Constructor's Learning Management Platform is a comprehensive learning solution for higher education institutions, schools, bootcamps, and enterprises. It employs active learning, machine intelligence, and automated content generation to facilitate digital transformation in education. 

LMS

Overview 

The following features were added:

• SCORM content upload and management
• Custom reports and group subtotals
• In-depth report on every objective
• Proctoring for activities and activity results counting
• Grading scales application to objectives’ results
• Multilevel lists for the text editor
• Navigation improvements

What’s new 

SCORM content upload and management 

SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) is one of the most popular standards for sharing interactive educational content among different learning management systems. A multitude of users have created plenty of teaching materials as SCORM components. A lot of companies operating in the market offer their content as SCORM packages.

We have finalized implementing support for SCORM 2004. Now authors and instructors can upload SCORM packages to our platform and enroll users in them.

SCORM components can also be a part of a course or program. So, authors and instructors can offer much more interactive and engaging content to learners as well as reuse materials created before.

Custom reports and group subtotals 

The ability to generate reports is one of the most critical and important features of any learning management platform. Instructors should have a very precise understanding of how learners advance through programs and courses. Also, instructors need the capability to play with the data to analyze the effectiveness of the education process. In addition to this, reports should show information critical to the business processes adopted in educational institutions.

We added an option for creating and saving custom reports. Users can create such reports using various combinations of data filtering, sorting, grouping, and selecting columns. After creating a report, a user can save it and use it in the future. Reports can be downloaded as CSV or XLS files for further analysis.

When data is grouped into reports, subtotals of that group are shown.

In-depth report on every objective 

An objective can be composed of many activities. Every activity, when assigned to a learner, will have results: for example, its status (Not Started, In Progress, Completed), score, and grade if applied.

Instructors should not only analyze the results of an objective, but see how learners took every activity within this objective. This is why we introduced an in-depth report on objectives. This report details every activity within an objective.

Proctoring for activities and activity results counting 

Getting reliable exam results is crucial for many organizations. Instructors should be sure that learners pass exams without cheating. So, we have introduced for objectives the integration with Proctor.

When a learner starts activities in a proctored objective, proctoring is initiated. Proctors monitor how the learner is taking the activity (either in real-time or after the learner submits the assignment) and confirm the learner’s score and grade or correct them.

Such activities have the Proctored mark in reports. Learners’ scores and grades for these activities are shown in accordance with the proctoring status in all reports and on the objective results page.

Grading scales application to objectives’ results 

Instructors can set criteria for how learners’ results can be interpreted and shown to learners. Usually, results are shown in relation to grading scales: either a binary grading scale (pass/fail) or one with ranges (A to E, 1 to 10, or 1 to 100).

To set a pattern of interpreting objectives’ results in their organization, system administrators or instructors create grading scale templates. Such templates set how results (usually calculated as a percentage out of 100%) should be interpreted. For example, if a learner answers to 60% of a quiz correctly, their result is Passed or, for example, C.

When instructors or authors create an objective, they associate it with one of the grading scale templates. That template becomes a grading scale for the selected objective, and all learners enrolled in that objective are graded according to the scale. Their grades are then shown in reports and on the objective results page.

Multilevel lists for the text editor

Lists make textual information more structured and easier to digest. We have reworked numbered and bulleted lists. Now authors can create multilevel lists.

Navigation improvements 

We improved the breadcrumbs navigation. Now users have a better understanding of their current location in the system UI and of how to quickly move a level up.

Assessment

Overview 

• Quiz settings
• Question preview
• Quiz preview
• New question template

What’s new 

Quiz settings 

Authors can manage the settings of existing and new quizzes as follows:

• Set metadata for their content. Metadata helps to create a clear content structure in the quiz bank. This simplifies navigation and allows authors to find a target location with a couple of clicks.
• Set the start page of a quiz. This page provides learners with all the necessary details before they start the quiz.
• Set the number of attempts. With this setting, authors specify how many attempts learners have to pass the quiz.
• Set the quiz duration. With this setting, authors create a timed exam and specify the amount of time that a learner has to complete the quiz.

