Simplified UI, more flexible grouping, and more

A user interface refresh
This release introduces a fresh, modern UI for Perusall that simplifies and streamlines workflows for both instructors creating and managing courses and students engaging with course content and each other:
A single, simplified sidebar to navigate the course, with Library, Assignment, and Students available alongside the previous sidebar options like Settings and Export Data.
 Chats (announcements, 1-1 chats) and Hashtags appear as options in the sidebar (rather than each individual chat and hashtag) to reduce unnecessary clutter. Copy Course is now available in the sidebar to make it more discoverable.
A reorganization of the Settings screen for more logical grouping between items.
 Scoring settings have been consolidated in the Scoring section, with key settings under Basics (previously General).   The scoring template editor has been redesigned to make it simpler and more accessible, and it's now faster to apply a scoring template or rubric to multiple assignments at once.
A redesign of the assignment editor to make it more straightforward to create and manage assignments, whether simple or complex.
 Scoring templates and rubrics can now be created and edited during the assignment creation workflow. Differentiated assignments can be more easily created as they no longer require that material for differentiation be consolidated into a folder first.
A cleaner, unified look for Library, Assignments, and Students.
 A preview pane on the right shows details about the currently selected document, assignment, or student, and can be resized or hidden to show or hide detail. Each item in the list now has a three dots dropdown menu for quick access to actions like Edit, Analytics, Download, etc. Each preview pane is designed to be compact and visually consistent, providing easy access to common actions and an overview of activity for the currently selected item.
A streamlined and simplified content experience for students.
 When viewing course content, the course sidebar is automatically hidden to provide more space for students to focus on the content (although it can always be accessed using the three-lines "hamburger" icon in the upper left of the page). The content toolbar has been reorganized and simplified, to reduce visual complexity and make it more intuitive to navigate the content and the conversations inside of the content.
A simplified interface for commenting, to make it easy and approachable for students to get and stay engaged in conversations.
 The row of small icons underneath each comment bubble has been moved to a dropdown menu, to reduce visual clutter and complexity. Upvoting retains a discrete icon next to the dropdown menu.
Simpler and more powerful grouping
Perusall now offers a reimagined system for creating and managing groups that is both more straightforward and more powerful, and reduces the opportunity for unintentionally setting up groups in a way that was not desired. 
When setting up your course, you can select from four grouping modes:
No groups:
 Allow all students to see activity from all other students -- perfect for small courses where grouping is an unnecessary complication.
Fixed grouping for all course material:
 Create (or import from a file or from your LMS) a single set of groups that will be applied across all content and assignments in the course.
Assignment-based grouping:
 Utilize a different group set for each assignment (even if you have multiple assignments from the same content, such as a textbook!).
Library content-based grouping:
 Utilize a different group set for each document in your library, to give students the opportunity to connect with different students across different pieces of content.
Group sets can be created within Perusall (either manually or by randomizing), imported from a spreadsheet, or imported directly from your LMS (Canvas, Blackboard, or D2L/Brightspace). You can choose a default group set to be applied when you haven't selected one explicitly for a particular document or assignment, and you can also explicitly choose the behavior that will govern what happens when a new student enrolls in your course.
No action is needed for existing courses: courses that previously used the default "Allow Perusall to automatically assign students to groups" option will be migrated to content-based grouping; courses that used the "Specify groups" option will be migrated to fixed groups. When you create a new course, you'll be able to select from any of the four options -- or you can change your grouping mode at any time.
Gated assignments
For instructors that want to create a more structured experience for students, you can now create a "gated" assignment: a multipart assignment that consists of both content and one or more quizzes. In a gated assignment, students must complete all of the questions in each quiz before moving on to the next part of the assignment. Set an assignment as gated in the Options tab when creating or editing an assignment.
Italian language scoring
Perusall's automatic scoring now supports student comments written in Italian (in addition to English, Spanish, Dutch, and French). If you teach a course in one of these languages and use Perusall's automatic scoring of comment quality, select your course language in Settings > General to activate a scoring algorithm tuned to that language.