What's New
Dual Code is committed to continuously improving HCE Express and regularly implementing new features with each release. This page shows our release notes, organized by version.
Virtual Assistant (New Feature)
The learning environment now features an AI-driven virtual assistant designed to enhance the user experience. Tailored to meet the needs of both administrators and learners, the virtual assistant provides personalized support and guidance. Administrators can quickly access system management advice and troubleshooting tips, while learners receive help navigating the system and completing their purchases or courses. This intelligent assistant adapts to your role, making it easier to get the most out of your learning environment..
August 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.1 ♦ HCE-8027
Moodle Plugin Updates (Moodle Update)
As part of our general development cycle, numerous 3rd party plugins available from the Moodle marketplace were updated. These include: auth_saml2, mod_zoom.
Learn more here: Moodle Plugins
August 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.1
Moodle 4.1.12 Update (Moodle Update)
As part of our general development cycle, the HCE, which is based on Moodle, the world's most popular open-source LMS, has been upgraded to Moodle 4.1.12.
Learn more here: Release Notes for Moodle 4.1.12
August 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.1 ♦ HCE-80
Introduction to Recertification Windows (New Feature)
When setting an expiration date for a recurring course, it is now possible to also define a recertification window. When defined, the user can only get recertified within that configuration window. As an example, it is now possible to say that the learning record expires after 1 year, and that the user can only get recertified 90 days prior to the expiration of the learning record.
Learn more here: Configuring Recurring Courses
June 17, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.1 ♦ HCE-6698
Certificates of Completion Now Fall Under “Certification and Expiration” (Improvement)
The “Certificate of completion” setting, which allows you to specify which certificate of completion to issue when a user completes a course, is now found under the new “Certification and Expiration” section of the course settings.
Learn more here: Issuing Certificates of Completion
June 17, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.1 ♦ HCE-7893
Numerous Changes to Configuring Recurring Courses (Improvement)
Recurring courses (e.g. courses where the learning record expires) must now be configured in the course settings page (whereas in earlier releases, an instructor would configure them in the “Course completion” page. The new settings, which are in a category called “Certification and expiration”, also allows more options such as the ability to round up the expiration date to the last day of the month.
Learn more here: Configuring Recurring Courses
June 17, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.1 ♦ HCE-6698
Moodle Plugin Updates (Moodle Update)
As part of our general development cycle, numerous 3rd party plugins available from the Moodle marketplace were updated. These include: block_groups, format_onetopic, mod_checklist, mod_zoom.
Learn more here: Moodle Plugins
June 17, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.1
Moodle 4.1.11 Update (Moodle Update)
As part of our general development cycle, the HCE, which is based on Moodle, the world's most popular open-source LMS, has been upgraded to Moodle 4.1.11.
Learn more here: Release Notes for Moodle 4.1.11
June 17, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.1 ♦ HCE-8099
Activity Completion Data is Not Being Reset in this Unique Scenario (Bug Fix)
This issue appears in a very unique scenario. A course is configured with a condition of “Expiration by date”. The learner has a valid learning record. An instructor or administrator then unlocks the course completion settings and adds a new activity to the course completion requirements. The user already has a valid learning record so when they access the course, they see the banner “Congratulations. You have completed the course”. However, the learner has not actually completed the new mandatory activity, so the status of the course (and indirectly each activity within this course) is inconsistent. As part of this software fix, the status of the activities now considers this additional scenario where mandatory activities are added after the learning record is issued.
Learn more here: Condition: Activity Completion
April 26, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.1 ♦ HCE-8073
Course Overview Block Doesn’t Always Report 100% Completion Even Though the User Has a Learning Record (Improvement)
The Course Overview block reports on a user’s progress in each course. For example, if a course contains 5 activities and the user completed 3 of them, the block would report a 60% completion. There are circumstances however when a user can receive a learning record without completing all of the activities. For example, a bilingual course that contains a lesson in English and French would only require the learner to complete one of the two lessons. After completing the English lesson, the user would receive a learning record, but the Course Overview block would report 50% completion because the user did not complete the French lesson. In another example, a user who has been granted an equivalency for the course would continue to show a 0% completion rate because they did not technically complete any of the activities in the learning environment. As part of this improvement, the calculation of the progress in the Course Overview block has been refactored such that if the user has a valid learning record, then the progress will always show 100% completion.
