March 2022 release highlights

Release date: March 9, 2022.

 

We’re pleased to announce that the March 2022 release of LMS365 is now available to all customers.

 

Highlights of this release

• Session-based training
• Course and training plan management
• My Training Dashboard
• UI improvements
• API improvements

 

 

Session-based training

We have started a new wave of improvements for session-based courses, and over the coming releases, we will release a bunch of updates for these course types. With this release, we will introduce the option of adding a due date.

 

You can now set a due date for session-based courses

From this release, you can set a due date for all courses in LMS365. Before, only courses of the type e-Learning had this option. Now, we have also introduced the option for courses of the type, Classroom & Blended and Webinar.

This will help learners get a clear overview of when session-based courses must be completed, will ensure learners receive notifications when they are overdue with the courses, and enables admins to easily track the due status of learners on this type of course. 

The due date for session-based courses is set in the same place as the due date for e-Learning courses: In the Settings section of the course configuration panel.

Similar to e-Learning courses, the due date can either be set by defining an exact date of when the course must be completed or by specifying a certain number of days in which the course must be completed after enrollment. 

 

 

As for e-Learning, learners will see the due date of session-based courses on My Training Dashboard and in the Information section on the course home page.

 

 

 

Course and training plan management

#1 It's now easier to edit the web address of courses and training plans

You can now edit the web address of courses and training plans directly in the course/training plan configuration panel in the LMS365 Admin Center.

Before, the URL of course and training plan home pages was configured via SharePoint. However, courses and training plans created after the January 2022 release are created as pages at the root of the SharePoint course catalog site and do not have a dedicated site. As it's not possible to change the page URL via SharePoint, we have introduced a simple way to do this in LMS365.

The web address of a course or training plan can be edited from the Basic Details section of the course/training plan configuration panel.

 

 

This function will be available via API as well.

This new option will both work for courses created before and after the January 2022 release.

 

#2 Easily email learners that are overdue with a course or training plan 

The Email Learners action allows course and catalog admins to easily send an email to learners that are enrolled in a specific course. From this release, we have further advanced this option by allowing admins to filter enrolled learners on completion status when sending an email message. This, for example, allows you to quickly send an email to learners that are overdue with a course, or even send a different message to learners who have completed the training.

Admins can now filter learners in the Email Learners list of courses and training plans on their progress with the course or training plan in question: All Statuses, Not Started, In Progress, and Completed, as well as on whether learners are overdue with the training or not: All, Overdue, Not Overdue. 

After having sorted the list by filtering, the admin can then send an email only to this segment of the enrolled learners.

 

 

Please find more information about the Email Learners option for courses here and for training plans here. 

 

My Training Dashboard

The Classic Look of My Training Dashboard will be deactivated

With this release, the Classic Look of My Training Dashboard will be deactivated. In this way, the New Look of My Training Dashboard will be the common interface for all users.

From learners' perspective, the Back to Classic Look link on the left-side menu of My Training Dashboard will be hidden. 

 

 

For admins, the Include Classic Team View toggle will no longer be available from the Line Management Settings in the Global Settings of the LMS365 Admin Center.

 

 

UI improvements

#1 New design of the License Information page 

To provide a clear and user-friendly overview of information related to the LMS365 license, we have improved the design of the License Information page.

Going forward, the page will be divided into tabs, making all actions and information on the page readily available for the admin. Also, the page will now clearly outline the organization's current subscription and licensed LMS365 services. 

In the Global Settings area of the LMS365 Admin Center, the LMS admin can navigate between four tabs to see the current subscription plan, manage information about the organization, administer learners, and manage notifications sent out with expiring licenses and exceeding number of users.

 

 

On the course catalog level, the catalog admin can see the current subscription plan, manage information about the organization, and create a report to see all learners in the system and what courses they are enrolled in.

 

 

Please find more information on the License Information page in this article.

 

#2 Improved usability of the drag-and-drop function

This improvement is a small tweak that will improve the experience when you configure courses and training plans.

Today, the LMS365 drag-and-drop function helps admins intuitively reorder, for example, learning items of courses and courses of training plans. To further improve the usability of the drag-and-drop function, the marked item will now be highlighted in gray. Making it very clear what item you are about to drag to a new place in the order.

 

 

API improvements

New property to get default banner image URL

With this release, the API calls GET /odata/v2/CourseCatalogs({Id}) and Endpoint /odata/v2/CourseCatalogs will be enriched with a new property: "DefaultCourseBannerImageUrl".

The property will get the default banner image URL of a course catalog and can be used if you migrate courses and training plans into a course catalog and would like all these courses and training plans to inherit the default banner image of the target course catalog.

 

Please find full details of the LMS365 March 2022 release in the release notes.