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Version 5.18.0 - 06/02/2024

Version 5.18.0 - 06/02/2024

Production Release Date: Feb 6, 2024

Version: 5.18.0

UAT Release Date: Jan 9, 2024

 

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-4232

Feature

SETUP_REQUIRED screen_changes

recommend training

Apprentice Dashboard - Milestones

Overview

We have added the ability for apprentices to upload to milestones they are assigned.

Changes to functionality

The apprentice dashboard milestone list has been updated to now show an “Upload” button to apprentices if the milestone has been assigned to the apprentice and it is not completed. The apprentice will then be able to upload new files to the milestone and unlink files they have uploaded.

As this functionality hooks into the Apprentice Files system, the apprentice requires the “Upload” permission under the “Apprentice Files” heading.

Impacted areas

  • Apprentice dashboard

Medium If allowing apprentices to login

 

EP-4300

TASK

 

Front End - Removal and optimisations to front end JavaScript

Overview

As part of optimisations to our Front End Javascript we have removed code that is no longer needed or unused. The majority of this was not being loaded by the application, however, we have also removed some Javascript that provided support for IE11. IE11 has not been supported by epaPRO for some time.

Impacted areas

  • All screens

low

 

EP-3747

TASK

 

Reporting - Migrate remaining reports from the filters trait to the helper classes

Overview

Changed a variety of legacy reports to use the new updated report filtering.

Changes to Functionality

The following reports have been updated to use the new report filtering that has been used in newer reports. This helps bring consistency to report filtering and also aids in report enhancements in the future.

  • Assessment → Assessment Attempts

  • Assessment → Assessment Before Gateway Completed

  • Assessment → Assessment Component Milestones

  • Assessment → Assessment Component Question Responses

  • Assessment → Assessment Component Questions

  • Assessment → Assessment Element Exercises

  • Assessment → Assessment Elements

  • Assessment → Assessment Elements (deprecated)

  • Assessment → Assessment Required Uploads

  • Assessment → Assessment Schema Element Milestone Rules

  • Assessment → Elements Requiring Results

  • Assessment → Result Adjustment

  • Assessment → Result Tracking

  • Certification → Certification Overview

  • Certification → Certification Result Adjustment

  • Certification → Ofqual

  • Certification → Ready for Certification

  • EPA → EPA Developmental Feedback

  • Planning → Assessment Plan

  • Planning → Planning Meeting Details

  • QA → Certification Pending QA

  • QA → QA Audit

  • QA → QA Question Template Question Responses

  • QA → QA Question Template Questions

  • QA → Results Pending QA

Impacted Areas

  • Reporting

Permissions

  • None

low

 

EP-2312

TASK

 

Front End - Reduction in usage of jQuery UI

Overview

epaPRO uses jQuery UI on the front end to offer some user interaction, this is mostly legacy, so we have completed some initial adjustments to reduce the reliance on this library and also reduce the overhead it has on each screen. The reduction in overhead provides a reduction in overall screen size and may also provide a performance improvement on some devices.

We have also updated the cancel and reschedule warning popups on the planning meeting screen to better match the other modals we show within epaPRO. These dialogs were the remaining two that used jQuery UI.

Impacted areas

  • Assessment planning meetings

  • Every screen is also somewhat impacted by this change

low

 

EP-4344

FEATURE

 

Assessment Component - Consistent order of standards

Overview

When selecting Standards for an Assessment Component the ordering was inconsistent between the Create and Edit modes of the screen. This has been changed and the Create version now matches the Edit mode.

low

 

EP-4334

FEATURE

screen_changes

Entity Management - New active filter

Overview

The following screens have all had an ‘Active’ filter added to them to aid in managing the various entities within epaPRO. The filter defaults to ‘Active’ for ease of use. A minor change has also been completed on the Assessment Components listing screen to bring the Status column in line with the other screens.

Affected Screens:

  • Assessment Schemas

  • Assessment Components

  • Gateway Specifications

  • Gateway Components

low

 

EP-4332

FEATURE

 

Heartbeat - Pausing checking for notifications when browser tab is not visible

Overview

This is largely a backend change to pause the notification checks when a tab or window is no longer visible to the user.

low

 

EP-4306

FEATURE

 

Custom Tasks - Element EPA assigning task to apprentice

Overview

We have improved our global search and the search when assigning custom tasks to other users. Both of these now allow for EPAs and EPAMs to search for apprentices when the EPA or EPAM is assigned to one of the apprentice’s current, active elements.

