Product Updates

We have successfully launched a new add-on to all YuJa Panorama Digital Accessibility Platform instances residing in the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the Middle East, and the European Union.

1. New, Modern Accessibility Design Tools to Replace Need for YouDoIt Design Tools
   Our goal with Panorama is to provide a one-stop-shop solution for Accessibility. Part of that vision is to provide a more modern and capable WYSIWYG design interface to ensure that more accessible content is being created right from the start.
   Creating content within editable HTML areas of LMSs can be challenging, often resulting in content lacking visual appeal and accessible organization. To address these concerns, we’re introducing the Accessibility Design Tool to enhance the structuring, aesthetic, and usability of content in editable HTML areas.
   This will be a multi-cycle release, starting with three crucial areas for enhancement. Firstly, the tool will allow instructors to craft Banner Titles, allowing them to select custom colors and text alignment to suit their needs. Secondly, it provides the option to create containers of varying sizes, each adaptable with individual padding for flexible content spacing. Finally, the Text element grants instructors the option to position their content within containers with an array of formatting options, including headers, alignment, spacing, and so much more.

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Panorama Digital Accessibility Platform instances residing in the United States, Canada, European Union and Australia. This release provides our users with remediation capabilities for PowerPoint issues, an Accessible Design Tool to replace YouDoIt design tools, enhanced website scanning to support linked pages and documents, removed the need for third-party cookies, new faster processing queues for Alternative Formats, the option to hide the Website Accessibility Icon, enhanced UI designs, and so much more.

1. New Remediation Engine – WCAG 2.1 Aligned Microsoft PowerPoint Issues
   To recap, we offer Accessibility Engines to identify accessibility issues across all major document types. Remediation Engines take things to the next level by actually fixing the document all while inside your LMS. With the introduction of our Remediation Engine tailored for real-time resolution of Microsoft Word documents, we now extend these capabilities to Microsoft PowerPoint. The new Microsoft PowerPoint Remediation Engine enables users to address PowerPoint-related WCAG 2.1 compliance issues directly within the LMS, including issues such as contrast, font size adjustments, provision of alternative text for images, and dozens more.
2. Gamify and Celebrate Your Accessibility Improvements (a Newly Architected Processing Pipeline Makes It Possible)
   Improving the accessibility of documents is important work, and here at YuJa, we believe such efforts should be celebrated. Enjoy your success in using the Remediation Engine effectively with cheerful streamers and confetti animating your screen. We encourage and appreciate your ongoing efforts to impact student learning positively.
   For those more technically inclined, to provide ultra-fast inline remediation and gamification-ready response times, we rebuilt the processing pipelines to have multiple “swim-lanes”, each with independently scaling infrastructure. This updated architecture was purpose-built to accelerate Accessibility Engine processing.
   
3. WCAG 2.1-Aligned Website Scanning Tool Enhanced to Offer Accessibility Insights for Linked Pages and Documents
   To provide accessibility assistance outside of integrated LMS domains, Panorama offers Website Accessibility scanning designed to extend accessibility checks and support beyond integrated LMS domains. The scanning tool operates in three phases, starting by identifying content and linked pages within a specified domain. It then performs a scan to generate Accessibility Reports for the domain, documents, and linked pages. Finally, it enables users to create Alternative Formats for discovered documents.
   A comprehensive list of all scanned domains can then be viewed within the Website Report, offering the overall accessibility score, individualized scores for content found within the domain, and access to generate Alternative Formats.
   
   
4. No More Third-Party Cookies!
   Panorama’s LMS integration, with its established and IMS-certified implementation of LTI 1.3/LTI Advantage protocols, has traditionally utilized third-party cookies to ensure secure data transfer between integrated tools. Now, thanks to the adoption of new enhanced protocols, the necessity for third-party cookies is no longer required. This development enables users to benefit from a more secure connection and straightforward product integration, especially with browsers that might default to having cookies turned off.
   
