5.14 ebs-Link Release Notes

Note regarding submissions

We would like to remind providers to create a submission early and check for any errors using reports from the appropriate software (i.e. the FIS or LLWR-Inform). Welsh providers should also remember to download their ULI file. After submission to the ESFA or DfES, providers should check that data has submitted correctly using the available reports. Providers should check that all their expected starts and completions are submitted correctly, and that start and outcome payments correctly match the PFR or ACE funding reports.

Our support desk gets extremely busy in the days prior to the submission deadlines, and although we try and prioritise submission-related queries, we cannot guarantee assistance if queries are sent late. If you do encounter any issues, please ensure that you contact Maytas Support as soon as possible, as we can only rectify issues of which we are aware. We also recommend checking Maytas.net regularly for information on any known issues and solutions. Tribal cannot be held responsible for any issues caused by your failure to comply with this advice.

Technical specification

The latest Maytas and e-track technical specification can be found here.

Once the upgrade has been completed, the version number should be checked to ensure it has been successful.

Start Maytas and go to Support on the toolbar.
Click About.
The version numbers should read 181.20 / 5.14.6406.2. If you have any other version, please ensure you have followed the upgrade instructions correctly. If you require assistance, please contact Maytas Support.

It is the responsibility of customers to ensure that users carry out any required user acceptance testing and sign off on the upgrade.

Complete the Upgrade

Features Added in the Upgrade

These are the main updates in the upgrade:

ILR tab for 2017/18
Updates to Financial Planning
Reports Centre auto-communication
Fixes to a number of issues

Import ILR 2017/18 Tab

The ILR 2018/19 tab has been updated to include Agreement ID on the employment grid. To import the tab in Maytas:

Go to Tools on the toolbar.
Click Import on the Screens panel of the ribbon.
Click Browse.
Browse to the ebs-Link\ebs Tabs folder of the upgrade, select ebs ILR 2017.m5tab and click Open.
Click Next, then click Finish.
Sync Maytas to apply the tabs to all clients.

Maytas 5 Version 5.14.6406.2 Release Notes

ILR 2017/18 Tab

A new ILR tab for 2017/18 has been produced. It is largely the same as the previous tab, with the following changes:

New field Pre-merger UKPRN has been added to the learner details section.
New field Work placement hours has been added to the work placement grid.
New field EPA org ID has been added to the aims grid (sub-tab section 3, funding and monitoring).
Learning difficulty assessment and Special projects and pilots have been removed.

Usability Survey

As with previous major releases, Maytas users will be asked to complete a usability survey after the 5.14 upgrade (this will appear 30 days after the upgrade to allow for time using the updated system). The information gathered via the survey is anonymous and is used to improve the Maytas user experience. Only Tribal receives the results and we do not share the results with third parties. As always, we are very grateful for completed surveys as well as any additional feedback you have on Maytas.

Financial Planning Updates

Copy cohort groups

New cohort groups can now be created by copying an existing group and then editing it as required:

Go to Management | Financial Plans and open the plan you wish to edit.
Go to the Cohort Groups tab.
Select the plan you wish to copy and click the button.
Enter a name for the new group and click OK.
The new group will appear and the list and can be amended as normal. All details from the copied group will be present in the new one.

Manually sort cohort groups

Cohort groups can now be manually sorted by entering an index number against them:

Go to Management | Financial Plans and open the plan you wish to edit.
Go to the Cohort Groups tab.
The Idx column determines the order in which the groups appear (by default this will be alphabetical). Edit the Idx numbers as required to create the new order.
Click Apply.
Close and re-open the plan for the new ordering to be appear.

Make plans obsolete

Financial plans can now be made obsolete so that they no longer appear in the list of available plans. To do this:

Go to Management | Financial Plans and open the plan you wish to make obsolete.
On the Plan Summary tab, tick the Is Obsolete box.
Click Apply.
When you go to Management | Financial Plans now, the plan will not appear in the list. Obsolete plans can be shown again by clicking Include Obsolete on the header.

Reports Centre Auto-Communication

The Reports Centre now allows you to schedule a report which will automatically send an email or SMS to a list of learners, assessors or employers in the report. This is done by creating a mail merge report in Report Generator, configuring it for auto-contact and then deploying it in the Reports Centre.

Configure the mail merge report

A report must be set up for mail merge and configured for the auto-communication settings. The report must at minimum contain the following:

A list of learners, assessors or employers
Their ID fields (e.g. TRAINEEID, ASSESSORID or EMPLOYERID)
Their email addresses and/or phone numbers (depending on whether you want to send them emails or SMS, or both).

