Release Notes for March 13, 2025 | 3.1.52-0304a

These notes provide information about the release of Engageli 3.1.52-0304a, which focuses on making the user experience smoother and more reliable. The update includes new and enhanced features, various improvements, and resolved issues.

API Enhancements – Advanced Institutional Data Access

• Seamless Data Integration – Retrieve attendance and engagement data, including LMS user and course identifiers, for comprehensive reporting without manual transformations.
• Flexible Data Retrieval – Supports full, baseline, and incremental updates via secure REST API GET methods over HTTPS, returning JSON responses.
• Key API Endpoints – Access class rosters, live and playback engagement summaries, attendance records, lecture details, and event-stream logs for deeper insights.
• Optimized for Analytics – Enables institutions to build robust dashboards and reports by integrating Engageli data into their data warehouse.

New Features

• Distraction-Free Collaboration – Participants can engage in meaningful discussions without external audio.
• Controlled Participation – The raise-hand button is disabled, and participants cannot be placed on panels.

To designate breakout tables:


1. Switch to Table Mode audio in the live classroom.
2. The Tables tab will automatically open to display the individual tables.
3. Hover over the upper-left corner of the table.
4. Click the diamond icon to enable Breakout Table mode for that table.
5. To stop, click Cancel breakouts.

• Screen sharing, reactions, and Q&A are removed from the learner’s bottom toolbar.
• The learner can only send chat messages to the instructor and Staff channels.
•  Staff see the “Engagement Tools Blocked” label on the learner’s video.
• The hand raise button is disabled.
• The user’s microphone is blocked.
• The tools are removed from the whiteboard (class and table).
• The user’s active screen share (class or table) is stopped. 

Engagement tools can be easily unblocked when needed. 

Updates & Enhancements

Live Classroom

• Present Button - Simplified Navigation
  • The Present button has been streamlined for easier access:
    • Distributed docs and whiteboards for class and table are now grouped in dropdown menus.
    • “Widgets” renamed to “Actions” for more intuitive labeling.

• Quick Polls - Smarter, AI-Powered Polling
  • Enhanced UI – A new History tab displays recently used polls.
  • AI-Generated Polls – Automatically create polls based on shared files and captions. Set time frames for the content used to generate the poll.

Note: AI settings “Allow third-party content generation” must be enabled.

• Distributed Docs – Improved Usability
  • The UI has been enhanced with a larger window for better visibility and ease of use.

• Waiting Room – Improved Classroom Access Control
  • TAs can now manage the Waiting Room, giving instructors greater control over participant entry.
    • Approve or deny entry – Manage access in real-time.
    • Monitor status – Track participants in the waiting room.
    • Revoke entry – Send participants back to the waiting room if needed.

Note: The Waiting Room feature is different from Staff-Only Mode, which is part of Interaction Controls. In Staff-Only Mode, TAs cannot manage learner access to the classroom. Click here to learn more.

• Direct Messaging to Individual Instructors  
  • Learners can send direct messages to a specific instructor when "chat to staff only" is enabled and two instructors are present.
• Class Invite Links - Updated UI
  • Updated UI for guest links in the live classroom.
  • Guest link access can now be toggled on or off.

• Block Participant Feature - Updated UI
  • Improved UI text for blocking/unblocking participants in the live classroom for clearer control.

• Block Learner Mics - Updated UI
  • Improved UI text in the TA and instructor’s More Actions menu (three dots) for blocking learner microphones in the live classroom for clearer control.

   

Playback Room

• Now opens to a Welcome tab instead of the Playback Player for a more intuitive entry experience.
• The "Learning Path" icon has replaced "Recordings" in the bottom toolbar. 

Admin Portal Enhancements

• The left-side menu has been streamlined for improved navigation.
• The Async Polls section has been removed. 

• Interaction Controls
  • Interaction Controls settings now include:
    • Avatar Image - Prevents uploads of images for user profile.
    • Anonymous Q&A - Prevents learners from posting anonymously.
    • Download All Chat & Q&A - Prevents learners from downloading all chat messages and Q&A threads. 
    • Interaction Control settings now allow anonymizing personal identifying information (PII) in class recordings. When enabled, podium participants' display names show only their first name and last initial, even if a full last name was entered.

 

• Analytics > Notes, Reactions, Camera
  • Analytics now includes:
    • Notes Tracking
    • Reactions
    • Camera Usage

• Enhanced Site Management > Miscellaneous
  • The Site Management > Miscellaneous interface has been updated for improved usability, making it easier for Super Admins to navigate and manage configurations. This update also introduces new options for configuring platform features, providing greater flexibility and control.

