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

Last Updated: March 28, 2025

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. 

• Playback Room Progress Tracking
  • The playback room now includes progress tracking on the timeline. A green bar visually indicates the portions of the material you have attended or watched.
  • Version Requirement: This update is available for new classes created on version 3.1.52. It is not supported for classes created in earlier versions of Engageli.

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.

 

• Admin Portal Analytics UI Update
  • The Analytics section of the Admin Portal has been updated and streamlined. The Reviews section has been removed, as its functionality was previously deprecated.
• Analytics > Notes, Reactions, Camera
  • Analytics now includes:
    • Notes Tracking
    • Reactions
    • Camera Usage
  • Version Requirement: This update is available for new classes created on version 3.1.52. It is not supported for classes created in earlier versions of Engageli.

• 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.

  • Multistack instances will now allow users to share content between any class regardless of substack. Instead of using Content Management, instructors will visit their class > Content Manager > Add > Copy From Files Library.

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.

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