5. On-Demand Processing Queue for Faster Accessibility Report and Alternative Formats Generation
   As Panorama continues to expand, we have built an Elastic Media Cloud (EMC) that can process institutions and courses with hundreds and thousands of files within an hour. We’re now introducing an extension to the EMC, On-Demand Processing, to help manage processing requests for Alternative Formats and updates to documents made through our Remediation Engine. With a workload that is 99.9% lighter than the traditional general processing workload, the On-Demand queue assures the completion of these immediate processing tasks in two minutes or less.
   
   
6. Option to Hide the Website Accessibility Icon
   With an approach to optimizing viewability on smaller screens, such as mobile devices, instructors and students can conceal the Website Accessibility icon until they navigate to a new page or for a specified duration of one day. For those who prefer a consistently minimal interface, the option to hide the icon permanently is also available.
   
   
7. Customize the Institution Name on the Institution Information Page
   Panorama offers the option to customize the institution name displayed on the Institution Information page to provide a custom viewing experience. Administrators wishing to modify the name to align with specific branding or internal naming conventions can do so by contacting their Customer Success Manager.
   
8. My Content Tab Supports Multi-File Drag-and-Drop
   We’ve introduced a new drag-and-drop functionality to Panorama, allowing users to upload multiple documents into their My Content Files or created folders.
   
9. Filter Issues by Severity in the Accessibility Report
   The Accessibility Report now allows instructors and students to organize and view identified issues based on their severity level—Severe, Major, and Minor.
   
10. Enhanced UI for Panorama’s WYSIWYG Editor
    To ensure a unified and modern user interface across Panorama, we’ve upgraded the WYSIWYG editor, aligning its UI with the refined aesthetic and functionality similar to that of the Accessibility Report UI. Users will now be able to view an organized list of accessibility issues, with the option to filter by severity to resolve the most concerning issues immediately.
    
11. On-Demand Refresh of Institution-Level Reports
    For institutions utilizing the option to Pre-Generate Reports, we’ve introduced a new feature to update reports manually. A “Refresh” button is now available for each report, providing the option to initiate an update that will generate the most recent data within the hour.
    
12. Updated Support for LibreOffice Version 7.6.2
    Panorama continues to align with advancements in document technology, now offering support for LibreOffice version 7.6.2. This update is crucial in ensuring the security of documents, aligning with our commitment to providing a safe and up-to-date environment for all users.
    
13. Improved Interface for Performing Accessibility Weighting Adjustments
    We have updated the interaction for adjusting accessibility weighting for various issue types—Severe, Major, and Minor. Admins can now select their preferred weights using a sliding bar while still having the option to input precise values with the textbox.
    
14. Panorama Expansion with a Dedicated Server for Australian Institutions
    As Panorama grows, we’ve introduced a dedicated server specifically for Australian institutions to take advantage of our accessibility learning features.

We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the United States. For a complete summary of the release, please refer to the corresponding release tags.

We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European Union. This update includes the option to enable the Lockdown App for Canvas New Quizzes, improved processing times for recordings, the option to adjust email settings at the institution level, and enhanced design and text elements across the platform. 

1. Improved Design for the Verity Recording Panel
   
   The Verity Recording Panel now provides a new look and feel that seamlessly aligns with our brand development goals. Our intuitively refined design enhances the user experience, particularly when utilizing the Zoom feature.
   
2. Lockdown App now Supports Canvas New Quizzes
   Instructors who prefer to use “New Quizzes” in Canvas can now utilize the Lockdown App and its available settings to create the most reliable proctoring environment for online assessments.
   
3. Improved Processing Time for Recorded Assessments
   We’ve enhanced our processing efficiency to ensure that recorded assessments are available within the Results table in as little as a few minutes, whereas previously, instructors could have to wait up to three hours.
   
