iHomework App User Suggestions and Feedback

Hey everyone - I'm the developer for iHomework and thought I'd start a thread for users to offer suggestions, requests, or bug reports. I'll also try to post here whenever I have news about an update.

If you haven't checked out iHomework its a solid app for students to keep any school work or to-do's organized. You can organize classes, teachers, assignments, to-do's, grades and the app also provides many other great features. (I'll post an App Store link when I get a chance).

Next time you visit an Apple Retail store you can check out a demo of iHomework in the Education section (although - the interface has been updated significantly since that demo).

I hope to get some discussion going in this thread! The more ideas I get from users the better the app will be!

For those that may not be familiar with iHomework, you can find it here in the App Store.

The first image is the current version of iHomework (1.3) that is available now in the store. The second image is an update (1.3.1) that was submitted a few nights ago and will hopefully be approved shortly!

Thanks for the responses guys! It seems like there is a common theme in this thread asking for Push - currently iHomework doesn't support push but I hope that once I'm back at school for the year I can get something set up.

I am working on an update that takes advantage of 3.0s features and I'm hoping to wrap it up soon. A desktop client is in the works too - but that may not be available until later this summer.

Really appreciate all the suggests and support - if you guys see anything you don't like/want added/think is broken definitely post here. I'm really trying to get as much feedback about the app as I can!

mizelly41 said:

One feature I would like to have would be the ability to enter your grades. For each class you could enter in the type of assignments you have in that class, assign a weighted average to each assignment, and then when you enter in a grade, the app would calculate your average for you. There is a program for Mac called Schoolhouse that has this feature and it works great.

Click to expand...

The grade calculator is on its way - I had submitted the update that includes the calculator about a week ago - and found out last night it was rejected. This was because I also built a custom web browser to view your course website without quitting iHomework. What I didn't expect is Apple to reject the app because the internet contains "Mature and Suggestive Themes" and since I provide a web browser I must rate iHomework accordingly. Obviously rating a homework organizer 17+ wouldn't be a smart decision - so I'm going to have to strip the browser out for now and resubmit.

The grade calculator will be a very exciting update - it's incredibly powerful in that it can calculate course grades multiple different ways with different types of weighting styles. I'm going to finish up a new feature (shouldn't be too much longer) and resubmit the update.

masterell said:

Having the ability to create a timetable of all your lessons for the week would be great so that if you want to check when your next lesson is, you can easily do so.

A more complicated way (if you can do this it would be great) is to be able to view your timetable for the upcoming week, so that you can set some lessons to either occur fortnightly, weekly, on specific dates etc.

That would really be amazing..

Click to expand...

As the developer I'll be the first to admit that a weak spot in iHomework is in the Course details. My goal is to address some features made available with iPhone OS 3.0 and then focus on developing the course details section. This focus will most likely include a way to view that day/week's classes.

I really appreciate the feedback so far - I want to make sure the app appeals to the needs of all students and not just what I (as a student) want. So keep up the suggestions/comments and I'll do everything I can to include them in updates.

Also - if you are familiar with the app and have checked out the website I'd love to hear some questions I could include on the FAQ page of the How To page. Is there anything you guys are unsure how to do or seems confusing to a first time user?

hcoteen2008 said:

Will the calculator be able to calculate grades that are at different values. Say assignment 1 is work 2% and assignment 2 is with 25%, know what I am trying to say? Also, can this be incorporated with Blackboard?

Click to expand...

There are two ways of grading: Simple and Advanced. Simple grading allows you to enter your earned points and total points and your class grade is simply calculated by adding up the earned points of your assignments and dividing by the sum of your total points.

Advanced grading allows you to calculate your grade using 2 different styles of weighting: each assignment can have an individual weight (like you mentioned assignment 1 is worth 2% and assignment 2 is with 25%), or you can assign a group weight to a type (and that group weight is specific to that course). The group weight is useful when you have a class that says "Homeworks are worth a total of 25%". You can also mix advanced grading weights: Homeworks are worth a total of 25%, Test 1 has an individual weight of 25%, and Test 2 has a weight of 50%.

Hope this makes sense! This update was supposed to be released awhile ago - but due to Apple's rejection of the web browser I'm going to have to make some changes and resubmit.

Demarrer said:

Will the grading scale be ready before classes resume?

Click to expand...

The grading system is (and has been) ready to go for awhile now. It was included in the most recent update that was rejected due to the "apps with built in browsers must be rated 17+" issue. I've made some changes to the app and hope to resubmit the update tonight.

Ruffian829 said:

the app looks nice, any news / updates on a syncing desktop client?? In in earlier post it mentioned "late this summer..."

??

Click to expand...

The next update should be submitted within the next few days. When the new update is submitted the desktop (OS X) version will be available online also. Wifi syncing and iCal integration will be available via the desktop version (and syncing with the mobile version).

Would have been done a few days ago but the last couple days were spent moving back down to school (Go Hokies!).