Release 6.0

onCourse 6.0 now requires a minimum of Java Version 7 to run. If you are running Java 6 at the moment, download Java for free at www.java.com Most users will already be running Java 7 or even Java 8.

Document Management in onCourse has just become bigger and better. With the recently launched document delivery system in the onCourse portal, you now have the opportunity to easily provide resources to tutors and students via their portal login. Remember, the skillsOnCourse portal is available to all onCourse licensed users, even if you don’t have an onCourse website.

Documents can also now be attached directly to enrolments, so completed student assessment tasks can be stored in an easy to find way in onCourse. Public, private, tutor only and tutor and student resources can be centrally managed and controlled for greater transparency and compliance with AQTF and NVR document record keeping standards.

For documents like policies and procedures, assessment tasks and learning resources, you can choose to lock previous class instances to previous versions, while new classes will have access to more recent versions. With versioning, historic documents can never be deleted, even in error. Compliance is now made even easier with a complete audit trail always available.

Users of onCourse with a support contract have been given cloud storage for their documents. This gives you:

For employers, HR managers, client managers or even parents who manage a group of students attending training at your college, you can now assign portal switching permissions based on contact relationships in onCourse. This allows approved users to login to the SkillsOnCourse portal and then switch the view to see the portal records for any of their related contacts.

The online enrolment process will now detect any enrolling student under 18 years of age, and request that emergency contact details are provided for their parent or guardian. This will create a new contact record in onCourse with a fixed relationship to the student. By default, the Parent/Guardian will be set as the payer for the enrolment and therefore be sent the invoice, but this can be switched back to the student or another contact at payment.

Custom fields that have been added to onCourse contact records can now be added to the online enrolment process. In the onCourse CMS you will see your custom fields and can make them shown, hidden or mandatory for enrolling students.

All classes in onCourse now have two new fields to allow you define a minimum and/or a maximum age of enrolment. Some classes may be set to have, for example, a minimum age of 16 for enrolment while classes for children may have an age range set i.e. 6 to 9 years. For these rules to be enforced in the online enrolment process, you must have set the date of birth field as mandatory in the CMS settings.

If you do not wish to set varying enrolment age permissions at the class level, you still have the ability to set a global age minimum for enrolment in the CMS. If you choose to set an age restriction at the class level, this will override the CMS global preference for minimum enrolment age for that class only. For example, you could have your CMS global age minimum set to 18, and then have some specific children’s classes with lower minimum ages. Note there is no global preference for minimum age for taking enrolments through the office – the CMS setting only applies for student enrolling online.

Students who have previously provided a date of birth that doesn’t meet the class enrolment rules can not change their age during the online enrolment process and will be prompted to contact the college to complete the enrolment process.

During an office based enrolment, users will be prompted to complete the date of birth fields for customers enrolling in an age restricted class, and will also be notified of (and have the opportunity to correct) the date of birth of a student enrolling who is outside the set age range.

For more information, see the Quick Enrol FAQ