We are pleased to announce that Elentra ME 1.25 and the maintenance releases 1.24.1, 1.23.2, and 1.22.3 are now available to all Consortium participants.
These high-level release notes contain a brief description of some key changes included in Elentra ME 1.25.
Key Changes in Elentra ME 1.25
Laravel 9 Upgrade
Contributors: Elentra Consortium Core Team
Laravel is the web application framework that the Elentra code relies on. The version of Laravel we were using was coming to the end of its life, so to ensure that we continue to receive the latest security fixes to Laravel, the Core Team upgraded from Laravel 6.20 to 9.0 in ME 1.25. This upgrade reduces security vulnerabilities and helps ensure a more stable product.
The Laravel upgrade also required a PHP upgrade which the Elentra Core Team addressed in Elentra ME 1.24. All schools should note that upgrading to Elentra ME 1.25 requires PHP 8+.
Creation of Seed Data and Writing Functional Tests for the API (application programming interface)
Contributors: Elentra Consortium Core Team
The Core Team have completed work to write functional tests to address virtually all end points in the Elentra API. The API is what lets Elentra send information from databases to the user interface. Creating functional tests for the API allows us to more easily test Elentra and make sure that when we pull in new code Elentra remains as stable as possible. With these tests included in ME 1.25, developers from Consortium schools now have a model to follow to write tests for their own code contributions. This supports our strategic goal to eventually require functional tests for all new or revised API end points.
Also included in Elentra ME 1.25 is seed data for developers to use. This provides an initial set of demo data to use when using Elentra.
Event Attendance Self-Reporting for Learners
Contributor: Northern Ontario School of Medicine
NOSM’s work introduces a new event attendance option that allows learners to self-report their attendance status from an event page without requiring a geolocation check. This feature enhancement optionally integrates with the existing Absence Management dashboard to allow for approvals of requested absences as desired.
Improved User Experience for Competency-Based Education Tools
Contributor: Elentra Consortium Core Team
Following user experience best practices, the Core Team implemented a series of changes to the user interface to continue to improve the experience of using the Curriculum Framework Builder introduced in ME 1.24.
Increased Options in the Assessment Plan Builder (Competency-Based Education)
Contributors: Elentra Consortium Core Team, University of Toronto
This feature enhancement introduces the ability to define dependencies across contextual variable responses in an assessment plan. It will allow post-graduate medical programs to better track learner progress towards meeting assessment plan requirements in Elentra.
Learner Self-Assessment Option in Learner Dashboard (Competency-Based Education)
Contributors: Elentra Consortium Core Team, Elentra Corporation, Queen’s University
This enhancement allows courses/programs to allow learners to self-assess their status on a curriculum objective on the learner dashboard. This can be enabled per course/program.
Thank you again to all of the contributing members of our Consortium community for helping to create Elentra ME 1.25.