What's New

Enhanced Deletion Controls and Soft Delete Implementation for Appraisals (Improvement)

To address data loss concerns, several improvements were implemented for performance appraisal management. Previously, appraisal deletions lacked confirmation prompts, log entries, and used a hard deletion process that removed records from the database, creating potential data recovery issues. This update introduces confirmation dialogs for appraisal deletions, ensuring users confirm intent, and adds event logging for traceability. Additionally, appraisals are now "soft deleted" - marked as deleted instead of removed from the database - when feedback has been submitted, enabling potential data recovery. This change aligns appraisal deletions with existing program archiving practices, offering more robust data handling and management.

_{November 13, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.3 ♦ HCE-6247}

Comma Handling in “is one of” Conditions for Program and Cohort Assignment Rules (Bug Fix)

An issue was identified in which program or cohort assignment rules using the “is one of” condition and containing comma-separated values did not save correctly. Rather than treating entries like “Manager, Health Team” as a single value, the system split them into separate values (e.g., "Manager" and "Health Team"). This fix updates the system to allow commas in these fields, ensuring entries are saved as intended.

Learn more here: Registering Users in Programs
_{November 13, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.3 ♦ HCE-8471}

Volume Discounts and Thresholds (New Feature)

The “Self enrolment (Advanced)” enrolment method now allows you to define your own volume thresholds and discounts. Organizations that sell courses often establish volume thresholds along with corresponding discounts to encourage bulk purchases. This approach, known as threshold volume discounting, ensures that a discount is only applied once a buyer reaches a designated quantity threshold. For instance, a discounted rate might be offered when an organization buys 100 licenses or more. When configuring these volume thresholds and discounts, sellers have the option to apply the discount as either a percentage reduction (e.g., 10% off) or as a fixed, reduced price per unit (e.g., $10 per license instead of $12). Once a user completes a purchase of licenses, they receive a link or license key. This key can be shared with their team members, allowing them to enroll in the prepaid course seamlessly. This system streamlines access to the course content for larger groups, making it easy for organizations to manage training and education for their teams.

Learn more here: Selling a Course
_{November 5, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.2 ♦ HCE-7615}

Manage Appraisals Page Timing Out (Bug Fix)

The “Manage Appraisals” page sometimes times out for administrators. This is caused by the “Read Access” column, which in some cases take a long time to load. As cache was introduced to speed up the page, eliminating the time out.

Learn more here: Assigning Appraisals
_{November 5, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.2 ♦ HCE-8592}

BigBlueButton 2.7.15 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.15.

Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.15
_{November 5, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.2 ♦ HCE-8731}

Restricted Guest Access to Instructor-led Course Registrations (Bug Fix)

An issue was found where guest users (non-authenticated users) could access courses and register for sessions, even when no guest enrollment method was enabled. This was caused by conflicts with course catalogue filters and autologin settings. The issue stemmed from the filter_facetoface code displaying sign-up options for guests when ‘autologinguest’ was active. A fix has been implemented to ensure that guest users cannot enroll in sessions unless they are logged in.

Learn more here: Understanding the Limitations of Anonymous Guests
_{November 1, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.2 ♦ HCE-8175}

Improved Facilitator Notifications and Calendar Event Integration (Improvement)

Previously, facilitators did not receive specific notifications or iCal events for their scheduled sessions, making it difficult to track their teaching schedule and understand calendar conflicts. This has now been resolved with the implementation of three types of facilitator notifications, including .ics file invitations. Facilitators will now receive event invites directly in their calendars and be notified when they are added or removed from a session, or if important details about the session change, like the room or location.

Learn more here: Managing Facilitators
_{November 1, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.2 ♦ HCE-8492}

Immediate Compliance Status Update for Program Course List Changes (Improvement)

An issue was identified where students who were previously marked as compliant in a program did not update to "Not compliant" when a new course was added, until an overnight task ran. Now, when a course is added to or removed from a program, the compliance status updates immediately. This ensures that students are correctly marked as "Not compliant" or "Compliant" without waiting for an overnight task, providing more accurate and timely program completion status.

Learn more here: Managing Programs
_{November 1, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.2 ♦ HCE-8562}

Corrected Course Completion Logic for Mixed Condition Requirements (Bug Fix)

An issue was discovered where users did not receive course completion as expected when the requirements included both "Activity completion" and "Learning record in another course" conditions, even when meeting "any" of the conditions was sufficient. This was due to recertification logic that incorrectly required all activities to be completed, preventing course completion from being awarded. The logic has been revised to ensure users receive course completion when any of the specified conditions are met.

Learn more here: Tracking Completion
_{November 1, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.2 ♦ HCE-8646}

Removed Users Reappearing in Sessions (Bug Fix)

An issue was identified where a user removed from a session would reappear after attendance was taken, despite not being re-added manually. This occurred when a session was created in a past month and students were marked as fully attended before removal. The log inaccurately showed a "user graded" event even though the user did not appear to be re-added. This has been resolved so that once a user is removed from a session, taking attendance will no longer add them back, ensuring accurate session management.

Learn more here: Taking Attendance
_{November 1, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.2 ♦ HCE-8638}

Enhanced Flexibility in Appraisal Manager Assignment and Removal (Bug Fix)

Supervisors faced an issue where they could assign another supervisor to an appraisal but were unable to unassign them afterward. This update ensures that supervisors who have the capability to assign managers to an appraisal can also unassign them. The solution involved modifying the method that generates the list of supervisors to include all currently assigned managers, allowing proper management of appraisal assignments.

Learn more here: Assigning Appraisals to Supervisors
_{November 1, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.2 ♦ HCE-8668}

Improved Handling of End-of-Month Course Expirations (Improvement)

When courses are completed on the last day of a month, the expiration date could be incorrect due to variations in the number of days in the current or following month. For instance, a course completed on October 31 with a one-month validity would expire on December 1 instead of the expected November 30. Previously, expiration dates were shifted to the next month when it did not contain the same day. The updated calculation now correctly manages end-of-month completions, ensuring expiration dates align as expected, even when months have different lengths.

Learn more here: Configuring Recurring Courses
_{November 1, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.2 ♦ HCE-8700}

BigBlueButton 2.7.14 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.14.

Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.14
_{Oct 23, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.1 ♦ HCE-8685}

Auto-Detect Encoding for User Uploads (New Feature)

Previously, when uploading users, administrators were required to manually select the file encoding (e.g., UTF-8), which could be confusing, as users may not always know their file’s encoding. To simplify this process, we’ve added an "Auto detect" option to the "Encoding" dropdown for the auto upload and manual upload user functions. This option is now the default for new uploads, automatically detecting the correct character encoding without requiring users to choose from a long list of options. If you are using scheduled jobs, please note that you will need to update them to use this new option.

Learn more here: Creating a CSV File for User Uploads
_{October 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.1 ♦ HCE-8583}

Submissions Health Check to Monitor and Resolve Unreviewed Course Activities (New Feature)

A new report has been implemented to help System Administrators efficiently manage high volumes of assignment submissions. This report allows System Administrators to generate a consolidated list of unreviewed or ungraded submissions for both the Assignment and Supporting Documentation activities across all courses. The list includes direct links to each submission, making it easier for System Administrators to review, approve, and grade submissions. The report is accessible through the System Health section (under Site Administration > System Health).

Learn more here: Submissions
_{October 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.1 ♦ HCE-8357}

Mlang Tags Appear in Calendar Invites for F2F Sessions with Microsoft Teams (Software Fix)

The calendar invite sent to learners who register for a Face-to-Face (F2F) session with a Microsoft Teams activity was displaying unnecessary "mlang" tags, causing confusion in the event details. This issue has been resolved, and calendar invites now display correctly without the tags, ensuring a clean and clear invitation for learners.

Learn more here: Linking to a Microsoft Teams Session from a F2f Session
_{October 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.1 ♦ HCE-8465}

Error When Creating F2F Sessions with Long Microsoft Teams Details (Software Fix)

When setting up a new Face-to-Face (F2F) session using Microsoft Teams as the video conferencing option, a database write exception can occur if the combined length of the Teams meeting details and session location exceeds the allowed limit. This update addresses the issue by modifying how the information is stored in the database.

Learn more here: Linking to a Microsoft Teams Session from a F2f Session
_{October 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.1 ♦ HCE-8621}

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
_{October 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.1}

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
_{October 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.14.1 ♦ HCE-8445}

BigBlueButton 2.7.13 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.13.

Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.13
_{Oct 11, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.3 ♦ HCE-8655}

Enhancements to AI Question Generator (Improvement)

The AI question generator has been enhanced to provide a more tailored and effective learning experience. It can now automatically calculates the appropriate number of questions based on the length of the provided text, ensuring optimal coverage of the material. The system can also now generate true/false questions in an 80/20 ratio, with approximately 20% being true/false questions and 80% being multiple-choice, creating a balanced assessment approach. Additionally, each question is now accompanied by specific feedback, guiding users through the correct answers and explaining why their selected responses were incorrect. This improvement helps reinforce learning and deepens the user’s understanding of the content.

Learn more here: Generating Quiz Questions Using Generative AI
_{September 19, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.3 ♦ HCE-8549}

Incorrect Certificate Issue Date Due to Race Condition (Bug Fix)

In some cases, in-course certificates of completion were being issued with the completion date from a previous learning record instead of the most recent one, due to a "race condition." This issue occurred when learners with historical course completion records, imported during data migration, completed a course a second time. Upon clicking the simple certificate activity, the certificate displayed the date of their old learning record instead of the new one. As part of this software fix, if the simple certificate activity is set to require a "learning record exists" condition, the system will now wait for the new learning record to be created before issuing the certificate. It is recommended that instructors and administrators use system-level certificates of completion whenever possible for more accurate record-keeping.

Learn more here: Issuing Certificates of Completion
_{September 19, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.3 ♦ HCE-8390}

System Health Notifications for Important System Checks (Improvement)

A new scheduled task has been introduced to improve "System Health" notifications. When a system health check changes from "OK" to a "Warning" or "Information" status, such as when the system detects incorrect SCORM settings, a notification will be sent to System Administrators. This ensures that administrators are promptly informed of important system health changes. Notifications are sent on the 1st day of the month in the user’s preferred language and are triggered only once when the status changes. These alerts help prevent or resolve potential issues before they escalate.

Learn more here: System Health
_{September 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.3 ♦ HCE-7784}

Enhanced Email Transparency and Unsubscribe Option (Improvement)

The system distinguishes between mandatory notifications, such as those requiring users to complete essential training, and optional ones, like post-course survey requests. To improve compliance with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and enhance users' ability to manage their email preferences, a footer will be added to most outgoing emails. This footer will include identification details for both your organization and Dual Code, along with an unsubscribe option for non-mandatory emails. This update does not add or remove notifications from the system, nor does it alter users' ability to opt out of certain emails. It simply provides greater transparency about the email source and makes it easier for users to adjust their notification preferences.

Learn more here: CASL: Canada's Anti-Spam Law
_{September 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.3 ♦ HCE-8334}

Learner Receives an Email from an Assignment with an Invalid Link (Bug Fix)

When an instructor gives feedback on an assignment, the learner receives an email with a link that previously directed them to a page for entering grades and feedback, which was only accessible to instructors. With this software update, the link now directs learners to a page where they can view the feedback provided to them.

_{September 15, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.3 ♦ HCE-8504}

Direct Link to a Course Does Not Always Work When the User is Not Already Logged In (Bug Fix)

In certain cases, especially in a multi-site environment, when a user clicks a direct link to a course while not logged in, they are taken to the login page. After logging in, they would encounter an exception error and be redirected to the main site instead of the intended course. With this bug fix, users are now properly redirected to the course after logging in without encountering any exceptions.
_{September 12, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.3 ♦ HCE-8331}

Appraisal Reassignment and Feedback Management After Supervisor Deletion (Improvement)

When a supervisor completes an employee's appraisal and their account is later deleted (e.g., due to leaving the organization), it can cause visibility and reassignment issues. As part of this improvement, if a supervisor is deleted, their feedback will be marked as deleted unless they had completed and locked the appraisal.

In cases where a different supervisor completed the appraisal, the feedback remains visible, and the new supervisor can take over. If the deleted supervisor completed the appraisal but did not lock it, the status will revert to ‘awaiting supervisor’ feedback. If the appraisal was locked by the deleted supervisor, the feedback remains accessible, with no changes to the appraisal status.

These updates improve the continuity of appraisals when supervisors are reassigned or leave the organization.

Learn more here: Assigning Appraisals
_{September 9, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.3 ♦ HCE-8119}

Email Notification for User Removal from In-Progress F2F Sessions (Improvement)

When an administrator removes a user from a face-to-face (F2F) session that is in progress but not yet completed, the system will now send a notification email to the user. Previously, an email was only sent if the user was removed before the session started. With this update, users will be informed of their removal regardless of whether the session has begun, ensuring timely communication and minimizing confusion about their session status. This enhancement helps maintain better transparency and user awareness throughout the session process.

Learn more here: Completion Details
_{September 6, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.3 ♦ HCE-8404}

Supervisor Appraisal Status Summary Notifications (New Feature)

Supervisors will now receive status summary notifications for employee appraisals that are coming due or overdue. System administrators can modify or disable these notifications by adjusting the frequency in the System Configuration settings. By default, the notifications are sent on the 1st of each month. Each summary will provide supervisors with an overview of their assigned appraisals, categorized by form, including the total number of appraisals, those coming due, and those overdue. The notification also includes a link for supervisors to view a filtered list of appraisals that are due or overdue in the Manage Appraisals page.

Learn more here: Completion Details
_{September 3, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.3 ♦ HCE-8424}

Supervisor Access to Overdue Employee Appraisals Without Initial Feedback (New Feature)

Previously, the Performance Appraisal System required supervisors to wait for employees to complete and submit their initial appraisal feedback, which could delay the review process. With this enhancement, supervisors will now see an "overdue" status in the ‘State’ column of the ‘Manage Appraisals’ summary. Additionally, the ‘Fill out appraisal’ icon will be enabled for overdue appraisals. When a supervisor clicks on the icon, they will be notified that the employee has not submitted feedback and asked to confirm whether they want to proceed without it. If they choose to proceed, the appraisal form will open for the supervisor to provide their feedback. The employee’s draft feedback, including competency rankings and comments, will remain private and inaccessible to the supervisor. The employee’s draft will be saved, allowing them to resume their feedback later from where they left off.

Learn more here: Assigning Appraisals to Supervisors
_{September 3, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.3 ♦ HCE-8425}

Generating Quiz Questions Using Generative AI (New Feature)

We are excited to introduce a powerful new feature that leverages generative AI to create quiz questions instantly. With this innovative tool, you can generate high-quality, relevant questions in seconds by simply inputting your content. This feature not only saves time but also enhances the quality and variety of questions, making it easier than ever to build engaging and effective quizzes. Whether you're crafting simple knowledge checks or complex assessments, our generative AI ensures that your quizzes are both comprehensive and aligned with your learning objectives.

