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Version 5.17.0 - 09/01/2024

Version 5.17.0 - 09/01/2024

Owned by Tom Erbe, created
Last updated: Dec 12, 2023 by Frances Harrison
14 min read

Production Release Date: Jan 9, 2024

Version: 5.17.0

UAT Release Date: Dec 5, 2023

 

The Release webinar is available from here (following the Friday demo meeting);

Note: you can copy and share this link with other people in your organisation

We have added a new column on the table below called “Action Required” this shows several new status labels:

SETUP_REQUIRED - some setup will be required to use this element

NEW_PERMISSIONS - new permissions have been added

RECOMMEND_TRAINING - training is recommended - usually for new major features.

screen_changes - changes have been made to existing screens

This is to help highlight to you anything you need to ensure is set up for the day of release or in advance of this. We do still recommend that all of the release notes are read.

low impact medium impact high impact We are also adding a column for Potential Impact to you our customers, this is an estimation of any impact to your businesses the work may have. This is just offered as a guideline, as we appreciate you all use EPAPro slightly differently.

We recommend you check any Comms settings with the release notes, as whilst newly introduced comms will be listed in them, we may not mention if an existing comm needs to be enabled, which we assume may be on from previous releases.

What you have enabled can be seen via the System Management → Communications .

 

Epic

Key

Type

Action Required

Summary

Release Notes Description

Potential Impact

Epic

Key

Type

Action Required

Summary

Release Notes Description

Potential Impact

APPRENTICE DASHBOARD

EP-3851

Feature

SCREEN CHANGES

New Apprentice Dashboard

Apologies this is in release 5.17.0,

There was an issue with the way the release notes page data pulled the info in.

Please be aware that this change does have a small impact on all user’s and not just apprentices

We recommend that AO Users review their Support Materials and how they are setup/ configured and consider restricting them to user type, or ensure when they are created, they specify the related Standard/Assessment Schema/Component/Provider or Employer. This will then ensure when the Apprentices dashboard work goes live that they see the relevant support materials specifically aimed at the apprentice.

Overview

We have adjusted the URL for our dashboard to better reflect it as the application’s home page and also redesigned the apprentice’s dashboard to provide key information up front and everything they need in one place.

Changes to Functionality

Dashboard URL Change

To better reflect the dashboard as being epaPRO's home screen we have adjusted the URL to be at the root of the application. We have introduced a redirect for the old URL so any bookmarks should continue to function and the browser may update them automatically.

New Dashboard Links

We have added a dashboard link to the top of the navigation menu, providing quick access to getting back to your dashboard. This has always been possible by clicking the logo but is now much clearer. On mobile devices a small house will be visible within the top bar, providing a quick shortcut as the menu is not always visible.

Support Materials View Screen

The component filter has been added to this screen.

Milestone Description

We have added a new description field to assessment milestones. This will allow for some additional details to be added for the apprentice dashboard.

New Apprentice Dashboard

The apprentice’s dashboard has been completely redesigned to provide key information in a clear and concise manner. The new screen has also been mobile optimised, being the apprentice’s dashboard it is likely to be more commonly used on mobile devices. The key features of the dashboard include:

  • Programme Overview - This provides visual progress of the apprentice’s programme, styled in a similar way to the overview on the assessment profile. Each node will have one of four statuses; No Status, Booked, In Progress, or Completed. Clicking on one of the assessment nodes will expand the relevant section in the Assessments section. This section is hidden on mobile as it’s purely visual.

  • Assessments - This is the main part of the dashboard and provides a list of components for the apprentice’s schema tied to the assessment plan. If no plan exists then no components will show here. Each section provides a short summary of the status of the component, completed milestones, name, and booking. Clicking an assessment will expand and show additional booking details, and a list of milestones, each with their own details. If the element is tied to an assessment centre and our map functionality is enabled clicking the assessment centre will open up our directions screen prefilling the directions from the apprentice’s workplace address to the centre. If component-related support materials exist then a “Support Material” button will show, this will direct the apprentice to a pre-filtered list for that component on the support materials screen. If the apprentice is able to upload assessment info an “Upload Files” button will also show, the logic around this is the same as the apprentice’s profile screen.

  • Status Key - This is an info box to provide details on what the status icons mean for the Programme Overview and Assessment boxes. On mobile, this becomes a “Status Key” button within the assessment sections.

  • Latest News - This shows the latest news for the apprentice ordered with the most recent first. This functions similarly to the non-apprentice dashboard. On mobile, this will be shown at the top of the screen.

  • Profile - Key details about the apprentice’s profile, including a link to edit their profile if they wish.

  • Programme - Key details about the apprentice’s programme.