4. Adjust Email Settings at the Institution Level
   Verity provides daily emails detailing a summary of all proctored sessions submitted. This setting can now be disabled on an institutional level and available on a per-course basis.
   
5. Delete Assessments from the Assessment Tab
   The Verity Portal offers a dedicated tab on the Automated Proctoring, Lockdown App, and Live Proctoring pages, presenting a convenient list of assessments. Instructors can access this Assessment tab for each proctoring tool, allowing them to delete assessments without the need to locate them within the LMS.
   
6. Enhanced Design Elements and Text Across the Lockdown App
   
   To enhance the user experience, we have taken a step toward updating areas of improvement for the Lockdown App through incremental design elements and text adjustments. The refreshed UI and text have been curated to guide students through the essential proctor checks, ensuring a seamless transition into their assessments.
7. Visual Refresh for the Verity Portal
   We have provided a new look and feel to the Verity Portal, providing a structured approach to the various Proctored Tools accessible from the left-side navigation menu. Instructors and students will be able to select their preferred tool, view setup steps, and have access to view and edit associated assessments.
   
8. Streamlined User-Friendly Updates
   As we continue to expand upon Verity, we’ve taken a close look at providing minor updates to existing features to help elevate the experience for instructors, proctors, and students. Below are some of these enhancements.
   • Microphone and Camera permissions will automatically be enabled on the Chrome browser.
   • When students register for a time slot, if only one option is available, it will be automatically selected.
   • Proctors will receive a notification if students leave a live proctoring session. 

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Engage Student Response System instances residing in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European Union. This release provides our users with the option to pre-schedule Poll releases, filtering options for locating Polls and Surveys, and overall enhancements to the platform through element redesigns and bug fixes.

1. Ability to Pre-Schedule Poll Releases
   We’re enhancing the way Creators can initiate Polls by introducing the option to schedule active Polls. This enables Creators to provide asynchronous Polls that participants can complete within a specified timeframe with the option for gradebook synchronization. To learn more about this feature, please visit our guide on Scheduling Polls for YuJa Engage.
   
   
2. More In-Depth Engagement Analytics
   When sharing polls, Creators can now access the Average Engagement analytic, which displays the percentage of participants who have attempted to answer questions. Furthermore, the Participants Platform panel offers a detailed breakdown of how users access the poll, including their choice of browsers and platforms, such as Windows, Mac, or Mobile.
   
3. New Filtering Options for Locating Polls and Surveys
   IT Managers and Creators now have greater precision when locating Polls and Surveys with the help of new filtering options. These options allow users to specify their preferences, such as choosing whether to view Polls or Surveys and selecting whether they are active.
   
4. Require Names When Participants Join Anonymously
   Previously, participants joining anonymously were not required to enter a name. In this update, we introduced a setting allowing IT managers and Creators to require participants to enter a name.
   
5. Enhanced Design Elements and Text Across the Platform
   To enhance the user experience, we have taken a step toward updating areas of improvement through incremental design elements and text adjustments that can help facilitate ease of navigation across the platform. We encourage IT Managers and Creators to take a look at our new design spacing, buttons, messages, and more. We thank you for your valuable feedback as we continue to roll out even more enhancements to the platform.
   
   
6. Bug Fixes and Optimizations
   We have optimized the performance of YuJa Engage and made several bug fixes to improve the user experience. Highlighting some of these optimizations and fixes are:
   • Resolved issues with SSO and LTI linkage.
   • Resolved issues with Polls having blank titles.
   • Resolved issues that prevented Poll questions from being shared individually.

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Panorama Digital Accessibility Platform instances residing in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. This release provides our users with a new workflow for remediating accessibility issues, a Remediation Engine that fully supports Microsoft Word issues, a refreshed Accessibility Report, custom weighting for severity types, the option to replace the original document with a generated alternative format, localization support for Dutch and Finnish languages, and so much more.

