1. Major features

1.1. Automated printing and portal distribution of Certificates of Attendance

A new set of features involving onCourse scripts, email templates, post class satisfaction surveys and document uploads to the skillsOnCourse portal comes together in a new feature set for automatic distribution of Attendance Certificates for non-VET courses.

Each day, for classes that ended the previous day, onCourse will create and upload to the student portal a Certificate of Attendance for each enrolled student. Optionally, you can set the script to check attendance has also reached a certain threshold, like 80%, before issuing this certificate.

For students issued with a certificate, a new email template will be sent with a one time password free login link to take them straight to the portal page where they can then download and print their certificate.

The default wording in the email template encourages the student to complete the simple satisfaction survey built into the portal, so you can start collecting 5 star ratings for the class venue, tutor and content, plus an optional comment.

As per all new scripts and templates, this is disabled by default, and we encourage you to customise the wording of the 'Certificate available' email before activating this script at your college.

Deatiled documentation for enabling and customising this feature is available in the user handbook: RTO Guide - Non-VET Certificates of Attendance

1.2. Automated creation of VET Certificates

Unlike non-VET Certificates of Attendance, formal VET certifications like Statements of Attainment and Qualifications can only be issued when a student achieves outcome results for the units that make up their course.

A new script in onCourse checks daily for any outcome results which have been updated during the previous 24 hours, and if all the outcomes attached to the enrolment have be set to have an outcome status, a VET certification will be created if at least one of those outcomes was successful.

Where the student has successfully achieved all outcomes linked to a course which 'satisfies complete qualification or skill set', then they will be issued a Qualification or Skill Set Certificate on completion. If all outcomes have been marked, and some are unsuccessful, they will be issued a Statement of Attainment instead.

For students undertaking a short course, who have successfully, or a mix of successfully and unsuccessfully, completed their outcomes, a Statement of Attainment will also be created for their successful units.

Deatiled documentation for enabling this feature is available in the user handbook: VET Qualifications and other Certificates

1.3. onCourse Menu Restructure

To improve clarity and ensure all new onCourse features have a home in the menu system, we have restructured the top level menus to better group related items.

A new menu option called 'Products' includes all the items you can sell via onCourse, including Courses, Gift Vouchers and Memberships.

The menu item 'Training' contains the features related to setting up and scheduling training, including items such as Classes, Sites and Documents.

The previous menu 'People' has been split into two menus: The new 'People' menu contains the options to access contacts and their communication history via mailing lists and messages, while the new 'Activity' menu is where you will find Quick Enrol and all the results of contact engagement with onCourse including Applications, Enrolments, Certificates and Sales.

All options related to fees and payments, including CorporatePasses and Discounts can be found under the 'Financial' menu.

The File, Edit, Windows and Help menu options are unchanged.

The new onCourse menu structure

2. Reports and scripts

  • A new script has been created called 'Send weekly finance summary report' to email the Trial Balance for the previous 7 days to the system admin email address every Monday morning. You may like to alter the email address in the script, so this report sends to your finance managers email address. This script is disabled by default #27931

  • A new script has been created called 'cloudassess course enrolment create' to create enrolments in the CloudAssess LMS where you have set up this integration in onCourse. This script is disabled by default #27107

  • Added new ReportSpec API functions to allow reports to be printed and emailed via scripts #27405

  • Added new DocumentSpec API functions to allow documents to be created and uploaded into the skillsOnCourse portal via scripts #27696

  • Two new reconciliation reports have been added to the Banking Deposits window called 'Reconciliation Summary' and 'Reconciliation Detail' that group and total payments by type, better assisting bank account reconciliation for daily Credit Card and AMEX transactions #27696

  • The Enrolment Confirmation HTML email template has been updated to ensure the class list displays correctly in MS Outlook 2013. To apply this change, you will need to get the latest copy of the template from GIT Hub and add in any customisations you may have made to this template #27122

  • The Tax Invoice plain text and HTML templates have been updated to only show unpaid due dates for invoices. To apply these changes, you will need to get the latest copy of the templates from GIT Hub and add in any customisations you may have made to these templates.

