As teachers or mentors, one of the most important — and most challenging — parts of our work is keeping up reviewing work and sharing feedback with our learners. Timely feedback is crucial, but it's hard to keep up with.
The Inbox enhances Pathwright's feedback tools and puts everything you need to review in one place. Christian introduces the Inbox in the video below:
What's an Inbox?
An Inbox is a space for sharing private feedback with each learner. In an Inbox, you can:
Leave a formal Review on a project submission, reflection, quiz, or anything else a learner submits in your Path that's reviewable.
Manually award points or view/edit auto-assigned points on steps with points assigned.
Discuss a learner's work in a private discussion that only they and other reviewers can see.
Privately check in on what someone's not completed yet (they'll be notified automatically).
And more — read on!
Inbox
Every reviewer gets an Inbox for each Cohort or Mentor Group.
Teachers and Moderators get an Inbox for every Cohort they're in.
Mentors get an Inbox for every Mentor Group they're in.
If you're playing those roles in more than one Cohort or Mentor Group, you'll see multiple Inboxes.
You'll find all your Inboxes one click away in the top right of the window. Tap on it, and you'll see all your Inboxes:
You can also access the Inbox:
At the top of each Path — selecting the Review icon or "Review" on the cohort menu opens completions from the Cohort you're in.
On Steps and Lessons — selecting the Review icon here opens completions for that Step or Lesson only.
From your Notifications bell — select any notification for a step completion and it will take you directly to that completion.
From your Home > Teach page — any Cohort that you're teaching with items that need review will have a red dot in the upper right corner. Click the three dots (...) in the upper right corner to open a menu with additional actions. From the menu, select "Review."
On Learner Profile Cards — the "Review" tab shows the learner's completions across all the Paths they're in. (Access a learner's profile card from Home > People or Dashboard > Community.) This works best for reviewing everything for one particular learner in a single place.
Keep up with what's in progress.
Once you open the main Inbox, you'll see the Completion Navigator. The Completion Navigator shows every complete or incomplete Step for every learner in your Cohort or Mentor Group.
Seeing everything all at once can be a bit overwhelming, so your Inbox is automatically filtered to show only items pending review:
You can filter completions by status to share formal feedback, check in, or nudge someone along:
Pending review: shows everyone's completed steps that have been set up to be reviewable but are still awaiting review. (This is the default filter.)
Already reviewed: shows everyone's already completed and reviewed steps — this can be useful to recall feedback you've shared on prior work.
All completed items: shows every Step everyone's completed across every Path they're in — all in one place.
Tip: Use this filter to surface steps that aren't formally reviewable but might still be interesting to leave feedback on — a "Nice work!", optional comment on their answers, etc.
All incomplete items: shows every Step everyone's not completed yet across every Path they're in.
Tip: Use this filter to surface steps that people may be stuck on to check-in using the private discussion.
Everything: shows the kitchen sink — every Step of any status that everyone's completed across all their paths.
Share personal feedback on any learner's Step.
When you select a learner's completion, it will open in focus on the left, along with one or more feedback tools on the right:
Since every learner has their own version of a step, you'll see anything they've personally input into Blocks — files uploaded, answers left, etc. — even if they haven't completed the Step yet.
Inbox Feedback Tools
Depending on the Step, you'll see a few tools for sharing feedback on the right side. (On a mobile device, you'll see a toolbar that expands to show the Feedback Tools.)
1) Discuss
The Discuss tool is available on all steps.
You can leave private comments in this area that only the learner and other reviewers can see.
Discussions can include both text and files. Select the file button to...
upload a marked-up paper.
record and upload your response as an audio file.
upload an image.
add a link to a video or other online resource.
A few tips:
You can initiate a private discussion from the Inbox or the Learner Performance Report. It's an excellent tool for personally checking in on a step where a learner may be stuck.
Select or highlight text you've added to access text formatting options.
The learner and reviewers receive an in-app notification when you leave a discussion reply. Learners are also notified by email. (If staff members have the email digest turned on, they'll also receive an email notification in their digest.)
You can see which of your fellow teachers and moderators have left a discussion reply by hovering over the reviewer icons on the right side. If they haven't responded yet, you can also prompt them to add a discussion reply by tapping the paper airplane icon by their name.
2) Review
The Review tool is available for reviewable steps for teachers, moderators, group admins, and mentors who have their Reviewer setting toggled On (default).
Any reviewable step includes a "Review" tool where you can leave:
Points: a numerical point score if the Step has points assigned.
Review notes: optionally summarize your feedback on the learner's work. (Tip: select or highlight text you've added to access text formatting options. )
Notify: When "Notify" is checked, the learner will receive an in-app and email notification letting them know that you reviewed the Step.
Once you complete the review, it will appear for the learner and other reviewers.
📝 Note: Currently, only one review may be left per completion, even when there are multiple reviewers. We plan to add the ability for each reviewer to leave a unique review in the future. In the meantime, if there are multiple reviewers, we recommend using the Discuss tool for them to leave feedback and assigning only one reviewer to submit the final review. See how to assign one of multiple mentors to leave a final review on a mentee's step completion here.
3) Notes
The Notes tool is available on steps that include staff notes.
If a step includes Notes that are visible to staff only, you'll also see a Notes tool.
Tip: Adding "staff only" notes to steps with suggestions or rubrics for how to review an assignment or project will help any future mentor or teachers as they review.
Inbox Tips
Once you're familiar with the basics, here are a few tips for getting the most out of your Inbox:
1) Filter by a person.
When you open an Inbox, you'll notice the people in your Cohort or Mentor Group aligned across the top. Click on their avatar, and the view will filter to only that learner's completions.
2) Use keyboard shortcuts.
When viewing an Inbox with multiple completions, you can use the left or right arrow keys to move to the next or previous completion. Hit Esc to go back to the completion list.
3) Use the Performance Report to chat privately around the Path.
Want to check in with a learner? Whether you use Inbox to leave formal reviews or not, it also works as a private in-app chat tool.
Open any learner's Performance Report and then click on a step they've completed or not completed yet — the Inbox will open, and you can use the Discuss tool to chat privately with the learner and any staff members with access to that learner (they'll be notified when you do).
4) Pull up helpful context without leaving the Inbox.
Sometimes you need more information while you're still working through your Inbox. While you're reviewing a step completion, you can:
Tap a Step title in the breadcrumbs to open that step in a new tab.
Tap the Learner’s name or avatar on the right side to pull up their Profile Card:
From there, you can tap the email icon to send them a message outside of Inbox, select "Add to Path", navigate to other Paths that the Learner is taking, and see a full timeline of the Learner's activity, all without leaving the particular step you're reviewing.
Tip: If a learner is struggling, you could choose "Add to Path" to give them a remedial Path, or if a learner has mastered a competency, you could use "Add to Path" to keep them moving through the next phase of their learning.
5) Hover or tap for more info.
Many of the labels in the Inbox show more information if you hover over them on a laptop or tap from a mobile device. For example:
Hover over the completed time (e.g., "Completed 3 days ago") to reveal the exact day and time.
Hover over the Reviewers to see their full names and if they've responded.