Learn more here: Generating Quiz Questions Using Generative AI
_{August 31, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.2 ♦ HCE-7884}

Ability to Specify a Preferred Date and Time for the Maintenance Window (New Feature)

System Administrators now have the ability to set the default maintenance window for their system, allowing them to choose the preferred day and time for updates, as well as the amount of notice they would like. Additionally, this new feature enables them to schedule a message to be displayed to all users, informing them of the upcoming maintenance window.

Learn more here: Changing the Default Maintenance Window
_{August 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.1 ♦ HCE-8230}

Deleted Users Show Up in Open Appraisals (Bug Fix)

When managing appraisals, users who have been deleted from the system currently still appear on the list, even if their appraisal status is pending their completion or their manager's. With this software fix, deleted users will no longer appear on the list if the appraisal is still open.

Learn more here: Assigning Appraisals
_{August 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.1 ♦ HCE-8370}

Notifications when Patches Become Available (Improvement)

The system distinguishes between updates and patches. When an update becomes available, your learning environment is automatically scheduled for to be updated. However, when a patch is released, it is not automatically scheduled. Instead, patches are included in the next update, which will be automatically scheduled when it becomes available. As part of this enhancement, System Administrators now receive a notification when a patch is available. The notification prompts administrators to review the release notes and, if the patch is beneficial, to manually schedule an update to their system. If a patch is immediately applied, it will be automatically included with the next scheduled update.

Learn more here: Scheduling an Update
_{August 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.1 ♦ HCE-7571}

Rescheduling an Update to the Staging Server Is Now Done Directly from the Staging Server (Improvement)

The learning environment now allows you to reschedule updates more efficiently. Previously, rescheduling updates for both the production server and the staging server had to be done through the production server. With this enhancement, rescheduling updates to the staging server must now be handled directly from the staging server itself.

Learn more here: Scheduling an Update
_{August 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.1 ♦ HCE-8028}

mlang Tag is Displayed in Column Header (Bug Fix)

When exporting attendance records for a face-to-face activity, the "Video Conferencing" column shows an mlang tag due to the multilingual nature of the field. As part of the software update, the header will now appear in the user's preferred language, and the mlang tag will no longer be displayed.

Learn more here: Exporting the List of Attendees
_{August 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.12.1 ♦ HCE-8372}

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-8445}

BigBlueButton 2.7.12 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.12.

Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.12
_{August 12, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.7 ♦ HCE-8447}

PAS Administrators Cannot Manage Scales (Bug Fix)

According to the Performance Appraisal System (PAS) documentation, PAS Administrators are responsible for defining and managing scales throughout the system. With this software update, PAS Administrators can now perform these tasks as intended. It's important to note that the scales used by the PAS are the same as those utilized by the LMS. Consequently, a user with the PAS Administrator role now has the ability to manage scales across the entire system, including defining new scales and editing existing ones.

Learn more here: Defining a Scale
_{August 9, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.7 ♦ HCE-7368}

Date-Type Custom User Profile Field Displaying Unusual Characters in PAS Report (Bug Fix)

When attempting to display a custom user profile field of the 'Date' type, the Performance Appraisal Completion Details report was rendering the value as '0NaN-NaN-NaN NaN:NaN'. This software fix ensures that the date is now correctly displayed as intended.

Learn more here: Completion Details
_{August 9, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.7 ♦ HCE-7637}

BigBlueButton 2.7.11 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.11.

Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.11
_{August 6, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.6 ♦ HCE-8428}

Compliance Meter is Including Mandatory Courses From Other Sites (Bug Fix)

In a multi-site environment, an administrator managing a single site has been seeing compliance metrics that include courses from other sites. With this software fix, the compliance meter will now only consider courses relevant to the site(s) that the administrator is managing.

Learn more here: Displaying F2F Sessions in Course Descriptions
_{July 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.5 ♦ HCE-8186}

BigBlueButton 2.7.10 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.10.

Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.10
_{July 30, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.5 ♦ HCE-8403}

Users Cannot Place Themselves on a Waiting List Without First Enrolling in the Course (Improvement)

When a course includes a face-to-face activity, a placeholder or special word can be used to list all sessions in the course description, accompanied by a "Sign Up" button. Users can click this button to both enroll in the course and sign up for a specific session. However, this method may not always work when the session is full, even if overbooking (waiting lists) is enabled. With this software fix, users can now sign up for sessions that are full, provided overbooking is enabled, using the "Sign Up" button in the course description.

Learn more here: Displaying F2F Sessions in Course Descriptions
_{July 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.5 ♦ HCE-8186}

Files with Special / French Characters in Their Name Cause Issues in Marketing Blocks (Bug Fix)

If a file such as an image contains a French character in its name, it will cause an issue with the marketing blocks that can be developed within the theme. With this fix, files may not contain French characters.

Learn more here: Managing the Theme
_{July 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.5 ♦ HCE-8333}

Renew My Learning Record Does Not Clear All Data (Bug Fix)

If a user completes a course and receives a learning record, and then immediately undertakes optional activities (on the same day), the data for these optional activities will not be cleared when the user clicks on the “Renews my learning record” link. With this software fix, any activities completed on the same day the learning record was issued (regardless of the time) will be cleared when the learner clicks on "Renew my learning record".

Learn more here: Tracking Completion
_{July 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.5 ♦ HCE-8335}

Expiration Dates for Courses With an Expiration Date That Is “Rounded Up” May Be Extended by One Month (Bug Fix)

If a course is configured to round up the expiration date and also set to expire the learning record based on the previous expiration date, the new learning record's expiration (after recertification) may be extended by an additional month. For example, if a user had an expiration date of October 1st and completed the course on time, next year’s expiration could be November 1st instead of October 1st. With this software fix, the expiration date will now correctly display as October 1st as expected.

Learn more here: Configuring Recurring Courses
_{July 18, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.5 ♦ HCE-8375}

Compliance Snapshots for Months that have Less than 31 Days Are Skipped (Bug Fix)

The system takes a compliance snapshot at the end of each month and archives it for future reference. Starting in February 2024, the snapshots for months that have less than 31 days (February, April and June 2024) were skipped. With this software fix, the compliance snapshots are now generated once again.

Learn more here: Compliance
_{July 10, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.4 ♦ HCE-8352}

Manage Appraisals Table Shows Inaccurate List of User with Read Access to Appraisal Forms (Bug Fix)

When viewing the Performance Appraisals “Manage Appraisals” table, the "Read Access" column shows an inaccurate/incomplete list of users who have read access to a form. Only Supervisors who are assigned to the form are shown as having "Read Access". Depending on the PAS "Read Access" setting, administrators of cohorts to which the user belongs to can potentially also have read access to their appraisal forms. As part of this software fix, the list in the “Read Access” column now properly reflects the “Read Access” setting as defined by an administrator.

Learn more here: Configuring the PAS
_{July 7, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.4 ♦ HCE-7651}

BigBlueButton 2.7.9 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.9.

Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.9
_{July 7, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.4 ♦ HCE-8328}

Courses with Multiple Activities Set to Expire by "Year" or "Month" May Not Issue Learning Records Under Specific Circumstances (Bug Fix)

When a learning record is set to expire after a specific period (e.g., 365 days), the system ensures that the user completes all mandatory activities within that timeframe before issuing a learning record. For instance, if a learning record expires after 365 days, the user must have completed all required activities within the past 365 days. If another unit of measure was used (e.g., months or years), the system disregarded the unit when verifying completion criteria. For example, setting "12 months" incorrectly required completion within 12 days. This software fix now ensures that the system correctly considers the specified unit (days, months, or years) when issuing learning records.

Learn more here: Configuring Recurring Courses
_{July 7, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.4 ♦ HCE-8352}

Completion Status Report Shows the “Not Enrolled” Icon (Bug Fix)

The Completion Status report only shows enrolled users. However, the status of certain users sometimes showed the “Not enrolled” icon. This was caused by the fact the the enrolment start time for the user(s) in question was set to 0 when using a specific enrolment method and under specific circumstances. As part of this software fix, we ensure that the enrolment start time is set correctly using the given scenario that was causing the issue.

Learn more here: Completion Status
_{June 26, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.3 ♦ HCE-8279}

The “User is registered in the program” Program Notification Does Not Support Tokens (Improvement)

Programs are capable of sending notifications to users based on numerous events. Generally speaking, they support “tokens”, which are placeholders that an administrator can insert in the notification that gets replaced by an actual value when the notification gets sent (like a user’s first and last name for example). The “User is registered in the program” did not support such tokens. As part of this improvements, numerous tokens have been added to the “User is registered in the program” program notification. The complete list of token can be found when editing the notification on a per program basis.

Learn more here: Sending Reminders to Users regarding Mandatory Courses
_{June 25, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.2 ♦ HCE-7253}

Sign Up Buttons Are Not Sufficiently Noticeable (Improvement)

There are various windows that allows users to register in face-to-face sessions. Generally speaking a “Sign Up” hyperlink is displayed. The hyperlinks however are not sufficiently noticeable based on feedback from clients. As part of this improvement, the hyperlinks have been changed to buttons and are now more noticeable.

Learn more here: Displaying F2F Sessions in Course Descriptions
_{June 17, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.1 ♦ HCE-7797}

Course Expiration and Recertification Information is Available in the Custom Report Builder (New Feature)

The information related to the course expirations and recertification is now available in the custom report builder. When selecting the “Courses” report source, a new “Certification” section is available. It contains two fields: Expiration and Recertification. Adding these fields to your courses will give you details on the expiration date and recertification window for each course.

Learn more here: Adding Custom Reports
_{June 17, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.1 ♦ HCE-8205}

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: Restricting when Users can Get Recertified
_{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}

Mandatory Courses that Expire by Lapse Time May Not Always Show a Due Date (Improvement)

Courses assigned via programs are considered to be mandatory. There is a setting in each program labelled “Days to complete” to set a due date for when employees need to complete these mandatory courses when they are first enrolled in them. We recommend that administrators set “Days to complete” to a reasonable value, like 30 days for example, but the system does allow an administrator to NOT set a deadline by entering a value of 0. When doing so, the Compliance Overview block lists the courses as being mandatory for the user, but doesn’t specify a due date. As part of this improvement, if (and only if) “Days to complete” is set to 0, and if (and only if) the course has an expiration date on it, then the due date shown on the Compliance Overview block will match the expiration date set in the course’s settings. In other words, if a user is enrolled in a course on May 1st via a program, the “Days to complete” in this program is set to 0, and the course’s learning record is set to expire every 365 days, then the Compliance Overview block will now say that the due date for the course in question is April 30th of the following year. But if “Days to complete” is set to 30, then the due date will be May 30 for newly enrolled users. Note that this behavior always existed for courses that expire by date. This improvements implements a consistent behaviour for courses that expire by lapse time.

Learn more here: Understanding Due Dates
_{June 17, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.1 ♦ HCE-8273}

Ability to Copy / Paste Placeholders in Program Notifications (Improvement)

When customizing the program notifications, an administrator has the ability to insert placeholders such as the user’s name. When the notification is sent, the placeholder is replaced by a real value (e.g. John Smith). As part of this improvement, the placeholders supported by the program notifications are displayed on the notification edit page. Clicking on the token will copy it to your browser’s clipboard, allowing you to easily paste it in your custom notification.

Learn more here: Sending Reminders to Users regarding Mandatory Courses
_{June 17, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.1 ♦ HCE-8203}

Tracking Notifications Sent to Users by the System (New Feature)

The system occasionally sends notifications to users, including for example when they have courses that they need to complete for compliance purposes. As part of this new feature, a “Notifications” source is now available in the custom report builder, thereby allowing an administrator to build a custom report to track if and when a notification was sent, and whether it was read by the recipient.

Learn more here: Tracking Notifications
_{June 17, 2024 ♦ v4.1.11.1 ♦ HCE-8196}

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}

Face-to-face Session Cannot Be Deleted from Calendar (Bug Fix)

When a face-to-face session is created, an entry is automatically added to the learning environment’s calendar. This calendar entry contains information about the session, including the name of its Facilitator. If the Facilitator is deleted from the system (e.g. their user account is permanently deleted), then trying to subsequently cancel the session / delete the calendar entry throws an exception. As part of this software fix, canceling a session for a face-to-face session where the Facilitator is no longer in the system now works successfully.

Learn more here: Cancelling Classroom Sessions

_{June 6, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.4 ♦ HCE-8217}

Rewording of the “Unlock Completion Setting” Button (Improvement)

When users complete an activity or a course, the completion settings for that activity / course becomes locked. The instructor must click on a button to unlock the criteria before making any changes. The label of that button and its description suggests that users will lose their data or learning record if the button is clicked, which is not accurate. As part of this improvement, the label of the button and its description has been changed to better reflect what is happening behind the scenes. Note that this change is strictly a language string and there is no change in functionality.

Learn more here: Tracking Completion

_{May 31, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.4 ♦ HCE-5846}

System Coordinators Can View and Edit Advanced Settings for Users (Improvement)

The System Coordinator role allows a user to view and edit another user’s profile. System Coordinators however can only edit the basic user profile and do not have access to the advanced settings available to System Administrators. As part of this improvement, System Coordinators now see the “Show advanced settings” link at the bottom of each user’s profile and can view / edit a user’s advanced profile fields.

Learn more here: Editing Users for System Coordinators

_{May 30, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.4 ♦ HCE-8204}

Option to Withdraw Enrollment after Self-Enrollment in a Free Course (Improvement)

When a user self-enrolls for a course, they do not have the ability to withdraw their enrolment. As part of this improvement, a user who self-enrolls in a free course now has the ability to unenroll themselves. Note that the ability to unenroll yourself from a course for which you paid is not available via this functionality given that this process may require a refund under certain circumstances, which has greater implications.

Learn more here: Searching and Enrolling in Courses

_{May 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.4 ♦ HCE-6802}

Accreditation Information in Courses (Improvement)

When adding a course, an instructor can specify whether the course is accredited or not. If accredited, the instructor can specify the accreditation body (e.g. College of Family Physicians of Canada), the type of credit (e.g. Mainpro-M1), the number of credits, and the accreditation identifier. This information can then appear on a certificate of completion issued to the learner when they complete the course. As part of this upgrade, this feature will be enabled on all HCE Enterprise, HCE Standard and HCE Express systems, and disabled on all other systems. This means that any healthcare organization will now be able to specify whether or not their courses are accredited when creating them.

Learn more here: Tracking Accreditation

_{May 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.4 ♦ HCE-7913}

Custom Reports Available in the Navigation Block (Improvement)

The learning environment allows a System Administrator to develop custom reports. Once developed, the administrator can specify an audience who can view the custom report (and even receive it via email). When that audience includes regular staff however, there is no hyperlink within the learning environment that takes the user directly to the custom reports, which means the administrator must customize their top menu (via the theme) to include a link. As part of this improvement, a link to custom reports is not available to all authenticated users via the navigation block (under Navigation > Reports).