April 26, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.1 ♦ HCE-4850
Course Completion Badges Do Not Turn to “Done: Completed” Until the Entire Course is Done (Bug Fix)
When a course that contains multiple mandatory activities is reset and the learner completes only some of the activities, the badges for the completed activities report “Done:” followed by the completion criteria. Once the course is completed in its entirety, the badges would then read “Done: Completed”. As part of this software fix, the badge now reports “Done: Completed” as soon as the activity is done regardless of whether the course itself is done.
Learn more here: Tracking Completion
April 26, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.1 ♦ HCE-8094
Completion Status CSV Export Does Not Show the User’s Last Name (Bug Fix)
When exporting the Completion Status report to CSV, the resulting file only contains the user’s first name instead of their full (first / last) name in some circumstances. As part of this software fix, the user’s full name is always visible in the CSV file when exporting the report.
Learn more here: Completion Status
April 26, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.1 ♦ HCE-8089
Moodle Plugin Updates (Moodle Update)
As part of our general development cycle, numerous 3rd party plugins available from the Moodle marketplace were updated. These include: block_checklist, filter_videoeasy, format_grid, mod_checklist, profilefield_file.
Learn more here: Moodle Plugins
April 26, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.1
Moodle 4.1.10 Update (Moodle Update)
As part of our general development cycle, the HCE, which is based on Moodle, the world's most popular open-source LMS, has been upgraded to Moodle 4.1.10.
Learn more here: Release Notes for Moodle 4.1.10
April 26, 2024 ♦ v4.1.109.1 ♦ HCE-8099
Users Can Renew Their Course Licenses (New Feature)
Many organizations sell their courses under a subscription model, where the purchaser is required to pay to maintain access to the course year after year. If the purchase doesn’t renew their course license, the learners would lose access to the course. In the past, whenever someone would buy a new license, that license would be effective immediately and always result in a new license key. This meant that if someone wanted to prepay for the renewal 3 months early, there would be a 3 month overlap between the old license and the new license. This was therefore encouraging organizations to wait until the last minute to renew their subscription to courses. This new feature allows a purchase to renew an existing license. By doing so, (a) the new license only becomes effective on the date that the old license expired, thereby ensuring that there is no overlap between two licenses, and (b) the license key remains the same, thereby not requiring the purchasing to update the license key in the “OCI Course” activity or sharing a new key via email with all their learners.
March 25, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.3 ♦ HCE-7974
Improvements to Purchases of Courses that Have a Face-to-face Activity (Improvement)
When purchasing a course that has a Face-to-face session using the “Self-enrolment (Advanced)” method, it is generally preferred for the user to select the session date / time immediately to reserve their seat before collecting their payment (and thereby reducing the likelihood that they will request a refund due to the session they wanted to attend no longer being available). However, when a user is purchasing multiple seats on behalf of other users (e.g. in bulk or even a license for their entire site), the registration process becomes more complex given that not all users who will end up registering in the course will necessarily want to attend the same session (on the same date / time). Improvements have been made to the purchasing process to (a) make it more obvious to the purchaser that the course they are buying contains an instructor-led portion and (b) the users will be asked to select the session they want to attend when they self-enrol in the course (using the key the purchaser is paying for). If a user is purchasing a course for themselves, they are given the option to select the session immediately, but are also given the option to skip the selection if they want to select the session later (after enrolling in the course).
February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7811
License Keys Need to Enforce Pre-requisites (Bug Fix)
When a user is given a license key to a course that has pre-requisites, that user can still enrol in the course (using the key) even though they did not complete the pre-requisite(s). If the user completes the course, they will not be awarded a learning recorded but they are not prevented from enrolling in the course. As part of this software fix, when a learner tries to enrol in a course that has pre-requisites using a license key, the enrolment will verify if the user has completed the pre-requisites. If they have not, they will be presented with a message informing them that they must complete the pre-requisites first. That message has a hyperlink that will redirect them to the pre-requisites.
February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7859
User Interface Improvements to the Face-to-face Summary Pages (Improvement)
Face-to-face sessions are summarized on certain screens, like on the sign-up screen and in the calendar. The event summarizes the session and includes information such as the method of delivery (in person or virtual), the name of the facilitator, etc. As part of this improvement, information that is not captured for the event in question is removed from the summary.