1. Streamlined Workflow for Remediating Accessibility Issues
   As part of our development for Panorama’s Remediation Engine, we have taken a deep dive into how users can easily resolve issues in real time within the Accessibility Report. As a result, we are introducing a dedicated ‘Fix Issue’ feature that offers immediate insights into the current problem and practical suggestions for a resolution. After adding the necessary changes, a comprehensive list of all fixes can be reviewed before applying the changes to update the document.
   
2. Expanded Support for Microsoft Word Remediation Engine for Inline Remediation Within the LMS
   Our previous release introduced our new Microsoft Word Remediation Engine, designed to address font-size issues in real-time within Microsoft Word documents. Building upon this, we’re expanding our remediation capabilities by allowing users to resolve more WCAG 2.1 Microsoft Word issues:
   
   
   • Contrast issues
   • Alternative text for images
   • Non-descriptive hyperlink text
3. Refreshed Accessibility Report Interface
   We have updated the Accessibility Report with a modernized UI showcasing an organized display of issues. To accomplish this, we have made the following changes: 1) issue can be seen within the new list-style view; 2) The number of issues have been categorized by their severity; 3) Filtering options to allow users to view specific issues in each severity.
   

   

4. Create a Custom Weighted Scale for Severity Types
   Panorama has consistently assessed accessibility issues with Severe, Major, and Minor importance. We’re now providing administrators the option to fine-tune the weight of each severity, allowing institutions to create a more precise accessibility score aligning with their unique priorities.
   
   Each severity level will now uniquely influence the final accessibility score through its customized weight. For instance, if Major issues are assigned a weight of 10 and Minor issues a weight of 1, Major issues will affect the accessibility score ten times more than Minor issues. To learn more about this feature and how to set custom weights for the severity of issues, please visit our guide on Customizing Severity Weighting Settings for Panorama

   

5. Replace Original Documents with a Generated Alternative Format
   Instructors have the option to seamlessly replace the original document within their Learning Management System with a newly generated alternative format.
   
6. Accessibility Icons Can Be Hidden at the Course Level
   To give instructors more control over their courses, they can now disable accessibility icons at the course level. This option will prevent students and instructors from accessing the Alternative Formats menu and Accessibility Reports within their LMS but will still provide analytical tracking for the course.
   
7. Integrate Panorama into Specific LMS Sub-Accounts for LTI 1.3
   Panorama now offers targeted integration within specific LTI 1.3 sub-accounts to accommodate institutions utilizing hierarchical sub-accounts in their LMS. This will allow administrators to only enable Panorama for their desired accounts instead of applying it to the top-level account, which would activate Panorama for all sub-accounts.
8. The Course Setting Page Offers Access to the LMS Course
   Administrators and instructors who wish to navigate back to their course after making course-setting adjustments can, with a click of a button, navigate directly to their course.
   
9. Local Support for Dutch and Finnish Languages
   Complementing our English, French, and Spanish localization, Panorama will now fully support Dutch and Finnish languages across the entire Platform. Simply access your settings to adjust your language preferences.
   
10. Updated Colors and Icons for the Panorama Sidebar
    As part of our ongoing commitment to elevate the Panorama experience with our new branding, administrators can expect vibrant color enhancements and new icons that provide a refreshed look to the sidebar.
    
11. Screen Readers Can Detect When Alternative Formats Are Generated
    Users who navigate through Panorama with the help of accessibility tools will now be notified by their screen reader when an alternative format has been successfully generated.
12. Pre-Generate Course Reports to Provide Instant Viewing of Analytics
    Similar to pre-generating institution reports, activating this feature ensures that the Course Report stays consistently up-to-date, providing institutions with large data sets instant access to their analytics.
    
13. Increased Responsiveness for the Panorama LTI App on Canvas
    To enhance Panorama’s accessibility for users who prefer utilizing their browser’s zoom functionalities, Panorama will now dynamically adapt its interface to accommodate zoom levels exceeding 100%.