Learn more here: Managing Custom Reports

_{May 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.4 ♦ HCE-8152}

Status Icons Displayed in the User Profile (under the “Courses” tab) do not Line Up with Compliance Report (Bug Fix)

When viewing a user’s profile, an administrator has the ability to click on the “Courses” tab to see the list of courses a user is enrolled in and their status. The icons do not always line up with the icons on the Compliance or the Completion Status report. As part of this improvement, the icons on the “Courses” tab are now aligned with the icons on the other reports.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/completion-status-beta
_{May 24, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.3 ♦ HCE-8158}

Epic Administrators Cannot Edit Programs (Bug Fix)

Administrators managing the training programs for Epic Systems cannot edit programs due to their inability to assign the role of “Student” in courses. As part of this software fix, the Epic administrators can now edit all programs related to Epic Systems' EHR.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/epic-systems-ehr
_{May 24, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.3 ♦ HCE-8190}

Exception Thrown When Viewing a Program (Bug Fix)

It is possible when creating a program to end up in a scenario where the program is considered invalid from a database perspective because some of the notifications are set to “null”. When editing this program at a later date, the administrator will see an exception message on the screen. As part of this software fix, the scenario where the program is considered invalid has been addressed and the system no longer throws an exception.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/adding-a-program
_{May 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.3 ♦ HCE-8141}

Broken Link Sent by Assignment Activity (Bug Fix)

When a user uploads a file for an assignment, the assignment activity sends the instructors an email. A link contained in that email is broken. As part of this software fix, the link is now pointing to the right web page.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/adding-an-activity
_{May 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.3 ♦ HCE-8168}

Overridden Activity Completions Block Future Recertifications (Bug Fix)

When a user’s activity completion is granted manually by an instructor (using the “override” function in the learning environment), the user does not get a learning record when they try to get recertified a year later for the same course because the override sticks year after year. As part of this software fix, the system now generates a new learning record whenever a user completes an activity during the recertification process, even if an override is present.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/activity-completion-basic-advanced
_{May 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.3 ♦ HCE-8193}

BigBlueButton 2.7.8 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.8.

Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.8
_{May 21, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.3 ♦ HCE-8191}

Appraisals Are Not Reassigned to the New Supervisor (New Feature)

When an employee switches supervisors (e.g. managers, directors or VPs), the appraisal that is already assigned to their supervisor does not get reassigned to their new supervisor. As a result, some of the appraisals never get completed unless an administrator manually intervenes and reassigns the appraisal manually. As part of this new feature, any appraisal in progress (e.g. appraisals that are not yet “locked”) is automatically reassigned to the user’s new supervisor. As part of this new feature, a system-level administrator can also limit the list of supervisors who will be assigned to the appraisal based on user profile fields.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/pas/assigning-appraisals-to-supervisors
_{May 9, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.3 ♦ HCE-7273}

BigBlueButton 2.7.7 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.7.

Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.7
_{May 7, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.2 ♦ HCE-8155}

Text Strings Appear in Both English and French on the Same Page (Bug Fix)

When viewing the site in French, certain administrative pages show text in both English and French. As part of this software fix, the way the text is rendered on these pages was refactored and the text now only appears in the user’s preferred language .

_{May 1, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.2 ♦ HCE-8078}

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}

Session Attendance Taken Prior to the HCE 4.1 Upgrade Might Switch State Following an Upgrade to HCE 4.1 (Bug Fix)

This issue is only applicable to timesheets entered using version 3.9 of the learning environment, and then re-saved using version 4.1 of the learning environment. Under certain circumstances, if a user was marked as having fully attended a face-to-face session using version 3.9 of the learning environment, and an administrator then modified the timesheet (e.g. entered attendance for other users and then saved the timesheet again) using version 4.1 of the learning environment, the status for certain users might change from “Fully attended” to “Partially attended”. The user’s however would retain their learning record, but some reports may indicate that the user only partially attended the session. As part of this software fix, the system now retains the status of “Fully attended” if an administrator re-saved an old timesheets created in HCE 3.9.

_{April 26, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.1 ♦ HCE-8115}

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}

Empty Programs Show Users as Being Compliant but with 0% Completion (Improvement)

Programs that do not reference any courses (e.g. empty programs) are included in the Program Completion report. The report states that users have a “Status” of “Compliant” and have a “% Complete” of “0”. As part of this improvement, empty programs are no longer shown in the Program Completion report. This is true for the report viewed online as well as the report sent via email.

Learn more here: Program Completion
_{April 26, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.1 ♦ HCE-8087}

Users Created via LDAPS No Longer Added to Sites in Multi-site Environment (Bug Fix)

In a multi-site environment, any users created via a LDAPS were no longer added to their respective sites. This feature, which existed in HCE 3.9, was not implemented in HCE 4.1. As part of this software fix, the feature has been re-implemented in HCE 4.1.

Learn more here: LDAPS Integration
_{April 26, 2024 ♦ v4.1.10.1 ♦ HCE-8095}

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: Completing Courses
_{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 ♦ v4.1.10.1 ♦ HCE-8099}

Notifications in PAS Cannot be Customized by the Administrator (Improvement)

The notifications in the PAS (Performance Appraisal System) could not be customized by the administrator. As part of this improvement, the notifications can now be customized just like any other string in the system as per the Modifying Language Strings article. In addition to this improvement, the notifications will now be sent in the recipient’s preferred language. And finally, the notifications sent when an employee submits the form or when a manager re-opens an appraisal, which used to be the same message for all scenarios, is now broken down into 3 separate / distinct messages, thereby allowing the administrator to customize the message based on the scenario and recipient of the notification. In other words, there is now a distinct notification message when (a) an employee submits their appraisal (e.g. a notification sent to supervisor), (b) a supervisor re-opens an employee’s appraisal (e.g. a notification sent to employee) and (c) a supervisor re-opens an appraisal and assigns it back to themselves or another supervisor (e.g. a notification sent to a supervisor). All 3 notifications can now be customized by an administrator.

Learn more here: Modifying Language Strings
_{April 12, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.5 ♦ HCE-7898}

Search Tool when Registering Users in Face-to-face Sessions is Limited (Improvement)

When a supervisor registers users in a face-to-face session using the manual selection method, the user selection tool only shows the user’s first / last name and username. This is usually acceptable because a supervisor is generally not responsible for a large amount of people. However, when administrator tries to register users, they may see hundreds of users depending on how many users are in the course. As part of this improvement, the tool now shows administrators additional fields such as department, institution or city, thereby allowing an administrator to search for users using these fields.

Learn more here: Enrolling Staff in Classroom Sessions
_{April 12, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.5 ♦ HCE-8058}

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: mod_zoom.

Learn more here: Moodle Plugins
_{April 16, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.5}

The “Seats Available” Label is Misleading (Improvement)

When an administrator or instructor looks at the list of face-to-face sessions within a course, they see a column labelled “Maximum Capacity”, which may show “8/10” to mean there are 8 users registered in the session out of a maximum of 10 seats in the class. When a learner views the same form however, the column label is “Seats Available”, and it would show “10”. The “10” would continue to show regardless of how many users are in the session. This means that a session might be full, but the learner might still think that there are 10 seats available. As part of this improvement, the column now reports the number of seats that are truly available. Using the example above where 8 users have registered in a class with 10 seats, the “Seats Available” column would now show “2”.

Learn more here: Registering for a Face-to-face Session
_{April 12, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.5 ♦ HCE-7796}

Learning Records Can Be Awarded for Activities Requiring a “View” Despite Not Meeting Other Completion Criteria (Bug Fix)

After a user completes a course for which they receive a learning record, if the user returns to view a SCORM module in the same course, that the user will be awarded a second learning record despite not having completed the SCORM again (or completing other activities within the course if they are present). Note that this use case only occurs if the SCORM activity completion criteria includes the “Require view” criterion, which arguably should not be set if the “Require status” criterion is also set. As part of this software fix, the system ensures that a 2nd learning record is not issued in this particular scenario.

Learn more here: SCORM Completion Settings
_{April 12, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.5 ♦ HCE-7970}

Supervisors Not Enrolled in the Course They Are Viewing Are Presented a Message (Improvement)

Supervisors (and administrators) have the ability to view all courses in the system, whether they are enrolled in the course or not. This is required in order for them to be able to view course-level reports on their staff in those courses. In order for a supervisor to be able to complete a course however (e.g. have their completion tracked), they must be enrolled in the course. As part of this improvement, a message at the top of the course page informs them that they need to enrol in the course to receive a learning record. The message includes a hyperlink that sends them to the self-enrolment page (if the self-enrolment method is enabled in the course in question).

Learn more here: Enrolling Yourself in a Course
_{April 12, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.5 ♦ HCE-8069}

Supervisors Can Self-Enrol in Courses that Use the “Self-enrolment (Advanced)” Method (Bug Fix)

Supervisors have the ability to view all courses in the system, whether they are enrolled in the course or not. This is required in order for them to be able to view course-level reports on their staff in those courses. In order for a supervisor to be able to complete a course however (e.g. have their completion tracked), they must be enrolled in the course. The “Self-enrolment (Advanced)” method was restricting supervisors from self-enrolling. As part of this software fix, supervisors can now self-enrol in the courses that use the “Self-enrolment (Advanced)” method, provided that the method is not restricted to cohorts that the supervisor is not a member of.

Learn more here: Enrolling Yourself in a Course
_{April 3, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.4 ♦ HCE-8051}

Notifications Sent to Instructors Even Though Setting Is “Student only” (Bug Fix)

The "Self-enrolment (Advanced)" method is capable of notifying learners, instructors, or both learners and instructors when their enrolment is about to expire. Under some circumstances, the instructors would get notified even though the setting was set to “Student only”. As part of this software fix, the specific use case is resolved and notifications will no longer be sent to instructors if the “Notify before enrolment expires” is set to “Student only”.

Learn more here: Notifying Users when a Learner's Enrolment is About to Expire
_{April 3, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.4 ♦ HCE-8040}

Name Filters Not Persisting in the Course Participation Report (Bug Fix)

The first / last name filters in the Course Participation report are not being persisted. In other words, the first name filter gets reset after selecting the letter for the last name and vice versa. As part of this software fix, the filter is being persisted.

Learn more here: Course Participation
_{April 2, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.4 ♦ HCE-8036}

Administrators Can Set a Time Restriction for when Purchasers can Renew Course Licenses (Improvement)

A feature introduced recently allows users to renew a license for a course. Along with this feature, administrators can now specify how far ahead of the license’s expiration date users can renew (e.g. re-purchase) the course. By default, the value is 180 days, but the administrator can modify the time restriction at the system level. Once modified, the new value takes effect immediately for all courses sold.

Learn more here: Changing the Renewal Window for Courses Being Sold
_{April 2, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.4 ♦ HCE-8059}

BigBlueButton 2.7.6 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.6.

Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.6
_{April 2, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.4 ♦ HCE-8074}

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.

Learn more here: Renewing a License for a Course

_{March 25, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.3 ♦ HCE-7974}

Course Creators Cannot Edit All Programs (Bug Fix)

Course creators can create programs, but in some circumstances, cannot edit programs. This is caused by a configuration issue on some (but not all) systems. As part of this software fix, all systems will be configured to correctly allow course creators to update programs.

_{March 21, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.3 ♦ HCE-7643}

Compliance Meter Reports Errors when Programs are Deleted (Bug Fix)

If a program is deleted but the database still has references to users being registered in the program, the compliance meter (the block) displays errors. As part of this software fix, the calculation performed by the compliance meter has been modified to eliminate the errors. In addition, general improvements were made to the block to allow an administrator to see the lists of excluded programs, and to respect the site selected by an administrator (if they manage more than 1 site) when displaying the statistics.

_{March 21, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.3 ♦ HCE-8021}

Administrators for a Site Can Now Add “Terms and Conditions” Activities to Courses (Improvement)

In a multi-tenant deployment, the administrator for a site can add activities to a course. When doing so, that activity is automatically restricted to users in their site. The list of activities that a site administrator can add however is restricted given that some activities cannot be restricted to a single site and would impact the entire system. As part of this improvement, the “Terms and Conditions” activity has been added to the list of activities that can be added by a site administrator.

Learn more here: https://dualcode.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Healthcare/pages/34843904

_{March 19, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.3 ♦ HCE-8018}

The “Appraisal Time Assigned” Column is Not Always Populated (Bug Fix)

The “Appraisal Time Assigned”, which is a column available in the “Appraisal Feedback” report source when building custom reports, does not always get populated and may appear empty on some systems. This issue is caused by a time zone setting in the database. As part of this software fix, the column now gets populated.

Learn more here: Managing Custom Reports

_{March 19, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.3 ♦ HCE-7975}

Program Registrations that Use Cohort Rules to Register Users May Experience a Delay (Bug Fix)

When a program is configured to use cohort rules to register users, there may be a delay in registering (or unregistering) users. The system in some cases may wait for the user’s account to be updated or for the user to log in the system to update their program registrations. This software fix eliminates the delay and a user’s registration is automatically updated without necessitating an update or login event on their account.

Learn more here: Registering Users in Programs

_{March 15, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.3 ♦ HCE-7973}

Scheduled User Uploads are Off by an Hour During DST (Bug Fix)

During DST (Daylight Savings Time), the scheduled user uploads are off by an hour. As part of this software fix, the system now considers daylight savings when calculating when to next run the task.

Learn more here: Scheduling User Uploads

_{February 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.2 ♦ HCE-4994}

Manager Listed in PAS Completion Rates Report is Now Always Accurate (Bug Fix)

The supervisor listed in the Manager column of the Completion Rates report (in the Performance Appraisal System) isn't always the proper manager. As part of this software fix, the correct manager based on the cohort hierarchy and/or the manager who filled out the appraisal is now reported.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/pas/reporting-on-appraisals

_{February 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.2 ♦ HCE-7718}

Custom Report Source for Performance Appraisal System (New Feature)

A new report source for the custom report builder is now available. This new source allows administrators who have access to the custom report builder and who are assigned the role of PAS Administrator to build custom report on the competencies of their staff. Once built, the report can be shared with other audiences, and sent via email.

Learn more here: Managing Custom Reports

_{February 29, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.2 ♦ HCE-7939}

Compliance Summary is Sent via Email to Supervisors (New Feature)

A new email (disabled by default) is now available for Supervisors to summarize the compliance level of their team members. The email summarizes, for all the Supervisor’s team members and across all programs, how many courses are compliant, need to be completed soon, or are overdue. Below the summary of the email is a link that redirects the Supervisors to the full compliance report within the learning environment so they can see more details. This report is meant to replace the previous “Program Completion” report that is also sent via email, and can be enabled by a System Administrator at the click of a button.

