Over the past three months, the Entrada development community has contributed over 90 bug fixes, feature refinements, and enhancements into Entrada ME, and today we are pleased to announce the immediate release of Entrada ME 1.10.0 Consortium Editions. The release of Entrada ME 1.10.0 Open Edition will follow, but is unavailable at the time of this release.
Entrada ME 1.10.0
Introduction of Laravel based REST API and VueJS (Entrada Core)
In June 2016 the Entrada development community decided to move Entrada towards Service Oriented Architecture (“SOA”), a path that would facilitate a non-disruptive modernization of Entrada’s underlying architecture. After a review of available frameworks and options, the SOA working group decided to adopt the Laravel PHP framework for our RESTful API, and VueJS to power the front-end user interface. This version of Entrada ME realizes that community decision by introducing the first RESTful API end-point, “Auth”. The new RESTful Auth end-point replaces our previous authentication server + client and continues to provide the flexibility and security needed for Entrada. We have also included a “Sandbox” module to demonstrate to developers how the Entrada ME + API + VueJS pattern works.
The path to completing the transition to SOA will be a long one, but this is the first step in that journey.
Accessibility Improvements (Entrada Core)
Entrada ME 1.10 introduces support allowing content authors to ensure the content they are entering into the platforms meets Accessibility guidelines. This Accessibility Checker icon is now available within all rich text editor windows.
Curriculum Search within Learning Event Resources (uCalgary, Entrada Core)
The Curriculum Search engine is now able to search within the contents of most Learning Event resources allowing users to gain a better understanding of where search terms appear within the curriculum. Currently, the indexing works only for PowerPoint, Word, PDF, HTML, and Text documents as they are uploaded, but future releases will be able to index existing content as well.
Flexible User Disclaimers (Entrada Core)
If your institution requires all users or certain types of users to read and accept agreements, policies, or attestations (i.e. terms of use, acceptable use, privacy policy, academic integrity, etc.) then you will pleased to learn that each organization within Entrada ME 1.10 now has the ability to configure and monitor these disclaimers. Configuration options include being able to specify when they appear (i.e. on login, when accessing courses or communities, etc.) and what happens when if they decline (i.e. auto log out, blocking of content, etc.).
New Visual Dashboard Calendar for Learners (UBC)
The visual calendar that appears on the Dashboard for learners has been updated and now includes the ability to view events by Day, Week, and Month views. It also accurately displays the custom colors selected for courses or learning events.
Significant Improvements to the Learner ePortfolio (WSU)
Improvements to the facilitated learner ePortfolio module have made it easier and more visually appealing to use. Learners can now easily see and track what artifact requirements are outstanding, and they can also see when their mentor/advisor has reviewed an artifact. Another important and exciting addition is that ePortfolios can now also be directly attached to the Course Gradebook, which allows markers/graders a very simple and efficient way to review and mark portfolios.
Improvements to AAMC Curriculum Inventory XML Generation (UT Southwestern)
Entrada continues to improve the quality and robustness of the AAMC Curriculum Inventory XML that is generated by the system. UT Southwestern has contributed several enhancements that help to correctly identify the length of Clerkships and improve performance.
Improvements to Gradebook Assessment Form UI (Queen’s)
User interface styles for grading rubrics and assessment item types within the Gradebook have been refined and improved for this version of Entrada, as well as several bugs have also been addressed
Custom Series of Learning Events (Entrada Core)
The Recurring Event feature within Learning Events now supports the creation of a custom series/schedule of events. For example, if you would like to create a single event that occurs at six different times, you can now easily create a custom series of six events and specify the custom date and time of each event.
Exam Module Improvements and Fixes (UCLA)
The first version of the Exam module was introduced in Entrada ME 1.9, and we have since discovered and resolved several bugs and user experience issues. We have also added an important new feature in this version, which is the ability to automatically transfer exam/quiz/test grades directly to the learners’ Course Gradebook.
Mapping Medbiquitous Resources to Learning Events (Entrada Core, WSU)
Entrada has had the ability store the Medbiq Resources for a number of versions, but we now give faculty and administrative staff the ability to map this terminology directly to Learning Events in the user interface. This information will shortly be reflected in the AAMC Curriculum Inventory XML file as well.
Importing and Exporting Data in Entrada ME (Entrada Core)
Administrators can now import new Entrada ME users directly through the user interface. This feature did not previously exist because typically users were synchronized as a background process from an authoritative source such as a SIS or faculty database; however, this feature will ease the initial adoption of Entrada by new schools.
We have also added the ability to import and export Cohorts (classes) of learners and Course Groups through the user interface. This will allow for more efficient management of groups of learners by curricular coordinators and administrative staff.
User Profile Name Generational Suffixes and Post-Nominal Letters (UCLA)
By enabling the new profile_name_extensions setting Entrada administrators are allowing people to indicate generational suffixes of their name, as well as any post-nominal letters they may have.
Unified Pagination Strategy (Entrada Core)
To reduce the number of different pagination strategies employed by modules throughout Entrada we have introduced a new Entrada_Pagination class that should be used in most cases by developers, and have also converted most modules to use this new class.
Other Technical Improvements Include
- Added language translations for Clerkship and Communities (NUS)
- Fixes and improvements when exporting Learning Events in Admin > Manage Events (Entrada Core)
- Ability to customize the default Learning Event Type duration (Entrada Core)
- Improvements to Assessment & Evaluation module admin dashboard (Queen’s)
- Improvements to customizability of how dates and times are displayed throughout Entrada (NUS)
- Improvements to how My Communities are displayed in the sidebar (Entrada Core)
- Improvements and fixes to user session timeout notification (Entrada Core)
For further information or clarification regarding information contained in this release announcement please contact:
Matt Simpson
Technical Director, Entrada Consortium
School of Medicine, Queen’s University
Website: http://entrada-project.org
Telephone: +1 613-533-6000 x78146
Email: simpson@queensu.ca
