Release: v32.1 – Ocaria Thales

RELEASE NOTES V32.1 – Ocaria Thales
Telephone: +044 8451 543211
Email: [email protected]
Release: v32.1 – Ocaria Thales
Spring 2016 Edition – Sub Release
Version 32.1 of the My Learning Suite was released on Monday 23rd May @ 15:00 GMT. This document
explains some of the additional updates and features which are now available in v32.1. During this
minor release our team have provided some additional functionality and help features.
No action was required and your update happened automatically between 15:00 and 16:00 GMT.
During that time, the system had no downtime and the upgrade happened without interruption.
Learning solutions for education and beyond.
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VAT no: 985324784 Company No: 06989201
RELEASE NOTES V32.1 – Ocaria Thales
Telephone: +044 8451 543211
Email: [email protected]
New Updates for v32.1
New “Guest” Accounts for My Learning
We have now created a new feature for Administrators to create “Guest” accounts within the platform.
This new feature will be available if you are linked to an MIS (Management Information System), or if
you run My Learning on its own.
Guest accounts can be particularly useful if you wish
to create a special login for an inspector, governor,
3rd party consultant or day visitor to the platform. As
an extra feature you can now determine when these
new guest accounts expire, ensuring that your
system remains secure at all times.
Example of the new “Create Guest User” screen
Administrators will find this new service from their administration icon, within “User Manager”.
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VAT no: 985324784 Company No: 06989201
RELEASE NOTES V32.1 – Ocaria Thales
Telephone: +044 8451 543211
Email: [email protected]
Updated “Events” Panel
Many of our users enjoy the ‘Events Panel’ – which can display upcoming daily, weekly and monthly
events in one place, with vivid colours for each type of event. We have responded to requests from
schools who also wanted to see a mini-calendar (month view).
We have modified the system to display a mini-calendar view. The panel will also remember your most
recent selection for subsequent visits to the home page.
My Learning may choose to remove the older “Calendar Panel” in future editions as all calendar and
event information is now contained within one panel.
Upgrade of File Manager Display
Many large file sharing providers such as Microsoft’s One Drive, Google Drive and Dropbox have clear,
easy to use management screens that reduce the amount of clutter on the screen. This ensures that
the page is rendered quickly on devices and is simple to use.
My Learning have also recently updated their own file manager to remove the three icons which were
previously displayed beneath each file. We now present these as a single option, commonly known as
“more” (3 dots). Users will recognise this from tablets, mobiles and popular web applications.
Now, when you click the ‘three dots’, you’ll have the ability to select the option you require.
Learning solutions for education and beyond.
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VAT no: 985324784 Company No: 06989201
RELEASE NOTES V32.1 – Ocaria Thales
Telephone: +044 8451 543211
Email: [email protected]
Previous display (v32.0)
Improved display (v32.1)
Here is an example of the new type of menu that will appear.
Please note that this menu can be accessed by left or right-clicking the “three
dots”, and also by right-clicking the file itself. It is worth noting that on tablet
devices this remains unchanged, everything will operate as it has always done.
This has improved the speed of My Learning for slower desktops and unified
the simplicity of the platform. It also ensures that, in due course, we can
extend the functionality of the VLE with new upcoming features such as
‘Casting’ and ‘Sharing’ (watch this space!).
New Context Sensitive Help System
In version 32.0, My Learning released its brand-new, dedicated help and support service website
http://wiki.mylearningltd.com .This is a separate site devoted to training, support, help and videos. It
is a brilliant way of being able to find the answer you are looking for on any device, with articles, notes
and feedback options. The service has been so popular that we’re pleased to advise that we have now
linked this directly into My Learning and tagged over 320 videos and articles!
An example of the WIKI Knowledge Hub released in v32.0
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VAT no: 985324784 Company No: 06989201
RELEASE NOTES V32.1 – Ocaria Thales
Telephone: +044 8451 543211
Email: [email protected]
The latest edition of My Learning, v32.1, now allows you to click
“Help” at the top left of any page, and access detailed articles and
videos which relate to that page. You can also ask your own questions
and the VLE will attempt to deliver help based upon your question.
The most popular requests currently appear to be “How do I change my password?”, “How do I change
my theme?”… and “Help me with my homework”… (we’re still working on that one - seriously!).
Remember, that you will also find many types of help at the bottom left of your platform.
Uploading iPad Videos to My Learning
As some users may (or may not) know, iPads often record videos in “MOV” format. This type of file can
present issues with web services as they are not natively able to stream videos to end-users. This means
the users are not always aware that their 15 minute classroom recording may not instantly play back
as it has to be downloaded before being played.
Naturally, Apple allow you to change your iPad video settings so that you can record MP4 videos (these
are much smaller, and streamable) – but many users simply don’t know how to do this.