Several standard reports have been provided for this which can be used or amended as required. These can be imported as follows:

On the Home tab, click Edit on the Reports panel of the ribbon.
Click Import.
Browse to the Maytas 5\Extras\Auto-communications reports folder of the upgrade.
Select the first report and click Open.
Click OK on the message which appears.
Repeat steps 2 to 5 to import the remaining reports.
The imported reports can be found in the Auto-communication folder of the Browse Reports screen:

Once you have chosen a report, open it for editing in Report Generator:

On the Home tab, click Edit on the Reports panel of the ribbon.
Select the report and click OK.
Click Run to run the report.
To set up the report for email (this step is not required for SMS):
1. Go to Mail Merge | Create new…
2. The mail merge document will open. This will be used for the email body. At minimum, this requires the ID field and the email field, which can be added by clicking Insert Merge Field and selecting them.
3. Save the document.
4. When prompted, enter the mail merge name, select the action as Email, enter the email subject line and click OK.
5. Sync and re-open the report editing screen.
Click Set up Auto Contact.
The Contact Type lets you configure the report for sending SMS, email or both. You will not be able to select these options if the relevant system config options are not present:
- For email, the config can be found under Maytas 5 | Admin | Maintenance and is called The SMTP server for sending emails in Maytas.
- For SMS, the configs under Maytas 5 | SMS Text Integration must be completed.
  For this example, we will use BOTH.
Set the ID field to the relevant ID (e.g. TRAINEEID, ASSESSORID or EMPLOYERID, although alternative ID fields can be selected if needed).
Select the field to use for the email address and mobile number. Again, these do not necessarily need to be the standard EMAIL or TELEPHONE / MOBILE fields.
Choose the recipient type (e.g. for a list of assessors, choose Assessor).
Enter the subject, which is used as both the SMS and email subject.
Enter the SMS message.
Select the mail merge to use for the email body.
Max messages per run determines the maximum number of messages that can be sent every time the schedule is run (if you choose BOTH rather than just email or just SMS, a max of 10 would mean a max of 10 emails and 10 SMS, not 5 of each). Amend this as required.
If you want to add sent messages to the contact log, tick the Add to Contact Log box.
To make the report available for scheduling, tick the Enabled box.
Click OK, then click Apply.

Schedule the report in the Reports Centre

Once the report has been configured, it should be scheduled in the Reports Centre:

Go to Home | Reports Centre.
Click Auto Contact and select Create new…
Select the report to use and click Next.
On this screen, amend the subject and message as required (they will default to the values entered in the Auto Contact Setup window) and click Next.
If the report has any parameters, set them up as required and click Next.
On this screen, the schedule can be configured. If you have an existing schedule, you can choose it by clicking Based on and selecting it from the list. Otherwise select New.
Set the schedule in the Details section. It can be set to run periodically (e.g. every hour, day, month, etc) or just once at a specified time. Please note that if you intend to start the schedule immediately, the start time should be at least 10 minutes in the future to ensure it is picked up by the system.
Set the start date at the bottom of the window. The schedule will run indefinitely by default, but if you want the schedule to end on a particular date then tick the Stop this schedule on box and set the date.
Click Next, then click Finish.

The schedule will now run as defined. To view or edit a schedule, click Auto Contact and click the button next to the relevant schedule, which will take you to a screen containing the same details as the wizard.

5.14 e-track Online Release Notes

Usability Survey

As with previous major releases, e-track users will be asked to complete a usability survey after the 5.14 upgrade. The information gathered via the survey is anonymous and is used to improve the e-track user experience. Only Tribal receives the results and we do not share the results with third parties. As always, we are very grateful for completed surveys as well as any additional feedback you have on e-track.

A config is available to make the survey appear for learner logins as well as assessor logins. Again, only Tribal will receive the survey results, and no personal or learner data is collected in the survey.

To enable surveys for learners:

Go to More | Settings and click System configuration.
Select Learner Login on the left and scroll down to the General section on the right.
Tick the box for the config Enable Tribal user surveys for learners and set the toggle button to ON.
Click Save.

Web User Editor Improvements

The Web User Editor has been overhauled for stability and responsiveness across a range of devices. While most of these changes are in the background with minimal differences in functionality, the interface has been improved:

The account details and basic details have been rearranged with a better use of space at the top of the screen, and the details for permissions, the associated record and any custom tab permissions have been moved into collapsed sections at the bottom. These sections can be expanded and collapsed by clicking them.

In terms of functionality, the only difference is that when creating a new web user, the basic details must be saved before permissions can be set or associated record can be linked.

Apprenticeship Standards

e-track has been updated with new features surrounding the introduction of Apprenticeship Standards. Objectives for Apprenticeship Standards are created mostly in the same way as other objectives, but with an extra Standards tab in the module editor.

Objectives Terminology

With the introduction of Apprenticeship Standards, the terminology around objectives (e.g. modules, units and elements) is changing in some cases. While there are already options in e-track to change terminology for objectives across the system, there is now also the option to change terminology for specific objectives. These new options take precedence over the system-wide terminology options if both are entered.