February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-6511
Usage Report (New Feature)
This report summarizes various statistics about the usage of the system over time. The initial web page (the “Summary”) displays the number of courses, number of users, number of recently active users, number of role assignments, number of posts, number of questions, number of resources, average number of participants, average number of recently active participants, and average number of course modules. The administrator can then click on each tab to get more details broken down over a time period. The information is available in a graphical format as well as a table format. A similar report is available within individual courses to provide data about the course in question..
Learn more here: Usage (System Level)
February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7764
Moodle Plugin Updates (Moodle Update)
As part of our general development cycle, numerous 3rd party plugins available from the Moodle marketplace were updated. These include: block_checklist, format_grid, mod_checklist, mod_hvp, mod_zoom, reported_extendedlog.
Learn more here: Moodle Plugins
February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1
Moodle 4.1.9 Update (Moodle Update)
As part of our general development cycle, the HCE, which is based on Moodle, the world's most popular open-source LMS, has been upgraded to Moodle 4.1.9.
Learn more here: Release Notes for Moodle 4.1.9
February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7886
Statement of Remittance Includes More Details on HST/GST (Improvement)
The Statement of Remittance, which provides a detailed breakdown of your online sales, now includes more details on the HST/GST collected. The improvement is meant to help your accounting team more easily track and report on the sales taxes.
January 23, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.4 ♦ HCE-7656
The maximum on “License key expires after” Has Been Increased From 1 Year to 3 Years (Improvement)
When selling course licenses, there is a limit on how long licenses can be valid for. The limit has been increased from 1 year to 3 years to encourage purchasers to buy site licenses even though they may not consume all licenses in a year. Note that the actual value (that you already set) in your existing courses has not changed. This improvement does however allow you to increase the duration of a license if you want.
Learn more here: Selling Courses
January 12, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.3 ♦ HCE-7756
OCI Network Presents Suggestions to Users After They Complete a Course (New Feature)
When a learner completes a course, the OCI network may suggest other courses to the user that are related to the one they recently completed. The notification comes in the form of an email. The body of the email contains a direct hyperlink to the suggested course’s description as well as an “unsubscribe” link in the event that the user wants to stop receiving suggestions in the future.
January 9, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.2 ♦ HCE-7738
Course Completion Conditions May Be Ignored under Specific Circumstances (Bug Fix)
If a course is configured with “Activity completion” criteria, “Expiration by date” criteria and any other criteria (e.g. Course Grades or Manual Completion by Others), provided that the learner completes the activities, the user will be awarded a course completion. In other words, the user is not required to meet any of the other conditions with the exception of the activity and retake conditions.
Learn more here: Configuring Recurring Courses
January 6, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.2 ♦ HCE-7719
"Expiration by date" is Marked Complete Even Though Other Conditions are Outstanding (Bug Fix)
When viewing the Course Completion report, a condition of “Expired by date” is marked as completed when the learner completes the 1st activity. On the other hand, the “Expiration by lapse time” is marked as completed when the learner completes the course (e.g. the last activity). For consistency, the “Expiration by date” is now only marked as complete when the user completes the entire course and receives a learning record.
Learn more here: Configuring Recurring Courses
January 6, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.2 ♦ HCE-7720
To Order of a Result Set Can Prevent Completions from Being Awarded (Bug Fix)
The order of the result set in the database query to aggregate all of the course completion criteria can result in a situation whereby course completions are not awarded. Unlocking the course completions settings does not resolve the issue. As part of this software fix, the logic to calculate whether the system should award a learning record has been refactored and the order of the result set no longer matters.
Learn more here: Configuring Recurring Courses
January 6, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.2 ♦ HCE-7722
BigBlueButton 2.7.3 Update (BigBlueButton Update)
As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.3.
Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.3
January 3, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.1 ♦ HCE-7710
Moodle 4.1.8 Update (Moodle Update)
As part of our general development cycle, the HCE, which is based on Moodle, the world's most popular open-source LMS, has been upgraded to Moodle 4.1.8.