In order to help, My Learning are pleased to announce that we have managed to overcome this
problem by manipulating your MOV so that it behaves like an MP4.
The outcome…. our VLE can now play back and stream your MOVs without any changes!
Full International Support for “Unicode”
With over 550,000 users spanning 118 logged countries, My Learning has a diverse cultural user-base
with languages such as Arabic, Russian, French and Chinese.
Quite often, lesson materials can be written in non-English characters, especially in foreign language
lessons. My Learning has now upgraded it’s entire server farm infrastructure to support multi-lingual
characters across all schools.
Learning solutions for education and beyond.
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VAT no: 985324784 Company No: 06989201
RELEASE NOTES V32.1 – Ocaria Thales
Telephone: +044 8451 543211
Email: [email protected]
An example of just a few of the characters and currencies now supported
This means that you can create, edit and share MLD, DOC and DOCX files containing unicode characters
and their format will be retained.
Printable QR Code Logins
We have upgraded our reports section for administrators to now produce a fully printable (or copyable)
list of user logins using QR codes. This effectively means that schools can provide QR codes to users to
enable them to login on tablets and mobile phones instantly.
An example of the new printable login QR codes
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VAT no: 985324784 Company No: 06989201
RELEASE NOTES V32.1 – Ocaria Thales
Telephone: +044 8451 543211
Email: [email protected]
As with any form of security
involving individual users, please
ensure that this material is
handled securely. Kindly note that
our QR codes do not contain any
end-user identifiable information
and are encrypted.
Please note that the example to
the left has been obscured with
blue dots on purpose to prevent
the codes from working.
Phase 1 of Dashboard Manager
For the last 2 years, My Learning has provided the ability for end-users to be able to entirely customise
their home page (dashboard) layout. This is an incredibly useful feature, as it has allowed users to
arrange their screens with information which is relevant to them.
More recently, a very popular request from our newer clients is the question, “Can we allow the
administrator to design pre-built dashboard layouts and then imprint them to users’ screens?”
We took this request and have broken the work into two phases. The first phase has been released as
a technical preview in v32.1. In this first part of the work, we have allowed the administrator to create
an unlimited amount of “designs” and then publish them to users.
The team at My Learning expects that Phase 2 of this work will be completed for the Summer Edition
of My Learning towards the end of July.
Learning solutions for education and beyond.
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VAT no: 985324784 Company No: 06989201
RELEASE NOTES V32.1 – Ocaria Thales
Telephone: +044 8451 543211
Email: [email protected]
An example of the new technical preview of the “Dashboard manager”
At the moment, the layouts can only be published to “roles” (such as Student or Teacher) – but as the
technical preview develops rapidly, we will also be looking to allow the administrator to publish these
layouts to specific class groups and individual end-users, presenting an enormous range of flexibility
for our customers.
New Grading Template Added for GCSE
The UK GCSE grading scheme will soon be changing. In anticipation of this change a new grading
template has been added to all My Learning platforms as an optional template to activate.
This is a 1-9 grade with 9 being the highest grade.
Learning solutions for education and beyond.
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VAT no: 985324784 Company No: 06989201
RELEASE NOTES V32.1 – Ocaria Thales
Telephone: +044 8451 543211
Email: [email protected]
Other Changes and Bug Fixes
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The PDF embedding gadget now works more reliably.
The Live Support chatbar no longer covers the option to turn off live support.
Users can no longer trigger drag ‘n’ drop in File Manager via right click.
Internal mail inbox counts now 100% accurate.
The flashing ‘unread messages’ icon on mixed and primary themes, is now more intuitive as to
when it should flash.
The Next Official Version of My Learning
v33 Entitled “Peria Lamis” (Peach Beauty) due end of July 2016
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Department level features. Establish departments by linking classrooms and subjects.
Imprint custom designed “dashboards” to the entire school, classes or individuals (Phase 2).
My Learning Rubric Designer – will allow Teachers to mark and measure learning objectives.
Official launch of “ClusterPad”, our school to school sharing service.
Additional features for mobile app (Push notifications).
Revamped Parent’s Portal with new styling.
Tighter integration of ADFS and Single-Sign-On.
A new version of the My Learning App – with restyled, simpler login abilities.
Ongoing Research for Future Editions (v34 Remella Remus)
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Ability to make an entire course public (with only email login) – MOOC.
Document annotation service allowing overlay of audio and written comments.
Cross document conversion tools (for Enterprise edition).
Generate ePub, PDF and HTML directly from an MLD or DOCX file.
The ability to “Cast” your display to other users within the same room.
The ability to remote-control your VLE with a smartphone or tablet.
“Share to My Learning” feature will add content directly to “My Files” from any smartphone.
Learning solutions for education and beyond.
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VAT no: 985324784 Company No: 06989201