The new version of Eli Review introduces a wide range of improvements designed to center humans in the learning process and better support feedback-centered teaching, modern classroom workflows, and greater visibility into learning.

Many of these additions come directly from instructor requests over the years. Others reflect areas where we believed Eli could better support reflection, revision, participation, and visibility into student learning.

Most importantly: The new Eli expands beyond traditional peer review workflows to better realize the full cycle of feedback, reflection, revision, and instructional intervention.

 

Platform Experience & Trust

Modern educational software should feel approachable, reliable, and easy to navigate across devices. This set of improvements focuses on reducing friction and helping students and instructors stay oriented throughout their work.

New Feature	What It Does	Why It Matters
Responsive, mobile-friendly experience	Makes Eli easier to use across phones, tablets, and desktops	Makes participation easier across devices and reduces accessibility barriers
In-app notifications	Notifies users when action is needed	Helps students and instructors stay oriented without relying entirely on outside communication tools
Automatic saving	Saves work throughout the platform automatically	Reduces anxiety and prevents lost work
Improved accessibility and consistency	Creates a more consistent and intuitive experience across Eli	Makes Eli easier to learn, navigate, and trust

 

Review & Feedback Improvements

These additions expand how instructors and students can interact with and respond to work inside Eli.

 

New Feature	What It Does	Why It Matters
Contextual commenting on files	Enables inline comments on uploaded files, including PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint, spreadsheets, and images	Expands Eli beyond traditional text-based assignments and supports more visual or layout-heavy work
Inline comment display	Shows comments directly alongside the work being reviewed	Makes feedback easier to understand and aligns with modern document-review expectations
Instructor comments	Allows instructors to participate directly in review and feedback activities via summative comments on tasks	Supports modeling, coaching, and more active instructor participation

 

Review Task Design

We rebuilt Eli’s review workflows to give instructors greater flexibility in designing reflective, intentional learning activities while reducing repetitive setup work.

 

New Feature	What It Does	Why It Matters
Survey-style review builder	Replaces rigid review prompts with a more flexible question system	Gives instructors greater control over how review activities are structured
New response types	Supports short answer, paragraph, and structured response formats	Better supports different kinds of thinking, reflection, and feedback
Drag-and-drop question ordering	Allows questions to be reordered easily	Makes review design faster and more flexible
Optional vs. required questions	Lets instructors distinguish core prompts from supplemental ones	Supports more intentional review and reflection design
Import / reuse response types	Reuses question structures across tasks	Reduces repetitive setup work and makes multi-assignment course design easier to manage

 

Review Group Management

Large classes, multi-section courses, and complex review structures require more flexible coordination tools. These improvements make review group management clearer and easier to maintain across a course.

 

New Feature	What It Does	Why It Matters
Import / reuse reviewer groups	Reuses groups across multiple tasks	Reduces repetitive setup work
Full-screen group management	Provides a clearer interface for managing groups	Improves usability for large or complex courses

 

Looking Ahead

Meaningful learning happens through human feedback, reflection, revision, and engagement.

This rebuild is not just a collection of new features. It creates a stronger foundation for Eli to continue evolving and supporting a wider range of classrooms, disciplines, and teaching practices in the years ahead.

 

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We’ll be sharing much more in the coming weeks, including a new website, updated resources, and deeper looks at the thinking behind the scenes. For now, here are a few places to start:

• Live Now: start using the new Eli Review today
• Accessing Eli Classic: How to continue using the current version of Eli Review
• What’s New: A breakdown of the biggest changes in the new release
• Why We Rebuilt Eli: The story behind the rebuild and why incremental improvements were no longer enough