3. Minor features

  • Extended tags to waiting list, so you can now add your own workflow and grouping criteria to requests #27398

  • A new integration with the LMS Cloud Assess has been added to onCourse, to allow you to automatically enrol onCourse students into the LMS via enabling the 'cloudassess course enrolment create' script`#27931`

  • Added new 'Print' and 'Export' buttons to the list view, to allow quick access to these functions without having to choose a menu option #27760

  • Addition of syntax $\{image "imagename"} to allow onCourse images to be embedded in HTML email templates #26862

  • Added 'total' to the list of advanced search options in the invoice window #27859

  • Moved Taxes window (formerly in the financial menu) to the General Preferences #27616

  • Quick Enrol now shows all classes for a course sorted by start date order by default, with the next available classes at the top of the list #27429

  • Added a new access right type 'Summary extracts' to Financial section to Allow/not allow user roles to export/print MYOB and trial balance reports #27288

  • Export the option 'neither Aboriginal or Torres Straight Islander' for Indigenous status for all students born in a country other than Australia, regardless of their response in the AVETMISS questions, as 'neither' is the only option allowed according to AVETMISS validation rules. #27320

  • Export 'Not provided' for student AVETMISS address data where the student has provided a PO or GPO Box address instead of a street address #27488

  • Add the additional text 'All outcomes ending after 'outcomes before' will automatically export as 'Continuing enrolment (70)' to the AVETMISS 7 export runner for better clarity as to when a 70 will be exported instead of the database value #27620

  • Changed the AVETMISS label 'Identifier' to 'RTO Identifier' and added a link to training.gov to improve clarity for RTOs reporting into QLD who also report their QLD ID via an additional field`#27691`

  • AVETMISS improvements for non-VET Prior Learning, to export a default FOE ID of 129999 where no value is provided #27241

  • Export VET Fee Help files to the same nominated location as AVETMISS files by default`#27550`

  • Addition of the USI to the VET Fee Help VEN export file as per the 2016 reporting requirements`#28116`

  • Embedded Open Sans Condensed fonts inside onCourse for new print report font options`#28070`

4. Fixes

  • Improved prefetches for creating large message batches, to ensure server is not overloaded #27748

  • Removed lock/unlock icons from outcomes obtained via prior learning, as there are no class dates to inherit this data from #27241

  • Do not request to save company records when closing the edit view and no changes have been made #27631

  • Improved validation message when attempting to delete discounts to explain discounts already used can only be disabled #27346

  • A fix to access control edit permissions where when the account access role was changed, and some preferences and permissions didn’t update as expected #27717

  • Allow spaces to be added when entering credit card numbers in the onCourse payment gateway #26889

  • Improvement to the onCourse replication process to reduce the occurrence of stuck 'in transaction' status enrolments #28089

  • Improve clarity of user messages in Quick Enrol when the payment gateway is closed without completing or cancelling the payment attempt #26888

  • Improve visual display of calendar icon in advanced search so it doesn’t overlay the data in the field #27422

  • Fix to prevent sending of Credit Note emails when 'send credit note email' option is unchecked in enrolment cancellation or transfer process #27963

  • Improved loading speed of course lookup process in Quick Enrol #28057

  • Fix to ensure correct naming of payment types in onCourse UI for new installations #27991

  • Replacement of the class cancellation script and email set to a version that triggers only on class cancellation instead of enrolment cancellation #28001

5. Web features

  • A new set of preferences were added to lock the online mailing list, waiting list and enrolment process to only allow existing students to add or enrol themselves. This feature is particularly for the use for enterprise RTOs or membership based organisations. To enable these functions on your website, uncheck the CMS setting options 'Allow create new student' #27668

6. Web fixes

  • Apply marketing preferences selected during the enrolment process to the contact record in onCourse #27870

  • Change validation for email addresses during the online enrolment process to allow for new domain name extensions #27935

  • Allow a voucher purchased on the website to be redeemed by any user presenting the voucher code #27312

  • Classes that have their enrolments automatically disabled based upon date restrictions collapse under the 'show full classes' list set with classes that are actually full #27975

  • Increase URL redirect fields in CMS to 512 characters #27948

  • Allow site based searches on course pages, to restrict the classes displayed to a particular site location #27665