Question preview 

When editing a question, authors can use the preview option to see what the question looks like to learners.

Quiz preview 

Authors can also use the preview option to see what the whole quiz looks like to learners. This allows authors to ensure learners’ positive experience and the quality of the content created.

New question template 

A new question template was added, Multiple choice. It consists of these three parts: a question itself, one correct answer, and a set of distractors.

Proctor

Overview 

The current release included the following features and tasks:

• Publishing mobile applications
• Proctoring sessions enhancements
• Identification process enhancements
• Enhancements of Dashboard
• The Exam is finished page redesign

What’s new 

Publishing mobile applications

We publish Proctor mobile applications in Google Play and App Store, which allows students to pass proctored exams with the use of Android or iOS mobile devices. Mobile applications can be used only for post-review proctored exams and assessments and it uses the kiosk mode (access to any other websites or the external links are disabled) to control student’s device behavior during the examination process.

Proctoring sessions enhancements

We added the possibility of saving data from a proctor’s room. This ensures reporting exact details of a problem to our support team so they can help every proctor to solve their problem. This possibility reduces a number of technical issues because now our support team is better informed about statuses and sessions, and are able to see the cause of a problem.

Moreover, this helps us to conduct synchronous exams in a more stable way and solves the issue with unknown problems when transferring videos from proctors.

Identification process enhancements

In the previous release, we added a new identification process, when the system verifies an examinee’s identity before the exam starts and during the exam. If the system detects the examinee’s substitution, it takes a photo of a new person, creates an alert, and also sends a report to the system log and to the learning management system.

In this release, we taught the system not only to take the photo of a new person, but also to show the face of the new person in a special bright frame. Thus, a proctor can easily recognize if this person is verified or not.

Enhancements of Dashboard

We continued improving the session interface in Dashboard:

• Now, a user can select a more convenient number of session records to display per page: 10, 20, or 30.
• Users also can choose which page to show from the whole count of session pages.

Besides, we updated the process of adding proctors in Calendar slots. Administrators can add proctors in slots not only by email addresses, but also by unique usernames. This makes the interface more user-friendly and administrators’ work faster and easier.

The Exam is finished page redesign

Before this release, when an examinee finished an exam and tried the exam link again, they saw an error page with unclear information. Now the page’s content is clear and contains the contacts to address for help.

Fixed issues 

• Fixing problems with creating new examinee accounts.
• Fixing UI/UX issues for the high security level of the Constructor secure browser.
• Update slot editing for administrative roles in the Calendar menu in the Administrative panel of Proctor.
• Fixing problems with the Violation report.

Coding Lab

Overview 

• Collaborative coding
• Improved error reporting for unit tests

What’s new 

Collaborative coding 

This is the major update for Coding Lab. Now programming exercises include collaborative scenarios. Learners can write, run and test code together in real-time. A learner can easily share their Coding Lab session and invite other learners for editing and collaboration or ask the instructor for assistance. When joining shared sessions, any user can edit the code, see other collaborators’ cursors and actions, run code or tests and see the results. A learner or instructor can also share their session only for viewing to demonstrate the code and discuss ideas.

Improved error reporting for unit tests 

When a learner runs tests for compiled languages like C, C++, or Haskell, all compiler error messages are displayed in the output console. This makes identifying issues with the code easier.

Virtual Lab

Overview 

• Real-time session monitoring and access

What’s new 

Real-time session monitoring and access 

Now instructors can join any learner’s session in Virtual Lab and monitor the learner’s activity in real-time. If needed, instructors can request access to control the learner’s session. In this case, the control over the session will be switched to the instructor, while the learner will be able to observe the instructor’s actions.

With this feature, instructors can provide learners with real-time feedback and assistance in their labs.