We’re very excited to release Version 8.1.2, the first new release of 2018. This minor release, which contains a number of new features and updates to existing ones, will be made “live” on all our client sites on February 15th. A sneak peek of all it contains will be held on February 6th at 1 PM ET.
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For a full-access pass to each feature, along with tutorials and QuickStart Guides, click here. For release notes, go to www.edvance360.com/release-notes.
New Features & Updates:
- Better search
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.
- SCORM Completion Required Option
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.
- User Test Time
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.
Getting Practical
Many of our clients set a time limit on tests to help ensure learners don’t spend too much time looking up an answer on the internet (because you know they can) or a book. A practical use of the User Test Time feature would be to extend the test time for learners who have learning disabilities, dyslexia, or speak a first language other than English.
Close to 90% of our clients seem to use SCORM files. These range in creativity from basic PowerPoints with audio exported as a SCORM file and dropped into a lesson on Edvance360 to full-blown interactive modules complete with puzzles and animations and so on. At one point several years ago, we noticed the trend began to move away from putting the final test into the SCORM file to building it in the LMS – mostly due to the reports that can be run on the test questions and test-takers. Currently, most of our clients use a SCORM file as just one of the many steps a learner goes through in order to complete the test. A practical use of the SCORM Completion Requirement feature is to change the settings to ensure learners finish the SCORM file before being allowed to click the “Mark Complete” box and move to the next step or lesson. (In this case, the Mark Complete box doesn’t even show until it’s been completed.) This prevents those learners who feel they’v already covered the material and don’t wish to click through it from doing so.
Many of our clients have enormous amounts of video and other types of resources they’d like to make available on-demand to their employees/volunteers/learners. Often, we encourage them to put these resources in communities in the Resources tool, then limit who has access to those communities. These resources are also usually used in Lessons/Courses as well. As long as they are tagged and flagged with keywords, they will all become a “resources library” that the smart search will return to the user.
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