2.2 Release Notes

Summary

This release focused on continued refine for the feature set available to staff.  Students will see minimal differences in this version.  Specific items and their descriptions are included below.  As always, if questions arise or clarification is needed, please contact Aviso for further assistance.

Security

  • Added support for Central Authentication Service (CAS) for single sign-on capabilities.  This permits institutions that use CAS to forward their staff and/or students to Aviso after a local login and for those individuals to be automatically logged in to Aviso.
  • Refined security implementation for API integration for third parties and internal application communication.  Customers using the API must modify their integrations as 2.2 is not backward compatible with the previous API security.  Please contact Aviso Support for code samples and further documentation.

Alerts

  • Online First Assignment Submission
    • Looks at online courses and when the first gradable assignment was submitted in the course.  If the assignment is not submitted in n days, an alert is created.
    • Assignment expected in 7 days with initial settings. This value can be changed through the administrative screens.
    • Initially set to inactive and can be turned on through the administrative screens.
  • Orientation Complete but No Subsequent Registration
    • Determines when a student has completed orientation and alerts staff if a subsequent registration is not seen within n number of days.

    • Initially set to 5 days. This value can be changed through the administrative screens.

    • Initially set to inactive and can be turned on through the administrative screens.

Events

  • New events available in this release can be toggled on/off in the Settings section. They are turned off by default so staff must opt-in.
    • Student Completes Orientation Event
    • Student Drops or Withdraws from a Course Event

 

Happy Birthday Automation

In previous versions of Aviso, birthday events were created, however success staff would have to manually create a message to wish a student a happy birthday.  In 2.2, this is now an automated process with birthday greetings sent at 8:53am.  To automate the sending of birthday messages to your student perform the following:

  • Create a Happy Birthday message template.
  • In Settings, scroll down to Special Event Settings.
  • Click the checkbox for Automated birthday greeting to my advisee.
  • Select the Happy Birthday message template you just created in step 1.

LMS Integration Improvements

Version 2.2 continued the expansion of LMS integration for alerting purposes.  New fields include include:

  • Pulling of first assignment submission date in to Aviso.
  • Pulling of last assignment submission date in to Aviso.

Multi-Campus Support

  • A student’s primary campus is now shown on the student profile.
  • Addition of Campus/Location filter criteria for some reports.

Tag Automation

Previous to 2.2, tags could be added manually on the Student profile or were added by Aviso by identifying a finite set of characteristics of a student.  In 2.2, Aviso now can tag a student from any piece of data in an SIS.  This can include admissions information, registration data, or any other success data an institution wishes to group students by.  Every data load now includes pulling in and automating the application of tags on the student profile.  Reporting, searching, messaging, and other portions of the application may now take advantage of the subpopulations created.  For institutions, think through what other success-related data or student subpopulations you would like to track in Aviso.  Once determined, please reach out to Aviso support and we will configure your Aviso install to begin pulling in this data.

Message Templates

The largest feature to be developed for 2.2 includes the definition and usage of message templates by success staff.  Now success staff may send messages using their own set of message templates so they are not typing a similar message time and time again.  To defined message templates, go to the Messages menu, then click on View Your Message Templates in the upper right corner.  See Appendix A and Appendix B for screenshots.  Features of message templating include:

  • WYSIWYG editor.  This includes the ability to create italics, bold typeface, bullets, and other text decoration.
  • Pre-defined variables. When creating a message or message template, an Aviso menu option is available that permits the insertion of variables.  These variables will be translated into real values when the message is sent.
  • Create and save any number of message templates.
  • Sending of a test message when a template is built to ensure it looks as it was intended.

Miscellaneous

  • Only show active addresses and phone numbers on the student profile.
  • Ability to override address type and phone types in Aviso from what is stored in the SIS.
  • Filter out LinkedIn request emails as spam.
  • Created admin screen for downloading Blackboard building block from within application.
  • Added back the ability to click on a student profile image to see a larger version.

Appendix A: Message Template     

With 2.2, staff may manage their message templates in Aviso.  Staff may create as many message templates as they wish to permit a faster way to send messages with similar content to students.  Below it can be seen that Vicky has defined two message templates; one that she will be using for the automated birthday greetings (configured in her Settings) and another for sending to students reminding them that it is time to register for Fall classes.

The screen below shows the management of a Message Template. Using the Aviso dropdown menu in the Subject or Message areas permits Vicky to add variables to her message templates that are filled by Aviso when the message is sent. Note that as Vicky creates the content of her template on the left she can see the preview on the right.  To verify the template will be sent as expected, Vicky may choose to send herself a test message.  

Appendix B: Composing a Message with a Message Template

Below we can see that Vicky has selected the “Time to Register for Fall ‘15” template in the Template dropdown menu. When selected, this will populate both the Subject and Message body with content from the template.  The text can be changed as needed, or Vicky can simply click the Send button to send the message to all students on her caseload.  

Vicky may also create a new template from a message that she wants to reuse in the future.  If Vicky were composing a message and realized it would make a nice template for future use, she can click on the “Save as Template” button, name the template, and it is available for future message composition.

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