Impacted areas

  • Assigning Custom Tasks

  • Global Search

low

 

EP-4305

FEATURE

screen_changes

Apprentice Files - Allow element EPA to preview and download apprentice files

Overview

We have improved the apprentice files security to now consider the element EPA’s access. An EPA assigned to an element, but not the apprentice, will now be able to download and preview apprentice files to aid with their assessment process.

Impacted areas

  • Apprentice files includes download and preview routes wherever these are shown

low

 

EP-4303

FEATURE

screen_changes

Assessment Booking - "Success" wording changed to "Request submitted" for external users

Overview

We have amended the success message external users receive when using the Assessment Booking functionality. They will now receive “Request received”. Internal users will still receive a “Success” message.

Impacted areas

  • Assessment Booking

low

 

EP-4302

FEATURE

screen_changes

Certification/QA screen - cohort id search

Overview

We have added the cohort ID search to the certification and QA listing screens

Impacted Areas

Certification and QA

low

 

EP-4296

FEATURE

screen_changes

Element Side drawer - milestone files

Overview

We have made changes to the element side drawer so that it is now possible to view and download milestone files. The “Select Version” button has been replaced by a button with the name “Actions” in a similar style to the three dot menu used within other parts of epaPRO, From this menu users have the option to View the file, Download the file, or Delete the file, depending on their permissions and the state of the milestone file (for instance, if a has been selected to be used against that milestone, the option to delete the file will not be available.

Impacted Areas

Element side drawer

low

 

EP-4285

FEATURE

 

Apprentice List - Performance improvement

Overview

Performance improvements have been made to the Apprentices listing screen.

low

 

EP-4245

FEATURE

screen_changes

Reporting - Assessment Element Milestone Report - missing filters

Overview

Added the provider and employer filters to the Assessment Element Milestone report.

Changes to Functionality

The Assessment → Assessment Element Milestones report has been updated to allow provider and employer filtering.

Impacted Areas

  • Reporting → Assessment → Assessment Element Milestones

Permissions

  • None

low

 

EP-4240

FEATURE

 

Assessment Plan - Performance improvement

Overview

We have improved the logic when switching stages on the assessment plan which should help improve performance. It has been optimised to reduce the number of additional server requests.

Impacted areas

  • Assessment Plan

low

 

EP-3356

FEATURE

new_permissions screen_changes

training recommended

Ofqual - Categorised Reasonable Adjustments

Overview

We have extended epaPRO to add a more structured entry of reasonable adjustments and special considerations. We support Ofqual’s Pre-Agreed and Post-Mark adjustments and also provide reports for each. The new functionality has been developed with Ofqual’s specification in-mind but additional fields have also been added for EPAO specific data.

Changes to Functionality

New field against standards

We have added a new Ofqual Qualification Number field to standards. This can be entered on the “External Details” tab.

This new field has also been added to the Standards report.

New fields against assessment centres

We have added two new fields; National Centre Number (NCN) and Unique Reference Number (URN) to assessment centres.

Deprecation of old reasonable adjustments text field

The API documentation and apprentice screen have been updated to highlight the reasonable adjustment text field as deprecated.

This field is no longer recommended for use, this new functionality should be used instead. The old field will be disabled in the next release.

New reasonable adjustments tab

A new tab on the edit/create apprentice screen has been added. This new tab allows for the creation of reasonable adjustments. These adjustments have the format of Ofqual allowing for consistent reporting across apprentices. New entries can be created and edited to adjust the status. Adjustments can also be deleted.

Filters have been added to easily narrow down based on type. The active filter will allow for switching between adjustments that are currently valid based on the criteria:

  • Active - The adjustment is in an accepted state and the current date is between it's start/end window

  • Inactive - The adjustment is in a pending, withdrawn or rejected state or the current date is outside the adjustment’s start/end window

If external users have permission to update or create adjustments the statuses they can choose will be restricted to just pending and withdrawn.

Reasonable adjustments have restricted editing if they have been tied to a planning meeting or component booking, this means the meeting or component was booked while the apprentice had one or more reasonable adjustments.