Learn more here: Sending a Monthly Compliance Report to Supervisors

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7360}

Courses are Automatically Hidden Unless the User Can Access Them (Improvement)

The course catalogue, and other areas that show available courses, now automatically hide courses from users unless (a) the user is already enrolled in the course OR (b) the user can self-enrol in the course. This saves the user from having to click on individual courses in order to find out whether or not they can access the course.

Learn more here: Showing All Courses in the Course Catalogue

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7805}

Text Area for Feedback in Appraisals is Too Small (Improvement)

The text area for displaying a user’s feedback in a Performance Appraisal form was very small (in height). As part of this improvement, the text area is now larger and more user friendly.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/performance-appraisal-system-pas

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7213}

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).

Learn more here: Buying Courses for Your Team

_{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.

Learn more here: Defining Pre-requisites

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7859}

Badges in Course Outline Show as “Completed” In Certain Circumstances (Bug Fix)

If a course is set to expire by date (e.g. December 31), then after the expiration (e.g. January 1st), the activity completion badges would typically read “To do” along with the completion criteria specific to the activity. However, if a user had started the recertification progress prior to the expiration date, the activities they had completed would stay marked as “Completed” on the course outline page. As part of this software fix, if a user is in the process of getting recertified when the course is set to expire, their progress will be reset and all badges will show “To do”.

Learn more here: Completing Courses

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7880}

Deleted Users Show Up in Performance Appraisal Reports (Bug Fix)

Users who are permanently deleted from the system show up in the Performance Appraisal System reports. As part of this software fix, users who are deleted no longer show up in these reports.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/pas/reporting-on-appraisals

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7902}

Administrators Cannot See Equivalency Applications for Supervisors under their Supervision (Bug Fix)

In a multi-tenancy deployment, when a user with the role of supervisor applies for an equivalency, their supervisor may not be able to see and therefore approve their application. As part of this software fix, a supervisor can now see the equivalency applications of the supervisors who report to them.

Learn more here: Approving Course Equivalencies

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7888}

Uploading Users to Programs Fails Sporadically (Bug Fix)

When following the Uploading Users procedure to add users to programs, the upload may result in a failure under certain circumstances and display an error message. As part of this software fix, adding users in programs via a CSV file upload no longer results in a failure.

Learn more here: Uploading Users

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7868}

Performance Appraisal System Considers F2F Instructors as Valid Supervisors When Building Hierarchy (Bug Fix)

When a Facilitator teaches a face-to-face session, a relationship is created between that instructor and the learner that resembles that of a relationship between a supervisor and a user. Certain areas of the PAS considered that relationship as valid in terms of the ability for a user to assess another user. As part of this software fix, relationships created as part of face-to-face sessions are no longer considered.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/performance-appraisal-system-pas

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7883}

Custom Reports Limit Increased to 50 (Improvement)

By default, Custom Reports were limit to 10 reports. As part of this improvement, the limit was increased to 50 custom reports on all systems.

Learn more here: Adding Custom Reports

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7900}

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.

Learn more here: Managing Classroom Sessions

_{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}

Displaying the Time Spent in Activities Report Shows HTTP 500 Error (Bug Fix)

When loading the Time Spent in Activities report on larger system, the user viewing it may be an HTTP 500 error. As part of this software fix, more memory is now being allocated when the report is loading. In addition, the users who did not participate in the course during the defined time period are no longer being shown (whereas before, they were being shown with a time spent of 0). Removing those users from the report makes a significant improvements, particularly in courses that may have >10,000 participants, but when only a hundred or so users accessed the report during the time period.

Learn more here: Time Spent in Activities

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7838}

SAML / OAUTH Login Button Does Not Show Full Text (Improvement)

Systems that allows users to authenticate using SAML or OAUTH show a login button that can display a text string. If the text is longer than usual, the text wraps and is not completely visible. As part of this improvement, the size of the button has been improved to show the full text.

_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7124}

Time Tracking Reports Allows Filtering by Date (Improvement)

The “Time Spent in Courses” and “Time Spent in Activities” reports now allow users to specify a start and end time for the query. This allows an administrator to determine how much time learners have spent in a course in a specific year for example.

Learn more here: Time Spent in Courses
_{February 22, 2024 ♦ v4.1.9.1 ♦ HCE-7850}

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}

Site Administrators Can Reset Passwords for Users Under their Control (Improvement)

Site Administrators (responsible for sites under a multi-tenancy deployment) can now reset the password for users under their control. In order for a user to be under their control, the user must belong to the site(s) that the Site Administrator is responsible for. This can be a site that is directly managed by the administrator, or a child site (e.g. a site lower in the hierarchy that falls under the supervision of the administrator). If a user belongs to multiple sites, then the Site Administrator must be in charge of all sites the user belongs to in order to be able to change their password.

Learn more here: Changing a User's Username
_{February 5, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7822}

Image Files with an Encoded Character in their Name May Fail to Upload in the Theme (Bug Fix)

When uploading an image file to the theme, if the file has an encoded character, it may fail to upload correctly. As part of this software fix, files with encoded characters can now be uploaded in the theme.

Learn more here: Managing the Theme
_{February 5, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7831}

Uploading Cohorts without an “idnumber” Column in the CSV Results in a Failure (Bug Fix)

When uploading cohorts using a CSV file, if the “idnumber” column was not present, the results would display an error message. The “idnumber” column could be empty, but it needed to be present in the CSV file. As part of this software fix, the column is no longer mandatory.

Learn more here: Uploading Cohorts
_{February 5, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7832}

Performance Improvements on the Page to Enrol Users (Improvement)

On larger sites where there was >10,000 users enrolled in a single course, the page to enrol users would take a long time to load. As part of this improvement, the page now loads much more rapidly then it did.

Learn more here: Manually Enroling Users in Courses
_{February 5, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7842}

Reports for Supervisors May Fail If Cohorts have Circular References (Bug Fix)

If cohorts are structured in such a way that they have a circular reference (e.g. a series of references where the last cohort references the first cohort, resulting in a closed loop), then Supervisors who set their reporting preferences to “All users who report to me (directly or indirectly)” may not be able to view certain reports. As part of this software fix, the reports now skips cohorts if they’ve already been included in the path somewhere else.

Learn more here: Restricting the Users in my Reports
_{February 5, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7843}

Missing Files in User Upload History are No Longer Hyperlinked (Improvement)

When an administrator schedules a user upload, it is possible for them to misconfigure the name of the file to be downloaded. This would result in a failure whenever the scheduled job tries to process the file. The User Upload History, which has a column called “Filename”, allows an administrator to download the CSV files that were processed. Since the file does not exist (because the administrator specified the wrong file name), the hyperlink reports an HTTP 404 error. As part of this improvement, if the file is missing because the scheduled job was misconfigured, the name of the file in the “Filename” column of the “User Upload History” page will no longer be hyperlinked, and a help icon next to it will explain that the file could not be downloaded.

Learn more here: Viewing the Results of a User Upload Job
_{February 2, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7804}

Completion Status Reports Moves out of Beta (Improvement)

After months of being in Beta and with no outstanding tickets opened against the report , the new “Completion Status” report is now generally available. This report is more accurate, reliable and clear than the “Course Completion” report formerly available. We recommend that all clients use the new Completion Status report for course completion tracking.

Learn more here: Completion Status
_{February 2, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7840}

BigBlueButton 2.7.4 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.7.4.

Learn more here: Release Notes for BigBlueButton 2.7.4
_{February 2, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7844}

Completion Rate Report Queries Timestored instead of Timestamp (Bug Fix)

The Completion Rate report allows an instructor or administrator to specify a time period. When retrieving the data, the report would look up the timestored column. While generally speaking, the timestored column is identical to the timestamp column, the two may vary in some circumstances, particularly if learning records are being uploaded or generated after the fact. As part of this software fix, the report now looks at the timestamp column in the database.

Learn more here: Completion Rate (Course)
_{February 1, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7817}

Formatting Improvements when Printing the Compliance Overview (Improvement)

General formatting improvements were made to the Compliance Overview when being printed from the browser.

Learn more here: Compliance Overview
_{February 1, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7821}

Columns are Collapsed when Exporting to Microsoft Excel (Improvement)

When exporting certain reports to Microsoft Excel, the columns are collapsed. As part of this improvement, the columns are now expanded at a reasonable size.

Learn more here: Compliance
_{January 31, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7809}

Custom Report Builder Can Now Aggregate Data by Email Domain and OCI Partner (New Feature)

The custom report builder now allows you to report on two additional fields, which are particularly useful to organizations offering courses via the OCI Marketplace. These fields are “Email domain” and “OCI Partner”. For example, this field allows an administrator to generate a report that shows how many learners grouped by hospital or other healthcare organization registered in specific course in a given timeframe.

Learn more here: https://dualcode.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Healthcare/pages/34846569
_{January 24, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.5 ♦ HCE-7095}

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.

Learn more here: Statement of Remittance
_{January 23, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.4 ♦ HCE-7656}

Description in the Logs when a Learning Record is Generated (Improvement)

When a learning record is awarded, the log available in the Logs report doesn’t have a description. As part of this improvement, a description now states which user was awarded which learning record.

Learn more here: Logs / Live Logs
_{January 23, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.4 ♦ HCE-7800}

Custom User Profile Field of Type “Checkbox” is Not Conditionally Visible (Bug Fix)

The learning environment allows administrators to define a custom user form for users to self-register (e.g. create a new account). This form supports the concept of conditionally visible fields, where a field only appears based on the selection of another field. The “checkbox” field however always remained visible. As part of this software fix, the “checkbox” field will now be conditionally visible if it is configured as such.

Learn more here: Managing Custom User Profile Fields
_{January 19, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.4 ♦ HCE-7773}

Filtering Issued in the Performance Appraisal System Reports (Bug Fix)

Some of the columns in the Performance Appraisal Report, notably the "Locked by", "Appraiser(s)" or "Read access" columns, required the administrator to use JSON in their filters in order to filter the column. As part of this software fix, the JSON syntax is no longer required.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/pas/reporting-on-appraisals
_{January 17, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.4 ♦ HCE-7636}

System Health Check for SCORM Completion Settings (Improvement)

Poorly configured SCORM packages may lead to numerous errors, including the inability for the system to properly issue learning records for those SCORMs because their activity completion criteria are poorly defined. The System Health report now has a new check that verifies if the SCORM completion settings meet Dual Code’s best practices. If some SCORM packages do not meet our best practices, a warning is shown to the administrator. The administrator can then click on “Review” to see the complete list of SCORM packages that do not meet the best practices and fix them accordingly.

Learn more here: SCORM Completion Settings
_{January 14, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.3 ♦ HCE-7506}

Default Values When Uploading Users Are Those of the “Uploader” (Bug Fix)

When uploading users, IF a column is omitted in the CSV file AND IF the user being updated doesn’t already have a value for that field AND IF the administrator uploading the file does have a value for the same field in their own profile, THEN the users being updated may inherit the value of the “uploader” for that field. This issue affected the following fields: department, institution, city, country, timezone, lang. As a result of this software fix, during an upload, the system no longer retrieves the information from the user uploading the file. This means that the department and institution columns will be left blank unless they are explicitly set in the CSV file. The city and country fields will respect the defaults of the system. If no defaults exist for city / country, they will also be left blank unless they are explicitly set in the CSV file. The default timezone will always be set to the server’s timezone, unless explicitly set in the CSV file. Note that this software fix does not modify any user profile data. The new behavior only applies to uploads going forward.

Learn more here: Uploading Users
_{January 14, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.3 ♦ HCE-7730}

The “Date Signed Up” Shows 1969 For Users Who Never Signed Up (Bug Fix)

When importing attendance records, it’s is possible to mark users as having attended a session even if they were never signed up. When the attendance information is later exported to an Excel / CSV file, the “Date Signed Up” column would show the year 1969, which is equivalent to 0 or null in epoch time. As a result of this software fix, when a user is marked as having attended a session via an import, if the user was never “booked”, a “booked” event is generated and the date for booking is the same as the date the attendance was uploaded.

Learn more here: Importing Attendance Records
_{January 14, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.3 ♦ HCE-7662}

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 a Course
_{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}

The {filter_facetoface} Filter Displays Sign Up Links When Used with the “Self-enrolment (Advanced)” Method (Improvement)

The {filter_facetoface} filter, which is used to display available sessions in a course description now displays a “Sign up” next to each session in the course description when the enrolment method used is “Self-enrolment (Advanced)” and the course is available for free. The “Sign up” links do not appear if payment is required for the course.

Learn more here: Displaying F2F Sessions in Course Descriptions
_{January 9, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.2 ♦ HCE-6447}

Language Improvements to Default Program Notifications (Improvement)

Changes have been made to the default program notifications. For starters, the notifications no longer state in how many days the courses are due / overdue. Given that a program can reference multiple courses and that these courses do not always have the same due date, the notification was sometimes misleading when it tried to state that all courses were due in X days. In reality, different courses were due on different days. In addition, the notification now states (in bold) that the courses are “These courses are mandatory”, and in some cases, that the courses are “due soon” or “overdue” depending on the circumstance. Program notifications that were customized remain unaffected.

Learn more here: Sending Reminders to Users regarding Mandatory Courses
_{January 9, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.2 ♦ HCE-6607}

Site Administrators Can Enrol Users Manually In Courses (New Feature)

Site Administrators, a legacy role for systems configured in multi-site mode, can now enrol and unenrol users manually in courses.

Learn more here: Manually Enroling Users in Courses
_{January 7, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.2 ♦ HCE-7715}

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: Release Notes for Moodle 4.1.8
_{January 3, 2024 ♦ v4.1.8.1 ♦ HCE-7699}

December 21, 2023

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.

Learn more here: Learning Records (Course Level)

_{Ref: HCE-7674
Fixed in: 4.1.7.2}

December 21, 2023

Availability of Additional Reports (Improvement)

Disparities were noticed between all systems powered by Dual Code in regards to the reports that were enabled and disabled. As part of this improvement, all reports are now enabled on all systems. As a general rule, most reports are only available to System Administrators or System Coordinators, but it is possible that instructors, supervisors, or even learners may now have access to additional reports.

Learn more here: Reports

_{Ref: HCE-3980
Fixed in: 4.1.7.2}

December 21, 2023

Support for Expiration Dates on Certificates of Completion (Improvement)

When designing certificates of completion, the administrator has access to numerous placeholders (a.k.a. special words) such as USERNAME and COURSENAME. When these placeholders are used, they are replaced by corresponding information for the user and course in question when the certificate is issued. As part of this improvement, the placeholder EXPIRATION_DATE can be used to display the expiration date of the learning record on a certificate of completion.

Learn more here: Designing a Certificate of Completion

_{Ref: HCE-7673
Fixed in: 4.1.7.2}

December 21, 2023

Program Notifications Refer to Hidden Courses (Bug Fix)

When a program is configured to send notifications to users about upcoming (or past) due dates, hidden courses are referenced in the notification. While the recommendation is that administrators remove courses from programs if they are no longer available to learners, this software fix will ensure that program notifications no longer reference hidden courses.

