February 2, 2008

Headmaster Report #3

News

--Thanks to the suggestion of Mejas, Jac was awesome enough to code into the website so that the Training Tab will now show the score you made on exams. However, only when you are logged in, so make sure to do that before you check it out. This will make verifying degrees much faster and easier in the future. However, as you may realize, only courses passed after the change was made are listed. Nonetheless, over the next fifty years, I will slowly go through and try to update them as much as I can. As such, if any of you have your grades from your exams, then your dossiers will be updated first should those grades be sent to my in an email. Awesome job, Jac!

--Congrats to Smoke, the new Test of Endurance EP, Odin the new IRC Channel Operators EP, and Braecen the new Plagueis History EP.

--Right now, I have to go through Anshar to verify scores for degrees. While that will soon change, everyone should still understand that it will typically take at least three days to verify a degree. Thus, have patience when you request one. I didn't forget it, it is in my inbox, but I do have other things I do. Basically, I'm saying don't bug me about a degree request until at least one week after you submitted it. The same goes with courses waiting to be graded.

--Like I said in my news post, I got tired of Yahoo and decided to switch to Gmail, and I love it. As such, please do not send emails to my Yahoo account anymore. Send all emails that I need to see to aabsdu[at]gmail[dot]com. Thanks.

--I highly suggest you check out this page to see how close you are to earning a Shadow Academy degrees, the next step up from passing a course. If you have done enough to earn a degree, email Bubba and myself with your dossier number, name, which degree, the usual.

--Speaking of the above, Bubba and I both thought that certain aspects of the degree rules were too strict and complicated. As such, we went through and updated them. The basic changes are that when you retake an exam for a degree and don't get at least an 85%, you must wait three months before trying again. Another big change is that grandfathering is no longer there, nor is the 50% rule. Instead, just email Bubba and me when you meet ALL of the requirements. Simple as that.

--As I said in my last report, RevengeX was awesome enough to put together some updates in the notes and exam of the HTML Basics course, and those have now been uploaded. The new notes are easier to view and more detailed, and the exam also covers a bit more information than just two practical questions.

--Yes, SA Trivia is still suspended. However, thinking ahead I went ahead and wrote up a Code of Conduct for the event for when it returns. After being reviewed by Kalak and Bubba, it is now posted on the SA website, but I'll be nice and link them for you.

--Just a reminder about the Shadow Academy section in the DB Forums. This is a great place to suggest new courses or ask for exam help (although not the answer). A forum with all former SA Trivia questions is also now pinned here, and kept for record purposes. You can find that here.

Projects

--Along with the HTML Basics course update, Capital Starship Studies and Astronomy will both be getting updated within the next few weeks. Expect something to happen to the Test of Endurance and Test of Agility as well, but more on that when it happens.

--The SA Staff and I are working on several new courses and degrees, and we have a bunch of stuff planned for the month of February. For a sneak peek, expect the first Dark Savant degree, an old course reopened, and the possible arrival of a new course. We also have several other projects in the works, but those won't appear until after the second month of the year.

--As I stated in my last report, Lucien and Kalak put together a list of competitions that the Shadow Academy will run oriented specifically towards those ranked Apprentice through Jedi Hunter. We have decided to go through with the competitions, and you can expect those to appear within the next week.

Summary

• The Training Tab now lists exam scores!

• Send emails to my Gmail account

• Degree rules have been simplified and made grandfather-less.

• HTML Basics notes and exam updated

• Tons of stuff is coming in February!

• Journeymen competitions will start this week!

Sith Warlord Aabsdu di Plagia Dupar

Headmaster