Learn more here: https://moodledev.io/general/releases/4.1/4.1.8
January 3, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.1 ♦ HCE-7699
Optional Activities Do Not Issue Learning Records (Bug Fix)
An issue was introduced in 4.1.6.3 where optional activities (e.g. activities within a course not required as per the "Course Completion" settings) do not issue a learning record. While the database correctly marks the user as having completed the activity, the "Learning Records" report does not. This only affects systems that were upgrade to 4.1.6.3. As part of this software fix, optional activities going forward will now issue learning records as expected. Note that this software fix will not retroactively issue learning records for optional activities. It is therefore recommended that systems that had upgrade to 4.1.6.3 upgrade to 4.1.7.2 as soon as possible to ensure that the Learning Records report accurately reflects a user's completion status.
December 21, 2023 ♦ v4.1.7.2 ♦ HCE-7675
Badges are Aggregated when a User Receives a Learning Record (Improvement)
A single activity can have multiple completion criteria. For example, in order to complete a SCORM, an instructor might specify that the learner must (a) view the activity, (b) receive a grade, (c) that the grade must exceed a required minimum score, (d) require a status of "passed" from the SCORM package itself, and (e) require all scos to return completion status. This would result in 5 badges on the course outline page for that single activity. While viewing those details is important when a learner is in progress of completing the activity to properly communicate what they need to do, after the learner receives a learning record, that information becomes less important. As part of this improvement, once a learner receives a learning record for an activity, the badges are aggregated into one (1) badge that simply says "Done: Complete". When the user is asked to get recertified, the 5 badges will once again appear.
December 18, 2023 ♦ v4.1.7.1 ♦ HCE-7657
Learners can Scan a QR Code To Mark Themselves as Having Attended a Face-to-face Session (New Feature)
Learners can now mark themselves as having attended a face-to-face session by scanning a QR code using their mobile device. This marks their attendance as "Fully attended". By allowing users to self-attest, the instructor no longer has to manually enter everyone's attendance. The attendance however is not automatically "approved". The instructor must still approve the timesheet and in doing so, has the opportunity to change someone's attendance before their final approval.
December 18, 2023 ♦ v4.1.7.1 ♦ HCE-7551
Notifying Users when their Enrolment is About to Expire with the Self Enrolment (Advanced) Method (New Feature)
The "Self-enrolment (Advanced)" method is now able to send a notification to learners, instructors, or both learners and instructors when their enrolment is about to expire. Following the upgrade of your learning environment, courses that already use the "Self-enrolment (Advanced)" enrolment method will not automatically start sending notifications, but if the enrolment method is added to a new course or an existing course, the enrolment instance will be configured to notify learners by default 7 days before their enrolment expires. The notification will be sent via email as well as using the system's built-in web notifications.
Learn more here: Enabling Self Enrolment
December 18, 2023 ♦ v4.1.7.1 ♦ HCE-5885
Automatic Tracking of Attendance and Participation in BigBlueButton (New Feature)
The BigBlueButton server is now sends details back to the learning environment related to the attendance and participation of learners in BigBlueButton sessions. This makes it possible for an instructor to specify how long the user must attend a session in order to receive a learning record, and whether or not they need to participate in the chats, the talks and the polls to name a few examples. When a participant meets the requirements as defined by the instructor, the learning environment will grant them a learning record for the BigBlueButton activity in question, which can then be used by the course itself to issue a learning record and a certificate of completion. Please note that this feature has been gradually introduced to BigBlueButton servers hosted by Dual Code since July 2023 but it is only now generally available to all Dual Code clients.
December 18, 2023 ♦ v4.1.7.1 ♦ HCE-7610
Ability to Track Courses Accredited by the Canadian Nurses Association (Improvement)
The Accreditation feature allows you to specify the accrediting body, the type of credit, and the number of credits / hours for a course. This information can then be included in a certificate of completion, thereby giving a learner the proof they need to register their credit with their College or other association. As part of this enhancement, the "Canadian Nurses Association" now appears in the list of accreditation bodies, allowing you to track courses accredited by the CNA.
December 18, 2023 ♦ v4.1.7.1 ♦ HCE-7609
Moodle 4.1.7 Update (Moodle Update)
As part of our general development cycle, the HCE, which is based on Moodle, the world's most popular open-source LMS, has been upgraded to Moodle 4.1.7.
Learn more here: Moodle 4.1.7 | Moodle Developer Resources
December 18, 2023 ♦ v4.1.7.1 ♦ HCE-7390