Release Notes

Optional look and feel for the user’s Home Page now available! Check out the new Compact Training Dashboard layout here.

Admins can now direct a User to their My Courses landing page upon login, and thus bypass the Homepage entirely.

In previous versions, learners could add “proof” of trainings taken off the LMS to their ePortfolios, but they would not be “approved” by a supervisor. Additionally, learners could self-report offline trainings taken via Offline Reporting tool, which could then be approved by supervisors, but there was no place to add proof. Version 8.1.3 combines both! Learners can add trainings and proof to Offline Reports, supervisors can approve, then the proof and record will populate the ePortfolio automatically.

Course facilitators and administrators can now reset a learners progress through a SCORM file via the Reset SCORM tool/icon.

We’ve updated Surveys with both a Reset Tool (allowing course facilitators to reset a learner’s submission to a survey) and some organizatinal changes to make managing surveys questions easier. Click here for more info.

Within the Course Report feature of Edvance360, an update has been made which allows a true “Course Completion” report to be run. The option of Course Completion has been added as it’s own category via the Reports dropdown, in which site Admins or Course Facilitators will now be able to review the following data upon running the report. Specifics include:

• Last Name 
• First name
• Completed (Y for Yes, N for No)
• Completion Date 
• Percentage (%) of course completed by the specified Learner(s)
• Report Export to .xlsx

Previously, the “Drop” User Feature was done on an individual basis per User from the Course Roster on the Course Home Page. A new “Drop Selected” button has been added to the Roster in our Version 8.1.3 release which allows Admins/Course Facilitators to select multiple users at one time (via a check box next to each user’s name), then click the Drop Selected button to Drop multiple Users at one time from the Roster. 

Within the Grades/Scores Tab of Edvance360’s Version 8.1.3, users will begin to see some organizational and layout updates which will help for better management of user achievement tracking and completion.

Some of the updated organizational and layout changes to the Grades Link/Tab include (but are not limited) to the following:

• Chronological Ordering: Most recent activity in Terms/Course headers listed first
• Alphabetical Course List: Within each Term/Course header, all Courses are listed alphabetically
• Extend/Collapse Features Added: Ability to collapse grades by Course name for easier search functionality. 

In addition to including macros (line items automatically filled in by the LMS on certificates) for information such as Course Name, Learner Last Name, Learner First Name, Completion Date, and Continuing Education Credits, the Edvance360 Certificate Style Editor now includes a macro for a Final Grade or Score within a particular Course. 

In previous versions, the Search Tool on the Home Page did not include resources that were made available to learners in their courses and communities. (These were accessed via the courses and communities.) In Version 8.1.3, learners can search on the Home Page and the results returned will include resources in their courses and communities.

Note: It will not return results in courses or communities to which the learner does not belong.

In previous versions, the Search feature on the Home Page enabled users to search by keyword or phrase to find content items (e.g. PowerPoints, handouts, videos, SCORM files, etc.) to which they were allowed access. It later evolved to search discussions as well. In Version 8.1.2, the Search has expanded to include lessons, communities, discussion tags/keywords, and courses.
 

For clients desiring to provide their learners a Library of Resources, this update will enable administrators to provide resources inside a community, set it to “private” for a group of people, and link the E360 Navigator to those items. The search feature will NOT show items in the search results to which the user is not allowed to access.

In previous versions, course designers and faculty could require learners to view the entirety of a video before the “Mark Complete” check mark box would appear, ensuring learners could not move forward without watching the video. In Version 8.1.2 course designers can require the SCORM files to also play in their entirety. This update is found in the Course Settings>Other>Lessons.

Edvance360 LMS has always allowed course designers and faculty to set specific time limits for users taking tests (usually for those with learning disability or language differences), but in Version 8.1.2, this has been made to be more efficient and user-friendly.

Our Design Team has launched a new Home Page “look” that emphasizes social networking and relational-design.

In Version 8.1.2, eLearning program directors can create an Agent to automatically remind learners to recertify in 30, 60, 90, and several other options. This reminder will run even if the course the learner had previously completed is set to “inactive” or the user is set to “alumni”.

In a previous version, Edvance360 LMS released the ability for users to self-enroll in available courses via a calendar or list under the feature called “Available Courses”. In Version 8.1.2 we’ve added the feature update that enables administrators and course creators to limit the number of enrollments per course. Users can see how many “seats” are left in a course and self-enroll in the course. Once a course has reached the max number of seats or enrollees, the course color will change to red and the “register” option for users will turn to a “waitlist” option. Course facilitators and Admins have the option to either turn a waitlist ON/OFF, as well as to set up Email templates to be sent for both registered and waitlisted users. In the case that waitlist users have registered, Course facilitators and Admins will see this Waitlist as a new Course Agent widget on their Homepage Dashboard.