Learn more here: Sending Reminders to Users regarding Mandatory Courses

_{Ref: HCE-7621
Fixed in: 4.1.7.2}

December 19, 2023

Course Creators Can Manage Course Categories (New Feature)

Users with the Course Creator role can now manage (add, edit or delete) course categories within the context of their role. If the role is assigned at the system level, than the Course Creator can modify any course category in the system. If the role is assigned in the context of a course category, then the Course Creator can only manage that category (and sub-categories). As a result of this change, if a user is assigned the role of Course Creator at the system level, they will see an option to "Add a new course" directly under Site Administration > Courses and will no longer need to go to the "Manage courses and categories" area to add new courses.

Learn more here: Managing Course Categories

_{Ref: HCE-7667
Fixed in: 4.1.7.2}

December 18, 2023

Ability to Modify the Location and Custom Face-to-face Fields  (New Feature)

The learning environment allows you to set valid values for the face-to-face "Location" field, and to define new custom fields. Once these fields are created, they will appear in the "Event Details General" section of the face-to-face session (usually just above the "Additional details" text area). These fields can be made visible to end users when they view the session details and incorporated in notification messages (e.g. emails).

Learn more here: Modifying the Location and Custom Face-to-face Fields

_{Ref: HCE-7576
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

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.

Learn more here: Completing Courses

_{Ref: HCE-7657
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

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. 

Learn more here: Taking Attendance

_{Ref: HCE-7551
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

System Administrators' Limit for File Size Increased to 5GB (Improvement)

Instructors can upload files (e.g. SCORM packages) that are up to 1GB in size. As part of this improvement, System Administrators can now upload files as large as 5GB in size. This implies that if an Instructor needs to upload a file >1GB but <5GB, they must ask a System Administrator to do it on their behalf. If the file is >5GB, the team should consider breaking the file into multiple files or compressing it.

_{Ref: HCE-7600
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

All Badges Show "Done" but Activity is Not Marked as Complete (Bug Fix)

When using the "Supporting Documentation" activity, it's possible to end up in a scenario where all the activity completion badges show "Done", but the activity itself is not marked as complete. This is caused by the fact that the supported documentation uploaded by the user has been rejected by the instructor and therefore, the activity is (accurately) not marked complete. As part of this software fix, a red badge now visually indicates to the learner that the activity is in fact not complete and that they must submit another file..

Learn more here: Requesting Evidence before Issuing a Learning Record

_{Ref: HCE-7634
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

Completion Status Report is Ignoring Pagination when Applying Filters (Bug Fix)

The Completion Status report, which is currently in Beta, supports pagination. When first / last name filters are applied to the page, the pagination is ignored, thereby presenting a large number of users on the page. If a course contains thousands of users, trying to display them all at once may cause memory issues either on the server or in the browser and the report may not load properly. As part of this software fix, pagination is now respected even when filters are applied. 

Learn more here: Completion Status

_{Ref: HCE-7649
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

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: Notifying Users when a Learner's Enrolment is About to Expire

_{Ref: HCE-5885
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

Uploading Users to Programs using a CSV File Will Add Them to All Matching Programs (Improvement)

A System Administrator can register users in programs using a CSV file. They can simply enter the program ID in the CSV file as explained in this article. While the article is clear that the program ID to be included in the CSV file should reference the primary key of the program (i.e. the auto-incremented ID generated by the database, not the "ID Number" field that you manually enter in the web form), the system does have the ability to look up programs by its "ID Number" if the value is non-numeric. (This fall back approach is not documented and not officially supported and we do not recommend that you use it.) Because the program "ID Number" is not guaranteed to be unique, one of the caveats is that this method could result in more than 1 program being found. If multiple programs match the "ID Number" in the CSV file, the system would only assign the user to the 1st program it found (e.g. randomly). As part of this improvement, the system will now register users in ALL programs that match the "ID Number" in the CSV file.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/creating-a-csv-file-for-user-uploads#CreatingaCSVFileforUserUploads-RegisteringUsersinProgram,CoursesandFace-to-faceSessions

_{Ref: HCE-7125
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

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.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/frequently-asked-questions

_{Ref: HCE-7610
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

Built-in Technical Support Page for Users (New Feature)

The learning environment now includes a web form that makes it easier for learners to contact your technical support team. The form allows them to enter their name and email address, both of which are automatically captured if the users are logged in. The users can also specify a subject line and a detailed message. When linking to the web page (e.g. using a "Help", "Technical Support" or "Contact Us" link in the top navigational bar), the page will present the form to the learner, or redirect them to an external technical support page if one is configured via the "Support page" setting.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/adding-a-technical-support-page

_{Ref: HCE-7456
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

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.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/tracking-accreditation

_{Ref: HCE-7609
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

New Report in the Performance Appraisal System (New Feature)

The Performance Appraisal System now features a new report called "Completion Rates". The new report provides you statistics, organized by Appraiser, on the appraisal forms such as the total number of forms assigned to the Appraiser, the total number of forms completed, in reviews and locked, and so on.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/pas/reporting-on-appraisals

_{Ref: HCE-7601
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

Renaming of the "Manager" column in the Performance Appraisal Report (Improvement)

The "Completion Details" report that is part of the Performance Appraisal System had a column titled "Manager". The title of the column is ambiguous because "Manager" could represent the user's Supervisors or the person who evaluated the user (e.g. the "Appraiser"). To clarify the meaning of the information inside column, the title of that column is now "Appraiser".

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/pas/reporting-on-appraisals

_{Ref: HCE-7578
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

Uploading User Information to a Field of Type Date/Time is Ignored Under some Specific Conditions (Bug Fix)

If you have defined an 'optional' (i.e. not required) custom user profile field of type date/time, and you have one or more pre-existing users in the system that do not have values for this newly created custom profile field, you cannot set/update that value for those users through a CSV user upload.  The value you specify in the CSV file for that field will be ignored. As part of this software fix, the user upload will not process and store the date/time as expected. 

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/uploading-users

_{Ref: HCE-7472
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

Changing a Program from "Do not assign roles" to Assigning a Role such as Student Uses the Wrong Enrolment Method (Bug Fix)

If a program is set to not assign any roles (where "Assign the role of" is set to "Do not assign roles") and it is later changed to assign the role of student, the user is enrolled in the course using the "Manual" enrollment method. This makes it difficult to track which program assigned the user to the course and may also prevent the user from being tracked in the compliance reports. As part of this software fix, if a program changes from "Do not assign roles" to "Assign the role of: Student", the system will enrol the user in the course using the program enrolment method.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/adding-a-program

_{Ref: HCE-7582
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

Encrypting CSV Files for User Uploads (New Feature)

The system now supports GPG decryption for CSV files used for user uploads. If enabled, a public key will appear on the "Encryption" page in the system. This key must be used to GPG encrypt your CSV files before uploading them to the system. Please note that even if you choose not to GPG encrypt the CSV file, the file is still protected using TLS 1.2 or greater and high-grade encryption (256 bit) while being uploaded to the server (i.e. in transit) and encrypted with a data key using an industry-standard AES-256 algorithm while on the server (i.e. at rest).

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/encrypting-csv-files-for-user-uploads

_{Ref: HCE-7599
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

Sorting the Learning Records Report by Certain Columns Generates an Error (Bug Fix)

When sorting the Learning Records by columns that contain user information that are not available in the report by default (e.g. username, department) , the report generates an error. As part of this software fix, any standard user field that is added to the report can now be used for sorting purposes. Please note that sorting by custom user profile fields however is not yet supported (but doesn't generate an error).

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/learning-records-system-level

_{Ref: HCE-6239
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

User Profile Field of Type "Static Text" is Conditionally Visible (Improvement)

The "Static Text" custom user profile field allows you to display read-only information on the self-registration page and/or edit profile page such as a welcome message or special instructions. As part of this improvement, the "Static Text" field can now be made conditionally visible. This means that the message or instructions that you display on the web page can vary depending on the option a user selected in a dropdown menu elsewhere on the page.

Learn more here: Managing Custom User Profile Fields

_{Ref: HCE-7562
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

Improvements to the Attendance Sheet (Improvement)

When instructors print the list of attendees for a face-to-face session, the page being printed included unnecessary elements from the web page. As part of this improvement, these elements have been removed resulting in a nice printed page.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/printing-an-attendance-sheet-with-a-qr-code

_{Ref: HCE-7496
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

Search Function Redirects to Another Tab (Bug Fix)

When searching for cohorts, a search on the "All cohorts" tab would redirect the administrator to the "System cohorts" tab. If the cohort in question was not a "System" cohort, it would not appear in the list of results. As part of this bug fix, the search results are now displayed on the "All Cohorts" tab if they are performed from that tab as expected. 

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/adding-a-cohort

_{Ref: HCE-1358
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

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: availability_language, availability_role, atto_fullscreen, block_course_modulenavigation, enrol_coursecompleted, format_grid, mod_publication, and mod_zoom.

Learn more here: https://moodle.org/plugins/

_{Ref: Miscellaneous
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

December 18, 2023

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: https://moodledev.io/general/releases/4.1/4.1.7

_{Ref: HCE-7390
Fixed in: 4.1.7.1}

November 29, 2023

Performance Improvements when Reporting on Indirect Staff (Improvement)

Users who are granted the role of Supervisor have the ability to decide whether they only want to view users who report to them directly, or all users who report to them (directly or indirectly). When a Director reports on indirect staff, they are able to report on users who report to their Managers on the organizational chart. When a supervisor would report on "All users who report to me (directly or indirectly)", some reports would take a long time to load. As part of this performance improvement, the reports in question return much faster - as much as 10x as fast for some Supervisors. 

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/restricting-the-users-in-my-reports

_{Ref: HCE-7597
Fixed in: 4.1.6.3}

November 29, 2023

BigBlueButton 2.6.15 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.6.15 

Learn more here: https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton/releases/tag/v2.6.15

_{Ref: HCE-7598
Fixed in: 4.1.6.3}

November 23, 2023

Specifying the Course ID Number when Uploading Historical Learning Records (Improvement)

When the learning environment generates learning records, it includes the "Course ID number" value from the course, thereby providing a way for clients to include a version of the course the learners competed in the learning record. When uploading historical learning records however, the administrator could not specify a course ID number. As a result, the current value in the course ID number field would always be included in the learning record, including historical learning records. As part of this improvement the course id number is not an optional column in the CSV file used to upload learning records.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/creating-a-csv-file-for-importing-learning-records

_{Ref: HCE-7560
Fixed in: 4.1.6.3}

November 22, 2023

Badges Show "Done: Complete" when an Activity is Failed (Bug Fix)

When a user fails an activity, the overall badge displayed next to the activity in question shows "Done: Completed". While it's true that the user has completed the activity, it's important to reflect whether they have passed or failed the activity. This software fix continues to display a single "Done: Completed" badge when the user completes and passes all of the activities, but will now show all of the badges, including a failed badge, when the user fails one or more of the requirements for the activity.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/completing-courses

_{Ref: HCE-7533
Fixed in: 4.1.6.3}

November 22, 2023

The Completion Status Report Displays Failed Activities (Improvement)

The Completion Status report now displays a red X next to an activity if a user has failed any of the completion criteria for that activity. Generally speaking, only activities that require grades track whether or not the user "passed" or "failed" the activity.

Learn more here: Completion Status

_{Ref: HCE-7509
Fixed in: 4.1.6.3}

November 22, 2023

Course Search Toolbar is Hidden if "Require login" is Enabled (Improvement)

System Administrators have the ability to specify (under Site Administration > System Configuration) whether or not users are required to login before accessing any portion of the site. (Alternatively, if "Require login" is disabled, a user is allowed to view the site's front page without being logged in.) The course search toolbar typically at the top right of the site was visible even though "Require login" was enabled and the user had not yet logged in. If a user used the toolbar to search for courses, the system would not return any results, leading the user to believe that the system had no courses. As part of this improvement, if "Require login" is enabled, the course search toolbar is only visible after users log in the system.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/searching-and-enrolling-in-courses

_{Ref: HCE-7569
Fixed in: 4.1.6.3}

November 22, 2023

Learners Who are a "No Show" Cannot Register for a Future Session (Bug Fix)

Under certain circumstances, users who are marked as a "no show" for a face-to-face session cannot register in another session. As part of this software fix, users can now register in future sessions if they are a "no show" in a previous session. Note that a user left in the "Booked" state (e.g. the instructor did not mark their attendance) can still not register in future sessions. In other words, the instructor must save and approve the face-to-face timesheet in order for a user to be able to register in the future.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/registering-for-a-face-to-face-session

_{Ref: HCE-7559
Fixed in: 4.1.6.3}

November 17, 2023

Getting Re-certified Displays an "Invalid Course Module ID" under Specific Circumstances (Bug Fix)

Under specific circumstances, a user who tries to get recertified may see an "Invalid Course Module ID" message after clicking on the "Renew my learning record" link. As part of this software fix, the course ID is properly identified and the message no longer displayed. 

_{Ref: HCE-7539
Fixed in: 4.1.6.3}

November 17, 2023

Delay the 1st Reminder Notifications to Learners for a Week (Improvement)

Programs allow you to send notifications to enrolled users when they are registered in a course and when their courses are approaching a due date. If an administrator were to set an aggressive "Days to complete" in the program, the user may receive both notifications on the same day or week. In other words, it would be possible for a user to be told that they have been registered in a new course on Sunday and receive a reminder on the Monday that the same course is coming due.  As part of this improvement, the reminder notifications are no longer sent unless the user has been registered in the course or program for at least 6 days (to prevent from sending them 2 reminders within a week).

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/sending-reminders-to-users-regarding-mandatory-cou

_{Ref: HCE-7418
Fixed in: 4.1.6.3}

November 15, 2023

Scheduled User Uploads Can Watch a Folder (New Feature)

The tool used to schedule user uploads can now watch a folder for new files. When scheduling a job, instead of specifying the exact name of the CSV file to be processed, the administrator can now specify the name of a pre-existing folder. If a new file is uploaded to this folder, the system will automatically process it.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/scheduling-user-uploads

_{Ref: HCE-7119
Fixed in: 4.1.6.3}

November 13, 2023

Completion Badges Show "Done: Completed" When They Should Show "Done: Skipped" (Bug Fix)

When a course is configured in such as a way that the user must complete ANY of the activities in the course and the user completes the course, the badge next to the activities that were skipped would display "Done: Complete". Those badges should instead display "Done: Skipped". As part of this software fix, activities that were skipped now correctly display "Done: Skipped".

