Here is a summary of this LMS release
Bulk user export
User account details can now be exported to CSV by using a new Export users action which you will find immediately below the Import users action on the Users page. The output file contains all items of user profile data (which of course varies per LMS instance), group membership information (one CSV column per group) and current account activation status (active, inactive, account activation date, reason for most recent account activation/deactivation). The export CSV file and import CSV file formats have been aligned to provide an easy export, import workflow. This is useful for example to perform batch operations on users such as activating or deactivating accounts on mass or changing group membership on mass.
Improved bulk user import CSV file format
Groups are now specified per column, by repeating the Group column for each group required. Previously, a single group column was used which supported a comma delimited list of groups. By moving to separate columns, the bulk files become easier to edit, manage, sort and filter within Excel.
Extended learning activities
Users can now register learning activities that occurred outside of the LMS. This starts to exploit some of the powerful capabilities of the Experience API with these external learning activities being tracked and recorded by Tin Can statements sent to the LRS. External learning activities might include "reading a book", "watching a video", "attending a class", "attending a seminar" and others. A default list of activity types is provided, but the list of types is configurable per LMS instance. When registering external learning activities, users supply the activity type, date, description and optionally a score. The score may or may not be appropriate depending on the nature of the activity. Admins can also administer users' external learning activities via a new "External learning" page within the user management area of the administration portal. This lets them add new learning activities on behalf of users, and also delete and edit existing activities.
Support for "selection" user profile property types
User profile properties can now be specified as "selection" types and/or "date" types. A user profile property field defined as a selection type enables a set of selectable values to be defined for that field. This supports self-registration scenarios where users need to pick for example their job role or region, or area, or country, or company from a set of possible values – rather than entering them as plain text, which of course is prone to error. The ability to select this type of value for specified fields ensures that any user rules that have been defined based on the value of a particular field are guaranteed to succeed. It eliminates the possibility of typos should the user be required to enter values as free text.
Achievements and awards now accessible via the web learner portal
Users can view their current achievements (points and awards) via a new "My achievements" menu option available from the drop down menu revealed when clicking your user name at the top of the web learner portal.
User activity report
This new report presents user learning activity (including the new external learning activities) for specified groups of users. It identifies which activities and which content the users have attempted or completed and provides score details and dates where appropriate.
Completion emails for curricula and all content types
Previously, completion emails could be configured only for SCORM based content. Now, completion emails can be configured to be sent for all content types and for curriculum. When configured, a completion email is sent to the learner whenever they complete an item of content or a curriculum.
Session timeouts
Session timeouts for both the web learner portal and administration portal are now configurable and by default have been set to 2 hours (from the previous 24 hours). When a session is within 5 minutes of timing out, the user is presented with a warning message box telling them that unless they click to continue, their sessions is about to expire. If they click to continue, the session timeout period is reset. If they do not click to continue, their session will time out after a further 5 minutes of inactivity. When they eventually return to their session a message box informs them that their session has timed out and they must click a button to login again. For SSO configurations, this is a seamless process. For Forms configurations, users must resupply their username and password.
Catalogue API extensions
All catalogue property items are now exposed via the catalogue API feed enabling us to extend the capabilities of the mobile apps and support the needs of the new web learner portal which is completely decoupled from the core LMS and connected only via APIs – providing many architectural and scalability benefits.
Various performance and scalability improvements
The enrolment process has seen significant performance improvements and is now able to deal with significantly larger user numbers.
Further infrastructure hardening
Additional server hardening as a result of recent penetration tests to further improve security.
General
Various bug fixes
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.