Following on from our recent update to the Slideshow screen comes similar UI improvements to the Videos screen plus two additional new features:

1. The ability to force learners to watch an entire video 
2. The ability to add custom thumbnails. 

Force learners to watch an entire video

If you're subscribed to one of our Premium plans, you'll now be able to force learners to watch the entire video before the screen is marked as complete. 

To use this feature, simply toggle the 'Enforce completion' option ON after you've uploaded your video. You can add this retrospectively by clicking the edit button on each video you want to use this feature for. 

Learners who are required to watch an entire video will know they've completed the video once the progress indicator below the video becomes solid. See the example in the image below: 

Add custom thumbnails

Yes, you can now add custom thumbnails to any video you've uploaded! This feature is available on all plans. 

Progress markers

If you have Progress markers toggled on for your workspace, your learners will now be required to view each slide in the video screen. So if you have multiple videos in the screen, then they must view each slide. Note that this doesn't force them to watch the entire video, just make sure that they've visited each slide. 

Other Improvements

As part of this release, we've added all of the UI improvements that we added to the Slideshow screen to the video screen. These include: 

• New white text background container with visibility controls for hiding both the title and description
• Improved navigation using SmartColor™ color scheming, and built in thumbnails displayed on hover
• Video thumbnails added to the re-order list
• Rich text options in the description field

We’ve made some significant improvements to the Slideshow screen addressing much of the feedback we've received from our amazing users over the last 12 months. 

What's changed?

Image controls

New image controls that allow you to make images fit or fill the allocated space for images. You can fine-tune the fitting even further with the ability to reposition the image to appear exactly as you want it. 

Captions and description

You asked, we listened! Gone is the compulsory black background for image titles and descriptions. This has been replaced with a standard white background for text, with the ability to hide both the Title and Description if needed. 

The description text area now grows infinitely, instead of being contained, allowing you to add as much text as you like. In light of this we were able to include the addition of our rich text editor for descriptions. 

Navigation

The image thumbnails have been replaced with our standard navigation indicators with image previews that appear when you hover over each item. 

This change has also allowed us to include our SmartColor™ technology that uses your workspace theme color to create the perfect colour scheme!

Progress markers

One of the most significant changes to this screen is the introduction of progress markers. If you have Progress markers switched on for your workspace, your learners will now be forced to view every image in order for the course to be marked as complete.  

Image thumbnails added to the reorder list

To help reorder your slides we have now added images to the reorder list.

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.