 
    and comments have moved to the top right of each contribution. 

  * Informational labels such as "Staff" and "Following" have been redesigned and relocated.

  For more details, see our `End of August Product Announcement`_.

* Students can now submit their usernames and email addresses to a third party
  by using an LTI interface. (BLD-1250)

* The bulk email feature is now available for all Studio-backed courses on the `edx.org`_ site. 
  With this feature, you can send email messages to course participants directly from 
  the Instructor Dashboard before, during, and after the course run. For more information, 
  see `Bulk Email`_ and `Example Messages to Students`_.


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Coming Soon
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We're pleased to announce the following change, which will be released in the next few
weeks:

* Course teams will soon be able to access data about their courses on a
  dedicated dashboard for course-specific data. By providing insights into who
  your students are, and what they do while interacting with your course, the
  data available on this dashboard can validate choices you’ve made, reveal
  unexpected patterns, and inform plans for changes to the course.


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edX Documentation
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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.

  Recent changes include: 

  * The `Discussions`_ and `Participating in Course
    Discussions`_ chapters now include the question post type and the new placement and
    appearance of the actions you can take on posts, responses, and comments.

* `Creating Peer Assessments`_

* `edX Research Guide`_

   Recent changes include: 

   * The `Discussion Forums Data`_ chapter now includes the new ``thread_type``
     field for CommentThreads and the new ``endorsed`` field for Comments.

* `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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