Several of our schools requested the ability to provide faculty and adjuncts with a sample essay or notes on what the essay should include to provide a guide while grading a student’s submitted essay on tests. This has been added to Version 8.1.2. The guiding essay or notes can be added to the essay question itself. These guides are (obviously) only available to those who grade the essays and not to students.

For more information on eCommerce updates, please refer to our eCommerce or E360 Connect specs page: http://www.edvance360.com/ecommerce-module/. The updates include the ability to charge a monthly subscription, create membership “tiers” with custom offerings tailored to those purchasers, set up discounts on other items connected to membership tiers, and have those who pay for these tiers be automatically enrolled into courses and communities within Edvance360 LMS.

Version 8.1.2 includes a new feature suited to clients who do not require an assessment but instead wish for learners to launch a video (or handout) from a calendar date. (SCORM launch will come in a later version.) The learner can view the course content (video) without entering a course or clicking on a lesson. Instead, the video launches from the calendar in a separate window.

In Version 8.1.2 the Time Taken On Lessons Report (found in Course Reports) reflects the actual time taken between the first viewing of a step to the time the learner clicks the “Next” button, tallying the time in between to give a total of time taken spent on the Lessons. Previously, this report calculated all time spent on the Lessons pages, which might have included the hours of inactivity before the system automatically logged them out.

E360 Navigator (1.0) enables corporations to offer a more self-directed form of pacing courses or enrollment. In traditional corporate learning program, learners are directed to learn specific courses in a specific learning path, usually with an end goal of promotion in mind or in compliance with state standards or other requirements. This is certainly necessary, but current generations – particularly millenials – prefer to direct their own learning. If given the opportunity within the corporate LMS, they will take additional courses to further their learning, career, and simply satisfy curiosity or personal interests. E360 Navigator enables administrators to create an intake form that allows the learner to select their interests, then matches those interests with courses and lessons on those topics. The learner can then take those courses at will, often earning a badge to be shared across the enterprise and on social media, which can be motivation in itself.

Note: If you do not see this in your Admin panel, please submit a Help Ticket to request it, if you want it.

Course designers and facilitators can now set agents to notify Teaching Assistants in addition to the other user roles already recieving agent notifications. This is found in the settings of the Agents Tool within the Course Tool Panel.

Note: This feature is available to all clients on a V8 site. No need to request it to be turned on.

Administrators can now clone communities, just like they currently clone courses. This copies or clones all the content and settings. This is found in the Admin Cloning Tool.

Note: This feature is available to all clients on a V8 site. No need to request it to be turned on.

Course designers now have the option to set the course they are currently building in a “Course Building Mode” to prevent the system-wide “Notifications” from showing every change they make in the course as they build it. This is found in the “Other” tab in Course Settings. It defaults to “On” and should be turned to “Off” if course facilitators would like the system-side “Notifications” to include changes they make after the course is “live”.

Note: This feature is available to all clients on a V8 site. No need to request it to be turned on.

Course designers can now ensure learners receive email alerts when items submitted by learners have been reviewed, graded, and sent back to them. Previously, learners had to check their Dropboxes for updates.

Note: Previous versions have always included notifications to course facilitators when learners submit completed assignments via Dropboxes.

We have recently released a number of changes to eCommerce, which include user language choice, multiple currencies, and deeper Mothership integration (manage multiple sub-sites/accounts and their catalogs from one panel, enrollments go to the correct sub-account, Marketplace Tool lets admins of sub-accounts select the desired course offering from the master course catalog so their specific learners can enroll in courses from the customized catalog).

Note: If you would like to learn more about this feature, please contact us at sales@edvance360.com.

A number of updates to the Messaging Tool within Edvance360. These are designed to make messaging more user-friendly.

Note: This feature is available to all clients on a V8 site. No need to request it to be turned on.

Course designers and faculty may now skip a few course design steps! In previous versions, course designers/faculty had to create a discussion post/forum and then create a Gradebook item if it needed a grade. Now, Version 8.1 automatically assumes that all discussions will receive a grade. If a discussion post is created, it automatically creates a corresponding Gradebook item.

Note: Everything is set to a default (makes a lot of assumptions), so course designers who do NOT wish the discussion to be graded must delete the Gradebook item. Those who have specialized settings on their discussions and how they are graded, must edit the settings in the Gradebook to achieve their desired results.

