SMSS Release Newsletter - October 2014

Hi all and welcome to the Artena 09.08.00 release newsletter, the final edition for 2014!

The team has been working hard to ensure this release is up to our usual high standard. We have taken a different approach to this release, choosing to focus on clearing requests for enhancements and debugging specific modules in Artena. As a result we cleared 41 tickets for Prescribed Teaching and 23 tickets for Security and Security Admin, as well as all client-raised defects logged within the Artena 09.08.00 development window. Please see the release notes for more details. We will be taking the same approach to Artena 09.09.00 with the Standard Communications Engine, Enquiries and Support Services in our sights.

This doesn’t mean that everything else is ignored. This release sees the introduction of some fantastic new functionality, as well as a long list of enhancements to existing functionality.

This release was the first full release cycle for our new test team, Chris Miklos and Esther Lee. Although we bid a fond farewell to Joey Parr during this time, we are confident that Chris and Esther have done an awesome job testing Artena 09.08.00.

SMSS would like to thank those of you who attended the onsite user testing on 29 and 30 September. We always enjoy the opportunity to host you here in Wellington and your input into quality-checking each release helps ensure a smoother Release to Site.

We are delighted to welcome two new clients to the Artena community – BR Training in Hamilton and the International Academy of New Zealand in Auckland. They are looking forward to participating in our forums next year and taking the opportunity to meet fellow users who are more than willing to share their tips and tricks for getting the most out of Artena.

We are in the final stages of preparing Jira, our new job tracking system, for release to clients to enable you to log new jobs, track the status of your existing jobs and check out what other sites are asking for or having issues with. You will even have the opportunity to comment and vote on jobs, which helps us identify what’s important to you, our clients.

The Support Team is busy setting up separate client dashboards to make monitoring easy. Keep an eye out for more information over the coming weeks.

Advance notice of our 2015 events for your information:

PTE Forum in Auckland 27 March
Artena 09.09.00 User Testing 30 and 31 March
Artena User Forum 21 and 22 May
Artena Owners Forum 29 May

It has been an extremely busy year and we are sure you are all, like us, looking forward to a well-earned break over the Christmas and New Year period. We thank you for your custom and input during 2014 and wish you and your families the merriest of Christmases. We hope 2015 brings success and enjoyment for us all!

If you have any further questions please contact your Artena Owner or email the SMSS helpdesk.

The SMSS team

Summary of new functionality

Literacy, Language and Numeracy (LLN)

To help TEOs support learners with literacy and numeracy needs we have introduced functionality that enables you to upload required learner details to the Literacy Numeracy for Adults Assessment Tool (LNAAT), import learner assessment results into Artena, run reports on learner assessment results and identify learners that have been assigned an assessment, but have yet to complete it.

Funding Pool Allocations

As funding pool allocations become tighter and more complex, institutions need to make the best use of their allocations to maximise the funding they receive from the government. To assist with allocating students to the most valuable pool, we have introduced preliminary data capture and reporting that provides greater visibility and tracking of allocations available vs allocations made. We look forward to receiving suggestions on how this functionality can be expanded to improve your funding management.

Individual Attendance

As part of a project for Computer Power Plus (Whitireia NZ Ltd), additional functionality has been introduced for individual student scheduling and attendance management. A template is used to enter the number of hours a student is expected to attend during the week and corresponding attendance activities are generated for the lifetime of the study contract. This allows individual attendance records to be kept.

Student Service

In addition to the individual attendance module, this project introduced a Student Service module that is particularly suited to self-paced learning environments. Students are able to request instructor assistance instantly through ArtenaSP. Staff can monitor and respond to these requests in real time using Artena, improving feedback rates and student satisfaction.

A major benefit of bespoke work like the project above is that everyone gets to take advantage of the new functionality at no extra cost to the rest of the Artena clients.