  • Support Materials - A list of support materials related to the apprentice's programme. This will include support materials that are generic or tied to the apprentice’s standard, components, or schema and linked to the apprentice user type. Any support materials not linked to the apprentice’s user type will not be shown.

To reduce clutter and elements that apprentices are currently not able to make use of the actions toolbar icon has been removed for apprentices.

Impacted Areas

  • User dashboards

  • Support Materials

  • epaPRO Topbar

  • epaPRO Menu

Screenshots and guide can be seen here :-

Feature EP-3778 - Apprentice Dashboard

This will depend on if you allow apprentices to login.

 

 

EP-4269

TASK

 

Skilltech - Update branding

The epaPRO and Skilltech branding/logos have been updated.

 

 

EP-4284

FEATURE

Reporting - Assessment 1st Time Pass/Fail - amend to include cancelled plans

Overview

Amended the result selection criteria for the Assessment → Assessment 1st Time Pass report & updated report descriptions to detail this.

Changes to Functionality

Updated the Assessment → Assessment 1st Time Pass report to include results from cancelled plans. This brings the report in line with the Assessment → Assessment Pass/Fail report.

The report descriptions for both the above reports have been updated to highlight that results from cancelled plans are included.

Impacted Areas

  • Reporting → Assessment → Assessment 1st Time Pass

  • Reporting → Assessment → Assessment Pass/Fail

Permissions

  • None

low impact

 

 

EP-4237

FEATURE

 

Reporting - Apprentice Completions Report

Overview

The Apprentice Completions report has been extended to include apprentices at a status of “Completed”. This is so that the report correctly captures all apprentices that are going through assessment and are prior to certification.

Impacted Areas

  • Reporting → Forecasting → Apprentice Completions

low impact

 

EP-4236

FEATURE

Reporting - Certification Billing report

Overview

A new certification billing report has been added to epaPRO within the finance category of reporting.

The contract lookup for this report uses the apprentice’s start date and the price used is the certification_price against the standard assigned to the contract.

Impacted Areas

  • Reporting → Financials →Certification Billing

Medium Impact

Suggest training and testing hence medium if you use Contracts

 

EP-3815

FEATURE

NEW_PERMISSIONS

recommend Training

setup required

Assessment Milestone Enhancements

Overview

We have added new features to the assessment component milestones functionality within epaPRO. The highlights of this include:

  • being able to assign a milestone to a user within epaPRO

  • notifications/email and SMS comms being sent on milestone assignment/un-assignment/cancellation

  • integrating milestones within My To-Do's

  • including pending milestones in the alerts that appear on the assessment profile and the element side drawer.

Changes to Functionality

Milestone assigned user

We have added functionality that allows an assessment component milestone to be assigned to a user as the component is being booked via the assessment plan screen. The assignment can also be undertaken using the element side drawer from the assessment profile screen, where the component has already been booked. As part of this work, we have also added a tooltip to the milestone display on the assessment profile screen that when clicked on will show the user that is assigned to the milestone.

Only the following users can be assigned to a milestone:

  • Element EPA

  • Element EPAM

  • Apprentice EPA

  • Apprentice EPAM

  • Apprentice

  • Provider users

The assignment for the element side drawer is a two step process, where a limited number of users in the system are returned in the initial dropdown. By selecting “other” from the results that are returned, it is possible to enter a search criteria in the text field that appears under the initial dropdown that will then return any matching users in a dropdown that will appear under the text box.

The ability to assign milestones to other users is controlled by the Assign Assessment Element Milestone found under the Assessment section on the user permissions screen. This has been assigned to Awarding Organisation, EPA Manager and EPA roles by default.

We have also added the following notifications, which are only sent to the person that is the subject of the milestone assignment:

  • Assessment Element Milestone Assigned - sent when a milestone is first assigned or reassigned

  • Assessment Element Milestone Cancelled - sent when an assessment plan is cancelled, or when an apprentice has a Change of Circumstance that causes the assessment plan to be cancelled. Only sent for milestones that have not been completed.

  • Assessment Element Milestone Unassigned - sent when a milestone is unassigned.

We have also added the assigned user to the Assessment Element Milestones report. As part of the changes to this report, we have also added a filter to allow filtering between assessment milestones for the apprentices most recent programme and previous programmes. By default, all assessment milestones are displayed.

Milestone alerts

The assessment alerts that are shown on the Assessment profile, Element side drawer and the counts for which are shown on the Assessment progress listing screen have been updated to include milestones. These alerts will be included where the milestone has not been assigned or the milestone is overdue.