Course designers and faculty may now skip a few course design steps! In previous versions, course designers/faculty had to create a Dropbox, then create a Gradebook item if it needed a grade, then return to the Dropbox to select the correct Gradebook Item to which it corresponded. Now, Version 8.1 automatically assumes that all Dropboxes will receive a grade. If a Dropbox is created, it automatically creates a corresponding Gradebook item.

Note: Everything is set to a default (makes a lot of assumptions), so course designers who do NOT wish the Dropboxes or that particular Dropbox to be graded must delete the Gradebook item. Those who have specialized settings on their Dropboxes and how they are graded, must edit the settings in the Gradebook to achieve their desired results.

Offline Reports will now show administrators the learners’ grades in a new Grade Column. This tool is found on the Home Page, in the left-hand tool panel.

Note: This feature is available to all clients on a V8 site. No need to request it to be turned on.

Administrators can now “market” messages to their users via banners that are linked to either internal or external URLs. Once turned on, banners will show on learner’s Home Pages. This tool can be found in Admin Application Management.

Note: This feature is available to all clients on a V8 site. No need to request it to be turned on.

We have released a number of updates to the Mothership, which include enabling the API to now accept course copy commands from Master to sub-account for eCommerce catalogs.

Note: For more information regarding this feature, please contact sales@edvance360.com.

• My Courses with Progress Bar
• Certificates Earned
• Logins over past two weeks
• Monthly Tool Usage for Past 6 Months
• Course Progress Gauges
• … and much more!

Administrators may now send alerts as courses are nearing expiration and should be set up by an administrator in the Administration Panel. Administrators may set the number of days until expiration, such as ‘5’, meaning five days before expiration date, the alert will be sent automatically. This criterion may be set for as many notifications as desired. For example you may have one for ten days, five days and one day, each having their own subject and body, and available macros for inserting the user’s name, the expire date, or course name. The alert will go out the morning of the specified day.

We have developed additional features for the registration portal. These features are not automatically installed on clients’

 custom system, and may be opted into for an installation charge: – Search Feature: Allows users to search for products by keyword on the name, description and instructor name. – Coupon Code: Coupon codes have been improved to allow application to only specified products, instead of the entire order. – Coupon Code Report: This report details the breakdown of purchases by coupon code. – Admin Point of Sale: This feature allows an administrator to initiate a sale on behalf of a client.

With the new External LTI Tool interface administrators can set up a connection to an LTI-compliant content provider by specifying the url, key, and secret. Possible content providers include, CourseLoad, Turn-it-In, McGraw-Hill Campus, and others.
Once the tool is set-up in that administrator interface, all faculty members can use it to create a link on their course home pages. This allows students to click the link from the home page and will send the tool provider the course information and student identity attributes.
***NOTE*** In most cases you will need to have an account with the tool provider in order to obtain a key and secret.

Edvance360 has released an integration with Credly, one of the emergent leaders in digital badging. Our clients can now design and award digital badges when students successfully complete tasks, activities, or course assignments. Once earned, students can display their badges in their Edvance360 biography and ePortfolio. Additionally, students can share their badges, which are compliant with the Mozilla Open Badge standards, on their Credly profile, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or personal web sites/blogs, making it easy to showcase their accomplishments to the people that matter. For more information on badges, visit our blog. To utilize badges, clients will need to do the following: 1.) Create an account with Credly.com. (Free, unless you need verification.) 2.) Design badges. 3.) Plug your Credly account information into {insert place} within the Settings link on the Admin Tab. 4.) Select the badge to be earned for completing the course by clicking on the Setting Tool within the Course. (Scroll to the “Badges Awarded” section of the Course Settings, search for a key term or name of badge, select, and click the Save button.) 5.) All users who complete the course will receive the badge selected via Edvance360 LMS-SN within their bio and ePortfolio. 6.) Additional ways of giving badges and additional criteria can be found through the Credly site.

Rubrics will now include the following enhancements: – Students can view the rubric within the dropbox through which they can submit the completed assignment. – Instructors can now add extra fields to rubrics, including Default Feedback which will automatically populate feedback to the student, if desired. The student can view their individual scores and feedback per assignment by clicking on the  View Rubric link within the Grades Tab. – Instructors can now open and grade completed assignments using the rubric both from the Gradebook and the Dropbox Tool, saving the faculty time. – Point values for each rubric level may be set by default, but can also be overridden in each criterion by the instructors for added flexibility in grading each criterion. – Grading is accomplished by one click. – The design of the rubric tool has been updated for easier readability and use.