REST Interface

One of the most exciting and sought after features has been introduced to Artena in this release. SMSS now supports a REST web service interaction on selected contact details, giving clients options for implementing student self-service outside of ArtenaSP. The interface also provides clients with the ability to dynamically interrogate specific areas of the database for lists of data. This will be particularly useful for those sites using the online enrolment functionally introduced in Artena 09.07.00. This sets the foundation for additional standardised API work.

One of our clients has already successfully implemented the REST interface in their test environment. To find out more about how to access the REST interface please contact the SMSS Helpdesk.

Summary of enhancements to existing functionality

Name Change to AR Import/Export Menu Item

AR Import/Export has been changed to Results Import/Export on the Academic Records menu to accurately reflect the additional functionality available as part of the LLN project.

Filter students with an email address in the admissions dashboard

A ‘Has valid email’ filter has been added to the Academic tab for Study Contract, SC Component and Misc searches in the Admissions Dashboard to users are able to ensure email correspondence is only sent to students with valid email addresses. Reversing the filter allows identification of students without email addresses so correspondence can be sent by mail.

Activity type ‘Journal’ added to Attendance dashboard

The activity type ‘Journal’ has been added to the Attendance Dashboard to extend the types of activities available for managing student attendance.

Update the NZIS file to include Qualification and Other Institute fields

The Qualification and Other Institute information from the summary report is now visible on the relevant visa record.

Person Surname Bold in person tree

The Surname displays in bold in the person tree to allow for easier differentiation between a person’s surname and first names. This is particularly useful for international names.

Emergency and work address details are no longer mandatory

The requirement to complete the emergency and work address fields when recording emergency or work contact details has been removed. Standard Address Line 1 and Postcode validations still apply if any portion of the address is completed.

Enable selection of verified address using the keyboard

Keyboard navigation has been enabled for selecting an address using the Experian address verification service.

Security Administrator

We have added two major time saving features to the security administrator - the ability to grant a role to multiple users at the same time and the ability to re-grant a modified role to all users that hold that role.

A new functions tab has been added to Security Administrator. This tab itemises changes made and the version in which each change was introduced to assist security administrators to manage permissions for users.

Standard Communications Engine

You are now able to choose naming conventions for your components, tag components and tell Artena where you wish to store documents. This enables you to identify specific document types and archive or delete as per your document management policies

Validations added

Unit results date awarded parameter

The ARAWD system parameter now has three settings to ensure the result is sent with the correct NZQA batch:

* Y - use today’s date (existing)

* N - use the component finish date (existing)

* E - use the earlier of the two possible dates (new)

International students under 18

(This enhancement is courtesy of EIT who have paid for it to be completed)

Where the Funding Source selected is ‘02 IFP Students’ and the study contract start date is prior to the student reaching their 18th birthday, an error or warning message is now displayed to the person enrolling them in the following instances:

1. On creating a new study contract via:

a) Client/Person - Add study contract - Save

b) Add Person in Live Form or Add Contract in Live Form - Save

2. When updating the funding source to ‘02 IFP Students’ for an existing study contract - Save

Summary of known issues

The known issues in Artena 09.08.00 are as follows:

Issue: SDR Error 374 CCCosts is not numeric or is blank.

Impact: Minor

Workaround: Datafix available on request.

Maintenance

ArtenaSP

SWArtena has been renamed ArtenaSP (Artena Student Portal) to bring the product name into line with other Artena products. We have updated all references to this product in our documentation to reflect the renaming.

NSI debug script

We have created a debugging script to aid in the analysis of issues experienced when connecting to the NSI interface. This is run from the ‘conf’ folder using the run_script.cmd command.

SQL Server 2012

As previously communicated SQL Server 2012 is mandatory for sites wishing to move to Artena 09.08.00.

Your Feedback

You are a vital part of the Artena development and we welcome your thoughts, suggestions, criticisms, and feedback.

SMSS : PO Box 5768, Lambton Quay, Wellington 6145. | rhian.nicholls@smss.org.nz |
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