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/completing-courses

_{Ref: HCE-7517
Fixed in: 4.1.6.3}

November 8, 2023

Users Seeing Error when Signing up for a Face-to-face Session (Improvement)

Users can only sign up for one (1) face-to-face session for the same activity. In order to attend a different session, they must first cancel their registration. When trying to sign up for a different session using the calendar, the learner would get an unclear / error message. As part of this improvement, a clear message displayed to the user explains that they must first cancel the session they currently have booked in order to register for a different session.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/registering-for-a-face-to-face-session

_{Ref: HCE-7370
Fixed in: 4.1.6.2}

November 8, 2023

Token in Face-to-face Message not Rendered Properly if the Field is not Visible (Bug Fix)

When face-to-face notifications are generated and the notification message contains a substitution token for a conditionally visible face-to-face custom field, if that field is not visible, then no value is substituted for the token and the token string is left 'as is' (ex: '[session:conditionalvalue]'. As part of this software fix, if the token is not visible, the message will display an empty character instead of the token string.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/customizing-the-face-to-face-notifications

_{Ref: HCE-7500
Fixed in: 4.1.6.2}

November 3, 2023

User is Able to Pay for an Instructor-led Course that is Already Full (Improvement)

When a user purchases a course that contains a Face-to-face activity (using the "Session enrollments" enrolment method), their seat is reserved for 15 minutes. They may still complete their purchase after 15 minutes, but they will be assigned a new seat. Should all the remaining seats be sold AFTER the 15 minutes but BEFORE they complete their purchase, the payment would go through but the user would not be assigned a seat. The user would need to select another session after being enrolled in the course. As part of this improvement, a second verification is done when the purchase closes and if there are no more seats available, the user is displayed a message informing them that the session is full and the payment is not processed. The user has the option to select another session (with available seats) and re-enter their payment information if they want to. This improvement means that if a user doesn't want to sign up for another session (offered at a different time or in a different location), they do not have to request a refund because their will not be charged.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/buying-courses-for-your-team

_{Ref: HCE-7335
Fixed in: 4.1.6.2}

November 2, 2023

Updating the User's Name Following a Purchase (Improvement)

When a user purchases a course and enters their billing information, they have the ability to store that information in their user's profile for future purchases. (The information being stored includes their name and address, but Dual Code NEVER stores the user's credit card information.) If a user opted to update their user profile information and modified their name in the process (e.g. usually because the name on the credit card they used was different than the name in their user profile in the learning environment), the name on the credit card would appear on their certificate of completion when they completed the course. As part of this improvement, the learning environment will now store the user's address (if and only if they select the option to update it) but will never update the user's first and last name. 

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/frequently-asked-questions-about-selling-courses

_{Ref: HCE-7318
Fixed in: 4.1.6.2}

November 1, 2023

Additional Recipients Not Always Emailed when Courses are Coming Due or Overdue (Bug Fix)

Programs can notify additional recipients (other then the learners themselves and their supervisors) when courses are coming due or overdue. However, these users needed a capability. Otherwise, the notification would be blocked. As part of this software fix, all users listed as valid "Additional Recipients" in a program will now be notified (provided that the notifications are enabled).

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/notifying-learners-about-upcoming-mandatory-traini

_{Ref: HCE-7372
Fixed in: 4.1.6.2}

October 31, 2023

Employees Receiving a Reminder when the status of their Appraisal is "Awaiting manager review" (Bug Fix)

When an appraisal in the Performance Appraisal System is in the "Awaiting manager review" status, the employee being appraised may get a reminder to complete their appraisal. As part of this software fix, the employee being appraised is no longer getting the reminder. 

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/performance-appraisal-system-pas

_{Ref: HCE-6430
Fixed in: 4.1.6.2}

October 31, 2023

Suspended Users are Visible in the List of Potential Attendees (Improvement)

When adding users to a face-to-face session, suspended users show up in the list of potential attendees. As part of this improvement, if the user is suspended in the learning environment, they are not visible in the list of potential attendees.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/enrolling-staff-in-classroom-sessions

_{Ref: HCE-7436
Fixed in: 4.1.6.2}

October 31, 2023

Attendance Sheet in PDF Format is Not Sorted Alphabetically  (Improvement)

When downloading or printing the attendance sheet in PDF format, the sheet is not sorted alphabetically. As part of this improvement, the names in the PDF file are now sorted alphabetically.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/printing-an-attendance-sheet-with-a-qr-code

_{Ref: HCE-7436
Fixed in: 4.1.6.2}

October 30, 2023

Enrolment Duration Should Never Exceed a License Key (Improvement)

If an Instructor enables payment collection on a course and defines a "License expires after", their expectation is that once a license expires, any user who enrolled in the course using this license will lose access to the course. In reality however, an individual user's enrolment duration was calculated based on the "Enrolment duration" setting and the date the user enrolled in the course using the license key. If both "License expires after" and "Enrolment duration" were set to "365 days", it would be possible for a user who enrolls 1 day prior to the expiration of the license key to have access to the course for another 365 days (so 729 days AFTER the license key was first purchased). Following feedback from clients who sell courses, it was determined that when users self-register using a license key, their enrolment end date will now be calculated as the minimum of the license expiration date and the date which would otherwise be calculated using the "Enrolment duration" setting in the "Self enrolment (Advanced)" method in question. In other words, a user's enrolment end date will never exceed the license expiration date.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/frequently-asked-questions-about-selling-courses

_{Ref: HCE-7281
Fixed in: 4.1.6.2}

October 30, 2023

The "Courses" Link in the Navigation Block No Longer Expands (Bug Fix)

The "Courses" link in the navigation block no longer expands in some browsers due to a JavaScript error. As part of this software fix, the issue has been addressed and the link now expands as expected. 

_{Ref: HCE-7216
Fixed in: 4.1.6.2}

October 27, 2023

New Completion Status Report (New Feature)

A new report called "Completion Status" is now available. This report lists all users enrolled in a course and whether or not they have completed the activities in the course, and the course overall. The report reads directly from the learning record store and therefore provides a much more accurate view of the user's progress. Compared to the "Course Completion " and "Activity Completion" reports, this report for example can:

• Report on learning records uploaded using a CSV file

• Report on equivalencies entered or approved by an administrator

• Report when activities on in progress (instead of versus simply reporting whether the activity is done or not done)

• Explains that an activity was skipped by the user because it wasn't mandatory for the user in question

This report pulls the information directly from the Learning Record Store, which is the source of truth for activity and course completion information. This means that even if an Instructor unlocks the completion criteria, this report will continue to show an accurate status of a user's completion (whereas the "Course completion" and "Activity Completion" reports would lose this information if the completion criteria changes and show empty checkboxes).

Learn more here: Completion Status

_{Ref: HCE-7309
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 25, 2023

New "Static Text" Custom User Profile Field (New Feature)

A new custom user profile field called "Static text" is now available. This new field type allows you to display read-only information on the self-registration page and/or edit profile page such as a welcome message or special instructions.

Learn more here: Managing Custom User Profile Fields

_{Ref: HCE-7195
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 25, 2023

Feedback Activity Can be Re-submitted when Getting Re-certified in a Course (Improvement)

If a Feedback activity was included in a course that was recurring (e.g. a course that needs to be done once a year), the feedback activity had to have "Allow multiple submissions" set to "Yes". If it is set to "No", the user could not submit their feedback in subsequent years / attempts when they are asked to get recertified. Unfortunately, the "Allow multiple submissions" field becomes read-only once learners start submitting their answers. It was therefore impossible to switch a Feedback activity that was initially set not to allow multiple submissions to now allow them. As part of this improvement, a user can now submit a new attempt for a Feedback activity when they are asked to get recertified, even if "Allow multiple submissions" is set to "No".

Learn more here: Adding an Activity#Feedback

_{Ref: HCE-7423
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 25, 2023

Assignment Activity Can be Re-submitted when Getting Re-certified in a Course (Improvement)

If an Assignment activity was included in a course that was recurring (e.g. a course that needs to be done once a year), learner may be in a position where they cannot re-submit their assignment in subsequent years / attempts when they are asked to get recertified. As part of this improvement, a user can now submit a new attempt for an Assignment activity when they are asked to get recertified. 

Learn more here: Adding an Activity#Assignment

_{Ref: HCE-7422
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 25, 2023

Program Completion Report Displays "mlang" Tags (Bug Fix)

When course full names are bilingual and therefore contain "mlang" tags, the "mlang" tag itself is displayed in the report rather than the corresponding English or French course title. As part of this software fix, the "mlang" tag is no longer being displayed and the course title is displayed in the user's preferred language (e.g. the language of the user viewing the report).

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/program-completion

_{Ref: HCE-7444
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 24, 2023

The "Enrol now" Button is Misleading for Administrators Purchasing Licenses for their Staff (Improvement)

When a user self-registers in a course using the "Self-enrolment (Advanced)" method, the button reads "Enrol now". This button however is misleading for a user that intends to purchase the course on behalf of other users. As part of this improvement, the button remains "Enrol now" when a course does not require any payment, but has been changed to "Purchase course" when payment is required. After clicking on the button, the user still has the option to enrol themselves or buy licenses for others.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/frequently-asked-questions-about-selling-courses

_{Ref: HCE-7065
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 24, 2023

User Cannot Re-enrol in a Course under Certain Conditions (Improvement)

Under certain conditions, a user who self-registered in a course cannot re-register once their enrolment duration has expired. This is problematic for users who need to get re-certified annually in a course where the Instructor has set an enrolment duration of 60 days for example. As part of this improvement, users can always re-enrol in a course once their previous enrolment has expired (as long as "Self enrolment (Advanced)" method is used). Note that this has no implication on users who are assigned to courses using Programs, which uses a program enrolment method.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/enabling-self-enrolment

_{Ref: HCE-7288
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 24, 2023

User is Prompted if They Want to Consume Another License even though They are already Enrolled (Bug Fix)

When a user enrolls in a course using a license key purchased by their organization, they are asked to confirm that they understand they will be consuming a license. However, if the user enrolls themselves in the course and later on click on the same link, they will be prompted once again for a confirmation even though the system will actually not consume another license (because they already enrolled in the course using the license). As part of this software fix, if the user uses the same link after enrolling themselves, they will simply be redirected to the course outline page and will no longer see the modal window asking them for a confirming.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/frequently-asked-questions-about-selling-courses

_{Ref: HCE-7369
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 24, 2023

Performance Appraisal Assignment Rules Are Not Re-evaluated  (Bug Fix)

There are certain circumstances where a user that is being onboarded is not assigned to a performance appraisal form. As part of this software fix, whenever a user is created in the learning environment (and updated or deleted), their profile is re-evaluated against all performance appraisal forms that are enabled. It's important to note that the installation of this release does not automatically re-evaluated all users in the system. If you feel that some of the assignments are inaccurate, we recommend that you execute a "touch" command on the user(s) following your update. Please note that this has no implication if you are assigning users manually or uploading them using a CSV file.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/pas/assigning-appraisals

_{Ref: HCE-7395
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 19, 2023

Completion Data for the Checklist Activity is Erroneously Cleared (Bug Fix)

When a user's learning record is about to expire, the system clears the user's completion data (but not their learning record) so that they may retake the course. This can be done for all users at once, or for specific users. When the code is executed against a specific user, everyone in the course has their completion progress reset. As part of this fix, if the request to clear the data was for a specific individual, only that specific individual's data will be cleared.

Learn more here: Adding an Activity#Checklist

_{Ref: HCE-7405
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 19, 2023

Conditions using the "is one of" Operator Includes Users with an Empty Field (Bug Fix)

When a user defines conditions using the "is one of" operator in either programs or cohorts, users who do not have a value for the optional field in question will be included in the results. For example, if a condition was based on the "Job title" field using the "is one of" operator and a user did not have a job title, he/she would be included in the program / cohort. As part of this fix, the user will be excluded as expected.

Learn more here:  Registering Users in Programs#conditions

_{Ref: HCE-7398
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 19, 2023

The "Due Date" is Blank if the Program has "Days to complete" set to 0 (Bug Fix)

If (A) a user is assigned to a course via multiple programs, (B) one of these programs has "Days to complete" set to 0, and (C) the user never completed the course and does not have a learning record, the "Due date" in the Compliance Overview is blank. As part of this fix, the due date is calculated using the nearest due dates of all programs for the course and user in question, as long as one of these programs has a "Days to complete" greater than zero. (If the user is only assigned to a course via 1 program and "Days to complete" for this program is 0, the due date in the Compliance Overview report will remain blank as expected.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/compliance-overview

_{Ref: HCE-7410
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 19, 2023

Program with No Courses Sends a Registration Email (Improvement)

If an administrator adds users to a program that contains no courses and the registration notification for the "User is registered in the program" event is enabled, the learning environment will send users the email in question. The email however will not contain a list of courses (because the program doesn't have any courses associated with it), thereby creating confusion with the learners. As part of this improvement, programs that do not have any courses no longer send any notifications even if the notifications are enabled.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/adding-a-program

_{Ref: HCE-7413
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 19, 2023

Receipts Not Being Emailed When Combining "Self Enrolment (Advanced)" and PayPalPro (Bug Fix)

When (A) a course is sold using the "Self Enrolment (Advanced) method, (B) the payment processor is PayPalPro and (C) the learning environment is configured to send receipts via email, the receipts may not go out due to an integration issue with PayPalPro's API. The receipts and license keys are still generated, but the user is not informed via email. As part of this software fix, the exception when this occurs is now handled and the receipt along with the key gets sent to the purchaser once PayPalPro confirms that the payment was successful.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/payment-solutions

_{Ref: HCE-7366
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 18, 2023

Auto Completion Field Adds Duplicate Values to the Conditions (Bug Fix)

When a user defines conditions using the "is one of" operator in either programs or cohorts, under certain circumstances, the matching values appears twice: once in italics and once in regular font. Selecting the italicized value may result in duplicate values in the final list. As part of this fix, the system now only displays a single value in both the search results and the final list.

Learn more here: Registering Users in Programs#conditions

_{Ref: HCE-7428
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 16, 2023

Consolidation of Permissions (Improvement)

The learning environment offers numerous reports that can be made available to different roles. Some of these roles (e.g. System Administrator or System Coordinator) can see everyone in the organization in these reports, while other users (e.g. Supervisors) can only say the users that they manage. These reports each had a unique capability to determine who can see all users in the system vs. who can only see the users they manage. If the unique capabilities were not all configured identically, it could lead to inconsistencies where an administrator could see all users in a report but only some (or no) users in another report. As part of this improvement, the following reports now share a common capability, thereby ensuring a more consistent experience when viewing reports: Course Completion (Basic / Advanced), Compliance, Learning Records, Program Completion, Time Spent in Activities.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/reports

_{Ref: HCE-7357
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 16, 2023

Terms and Conditions Activity with No Completion Criteria Marks Everyone as Complete (Bug Fix)

If a Terms and Conditions activity is added to a course and the instructor forgets to define the activity completion criteria for it, all users are automatically marked as having completed the activity even if they didn't access/accept it. As part of this software fix, if the instructor forgets to define the activity completion criteria for the terms and conditions activity, users will never be marked as complete for this activity.