Milestone My To-Dos

We have integrated milestones into the user My To-Do’s task list, so that any outstanding milestones assigned to that user can be seen along with their due dates. As part of this, we have also added milestone tasks to the Digest email. This information can be added by using the {{milestone_details}} email variable. As with the other digest information, this will show the number of milestones the user has outstanding, the number about to breach and the number that have breached their due dates.

Milestone default assigned

We have added the ability to set which user type a milestone will default to when booking an element. This can be configured within the schedule milestone configuration per component, allowing for a different default per-schema/assessment plan. The options are Apprentice, Provider, and Element EPA.

The default only applies to attendees of the element, so if Provider is set as the default when a provider attendee is added, the screen will update any relevant milestones and set that provider user as the assigned user.

If a milestone is manually edited, then it will no longer be recalculated when the attendees or element EPA is changed. Editing an existing booking will not trigger the milestone assignments to be recalculated based on the configured defaults. The assignments already against the milestone, if any, will be left as they are. If multiple provider users have been added as attendees then the first in the list will be used.

Additional feature

We have also added the functionality for milestones to be copied over to a rescheduled/resit/retake element booking (on the assessment plan screen). This will copy the person assigned, the file that was used, and the completed date as well as the person that it was completed by. The copy switch will be “on” by default for all milestones, but can be turned off allowing a complete fresh-start for that milestone under the new element booking. Where the copy switch has been turned on, any custom selection in the assigned user drop down will be ignored.

The copy functionality is not available for Assessment milestones.

Impacted Areas

  • Assessment plan

  • Assessment profile

  • My To-do’s

  • Assessment components

  • Change of Circumstances

  • Assessment Schema

  • Notifications

  • Digest communication

  • These changes have also had a minor impact on the following due to updated to shared components:

    • Manage Planning Capacity

  • Assessment Element Milestones report

  • Appeals

  • Result

  • Certification

Permissions

Assign Assessment Element Milestone - controls the ability to assign milestones to other users. This has been assigned to Awarding Organisation, EPA Manager and EPA roles by default.

More info and screenshots can be found here

Feature EP-3815 Assessment Milestone Enhancements

medium impact

Recommend testing and training. This isnt High as you dont have to use these.

 

EP-3691

FEATURE

training recommended

Authentication - epaPRO Account Switching

Overview

User account switching has been introduced into epaPRO to allow users who perform multiple business roles to switch seamlessly between their accounts.

Changes to Functionality

User Profile

The existing “Linked accounts” tab has been renamed to “External Calendars & SSO”, as this helps differentiate from the new functionality and also gives a better description of the contents within that tab.

A new tab has been introduced called “Associated epaPRO Accounts”. This tab can be used to keep track of the accounts linked to the logged in user, as well as link new accounts.

Note that adding a linked account from within this screen will label the current logged in account as the “primary” account. Once this has been done, only the primary account can make changes to linked accounts. Because of this, please be sure to link accounts from the account you use most often.

Associating a new user account

A new user account can be linked by clicking the “Associate epaPRO User” from within the new “Associated epaPRO Accounts” tab. Clicking this button will open a new modal, with the following options to link accounts:

  • Via SSO

    • This section (if applicable) will show any epaPRO accounts that share any SSO login as the logged in user.

    • Users will be able to associate a user by clicking the “Associate” button within the “Actions” column. Note that this button will be greyed out in the following scenarios:

      • The user is already associated with the logged in epaPRO account

      • The user is already associated with a different epaPRO account.

      • The user shares an SSO login with the logged in user, but the user is currently not logged in with that SSO login (i.e. the user shares a Microsoft login, but the user is currently logged in with Google).

  • Via User Authentication

    • This section allows a user to be linked by providing the username and password credentials of another epaPRO account.

    • If enabled against the account, the system will also request MFA verification in addition to the username and password.

In both of the methods above, the user will need to tick the confirmation boxes at the bottom of the modal, to confirm that:

  • Neither this account, nor the account being linked, are shared accounts

  • Understanding that this will allow both accounts to switch between each other without authentication

Note that an account cannot be linked under the following situations:

  • The user account is already linked to the logged in epaPRO account

  • The user account is already linked to a different epaPRO account.

Viewing/removing associated accounts

Once an account has been linked, it will display in the main table within the “Associated epaPRO Accounts” tab.

If logged in with the primary account, the user can unlink an account by using the three dot menu within the Actions column and selecting “Delete”. A user account can be re-linked at any time should it be needed in the future.

The table also shows three status columns which contain the following information:

  • Status

    • Shows whether the user account is active.

  • MFA Enabled

    • Shows what MFA methods are enabled against the user account.

  • Can Login

    • Shows whether the account can be switched to.