Note: The "Site Management" tab is only accessible to Super Admins.

• LTI - Seamless Course Integration

  • Instructors can create a new Engageli class directly within the LTI Deep Linking Selector of Canvas, Moodle, or other LTI-integrated LMS platforms, streamlining class setup and course integration. 

• API

  • Added markVerifiedAnswer event for quick polls.
  • Added stopTableShare event to enhance table collaboration control.

• Multistack

  • Instructors can view classes across stacks in the Admin Portal.
  • Instructors can view content across stacks in the Admin Portal.

Resolved Issues and Improvements

• Playback & Recording 
  • Fixed negative playback duration issue.
  • Resolved issue where Playback Room presence (join/leave) was not tracked.
  • Fixed Q&A functionality in Playback Rooms.
  • Fixed an issue causing the recorder to stop prematurely, cutting off the final minutes of recordings.
• Live Classroom
  • Resolved an issue where the PPTX-to-PDF converter was unexpectedly terminated.
  • Improved microphone management: all learner mics can be blocked at once, with the option to unblock specific learners as needed.
  • TAs can view verified/correct poll answers.
  • Fixed incorrect speaking time calculations (applies to new sessions).
  • Added translations for disabled sound reactions UI.
  • Resolved issue where instructors were missing from the tablemates gallery in Meeting Mode.
  • Fixed issue with empty sticky notes on the whiteboard.
  • Restored dial-in functionality.
  • Resolved a corner case affecting participant order on the podium.
• Camera and Audio
  • Fixed the issue where the camera didn’t reactivate after removing background effects.
  • Improved logic for re-acquiring cameras, microphones, and speakers, now respecting default mic/speaker settings and enhancing AirPods recovery.
  • Fixed the issue with system audio not playing for learners or class recordings when instructors shared their screen.
• Screen Share 
  • If a TA is already sharing their screen with the class, Share Screen with Table is disabled.
  • Fixed Co-instructor visibility issue to prevent disappearance after ending table share.
  • Corrected table share UI to prevent displaying a tab from a different table.
  • An instructor or TA starting a classwide screen share now hides, but does not terminate, an active classwide share initiated by a learner.
  • Ensured class share properly terminates when declined by the instructor.
  • Resolved issues with concurrent classwide screen shares with audio, ensuring only one can be active or approved at a time.
• PDF, PowerPoint, & Rendering
  • Improved PDF rendering performance.
  • Resolved multiple PowerPoint-related issues.
  • Enhanced rendering for PDFs with images.
• Roster, Class Deletion, & Sorting 
  • UI now displays progress when deleting a class with a large roster.
  • Fixed issue where class roster sorting by Date Modified was not working.
  • Resolved issue where Business English was not displaying for some users due to cookie settings.

  • Improved class deletion speed for a faster and smoother experience.
• Data/Tracking
  • Instructors speaking engagements are correctly tracked in Room and Table Modes.
  • Resolved issue where Room and Table Mode transitions were not recorded in engagement logs.
• Attendance
  • Fixed high database CPU usage during attendance recalculation.
  • As before, LTI passback will continue to occur only for scheduled lectures. Unscheduled lectures will be easier to parse as each session will be its own lecture instead of spanning multiple meetings.
• Other Resolved Issues and Improvements
  • Fixed YouTube video clip playback issues on Safari on iPads.
  • Resolved issue causing instructor and podium videos to disappear on Safari om iPads.
  • Resolved issue with Co-Instructors remaining on the podium after demotion.
  • Fixed issue where instructors could be temporarily muted due to backend room data corruption.
  • When Auto-Approve Screen Share is enabled, the approval dialog is now removed for a smoother experience.
  • Enhanced support for Mac and Windows text file formats in VTT files.
  • Fixed VTT generation to always produce VTT files when the flag is set, regardless of the "3rd party" flag.
  • API now filters out data associated with Engageli TID.
  • Ensured recording uploads in multistack go to the main stack as intended.
  • Resolved multiple issues with LTI authentication in multi-stack environments.

Upcoming Bug Fixes 

• Live Classroom
  • Engageli Live Captions are still undergoing improvements to enhance accuracy.
• Hybrid
  • Strongly advise users to disable Hybrid Groups in Admin Portal Site Management - > Class Configuration (currently not fully supported).
• Playback Room
  • Recording transcript sometimes truncates sentences with missing words and missing letters in the transcription.
  • Imported files are not shown for guest participants in the Learning Path list. 
• Multistack
  • Multistack Content Management has a display issue when copying from another class and is being investigated for improvement.

 Need more help? Contact Support.