We've just launched a number of key changes to the way course cards are displayed on the Trainer dashboard. For a long while now we’ve seen our users struggle to comprehend why course cards use the same image that is displayed on the course overview screen, especially considering they have completely different ratios.

To solve this problem we’ve introduced a new image field specifically for the course card. This means you can now add a completely different image for the course card and course overview screens. The purpose each image is outlined below:

• The ‘Course card image’ will display on course cards on the dashboard at a 3:2 ratio (and a 1:1  ratio at a small scale where necessary).
• The ‘Course overview banner image’ will now treated as decoration for your course overview. It won’t display anywhere else.

For existing courses, until you add a new course card image, your course cards and overview screens will continue to share the same image.

To accomodate this change, we need to make some changes to the placement of controls on the cards. Now you can access key controls like share, preview, and learners from the bottom of the card. In addition, we’ll be displaying the name of the folder the course belongs to on the card.

Noticed the recent changes to the course sidebar and wondering what that's all about?

The impetus for this change was to improve the experience of navigation a course on mobile for both trainers and learners.

Now accessing the navigation on the sidebar feels seamless — no abrupt page loads or forgetting where you're up to. 

Customizable sidebar color

While we were at it, we thought we'd allow our users to customize the color of the sidebar. 

To change the color of your sidebar, go to the customize page where you'll find a new section called ‘Appearance’. This section contains everything pertaining to your color scheme and logos, including the new 'Course sidebar' feature.

Other notable changes

• The new course card image now forms part of the course overview button
• In the course builder we've grouped the buttons into two distinct areas. The right-side controls all relate to the editing experience; navigating, previewing, publishing the course, while the left-side controls relate to external functionality; enrolling and previewing enrolled learners, accessing reports and settings. 
• The introduction of a new home button for learners to make it more obvious how to get back to the learner dashboard. 

In case you missed it, Group enrollment links have been conveniently added to the add learner workflow for groups. 

Group enollment links can be accessed from the add learner pop-up on either the Users page > Groups tab, or from the Users page >  group profile. 

You can now get a preview link for each course on your dashboard, or within the course you want to share. 

What is a preview link? 

Preview links allow anyone with the link to preview the course anonymously. As course progress isn't tracked, there is no need for the recipient to create an account. The most common use-case for a preview link is sharing a course with a colleague for review. 

To get a preview link, click the share button associated with any course on either the dashboard, or within the course itself, then click the 'Copy' button to copy the link to your clipboard. 

If you want to restrict access to a preview link with a password, you can configure these from the settings menu. 

Note: Like published courses, preview links only show published changes. 

We've just added a new 'Invited' status to the 'Learners' tab on the 'Users' page. It has been added to distinguish between learners who have been added to your workspace but not enrolled into a course (pending), and users invited to your workspace, enrolled into a course, but not yet completed their profile. 

Learners can be added to your workspace without being enrolled. In this case, their status will appear as 'Pending'. 

Learners who are added to your workspace, and enrolled into a course, but have not yet completed their profile will appear with a status of 'Invited'. 

Learners who are enrolled in a course, and have completed their profiles will appear with a status of 'Active'. 

If you're on a Pro or Premium plan you'll now be able to add the first and last names of learners during the learner creation process. 

Prior to this release, when adding new learners to your workspace, they would appear as 'New learner' in the learners list until they had completed their profiles. To solve this problem, we've added a new screen that allows you to add the names of each learner before confirming their creation and/or enrollment. 

Note that this can only be done when creating new learners from the 'Users' page, and only before the user has been created. You will not be able to edit their names after they are created.  

We've just released some major improvements to the learner creation and enrollment process to address inconsistencies in the user interface and terminology used across the platform. 

Terminology Changes

We've made a number of refinements to the terminology used when adding and enrolling new users in the platform. 

Sharing a course

Share is a generic term used when sharing a course. There are a number of specific ways that a course can be shared as outlined below. 

Enroll or Enrollment describes a method of sharing a course that requires a learner to have an active Coassemble account. If a learner is enrolled into a course, their progress will be tracked and can be viewed in a report. 

Enrolling via email, with a link, or with an embed code will result in an active learner in your workspace. 

Learners can be added to a group, and if that group has courses added to it, the learner will be enrolled into those courses. 

Sharing a course with a preview link allows you to share a course without requiring the recipient to create an account as course progress is not tracked. The most common use-case for a preview link is sharing a course with a colleague for review. 

Key Functionality Changes

Key changes to the functionality are as follows: 

• If you enrol a learner into a course from the users page, you will always see a preview of the email that will be sent to your learners. 
• You can now get a preview link from the course share modal
• A new 'Invited' status has been added to distinguish between learners who have been added to your workspace but not enrolled into a course (pending), and users invited to your workspace, enrolled into a course, but not yet completed their profile. 
• The ability to edit the first and last names of learners during the invitation process (only available on the Pro or Premium plans)

We've just relaunched our Case study screen as a brand new Flashcards maker.

Everybody learns differently, and Flashcards have been proven to be an effective way to prompt your learners' memories using visual or verbal cues. 

As the Case study screen already provided you the ability to create flip cards, we thought it made sense to extend on this idea to create a fully formed flashcard maker screen.

Watch the video below to see how you can create your very own flashcards:

What happens to my existing Case study screens?

If you had been using the old Case study screen, you don't have to worry because they'll appear exactly as they do now. If you want to upgrade to the new design, then all you have to do is go in and edit your case study screens.

If you're on one our Premium plans you can now customize the enrollment email that gets sent to new and existing learners when they are enrolled into a course. 

This message can be set globally from the workspace settings page by workspace administrators.

The Match Category screen has been updated with all the new features you've learned to expect from a Coassemble screen, including inline editing for rapid authoring, and SmartColor™ for perfect color schemes with zero effort! 

The Match category screen is designed to test your learners ability to categorize items / concepts / themes on any topic. 

Watch the video below to find out how to create your very own Match Category screen.