Customisable additional reasonable adjustment and special consideration fields

To provide additional information when there are some more fine-grained selections for internal reporting, we have added two new fields “Additional Reasonable Adjustment” and “Additional Special Consideration” fields. These are to provide extensions to Ofqual's existing Reasonable Adjustment (long-term) and Special Consideration (short-term) options.

These can be customised via the Custom Dropdowns section of epaPRO. If no active values are given then the dropdown will not be shown.

API Apprentice endpoints

The APIs get apprentice and get apprentice list endpoints have both been updated to include a list of reasonable adjustments via a new reasonable_adjustments_list parameter. This will only include active adjustments.

Visibility of adjustments when booking meetings

The schedule planning meeting screen has been updated to include a table of the reasonable adjustments defined against the apprentice. This table will only show the active adjustments, meaning that now is between the adjustment’s date range and it is accepted.

Booking the meeting will ensure that any adjustments are automatically linked to the meeting. This means that once the meeting is in a read-only state you can still see the adjustments that applied at the time the last update or booking was made.

Updating or rescheduling the meeting will update it with the currently valid adjustments, removing any that are no longer valid.

A valid adjustment must be accepted and have a date range overlapping with the meeting’s scheduled date.

Visibility of adjustments when booking elements

The assessment plan has been updated so that the reasonable adjustments popup now includes a table of adjustments for the new format, similar to the planning meeting screen above.

Booking an element, like the planning meeting, will tie the adjustments to the booking, if the booking is updated or rescheduled the linked adjustments will also be updated. However, once the element is in a read-only state the adjustments will remain visible for audit purposes.

A valid adjustment must be accepted and have a date range overlapping with the element’s scheduled date.

A new stage “Reasonable Adjustments” has been added to the element booking process so that you can see what adjustments have been tied to the element. Various warnings and alerts have also been added to indicate to the user if the apprentice has adjustments that do not match the booking or if the booking has adjustments.

Unable to bulk book apprentices with adjustments

The assessment booking screen has been updated to no longer allow the bulk booking of apprentices with reasonable adjustments. Due to the nature of the adjustments this apprentice may likely need extra time or additional details added to the booking so they should be booked on an individual basis.

New Apprentice Pre-Agreed Adjustments report

A new report called “Ofqual Pre-Agreed Adjustments” has been added to the reporting area, it’s available under the “Apprentice” category.

This report will provide output in a similar structure to the requested data by Ofqual, filters are available to query for a subset of data.

The Additional Reasonable Adjustment and Additional Special Consideration fields are also included in this report although these are custom values for the EPAO and may not be relevant for Ofqual.

Assessment Result Post-Mark Adjustments

We have added the ability to enter Post-Mark Reasonable Adjustments as defined by Ofqual. These can be entered directly against a result and can also be added via a result adjustment. The process of adding these is similar to adding reasonable adjustments directly to the apprentice record. While adding, editing, or adjusting a result there is a new “Reasonable Adjustment” box, this will list the current adjustments against the result, and clicking “Add Adjustment” will allow you to add additional ones.

The Additional Special Consideration dropdown is also available here if configured.

Note that this section is for audit and reporting purposes and does not directly impact the grade. For example, ticking “Grade Adjusted” will require the user to also adjust the grade as they would have done normally, as epaPRO would not know what the new grade should be.

New Assessment Post-Mark Adjustments Report

A new report called “Ofqual Post-Mark Adjustments” has been added to the reporting area, it is available under the “Assessment” category.

This report will provide output in a similar structure to the requested data by Ofqual, filters are available to query for a subset of data.

The Additional Special Consideration field is also included in this report, although these are custom values for the EPAO and may not be relevant for Ofqual.

Where Ofqual are requesting fields that we are unable to populate, these will be blank. The “UnitReferenceNumber” and “AssessmentCode” fields are also blank as we do not store references for these and epaPRO does not have a concept of “Units” and so would be unable to fit this into the Assessment Component structure we currently have.

New Communications

Three new comms have been added, these all apply to apprentice reasonable adjustments and allow for comms to be sent when an adjustment is added, accepted, or rejected.

