Changes to Community Programs in May 2022

Micah Daby Updated by Micah Daby

What's Changing?

The following changes will be made on May 2nd, 2022:

  1. The "Community Programs" tab will be removed from the programs section of the Sphero Edu apps. This change will be will be made through an app update for all platforms.
  2. The controls to publish programs will be removed from the program overview screen. This will effectively remove the ability to publicly publish your personal programs. This change will be made through an app update for all platforms and on the Sphero Edu website.
Teacher and Parent Note:
The community section for activities will continue to be available for teachers and parents, and submissions for activities will continue to be accepted. The above change only impacts publishing for programs.

Why Is This Change Happening?

There are two main reasons we will be removing public program publishing:

  1. Sphero is dedicated to ensuring that Sphero Edu is safe and accommodating for educators and students in school environments. Many schools have concerns around community content created and published by learners. To accommodate the majority of schools, we have a series of ongoing efforts to make Sphero Edu software friendlier and simpler to use in the classroom, including removal of community programs.
  2. We will be making changes to our platform services for Sphero Edu later in 2022. To align with feedback from schools and parents, some of the platform service changes will result in the removal of certain social features. This includes the sharing of program content outside of a class or family unit.

What Will Happen to My Programs?

You will continue to have access to all your programs in the "My Programs" tab. None of the program data for users will be deleted. If you have copies of public programs, you will continue to keep those copies for use.

Teacher and Parent Note:
You do not need to publish your programs to attach them to your custom activities for your students or children. There is no change to the ability to add programs to activities or assign them to class code users.

Are There Other Ways to Share My Programs?

While publishing programs to the community section will no longer be available, there are other options for sharing your programs if the need arises.

  • If you are a teacher and are using activities with your students, you can attach a starter program to an activity.
  • Many of the app clients have a share button on the program overview screen, which allows you to email, message, or AirDrop a program.
  • If you use class codes with your class, you can directly share programs to students through the class code management tools and they can optionally share programs with you as well.

Questions or Concerns?

If you have any questions or concerns about this change, please email us at support@sphero.com.

How did we do?

Major Sphero Edu Windows App Update

iOS Sphero Edu Video Playback Issues

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