Much more than a simple restyling: Forma 5 will bring a profound overhaul of the platform's features. Discover them today!
A major overhaul
At the Forma Experience in November and during the subsequent webinar in January we told you about the vision of the next Forma 5, starting from a new user experience. However, the project is not a simple "restyling" and it is much broader than it appears : rethinking the user experience means redesigning many features, and redesigning features means rethinking or renewing the architecture of the code itself.
For this great leap, therefore, we are working on three levels:
- CORE: Refactoring and technological updating the code and database
- FEATURES: Eliminating, Rationalizing, Improving existing features
- UX: Implementing the general UX logic designed with the design sprint
We have already talked to you about the new UX, and for the moment we will not bore you with overly technical details. Today we will tell you about the major functional changes which we will already implement in the next releases of version 4 in order to prepare the ground for the next major release.
It will be a threefold intervention:
- REMOVE: which means eliminating individual features that are obsolete, unused, and have no substantial dependencies on other features;
- IMPROVE: that is, improving existing features by extending their functionality or redesigning their UX/UI;
- REFACTOR: or redesigning and rationalizing complex and redundant functions to simplify the overall use of the system.
Here is a list of the interventions we are planning...
Are you curious? :)
1. REMOVE: Eliminating obsolete features
We are planning to remove some features that we see as unused or only sporadically used. Some of them will be compensated by improvements and refactorings of other features, while others will be implemented as plugins.
Thanks to these interventions, in the future, maintenance and development efforts will focus on those features that are actually used and can be considered as important.
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LMS functionality
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Description of intervention
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Target version
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Labels
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Removing the "labels" functionality (tag system for courses). Possibly a tag system will be implemented in the future.
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4.x
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Competitions
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Removing the "Competitions" functionality, which is obsolete and not suitable for managing modern gamification systems. Possibly it will be rewritten or implemented as a plugin at a later stage.
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4.x
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Knowledge Base
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Removing the KB (content library) functionality, with a view to a redesign from scratch.
Removing from admin, mycourses, settings
Maintaining LO categorization functions for now.
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4.x
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LO Obsolete
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Removing FAQ, website and glossary LOs. TBD behavior in case of old courses containing this type of LO. Possibly refactor just one that fulfills the functionality of all 3 (we evaluate based on the community's responses)
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5.0
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Obsolete course modules
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Within the courses, the Wiki, projects, notepad and Calendar modules are unused and obsolete and will be removed. Only the calendar module will eventually be reinstated using the new calendar components introduced as widgets for the dashboard
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4.x
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Course Stats - User Stats
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Removing "user statistics" module, redundant with respect to user objects grid (evaluate object statistics, docebo has kept it)
NB: see improve grid
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4.x
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SMS
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Removing integration with SMS services. Eventually we will evaluate its implementation as a plugin
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4.x
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News
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Eliminating "news" functionality and related blocks in the LMS user area and dashboard. Improve communications management
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4.x
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LDAP
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Removing LDAP settings (considered obsolete protocol)
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4.x
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Skills
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We are considering removing the "skills" functionality, which is underused and expensive to maintain. It can be reimplemented as a plugin or as an integration with third-party HR software. We will instead keep the "roles" functionality
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5.0
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2. IMPROVE: Improving existing features
Some existing features will be extended or updated to complete and improve their effectiveness and UX.
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LMS functionality
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Description of intervention
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Target version
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Privacy Consent
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Implementing the possibility of multiple "Consents" per organizational chart node
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4.x
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Report Teacher area
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Improving UX/UI of teacher area reports:
- Users/Objects Grid: simplify first page for better data readability. Integrate test response details (user stat deletion)
- LO statistics: redesign to replace the gradebook (> elimination of the gradebook)
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5.0
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Communications (Articles)
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Evolving from a "blog articles" perspective for a more modern and flexible use, and compensate for the removal of news/external pages. Remove association with communications. Restyling of the "communications" page in FE user.
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5.0
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Curricula (Coursepaths)
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Extending registration management as in normal courses (incl. teacher registration), provide cover image, integrate certificate issuing (see certificate refactoring)
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5.0
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Assignment of orgchart fields
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The inheritance logic in the assignment of additional fields to the organizational chart nodes is prone to conflicts, we evaluate a simplification to improve its coherence. We also remove the "user inherit" option.
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5.0
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3. REFACTOR: Rationalizing redundant functionality
These functional areas will be refactored and reorganized to rationalize their use and management.
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LMS functionality
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Description of intervention
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Target version
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ILT management
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Refactoring functionality and ux linked to ILT events (Instructor Led Training) to rationalize and simplify currently separate or redundant features attributable to this area:
- Management of editions and days
- Reservation management (Seminars)
- Video conference management
- Attendance management
Includes refactoring of how external video conferencing services are integrated
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5.0
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Certificate Management
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Deleting metacertificates, integrate path tags in certificates, on assignment page. course-certificates integrate certificate assignment to courses, replacing tcpdf, implementing repeater with certificate template selection instead of listing all models.
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5.0
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SCORM Player
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Refactoring the scorm client for better handling of tracking data
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5.0
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Contents
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Unifying the functionality of
- Communications
- Course notices
- External pages
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Payment Gateways
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Managing ecommerce payment methods as plugins, so they are more easily extensible. Implementing PayPal plugins.
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4.x
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Repository / LO Upload
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Removing and implementing as new LO (Decide what to do with any old repositories created - "convert to LO?" function)
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5.0
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Forum
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Unifying the two modules for public forum and course.
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4.x
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Newsletter
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Unifying core/lms newsletter module: we now have two separate modules that essentially cover the same functionality
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4.0
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Additional Fields
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Unifying the two current managements for the additional fields of the user registry and those for extending other system components (courses, lo, orgchart)
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5.0
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HOW ABOUT THIS PLAN? :)
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It's really important for us to understand how you are using these features, in order to address and optimize our efforts in the platform development
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