Impacted Areas

  • Entity Management - Standards

  • Reporting - Standards

  • Entity Management - Assessment Centre

  • API Apprentice Endpoints

  • Apprentice create/edit

  • Assessment Booking

  • Schedule Planning Meeting

  • Assessment Plan

  • Reporting

  • Assessment Result

Permissions

  • Read Apprentice Reasonable Adjustments - Allows for the reading of the adjustments, and affects both the visibility of the tab on the edit apprentice screen and the API. This permission has been given to any user or role that has Read Apprentice.

  • Update Apprentice Reasonable Adjustments - Allows for the editing of adjustments. This permission has been given to any user or role that has Update Apprentice.

  • Create Apprentice Reasonable Adjustments - Allows for the creation of new adjustments. This permission has been given to any user or role that has Update Apprentice.

  • Delete Apprentice Reasonable Adjustments - Allows for the deletion of new adjustments. This permission has been given to any user or role that has Update Apprentice.

  • Ofqual Pre-Agreed Adjustments - Allows for the user to run the Ofqual Pre-Agreed Adjustments report. This permission has been given to the owner, awardingorganisation, provider, employer, epa, and epamanager default system roles.

  • Ofqual Post-Mark Adjustments - Allows for the user to run the Ofqual Post-Mark Adjustments report. This permission has been given to the owner, awardingorganisation, epa, and epamanager default system roles.

high New screen changes and so listing this as high from training purposes

 

EP-4337

bug

 

Communication Templates - Some variables not previewing

Overview

Fixed a bug where the following variables within the email templates were not showing correctly within the preview functionality:

  • notifications_info

  • actions_info

  • custom_tasks_info

  • assigned_custom_tasks_info

 

 

EP-4336

bug

 

Provider - Provider user unable to change gateway forecast year selection

Overview

Fixed a bug where a provider user was unable to change the year selection within the Gateway Forecasts tab.

 

 

EP-4307

bug

 

Reporting - Date filter causes error on the Average Days in EPA report

Overview

We have fixed a bug with the Certification → Average Days in EPA report where the date filter would cause an error.

Impacted areas

  • Reporting → Average Days in EPA

 

 

EP-4301

bug

screen_changes

Apprentice - Improve provider user experience when registering apprentices with no employers configured.

Overview

Fixed a bug that incorrectly showed a "Select provider first" message within the employer drop-down when logged in as a provider with no configured employers.

Changes to Functionality

A bug has been fixed within the create/update apprentice screen to correctly show “No employers associated with provider” within the employer drop-down when logged in as a provider with no configured employers. Previously this showed “Select provider first”, which was misleading.

Impacted Areas

  • Create/update apprentice.

Permissions

  • None

 

 

EP-4280

bug

 

Planning Meeting - Guest date sent not updating

Overview

We’ve fixed a bug where the date sent was not updating for guest attendees of a meeting.

 

 

EP-4276

bug

 

Appeals - Open Element / Certification Summary not working in edit mode.

Overview

Fixed a bug where the Element or Certification Summary button would not work when editing an appeal under specific circumstances.

 

 

EP-4270

bug

 

Actions - Reassigning an EPA does not move relevant actions to the new EPA

Overview

We have fixed a bug where reassigning an apprentice would not move any outstanding actions relating to the apprentice to the new EPA.

Impacted areas

  • Actions

 

 

EP-4261

bug

screen_changes

Assessment Plan - Durations over 24 hours do not display correctly

Overview

We have fixed a bug with the duration display when viewing or booking an assessment element. Durations over 24 hours would appear to have the days cut off. So a 36-hour assessment would only show as 12 hours. This has now been corrected.

As part of this we have also performed a little housekeeping on the schedule stage internally, this should not affect functionality.

Impacted Areas

  • Assessment Plan

 

 

EP-4260

bug

 

Auth - Error sometimes when refreshing/accessing epaPRO

Overview

Fixed a transient bug where a user would not be redirected properly to the login page when logged out due to inactivity.

 

 

EP-4259

bug

 

Assessment Plan - Possible to book a retake even if the resit limit has been reached

Overview

We have fixed a bug where it would be possible to book a retake even if the resit limit had been reached. This would cause an odd outcome if the booked retake ends up getting voided. For the purposes of epaPRO a retake is a resit with additional Back into Learning logic and so the end goal of booking the retake should still consider the allowed number of resits against the component.

