1. Major features
1.1. Memberships and Discounts
Memberships are a new type of product which is available to sell to customers. Memberships can be created within onCourse for individuals or groups or related contacts, such as employees of a company. A membership can have one or more discounts attached, allowing special class prices to be made available to membership holders. Memberships can expire a set period of days after their purchase. This is the first of many products we plan on implementing within onCourse over the coming versions. The Promotional Code and Concessions windows have now been merged into a single window called Discounts.
1.2. Dashboard Update
The onCourse dashboard has been redesigned to represent the main areas of business and process of our users. The new tabbed approach allows us to offer more options to users to access onCourse functions. The dashboard is now grouped into "Course Setup", "Customer Service", "Accounts" and "Marketing" and additional explanation text is provided to assist new users in navigating their way through the software.
1.3. Timetable and Resource Availability
The major revision of the class window layout includes significant improvements to the timetabling and scheduling functions in onCourse. Proposed sessions allow you to see at a glance any scheduling conflicts before you finalise a classes sessions. New unavailability tools for tutors, rooms, sites and the college allow you to create entries when these resources are not available for class bookings due to outside bookings, public holidays or for any other reason. New timetable views and editing options allow you to see eight weeks at a glance and edit all, or a single session of a class. The class window list now shows a session count. Creating timetabled sessions are now essential for a class to have a start and end date.
1.4. Attendance and CRICOS
Attendance marking for scheduled sessions is available for both tutors and students. Attendance can be marked from within the onCourse application or via the web tutor portal. Records of student absence and partial attendance can be recorded, and percentage of attendance is calculated. Of particular benefit to CRICOS colleges, students with less than 80% and less than 70% attendance are flagged within the system for follow up. Additional recording fields for student VISA and OSHC have been added to the student AVETMISS tab for use with CRICOS students.
1.5. Tutor Pay Rates
Found under File → Preferences → Tutor Role. For each tutor role you create, you can add multiple pay rates. When a tutor is assigned to the class, the default pay rate of their tutor type will apply via the budget, assisting you in calculating the direct costs of running the class. This function can also be used to calculate 'per enrolment payments' to other staff members, like the class coordinator or an external contractor. Tutor attendance at scheduled sessions can be confirmed and pay cards created for your chosen pay periods, calculating the total gross income due to the tutor, ready to submit to your payroll department.
1.6. Improvements to Class Window
The layout of the class window has changed to better reflect the workflow of setting up classes for enrolment and managing class viability. The general tab now shows summary information of the class, which is set in other tabs in the record making it easier for users to see at a glance the status of the class. In combination with the improvements to the budget feature, this summary will calculate the class viability based on the number of current and projected enrolments from the class costs you have assigned. The class fee (how much the student has to pay on enrolment) has moved to the budget tab, to facilitate future development allowing deposit fees, charges for additional class resources like textbooks or catering, and fees payable by other contacts, like employers, to be added in future versions.
2. Reports and scripts
2.1. New Reports
Transaction detail and Transaction summary
From Accounts > Print > Transaction Detail > select date range
The single Profit and Loss report available from the Accounts print menu now has two options – summary and detail, which can be printed for your chosen date range
Room Details
From Rooms > Print > Room Details > select date range
This report will print all sessions scheduled in a room for the specified date range, showing booked times, tutor and number of students
All class details Report
From Classes> Print > All class details
Will print all the information you have set up for the class including number of students currently enrolled, various fees available for enrolment, course, class, tutor and session descriptions.
Class roll – Contact no
From Classes > Print > Class roll – contact no
Will print the class roll with the student’s mobile phone number
Class roll – single session
From classes > Print > Class Roll – single session
A roll listing all the students names, designed to be passed around and signed for a single session only.
onCourse sales report
From enrolments > Print > Sales report
A report listing the total volume of sales processed by each onCourse user, grouped by their location
Annual enrolment comparison
From enrolments > Print > Enrolment annual comparison
Shows the number of enrolments processed each day plus a cumulative enrolment count for the year, in comparison to the previous year
Assessment Outcome Report
From Classes > Print > Assessment outcome report
Creates a grid of the units assigned in the course and the students enrolled in the class so the assessor can record their outcome results
3. Minor features
3.1. Attachment Improvements
Previous versions of onCourse required you to attach a document each time you wanted to reference within a course description. You can now reference existing file attachments as well as adding new attachments. This means you only keep one Attachment with one name.
3.2. Change to Quick Enrol
The email or print enrolment confirmation process is now an action you perform at the end of the enrolment. No more forgetting to set email or print while taking enrolment details.
3.3. Reports and Email Templates
Moved from General Preferences to File → Preferences → Report list. Reports can now be added in bulk and minor edits made from within the user interface. Email templates have moved from General Preferences to File → Preferences → Email template list.