To set terminology for a specific objective:

Go to More | Browse Modules.
Search for the objectives you wish to set terminology for.
Click edit at the end of the row for the objective.
Select the top row and click Edit.
The objective details will appear on the right. Go to the Standards tab.
Enter the new terms for qualification, unit and element in the Terminology Override section.
Click Save.

Grading Schemes

Grading schemes for Apprenticeship Standards can now be created and applied to objectives. To create a grading scheme, a user must first be given permission:

Go to More | Web User Editor.
Search for and select the user to be given permission.
Click Permissions.
Tick Manage Grading Schemes.
Click Save.

Once the permission has been set, a grading scheme can be set up as follows:

Go to More | Browse Modules.
Search for the objective you wish to set a grading scheme for.
Click edit at the end of the row for the objective.
Select the top row and click Edit.
The objective details will appear on the right. Go to the Standards tab.
Click Manage in the Grading section.
You will now see the Grading Schemes screen. Click New to create a new scheme.
Enter a name for the scheme, then click Add Grade.
Enter the first grade in the field which appears. Click Add Grade to add and enter additional grades as required.
You can delete grades by ticking the Delete box, or you can make a grade inactive by unticking the Active box next to a grade. The same logic applies to the Active and Delete boxes next to the scheme itself.
Click Save when finished.
To apply the scheme on the Standards tab, select Grading Scheme from the Mode box then select your scheme from the Scheme box.
Click Save.

Re-Submission of Evidence

Evidence can now be re-submitted and re-marked until the relevant objective is marked as complete. The grade shown for the objective is taken from the latest evidence event for the objective.

On/Off Job

Apprenticeship Standards objectives can be set as on or off the job:

Go to More | Browse Modules.
Search for the objective you wish to set a grading scheme for.
Click edit at the end of the row for the objective.
Select the relevant row and click Edit.
The objective details will appear on the right. Go to the Standards tab.
The Module On/Off Job lets you specify whether the objective is on or off the job. Note that this can be set at any objective level.
Click Save when finished.

Summary Title

Apprenticeship Standards objectives can be configured so that when they are displayed on the learner summary page and learner home page, they can show the objective code, the objective title or a custom title:

Go to More | Browse Modules.
Search for the objective you wish to set a grading scheme for.
Click edit at the end of the row for the objective.
Select the relevant row and click Edit.
The objective details will appear on the right. Go to the Standards tab.
Under Trainee Summary, choose the Display option (i.e. the modcode, the modtitle or the summary title). If nothing is selected, the modcode will be used. If you choose summary title, enter the title in the Summary title field.
Click Save when finished.

Learners Adding to Learning Plan

Learners can now be given the ability to add records to their learning plan via the e-track learner login:

Go to More | Settings and click System configuration.
Select Learner Login on the left and scroll down to the Learning Plan section on the right.
For the setting Allow Learner to add Learning Plan records, set the toggle button to ON.
Click Save.

Once the config option has been set, learners can add records to their learning plan as follows:

From the learner login home page, select the relevant visit.
Go to the Plan tab.
Click the Add button on the right.
Select the unit and complete the target date and notes as required. Files can also be attached by clicking the Attach files button, selecting the files then clicking Upload files.
Click Save.

Required Evidence Types

When editing evidence criteria for a objective, the required evidence types can now be specified from a dropdown box rather than from a system config. Previously, if the type of evidence box was completed then the required evidence types had to be specified in the config option List of required evidence types for TYPEREQUIRED (e-track Offline section / Objectives).

Go to More | Browse Modules.
Search for the objective you wish to set a grading scheme for.
Click edit at the end of the row for the objective.
Select the relevant row and click Edit Criteria.
Any existing criteria will be displayed. Otherwise, add a category from the dropdown box.
The new option on the right allows you to choose the required evidence types.
The selected evidence types will be used instead of the types in the system config. If nothing is selected in the new option, the types in the system config will be used.
Click Save.

Community Resources and Tasks

Community resources can be assigned to community tasks and the tasks can be assigned to objectives, so that when a learner completes the resource, their assessor receives a notification and a file to assess for the task. The assessor and the learner must both be part of the relevant community for this feature to work, and the learner must be assigned to the relevant objective.

Go to More | Community.
Select the community to add the resource to.
Go to Actions | Edit community.
Go to the Resources tab.
Select the resource you wish to use and click Assessment Task link.
Search for the objective you wish to link to the resource. Double click the objective from the list of results to select it.
Click Save.
Go to the Tasks tab.
Add a new task or edit an existing task.
Complete the task details as required. From the Associated resource dropdown box, choose the resource you wish to associate with the task.
Click Save.

When a learner in the community with the relevant objective assigned to them completes the task, their assessor (who must also be in the community) will receive a notification:

Clicking the notification will take you to a list of files ready to be assessed.