Learn more here: Adding an Activity#tandcTermsandConditions

_{Ref: HCE-7229
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 16, 2023

Instructors who are also Supervisors only See their Staff in the Course-Level Reports (Bug Fix)

An instructor can generally see all users in the reports of the courses they teach. A supervisor on the other hand can only see the users who report to them. If an instructor also happens to be a supervisor, they would only see the users who report to them. As part of this software fix, if an instructor is also a supervisor, they can still see all users in the reports for courses that they teach.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/course-level-reports

_{Ref: HCE-7283
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 15, 2023

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: atto_fullscreen, block_checklist, enrol_coursecompleted, filter_videoeasy, format_grid, mod_checklist and mod_zoom.

Learn more here: https://moodle.org/plugins/

_{Ref: Miscellaneous
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 15, 2023

Moodle 4.1.6 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 4.1.6. 

Learn more here: https://moodledev.io/general/releases/4.1/4.1.6

_{Ref: HCE-7390
Fixed in: 4.1.6.1}

October 10, 2023

Instructor Can See the Number of Unread Posts for Other Groups in a Forum Activity (Bug Fix)

If a forum activity uses groups, an instructor can see the number of unread posts for groups that they do not manage. As part of this software fix, the instructor can now only see the number of unread posts for the groups that they manage.

Learn more here: Adding an Activity#Forum

_{Ref: HCE-7255
Fixed in: 4.1.5.3}

October 10, 2023

User Can Only See the Program Description if They are Registered in the Program (Bug Fix)

In the earlier 3.9 release, a user could view the description of any program (and the title of the courses included in the program). In the newer 4.1 release, a user can only see the same information if they are registered in the program. As part of this software fix, the older behaviour has been restored and a user can now see the details of the program whether or not they are registered in that program.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/managing-programs

_{Ref: HCE-7206
Fixed in: 4.1.5.3}

October 5, 2023

The "Learning Records - External" Report Generates Errors (Bug Fix)

The report that allows users to log learning records for courses they took outside of the OCI network (e.g. offered by an organization with a learning environment that is not powered by Dual Code) reports errors. As part of this software fix, the report now loads as expected.

_{Ref: HCE-7277
Fixed in: 4.1.5.3}

October 4, 2023

Can't Edit Face-to-face Custom Notifications Without Unlocking the Activity Completion Criteria (Bug Fix)

When editing the notifications for a specific face-to-face activity, the instructor needs to unlock the activity completion criteria first. Otherwise, the instructor receives an error messages when saving the new notifications. As part of this software fix, the instructor is able to modify the custom notifications without having to unlock the activity completion criteria first.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/notifying-supervisors-when-a-learners-signs-up-for

_{Ref: HCE-7199
Fixed in: 4.1.5.3}

October 4, 2023

User Upload History Table Shows Special Characters (Bug Fix)

When viewing the results (e.g. "Task Results") of a user upload job, the table doesn't properly display special characters. It instead displays their HTML encoded equivalent. As part of this software fix, the special characters are now properly displayed as expected.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/viewing-the-results-of-a-user-upload-job

_{Ref: HCE-7233
Fixed in: 4.1.5.3}

October 1, 2023

User Mapping Field when Uploading Users has been Renamed and Simplified (Improvement)

When uploading users, you are able to match users from your CSV file to the users in your database on any unique field. The setting to be used when uploading users has been renamed to "Match on" and simplified for usability purposes. It's also important to note that (a) the field that you are matching on must be unique. If you are matching on a custom user profile field, you must ensure that the "Should the data be unique?" setting for that custom user profile field is enabled. Also note that (b) the header in the CSV file must match the name of the field in the database. It is no longer possible to match two fields that do not have the same name.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/importing-users

_{Ref: HCE-6846
Fixed in: 4.1.5.2}

September 27, 2023

Duplicate Entries for Compliance Snapshots (Bug Fix)

If the compliance archive fails to complete due to an exception, the learning environment will automatically re-try to create the archive, but the old / partial archive remains. This results in two archive entries being visible in the list of available archives. As part of this software fix, the learning environment will delete partially failed archives.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/compliance

_{Ref: HCE-6030
Fixed in: 4.1.5.2}

September 27, 2023

Notifications for Mandatory Courses Repeatedly Sent (Bug Fix)

The notifications sent to learners when they have mandatory training to complete is sent two times a day under some circumstances. As part of this software fix, the query that verified whether or not a learner had been notified of their upcoming mandatory training has been fixed and the notifications now only go as per the preset schedule.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/notifying-learners-about-upcoming-mandatory-traini

_{Ref: HCE-7334
Fixed in: 4.1.5.2}

September 25, 2023

User Upload History Report Does Not Load (Bug Fix)

The User Upload History report, available under Site administration > Users > Accounts > User uploads > View history, sometimes fails to load as a result of the allowed memory size for the report being exhausted. As part of this software fix, the query has been improved to be more efficient both in terms of memory consumption and database reads.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/viewing-the-results-of-a-user-upload-job

_{Ref: HCE-7302
Fixed in: 4.1.5.2}

September 22, 2023

Learning History Report Displays mlang Tags (Bug Fix)

If an instructor translates the course title using mlang tags, the Learning History report displays the "mlang" tags in the course name column instead of displaying the course title in the user's preferred language. As part of this software fix, the Learning History report now displays the course title in the appropriate language as expected.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/learning-history

_{Ref: HCE-7299
Fixed in: 4.1.5.2}

September 22, 2023

Face-to-face Activity is Displayed Twice (Bug Fix)

When a user enters a face-to-face activity, the description of this activity is displayed twice (in two different areas) on the web page. As part of this software fix, the description is only displayed once as expected.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/adding-an-activity#AddinganActivity-Face-to-face

_{Ref: HCE-7271
Fixed in: 4.1.5.2}

September 22, 2023

Manually Marking Certain Activities as Compete Displays an Error (Bug Fix)

When a "Text and Media Area" (formerly known as a "Label" activity in version 3.9) or a "Lesson" activity is set to allow a user to "Students can manually mark the activity as completed", if and when a user marks the activity as completed, an error is displayed. The activity however is still marked as completed as expected. As part of this software fix, the error message is no longer being displayed to the end user.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/adding-an-activity#AddinganActivity-TextandMediaArea

_{Ref: HCE-7293
Fixed in: 4.1.5.2}

September 22, 2023

Exporting Attendance to Microsoft Excel Generates an Error (Bug Fix)

In some circumstances, exporting the attendance from a face-to-face activity to a Microsoft Excel format generates an error. Exporting it to other formats still works. As part of this software fix, the root cause was addressed and the attendance can now be exported to Microsoft Excel.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/exporting-the-list-of-attendees

_{Ref: HCE-7294
Fixed in: 4.1.5.2}

September 20, 2023

BigBlueButton 2.6.14 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.6.14 

Learn more here: https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton/releases/tag/v2.6.14

_{Ref: HCE-7323
Fixed in: 4.1.5.2}

September 6, 2023

Users Who "Try Again" to Purchase a Course Get Charged Twice (Bug Fix)

If a user double-clicks on the "Pay" button when purchasing a course using PayPal Pro, they are presented with a warning screen and given the option to "Try Again". Under certain circumstances, when clicking on the "Try Again" button, the user may be charged twice. As part of this software fix, if the "Try Again" button is clicked, the system ensure that if the 1st payment went through, a 2nd payment will not also go through. 

_{Ref: HCE-7278
Fixed in: 4.1.5.2}

September 5, 2023

Teacher and Non-editing Teacher Roles Have Been Renamed for New Installations (Improvement)

The words "Teacher" and "Non-editing Teacher" are mostly used in the academic sector (e.g. colleges, universities) and not commonly used in the healthcare nor corporate sector. As such, the roles were renamed to "Lead Instructor" and "Instructor" respectively for new installations only. In other words, any new system installed after HCE 4.1.4 will see the roles "Lead Instructor" and "Instructor" while any older system will continue to see the old role names. That being said, all of our documentation will be refactored over the next few weeks to use the word "Instructor". And eventually, the words "Teacher" and "Non-editing Teacher" will be completely removed from the learning environment as well. 

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/instructor-s-guide

_{Ref: HCE-7090
Fixed in: 4.1.5.1}

September 5, 2023

Users Can Double-Click on the Payment Button when Using Paypal Pro (Improvement)

When purchasing a course using PayPal Pro, some users would double-click on the payment button, thereby resulting a two charges from Paypal Pro. As part of this improvement, the learning environment now prevents double-clicking on the payment button when using the PayPal Pro payment page.

_{Ref: HCE-7270
Fixed in: 4.1.5.1}

September 4, 2023

Unique Identifiers not Included When Exporting the Course Completion Report (Bug Fix)

When exporting the course completion report to Microsoft Excel / CSV, the unique identifier used to identify users such as their full name or email address is not included, even though it is visible on the web page. As part of this software fix, the unique identifiers are now included in the exported file.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/course-completion

_{Ref: HCE-7250
Fixed in: 4.1.5.1}

September 2, 2023

User is Enrolled in a Course and Face-to-face Session yet Sees an Error Message (Bug Fix)

When a user signs up for a session using the "Session enrolments" method and pays using PayPal Pro, if and only if the "Send email confirmation" is enabled on the enrolment method, the user will see an error message. The error in question is related to sending the email confirmation to the user. The user is still registered in the course and in the face-to-face session as expected. As part of this software fix, the email is now properly sent to the user and the error message is no longer displayed.

_{Ref: HCE-7248
Fixed in: 4.1.5.1}

September 1, 2023

Old / Saved Timesheets Cannot be Updated Following the Upgrade (Bug Fix)

Following an upgrade from HCE 3.9 to HCE 4.1, an old face-to-face attendance timesheet cannot be updated. In other words, if an instructor has already saved a timesheet in January 2023 and now (following the upgrade) needed to modify the same timesheet (by adding or removing attendees), the timesheet would not show the attendance of the users as it was entered back in January. As part of this software fix, timesheets that were saved prior to the upgrade will continue to be displayed using the older (HCE 3.9) layout. Timesheets that were never saved, regardless of when the session took place (before the upgrade or after the upgrade), will now use the new layout, which allows an instructor to save a timesheet as a draft before approving it.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/taking-attendance

_{Ref: HCE-7241
Fixed in: 4.1.5.1}

September 1, 2023

User Unassignment for Performance Appraisal Ends Abruptly (Bug Fix)

When changing the business rules for the assignment of performance appraisals, it is possible to unassign users from appraisal forms. If the performance appraisal system tried to unassign users who had already completed the form, the system would immediately throw an exception and stop processing the rest of the users. The end result is that users who should have been unassigned (after the exception took place) were never unassigned from the form. As part of this software fix, if a user no longer qualifies based on the new business rules has already been completed the form, the system simply skips them (without throwing an exception) and continues to process the rest of the users.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/pas/assigning-appraisals

_{Ref: HCE-7236
Fixed in: 4.1.5.1}

August 28, 2023

Empty CSV File Used for User Uploads Reports a Failure  (Improvement)

If the learning environment, as part of the "User Upload" procedure, tries to upload a CSV file that simply contains the headers but no data, it would report a failure. As part of this improvement, processing a file that contains no user data is considered a success.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/viewing-the-results-of-a-user-upload-job

_{Ref: HCE-7228
Fixed in: 4.1.5.1}

August 28, 2023

Conditions may Inadvertently Save the 1st Operator in the List Instead of the Previously Saved Operator (Bug Fix)

When defining conditions in programs, cohorts or the performance appraisal system, some special fields types such as the "Date/Time" field type (as an example) load special operators (e.g. "is on", "is before", or "is after"). When loading the page, the correct operator would be displayed, but if the administrator did not interact with the condition and simply clicked on "Save Changes" (e.g. saved the page without modifying the condition), the learning environment would inadvertently save the condition using the 1st operator in the list ("is on") instead of the previously saved operator ("is before" or "is after"). As part of this software fix, the page now saves the previously saved operator for those special field types.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/registering-users-in-programs-based-on-a-date

_{Ref: HCE-7246
Fixed in: 4.1.5.1}

August 21, 2023

The "Terms and Conditions" Activity does not Display Badges (Improvement)

When a user views the course outline page, a badge on the right side of the activity in question informs them what they need to do (if the activity is incomplete) such as "View the activity" or "Receive a passing grade", or what they have already accomplished (if the activity has been completed). The "Terms and Conditions" activity however did not have any badges. As part of this improvement, the Terms and Conditions activity now states that the user must accept the terms and conditions, which may include legal terms, a policy, or whatever the instructor put in the activity.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/adding-an-activity#AddinganActivity-tandcTermsandConditions

_{Ref: HCE-7212
Fixed in: 4.1.5.1}

August 21, 2023

Updates to the "Course Completed" Enrollment Plugin (Improvement)

The "Course Completed" enrollment plugin, which allows an administrator to enforce pre-requisites in programs, has been updated.  Details about the latest changes related to this 3rd party plugin are available in https://moodle.org/plugins/pluginversion.php?id=29756

_{Ref: HCE-7203
Fixed in: 4.1.5.1}

August 21, 2023

Moodle 4.1.5 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 4.1.5. 

Learn more here: https://moodledev.io/general/releases/4.1/4.1.5

_{Ref: HCE-7227
Fixed in: 4.1.5.1}

August 16, 2023

Logs are Not Visible from a User's Profile (Bug Fix)

When an administrator looks at a user's profile and clicks on "All logs", an error is generated. The administrator has to navigate to the Logs / Live Logs report in order to find the logs for a specific user. As part of this software fix, accessing the logs from the user's profile has been restored.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/logs-live-logs

_{Ref: HCE-7201}

August 16, 2023

Programs Where "Assign the role of" is set to "Do not assign roles" Enrolls Users in Courses (Bug Fix)

When an administrator defines a program, by default, the value of "Assign the role of" is set to "Student". The administrator however has the option to set "Assign the role of" to "Do not assign roles". The expectation is that this option would not enroll the user in the course(s) included in the program. However, the actual behaviour prior to this bug fix was that system would still enrol users in the program. It would simply omit to assign them the role of "Student". (In the learning environment, a user is first enrolled in the course, and then assigned a specific role, which is usually the role of "Student" but could also be an instructor role for example.) As part of this software fix, if "Assign the role of" is set to "Do not assign roles", the user is not enrolled in the course(s) specified in the program.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/adding-a-program

_{Ref: HCE-7214}

August 14, 2023

IPN Messages Sent by PayPal Pro Failed to be Validated in a Timely Manner (Bug Fix)

When a purchase is made for a course using PayPal Pro, the IPN returned by PayPal Pro failed to validate immediately. This means that it could take hours for the process to complete and for the user to be enrolled in the course following their purchase. As part of this software fix, the IPNs are now validated in a more timely manner (as soon as they are received).

