Valamis 2.5 Enterprise Edition released

About the release

Valamis 2.5 Enterprise Edition has now been released. In this release, new features have been introduced and portlet functionalities have been improved. The new features include, for example, a 3D model view, Lesson studio themes, and templates and improvements to Phenomenizer. The release notes give you an overview of the new features of Valamis 2.5 Enterprise Edition Release.

Valamis is an advanced learning solution platform, which supports time and space independent learning.

Lesson Studio – enhanced functionality

Lesson Studio is now enriched with new features. The following features have been added to the studio editor:

1. 3D model: Import WebGL models to Valamis with Lesson Studio (see 2.1).

2. PDF slide split: Show the full document on one slide or split it into separate slides

3. Theme selection: Choose a theme to create a consistent visual look for your lesson (see 2.3).

4. Settings: Enable pausing the lesson in the lesson viewer to continue from where you left off.

5. Slide duration: Decide the duration of each slide.

6. Slide templates: Templates with different elements have been added.

2.1 3D model component

Now you can insert WebGL (interactive 3D graphics converted to JavaScript) models to Lesson Studio. Click the 3D model component and upload the file to the lesson. In the final lesson, students are now able to see the model from different angles.

2.2 PDF import improvements

Importing PDF documents is now possible from Google Drive or through Google Search.

When uploading PDF files, you can choose to either show the whole PDF document on a single studio slide or split it into multiple slides.

2.3 Theme selection

Themes have now been added to Valamis Studio which makes using Valamis more convenient. You can choose from the ready-made themes or create your own and add it to either your personal or public theme selection.

Create the desired visual look for one page. Choose either a personal theme (visible only to you) or a public theme (visible to all users of the portal). Click Save current page as a theme and name it. You can delete the themes by clicking on the trash can icon. The theme is now available for use.

2.4 Settings – Start where you left off

Now it is possible to enable pausing the lesson while watching it in Lesson Viewer. When activating this feature in Lesson Studio, the Pause button becomes available in Lesson Viewer. This new feature makes it even more flexible for the user to operate in the Valamis environment.

 

2.5 Slide duration

You can now set the duration for the slides to make it easier to plan how long it takes to pass the lesson. The duration is visible also in the Lesson Viewer.

2.6 Page template selection

There are now ready-made slide templates in Lesson Studio. When adding a new slide by clicking the plus symbol, a template selection appears. You can now select which elements or text styles you want to use. The available templates are:

  • Text and image
  • Text only
  • Title and subtitle
  • Video only
  • Lesson summary
  • Copy page
  • Blank page

3. Improved Phenomenizer Studio

3.1. Zooming

A zooming feature has been introduced in the Valamis Phenomenizer Studio. Now you can zoom into or out of your story by scrolling the mouse wheel forwards and backwards.

3.2. Lesson categories in Phenomenizer

You can now link a category including several lessons as a part of your story.

In the sidebar, select Categories in the pull-down menu and choose a category of lessons as shown below.

The My Courses portlet displays a list of the courses (sites) in which the user has an owner role. You can see students' learning progression by clicking on the site name.

In this example, the category General has been dragged to node Part 1.

All lessons that belong to the category General will appear in the story.

4. Teacher Dashboard

Two new portlets have been added to the Valamis Dashboard portlet group: My Courses and My Certificates.

The My Courses portlet displays a list of the courses (sites) in which the user has an owner role. You can see students' learning progression by clicking on the site name.

The My Certificates portlet displays information about certificate members.

  • Number of members of the certificate
  • Number of students who have achieved the certificate
  • Number of expired certificates
  • Learning progression of certificate members

5. Notifications from gradebook and activities

Users now receive notifications on specific activities in the Valamis environment. The handbell icon in the dockbar notifies the user about new notifications.

A user gets a notification when:

  • the user is given a grade in the Gradebook portlet
  • the user is given a comment in Gradebook or in Valamis Activities
  • someone likes the user's activity in the Valamis activities portlet.

6. Liferay Search

Valamis is now within the scope of the Liferay Search search engine. Lessons and certificates can be found by using the search. Clicking on the search result of a lesson or certificate opens it in the same window.

7. My Competencies search

In the My Competencies portlet, when typing in the search field, a prompt list appears under the field.

8. Lesson Summary page

This page is generated automatically when you finish a lesson. It displays your progress (how many lesson slides have been opened) and how many correct answers you had. You can also go through your results question by question.

The Lesson Summary page appears in the list of page templates.

9. Revisions

  • LRS performance has been improved
  • All up-to-date fixes have been made

10. License mechanism

Now, in order to work in Valamis, you must have a license. A trial license is available on the Valamis site (valamis.arcusys.com - Get Valamis), and it will be valid for 30 days.

To get the full license, you must take the following steps:

1. Open the Valamis Administration portlet and go to the License tab.

2. Address yourself to provisioning@arcusys.fi and provide the Hardware Id from the tab to our managers who, in turn, will send the license file to you.

With either trial or full-value license file:

Click on the Upload license button at the bottom of the License tab and select the file you received.

 

Are you interested in creating more engaging learning experiences? You can contact us and request a demo in order to get a better understanding on how Valamis really works.

Request a Demo

Blogs
Hi Janne - Always impressive to see these regular updates and feature improvements. Valamis is clearly maturing. Will there be a CE version of 2.5 on github available to build? Thanks! Richard