We have successfully pushed a hotfix to all instances residing in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European Union. This hotfix includes refined workflows for Canvas New Quizzes, students attempting to take a proctored assessment, ID Verification, and several optimization and bug fixes.

1. Refined Verity Workflow for Canvas New Quizzes
   Previously, instructors were required to create a Canvas New Quiz before enabling Verity. We have refined this process to allow instructors to enable Verity as they are creating their quizzes.
   
2. Updates to the Student Workflow Interface for the Browser Extension and Lockdown App
   Text and icons are thoughtfully centered, providing a more intuitive and visually pleasing process as students prepare to access their assessments.
   
3. Refined Workflow for ID Verification
   In addition to our AI-enhanced ID verification, we offer students the convenience of capturing photos of their ID and face for manual verification by their proctors.
   
4. Improved Facial Analysis Recognition Under Low-Light conditions
   We’ve improved our AI-enhanced ID verification to deliver faster and more dependable student identification, even in low-light conditions.
   
5. Optimization and Bug Fixes
   We have optimized the performance of YuJa Verity and made several bug fixes to improve the user experience. Highlighting some of these optimizations and fixes are:
   
   • Resolved issues related to color adjustment and user-friendly messages.
   • Enhanced the precision of Course and Institution reports.
   • Flagged events will accurately appear on recordings.

We have successfully pushed an update to all instances residing in the United States. For a complete summary of the release, please refer to the corresponding release tags.

We have released a new Hardware Hub RCS 550 firmware that is available for update within the Devices Panel. This update provides our users with real-time health and performance monitoring and the option to publish and live stream to EnterpriseTube and CampusTube folders. 

1. Real-Time Health and Performance Monitoring for the Hardware Hub
   The Hardware Hub is trusted for seamless, end-to-end video capture and distribution. To ensure the reliability of your device during sessions, we now offer live tracking for the performance of the Hardware Hub. View analytics such as:
   • CPU Temperature reading
   • Video streaming quality
   • Storage management
   • Hardware issues

   By monitoring the performance of the Hub, administrators will be able to take note of crucial readings to better manage their recordings.
   

2. Manage and Resolve Issues for Configured Devices
   We have added a check for source issues within the Device Status report by providing instant viewing of how many devices are experiencing issues. If any device is experiencing problems, simply click ‘Resolve Issues’ to be directed to the device configuration page, where adjustments can be made or seen for pressing issues such as connecting a device to the correct source or viewing which device has disconnected.
   
   
3. Live Stream and Publish to the EnterpriseTube and CampusTube
   The Hardware Hub has previously been able to live stream and publish to Channels inside the Video Platform. We are now expanding this capability to allow users to publish to any location within their EnterpriseTube or CampusTube folders.
   

We have successfully pushed an update to all YuJa Engage Student Response System instances residing in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European Union. This release provides our users with a new matching question type, a YuJa Engage desktop app for Mac Keynote presentations, and enhancements to the Engage mobile app.

1. New Matching Question Type
   To further expand on our growing list of question types, Engage now offers Creators the option to include matching questions. This new question type prompts Poll Participants to pair items with predetermined options, contributing to a more engaging interactive experience.
   
2. YuJa Engage Desktop App for Poll Integration with Apple Keynote
   The YuJa Engage desktop app is now accessible for Mac Keynote to provide users with a seamless Student Response System during live presentations. The app will allow users to integrate individual questions within their Keynote presentations while providing a comprehensive view of corresponding results. The Engage desktop app will be available for download on the App Store in the coming week. We hope you enjoy creating interactive and engaging presentations.
   
3. Features for the YuJa Engage Mobile App Are Now Aligned with the Web App
   To provide consistent and reliable features to the mobile app comparable to the web app, we have added and resolved many issues to enhance the overall user experience. Highlighting some of these features are: Word Cloud question type support, Hide correct answers, Thumbs up and thumbs down reactions, as well as resolved issues to allow reattempts.