Apr 21
Support Drop Box and Asynchronous Essay Feedback Functionality
We request enhancements to Accudemia’s Support Drop Box to allow true center‑level configuration and routing, with functionality appropriate for asynchronous essay feedback in a Writing Center.
Currently, Support Drop Box appears configurable at the center level, but when enabled only for a specific center (e.g., Writing Center), the link does not function when accessed from the Home page. The Support Drop Box only works when enabled at the campus level, which activates it for all centers, meaning submission tickets are routed to all centers, even when students intend to submit to a specific center. Instructions for the Support Drop Box can only be set at the campus level, not at the center or service level, although our campus has multiple centers. The Support Drop Box only records submission time and does not allow logging of staff/tutor time spent providing feedback.
Due to these limitations, the Support Drop Box is not usable for Writing Center asynchronous services, requiring us to rely on a cumbersome workaround. This process involves creating a special appointment‑based service, manually instructing students outside of service‑level settings, logging staff time manually, and voiding appointments to prevent sessions from being misrepresented as attended. This approach is inefficient, increases administrative workload, and negatively affects the accuracy of staff time tracking and reporting.
We would request that the Support Drop Box function reliably when enabled at the center level, allowing each center to maintain its own independent drop box rather than sharing a single campus‑wide instance. This would include the ability to switch this feature on or off depending on the center. Centers should be able to provide center‑specific or service‑specific instructions, such as requiring students to upload both an essay draft and the instructor’s prompt, to ensure submissions are complete and appropriate and student submissions should route only to the selected center
Pending
Thank you for your detailed feedback regarding the Support Drop Box functionality. We wanted to let you know that we have implemented an enhancement that allows the Support Drop Box to be enabled or disabled at the center level. Centers can now independently control whether the Support Drop Box is available for their users without requiring the feature to be enabled campus-wide. That said, not all aspects of the Support Drop Box are currently configurable on a per-center basis. Some labels remain shared at the campus level, and center-specific customization of all submission instructions are not yet available. The routing rules are simply based on staff available for the course selected across campus. Maybe in the future, somehow these can tie in with services that are offered in the center asynchronously. We appreciate the detailed use case you provided for Writing Center asynchronous services. Your feedback has helped us better understand the need for more granular center-level configuration, including center-specific instructions, adding submission requirements, updating the routing based on more than just courses, and helping your centers tracking capabilities for asynchronous activities. While the recent enhancement addresses center-level enable/disable control, the additional customization requests you outlined remain valuable considerations for future development to the support dropbox.