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/selling-a-course

_{Ref: HCE-7200}

July 28, 2023

Compliance Archives are not Always on the Last Day of the Month (Bug Fix)

The archive of the compliance report is scheduled to run on the last day of the month. In some cases (usually when the months had less than 31 days), it would run the next day (e.g. on the 1st day of the month instead). As part of this fix, the compliance report is now always archived on the last day of the month.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/compliance

_{Ref: HCE-7156}

July 25, 2023

Quote / Invoice can now Collect the Institution's Name (Improvement)

The learning environment has the capability to automatically generate quotes and invoices when a user purchase courses (and when enabled by the instructor for the course). When a user generates a quote / invoice, they can pay by cheque or EFT (electronic funds transfer). As part of this improvement, the user purchasing the course can now specify which organization they are representing. When specified by the user, the organization is displayed on the quote / invoice.

_{Ref: HCE-7150}

July 21, 2023

The "General" Section in a Course Keeps Showing Even when Empty (Improvement)

A course always has a "General" section at the top, which is generally used to display a welcome message or instructions. When that section is empty, it would display a "General" header but no content. As part of this improvement, the "General" header / section is no longer displayed to learners if it is empty.

_{Ref: HCE-7102}

July 19, 2023

Viewing the Changes to Individual Users During User Uploads (New Feature)

When uploading users using a CSV file, whether it was done manually or via an automated / scheduled job, you can now view what change(s) occurred for each individual user by looking at a column called "Other" in the results.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/viewing-the-results-of-a-user-upload-job

_{Ref: HCE-7122}

July 19, 2023

Cost and Discount Cost Removed from Face-to-face Settings (Improvement)

The Face-to-face session would allow an instructor to specify a "cost" as well as a "discount cost". These costs could then be included in a notification sent to learners. These cost however were simply meta data and the actual cost being charged to the learner was set in the enrollment method, not in the face-to-face session. So if the instructor entered the wrong cost in the face-to-face session, the user purchasing the course would get a notification that contained a cost different than what they were actually charged on their credit card. As part of this improvement, the "cost" and "discount cost" options previously available in the face-to-face sessions were removed.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/selling-a-course

_{Ref: HCE-7126}

July 12, 2023

Duplicate Attendance Upload Tasks Appear to be Stuck (Bug Fix)

If a user tries to upload attendance records and accidentally clicks on the "Upload Records" button twice, the task appears to be stuck and will never complete. As part of this fix, clicking on the "Upload records" button twice in a row and trying to resubmit the exact same file will display an error message to the administrator immediately, thereby preventing duplicate tasks.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/importing-attendance-records

_{Ref: HCE-6959}

July 6, 2023

Associated Fields Can No Longer Reference Social Fields (Improvement)

Now that the ICQ Number, MSN ID, AIM ID, Yahoo ID, Skype ID, and Web page user profile fields are all "social" custom user fields, there is no need to link the "associated input" field to them. As part of this improvement, the "associated input" field can no longer be mapped to "social" fields.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/managing-custom-user-profile-fields

_{Ref: HCE-7060}

July 6, 2023

History Table for Uploading Sessions and Attendance is Improperly Formatted  (Bug Fix)

The table that allows you to view the history for sessions and attendance that were uploaded was improperly formatted. As part of this fix, the solution is now properly formatted as expected. 

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/viewing-the-history-of-a-classroom-session-or-atte

_{Ref: HCE-6958}

June 28, 2023

Body of the Email for the Receipt Contains Instructions (Improvement)

When a user purchases a course on behalf of others users, they receive an email that contains a sales receipt in PDF format. As part of this improvement, the body of that email now contains instructions on how they can share this course with others. The instructions contains the enrolment link as well as their license key. 

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/buying-courses-for-your-team

_{Ref: HCE-7033}

June 27, 2023

Support for Site Licenses When Selling Courses (New Feature)

When selling courses to other organizations, you are now able to specify tiered site license pricing based on the size of the organization. For example, if a user from another organization's learning environment powered by Dual Code and licensed for up to 10,000 users purchases your course, you can now offer that course to everyone within that organization (up to a maximum of 10,000 enrolments) for a flat rate. This functionality only works when users purchase your course through a "Partner" site (in a multi-site deployment) or the OCI Marketplace.  This includes healthcare organizations who subscribe to a learning environment powered by Dual Code as well as organizations who access your course via My Dual Code, a free learning environment available to all healthcare workers regardless of whether or not they have an agreement in place with Dual Code. Site licenses are not available to users who have an account created directly on your site, whether you created an account on their behalf or had them self-register.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/selling-a-course

_{Ref: HCE-6981}

June 27, 2023

Dollar Values are Removed from the Cancellation / Refund Policy in Receipts  (Bug Fix)

If a cancellation or refund policy included a dollar value using a $ sign, the dollar value itself was not displayed on the PDF receipt. For example, if the policy says "an administrative fund of $5 will be retained when requesting a refund", the receipt would simply display "an administrative fund of will be retained when requesting a refund" would be omitted from the receipt. As part of this bug fix, the dollar value is now printed on the receipt as expected.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/customizing-your-sales-receipt

_{Ref: HCE-7034}

June 26, 2023

Disable Duplicate Course Completion Notifications (Improvement)

When a learner completes a course, as long as the course is configured to email a certificate of completion, the user will receive the email accordingly. A second / separate email was also sent to the user however informing them that they have completed the course. As part of this improvement, the 2nd email is disabled. Users now only get one (1) email when they complete the course, and only if the course is configured to send a certificate of completion.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/issuing-certificates-of-completion

_{Ref: HCE-6945}

June 22, 2023

Moodle 4.1.4 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 4.1.4. 

Learn more here: https://moodledev.io/general/releases/4.1/4.1.4

_{Ref: HCE-6911}

June 20, 2023

Login Issues with Regular Users Who Access a Regular Course via OCI (Bug Fix)

If a regular user (e.g. a non-OCI user) tries to access a regular course via the OCI Library, that user will then be considered an OCI user going forward, which will prevent the user from logging in using their regular login credentials. As part of this fix, the OCI engine no longer attempts to reset the user's preferred login method if they are trying to access a regular course via OCI. In addition, regular courses are no longer visible in the OCI Library.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/self-enrolling-in-oci-courses

_{Ref: HCE-6707}

June 19, 2023

Simplification of Face-to-face Activity Completion Criteria (Improvement)

The completion criteria for the face-to-face activity required an instructor to select between "any session" and "all sessions", often causing confusion. It also allowed an instructor to specify that a user could "partially" attend a class, but didn't allow them to specify how much of the session the user had to attend. As part of this improvement, the activity completion criteria were simplified and now the instructor simply needs to specify how much (in percentage) of the session the user needs to attend to receive a learning record. For example, if the user needs to fully attend the session, the criteria needs to be 100%, which is the default when adding a new session. If the user can simply attend 4 hours out of a 5 hour session and still receive a learning record, then the criteria should be 80%. Note that this does not change how attendance is entered. This change simply affects how the activity completion criteria for a face-to-face session is defined.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/generating-a-learning-record-for-a-partial-attenda

_{Ref: HCE-3773}

June 19, 2023

Transaction Identifiers are Obfuscated (Improvement)

Certain transaction identifies such as those shown on receipt (for sales receipts generated by the learning environment) were sequential, allowing a user to estimate how many sales a specific vendor has. As part of this improvement, the transaction identifiers are now obfuscated and randomly generated.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/managing-sales-receipts

_{Ref: HCE-6957}

June 18, 2023

Enabling the "Self Enrolment (Advanced)" Method (Improvement)

The "Self enrolment (Advanced)" method (formerly called "Self enrolment (Beta)", is now enabled on all systems. This methods contains advanced features not otherwise available in the regular "Self enrolment" method. This is also the method that Dual Code will continue to enhance going forward.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/enabling-self-enrolment

_{Ref: HCE-6979}

June 14, 2023

Listing Matching OCI Courses in Keyword Searches (Improvement)

The OCI Marketplace is an excellent resource for educational material offered by 3rd parties, including Canadian hospitals and healthcare organizations. Many of these courses have been accredited by Colleges and associations and can be used by healthcare professionals for continuing education purposes. As part of this improvement, when a user searches for courses by keyword in your learning environment, the search results will now include courses offered through the OCI Marketplace. The OCI courses will always be displayed at the bottom of the search results page (after the list of courses offered / hosted in your learning environment). The matching OCI courses will also clearly indicate which organization is offering the course to differentiate them from your own courses.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/enrolling-in-oci-3rd-party-courses

_{Ref: HCE-5273}

June 14, 2023

Prioritizing Self-enrolment Methods (Improvement)

In earlier versions of the learning environment, if multiple unrestricted self-enrolment methods were present in a course, a user would be presented with numerous options (e.g. numerous "enrol me" buttons) when trying to self-enrol. This is usually a configuration error on the part of the instructor or did not properly set the restrictions on an enrolment method. As part of this improvement, only the first (highest in the list) self-enrolment method applicable to a user will be displayed to the user. In the event that an administrator wants to disable this enhancement and continue to display numerous enrolment options to the learner, they can disable the "Show first enrolment option only" in the system-level settings.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/restricting-enrollment-to-specific-cohorts

_{Ref: HCE-6934}

June 14, 2023

Deprecation of the "Sign up Method" Setting (Improvement)

In earlier versions of the learning environment, an instructor or administrator would have to explicitly select the preferred self-enrollment method when adding a face-to-face activity in order for a "Sign up" link to appear in the course description (as further explained in Displaying Sessions in Course Descriptions). As part of this improvement, the preferred self-enrolment method is now automatically determined by the learning environment and the instructor / administrator no longer needs to select it.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/displaying-sessions-in-course-descriptions

_{Ref: HCE-6917}

June 14, 2023

Exporting the List of Attendees Fails (Bug Fix)

Under certain circumstances, the list of attendees in a face-to-face session could not be exported to a CSV file. As part of this fix, the issues surrounding this particular use case were resolved and the CSV file can now be exported.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/exporting-the-list-of-attendees

_{Ref: HCE-6927}

June 8, 2023

Added the {ACCREDITATIONASSERTATION} Placeholder for Certificates of Completion (Improvement)

In earlier version, an administrator could display accreditation information on a certificate of completion by adding certain placeholder such as  {ACCREDITATIONBODY}, {ACCREDITATIONTYPE}, {CREDITVALUE} and {ACCREDITATIONID}. However, this usually required the administrator to design two (2) separate certificates (e.g. one with an accreditation statement and another without an accreditation statement) and then assign the right certificate to the right course. As part of this improvement, an administrator can simply insert the {ACCREDITATIONASSERTATION} placeholder anywhere on a certificate of completion, and the certificate will only display a statement regarding accreditation if the course is accredited (as defined in the course settings).

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/designing-a-certificate-of-completion and https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/tracking-accreditation

_{Ref: HCE-6909}

June 8, 2023

Removed Deprecated Placeholders for Certificates of Completion (Bug Fix)

There are several user attributes (icq, skype, yahoo, aim, msn, url) that were removed in HCE v4.1. These attributes were never deprecated in the list of placeholders that can be used in certificates of completion. As a result, they would not have displayed any information on the certificates if/when used. As part of this release, these placeholders were deprecated from the list of valid certificate of completion placeholders. The implication is that anyone who were including these fields in their CSV files as part of user uploads will need to change the headers in their CSV to correctly map to the new field name, which is now a custom field. In other words, if the column in your CSV file used to be "icq", it should now be "profile_field_icq".

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/designing-a-certificate-of-completion

_{Ref: HCE-6910}

June 8, 2023

Different Message when a Learner Doesn't Fully Attend a Classroom Session (Improvement)

The notification message sent to learners when they did not attend the session long enough to receive a learning record (e.g. they were a "No Show" or a "Partially Attended" but showed up too late or left too early) suggested that they had attended at least a part of the session. This caused confusion to learners who did not show up at all. The message has been improved to the following: The Facilitator for the "[coursefullname]" course has indicated that you did not attend the session scheduled for [startdatetime] for which you were registered. In order to complete the course, you will need to sign up for another session. Should you have any questions or would like to discuss further, you may contact the Facilitator directly. 

This message can be customized by an administrator at the system level or by an instructor on a course by course basis.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/managing-classroom-sessions

_{Ref: HCE-6923}

May 26, 2023

Support for SOCRA CME Credits (Improvement)

The Society of Clinical Research Associates (SOCRA) has been added to the list of accreditation bodies for the purpose of tracking CME (Continuing Medical Education) credits in the learning record store and adding it to certificates of completion

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/tracking-accreditation

May 18, 2023

BigBlueButton 2.6.7 Update (BigBlueButton Update)

As part of our general development cycle, the web conferencing system, which is based on BigBlueButton, has been upgraded to version 2.6.7 

Learn more here: https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton/releases/tag/v2.6.7

_{Ref: HCE-5787}

May 12, 2023

Miscellaneous Face-to-face Improvements (Improvement)

As part of this release, numerous improvements were made to the face-to-face activity. We recommend that you review the entire section on Managing Classroom Sessions in our user guide and also go through the user tours, which are available in the product.

Learn more here: Managing Classroom Sessions

_{Ref: HCE-6245}

May 12, 2023

Miscellaneous Program Improvements (Improvement)

As part of this release, numerous improvements were made to program. We recommend that you review the entire section on Managing Programs in our user guide and also go through the user tours, which are available in the product.

Learn more here: Managing Programs

_{Ref: HCE-6256}

May 12, 2023

Moodle 4.1.3 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 4.1.3. 

Learn more here: https://moodledev.io/general/releases/4.1/4.1.3

_{Ref: HCE-6826}

May 11, 2023

Support for the College of Optometrists of Ontario in CMaRS Integration (Improvement)

The learning environment now supports sending learning records to CMaRS for users affiliated with the College of Optometrists of Ontario.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/cmars-reappointment-system

_{Ref: HCE-6769}

April 18, 2023

Old "Configurable Reports" are Read-Only

The "Configurable Reports" tool available in HCE 3.9 has been replaced with a more user-friendly custom report builder in HCE 4.1. For backwards compatibility purposes, the old configurable reports are still available in read-only mode (provided that they work and report results), but they cannot be edited nor can you create new reports using the old tool. 

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/managing-custom-reports

_{Ref: HCE-6706}

April 11, 2023

Completion Rate Doesn't Report on All Users (Improvement)

The Completion Rate report available within courses would omit users if they did not complete the course within the date range. In other words, the users who not show up in the "Complete" column nor would they show up in the "Incomplete" column. As part of this improvement, users currently enrolled in the course show up either in the "Complete" column (if their completion is within the requested range) or otherwise show up in the "Incomplete" column.

Learn more here: https://docs.dualcode.com/standard/completion-rate-course

_{Ref: HCE-6481}

March 23, 2023

Moodle 4.1.2 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 4.1.2. 

Learn more here: https://moodledev.io/general/releases/4.1/4.1.2

_{Ref: HCE-6611}