Impacted areas

  • Assessment plan

  • Assessment profile

  • Management element side drawer → Booking details widget

 

 

EP-4244

bug

screen_changes

Assessment Plan - EPA List no longer in alphabetical order

Overview

Fixed a bug so that the EPA list within the assessment plan screen now displays in alphabetical order.

Changes to Functionality

Fixed a bug so that the EPA list within the assessment plan screen now displays in alphabetical order.

Impacted Areas

  • Assessment Plan

Permissions

  • None

Low_Impact

 

EP-4242

bug

 

Epa - Epa Model relationship `epas` is incorrect

Overview

Fixed a bug that may cause an error when fetching EPAs belonging to a particular EPAM.

Changes to Functionality

Fixed a bug that may cause an error when fetching EPAs belonging to a particular EPAM.

Impacted Areas

  • EPA

Permissions

  • None

 

 

EP-4235

bug

 

Users - Standardised username/email validation

Overview

Validation of username and email for all users has been standardised to match apprentices.

Changes to Functionality

The following screens have been updated to allow symbols within email addresses/usernames, to match the validation that is used for apprentices.

  • EPAO

  • EPAM

  • EPA

  • QA

  • Provider sub-user

  • Employer sub-user

Impacted Areas

  • Awarding Organisations → create/update

  • EPAM - create/update

  • EPA - create/update

  • QA - create/update

  • Provider sub-user - create/update

  • Employer sub-user - create/update

Permissions

  • None

 

 

EP-4228

bug

 

Reporting - EPA Conflict of Interest incorrectly hiding entries

Overview

We have fixed a bug with the EPA Conflicts of Interest report where it would incorrectly hide an entity due to an ID conflict with another type.

Impacted Areas

  • Reporting → EPA → EPA Conflicts of Interest

 

 

EP-4182

bug

 

Planning Meeting - Possible to cancel an in progress plan

Overview

Fixed a bug which made it possible to cancel the planning meeting of an in progress plan if the plan was created in a separate tab.

Changes to Functionality

Planning Meeting → The in progress meeting will no longer be able to be cancelled.

Impacted Areas

  • Planning Meeting → Cancelling a plan

Permissions

  • None

 

 

EP-4178

bug

screen_changes

QuestionMark - Verbose error when an assessment is no longer available

Overview

We have improved the handling of a QuestionMark booking when the QuestionMark assessment is no longer valid. The “Assessment Name” will now display a suitable message and booking the test will result in a more descriptive error stating the assessment is invalid.

 

 

EP-4150

bug

screen_changes

Assessment Plan - Various Exercise Stage Fixes

Assessment Plan:

  • Fixed a bug which would cause the exercise field to display an error for the reschedule reason.

  • Fixed a bug in which the exercise field would always display even when there were no exercises configured against the component.

  • Re-worked the exercises field so that it correctly displays the available exercise options and selected exercise correctly.

  • Fixed a bug which caused incorrect filtering of exercises when editing a components exercises.

 

 

EP-4133

bug

 

Change Log/Assessment Component - Removing external service does not add changelog entry

Overview

Fixed removal of external assessments not adding a “deleted” entry to the assessment component changelog.

 

 

EP-4089

bug

 

EPA Availability - Absences may not show even if the date is within visible range

Overview

We have fixed a bug where an absence may be missed from the EPA Availability calendar if the calculated range to check did not quite cover the absence’s date even if that day was visible on the calendar.

Impacted areas

  • EPA Availability in the side drawer

  • EPA Availability on the assessment plan

 

 

EP-4012

bug

 

Notification - Fix to planning meeting updated notification

Overview

Fixed a bug in which the planning meeting updated notification, available in app after updating a planning meeting, would not work correctly.

Changes to Functionality

Planning Meeting Updated Notification → Now links the user to the relevant planning meeting.

Impacted Areas

  • Planning Meeting → Updating a planning meeting

  • Manage Planning Capacity → Updating an Epa for planning meeting.

Permissions

  • None

 

 

EP-3944

bug

 

Assessment Plan - Reschedule Reason Warning Not Appearing Correctly

Assessment Plan -

  • Fixed a bug in which the reschedule reason stage would not correctly display it’s stage error. Additionally the exercise stage would display an error when it should not. These stages now act as intended.

 

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