Click the Assess button to assess the file.

Visits in Export Portfolio

When exporting a learner’s portfolio, you can now choose whether to include visits of certain types in the export. By default, this option is not enabled. To enable it:

Go to More | Settings and click System configuration.
Select Admin on the left (under the e-track Online header).
Locate the option Portfolio Export Visit Types and tick the box to enable it.
Select the visit types to include in portfolios.
Click Save.

Once the option has been enabled, the portfolio can be exported as follows:

Open a learner record and go to the Summary screen.
Click the Exports button and select Export Portfolio.
You will be asked if you wish to include visits in the export. Click Yes or No as required.
The portfolio will now be downloaded.

New Content Options for Communities

When adding a video resource to a community, links from Vimeo can now be used as well as Youtube. To do this:

Go to More | Community.
Select the community to add the resource to.
Go to Actions | Edit community.
Go to the Resources tab.
Click Add Root.
Enter a title for the resource and choose Video for the Resource Type.
From the Type dropdown box, choose either Youtube or Vimeo.
In the Video id box, enter the ID for the Youtube or Vimeo link:
1. For Youtube, if the link was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABCDEFGH then the ID would be ABCDEFGH
2. For Vimeo, if the link was https://vimeo.com/12345678 then the ID would be 12345678
Tick the Published box to make it available to other users in the community.
Click Save to save the resource, then click Save to save the community.

Child page resources can now include hyperlinks and .jpg and .png images:

Go to More | Community.
Select the community to add the resource to.
Go to Actions | Edit community.
Go to the Resources tab.
Click Add Root.
Enter a title for the resource and choose Child page for the Resource Type.
To enter a link, click the Link button, which will insert the following text:
```
[LINK][URL]Enter url[/URL]Text here[/LINK]
```
Replace Enter url and Text here with the website’s URL and the text you want to display for the link. E.g.:
```
[LINK][URL]http://www.maytas.net[/URL]Welcome to Maytas.net[/LINK]
```
You can see what this will look like by clicking the Preview button.
To upload an image, click Upload image, select the .jpg or .png file you wish to upload and click Open.
Click Attach to attach the image. This will insert some text into the page body between [IMG][/IMG] tags, which can be repositioned as needed.
Tick the Published box to make the resource available to other uses in the community.
Click Save to save the resource, then click Save to save the community.

Close Community Forum

Community forums can now be closed so that they no longer appear in the list of forums. To do this:

Go to More | Community.
Select the relevant community.
Click the button next to Discussions on the right and choose the relevant forum.
Click Edit Topic.
Tick the Close this topic checkbox and click Save Changes.

Closed forums can be shown in the forum topic list by ticking the Show Closed Topics button (to get there, open the community, click Discussions and select the relevant forum).

Community Groups and Moderation

Communities can now have multiple groups with separate forums which can each be assigned a moderator. As part of these changes, when editing a community, the Allow Forum, Requires Moderation and Membership Type fields have moved from the Details screen to the Add Group / Group Edit screen (see below).

To add or edit a group:

Go to More | Community.
Select the relevant community.
Go to Actions | Edit community.
Go to the Groups tab.
Click Add Group to add a new group.
Enter a name for the group.
If you want to include a forum for the group, tick Allow Forum. If this forum requires moderation, tick Requires Moderation.
Choose the Membership Type for the group.
- Public means everyone in the community is included in the group.
- Invite Only means users must manually be added to the group (details below).
- Assessor Caseload means learners in the user’s caseload are included (the learners must also be part of the community to be included).
- Module will include learners from the community enrolled on specific modules. When this option is selected, the Module Search box will appear – search for modules and double-click them from the results to select them.
- Course will similarly include learners from the community enrolled on specific courses. When this option is selected, the Course Search box will appear – search for courses and double-click them from the results to select them.
- All Staff means all staff in the community are included in the group.
  Each user in a community can only be a member of one group.
To add specific users to a group, search for them in the Add Users section and select them from the results (this will highlight them blue). Only users in the community will appear.

Staff users will have the option to tick the Moderator box, which will make them the moderator of the group forum (if the group has one).

If a user in the results is already a member of another group in the community, they will be highlighted grey and cannot be selected.
Click Save when finished.
Click Save on the Groups tab to save changes to the community.

A group can be edited by clicking the Edit button next to it on the Groups tab. This uses the same screen as the Add Group button.

To delete a group, click the arrow next to the Edit button and click Delete. Click OK to confirm.

To check which group a user is associated with, go to the Users tab and check the Group column (you may need to re-open the community after assigning users to groups for this to take effect).

When viewing user tracking, the results can now be filtered by groups:

Go to More | Community.
Select the relevant community.
Go to Actions | View user tracking.
Click Community Groups to expand it.
Select the groups you wish to filter by.