    • Note that an account cannot be switched to unless the following criteria is met:

      • The user account is active

      • The user account is not locked

      • The user account has MFA enabled (note this only applies if the primary account has MFA enabled)

Top menu

The user dropdown in the top-right corner of the epaPRO window has been enhanced with the following:

  • The username of the logged in user is now displayed below the user’s name

  • The user type is displayed in brackets next to the user’s name, in an abbreviated format - these will show as:

    • Awarding Organisation → EPAO

    • Provider → TP

    • Employer → EMP

    • EPA Manager → EPAM

    • EPA → EPA

    • Quality Manager → QA

    • Apprentice → APP

  • Styling changes have been made to make the menu more compact, as more information is now shown here.

  • Any associated epaPRO accounts that can login will be shown under the new “Switch Account” menu sub-section.

    • Clicking on any user account will automatically log into that account, without the need for user authentication.

QA checks

As part of this development, the QA engine has been updated to prevent users from QAing their own work when associated accounts are in use.

If a user has an EPA(M) account that has completed an assessment and a Quality Manager user that passes other QA rules, the QA user will no longer be able to perform the QA - this is because the QA engine is now aware that this user is the same person, and therefore prevents them from QAing their own work.

Impacted Areas

  • User Profile

  • Login

  • External calendars & SSO

  • QA

Permissions

None

 

More info and images can be found here:

Feature - EP-3691 Role Switching

high impact

Testing and training recommended

 

EP-4277

BUG

 

Login - Error when logging in with a deleted username

Overview

Fixed a bug where when trying to log in with a username that has been deleted, the user was presented with an error page rather than a validation message.

 

 

EP-4271

BUG

 

Issue with duplicating entries from saving and exiting or continuing

Overview

Fixed a bug that could occur on any saving screen across epaPRO. Before this fix it was possible to create duplicate entries of entities by double clicking either the save and exit button or save and continue buttons within a very short window. This is now no longer possible and the entities will not be duplicated.

 

 

EP-4268

BUG

 

Assessment Progress - EPA can see apprentices from cancelled plans

Overview

Fixed a bug where an apprentice would show for an EPA/EPAM when that EPA/EPAM is assigned to an element on a cancelled assessment plan.

 

 

EP-4264

BUG

 

Employer - Unable to deactivate

Overview

Fixed a bug where users were unable to deactivate an employer entity.

 

 

EP-4251

BUG

 

Assessment Progress - Memory issue

Overview

Fixed a memory issue on the assessment progress screen for EPA/EPAM users that were assigned to many apprentices.

 

 

EP-4239

BUG

 

Dashboard Targets - Error on empty

Overview

Fixed a bug where an empty value in a dashboard target would cause the dashboard to error on load. Empty values are now valid and handled properly.

 

 

EP-4231

BUG

 

Assessment Plan - Teams meetings error when changing organiser

Overview

Fixed an issue where a Teams meeting connected to an assessment booking would not be updated properly if the organiser was changed. Now if the organiser is changed the original Teams meeting is cancelled and a new one is created. This is because Microsoft do not allow the organiser to be altered.

 

 

EP-4230

BUG

 

Gateway Billing - Possible for duplicate transactions to be added

Overview

Fixed an issue where it was possible to create a duplicate transaction at gateway.

 

 

EP-4229

BUG

 

Reporting - Milestone reports error for provider users

Overview

Fixed an issue where milestone reports were not able to be ran by a provider user.
Also fixed an issue where rows were being duplicated on the Assessment Element Milestones report.

Impacted areas

  • The following reports

    • Assessment Component Milestones

    • Assessment Schema Element Milestone Rules

    • Assessment Element Milestones

 

 

EP-4227

BUG

 

Start New Programme - Errors when not passing in epa_date

Overview

Fixed a bug where not passing an epa_date when starting a new programme caused an error. This occurred via the API, bulk upload, or screen.

 

 

EP-4217

BUG

 

Assessment Milestone - due date update prior to plan completion

Overview

Fixed a bug that caused the assessment milestones due date to not be updated with a new date or time when an assessment plan element was updated prior to plan completion. The assessment milestones due date will now update as expected.

 

 

EP-3447

BUG

 

Assessment Profile - admin user should not be able to upload assessment info for elements pending approval

Overview

Fixed a bug that allowed the admin user to upload assessment info against elements pending approval.

Changes to Functionality

The element side drawer has been updated to ensure that the admin user cannot upload assessment info files against elements that are pending approval.

Impacted Areas

  • Assessment Element side drawer

Permissions

None

 

Epic Link key type Action Required Release Notes Title Release Notes Description Potential Impact
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