Improvement

We have redesigned the courses page in the eLearning platform with tab based content to improve the readability and to speed up your workflow. The top bar now contains information on Certificates, Instructional level, and Language.

Course description, structure, instructor bio, and reviews have been added to the navigation bar to help users better navigate through the courses page.

Also, in the new layout, comments on courses has been pushed to the bottom and the star rating has been made to appear in full width horizontally.

We have also added a new section in the bottom of the courses page listing the other courses published by the instructor.

Improvement

We have reorganized the Instructor and Learner dashboards with tab based content. For the first glance, you’ll probably notice that everything is super clean and neat, because we’ve cut off the unnecessary functions and UI elements. Our goal was to make this refresh as unobtrusive as possible, but improve navigation, readability and speed up your workflow.

Instructor Dashboard

Learner Dashboard

Update

We have now upgraded our new Virtual Classroom build across all global datacenter locations and have come up with some major performance improvements and feature updates.

Performance Improvements

1. [IMPROVEMENT] High-quality MP4 video encodings in the cloud through quality-defined variable bitrate (QVBR) control which is designed to deliver constant video quality and waste zero bits in the process.
2. [IMPROVEMENT] Improved Simulcast technology for better audio and video performance
3. [IMPROVEMENT] Improved performance with Safari 12+ browser
4. [IMPROVEMENT] Documents on the whiteboard will now load faster for attendees joining the session late
5. [IMPROVEMENT] Users can now delete the saved boards from library
6. [IMPROVEMENT] Users can customize the SEND button color in chat
7. [IMPROVEMENT] Updated translations (Arabic & German) in Virtual Classroom environment
8. [IMPROVEMENT] Users need to confirm before deleting a board
9. [IMPROVEMENT] Delete board button has been moved to the right

Bug Fixes

• [Fix] When teacher hides global chat, private chats between teacher and students are now available
• [Fix] Fixed YouTube video's sound playing with delay for the user who started it
• [Fix] Fixed the incorrect toggles in right to left interface
• [Fix] Fixed incorrect toggles in right-to-left interface
• [Fix] Fixed Down arrows in drop-down lists in class settings getting misplaced in right-to-left interface
• [Fix] Previous private chat history is now accessible to users after re-entering the VC
• [FIX] Fixed Video quality reducing from high to standard when switching to expanded mode from enlarged mode
• [FIX] Fixed the error where users cannot see mic indicator in Settings in Mozilla and Safari browsers
• [FIX] Text tool is not always properly activated
• [FIX] Code editor tabs do not scroll vertically or horizontally beyond the first tab in mobile version
• [FIX] Recording does not continue after the presenter stops viewing the BreakRoom
• [Fix] Move "delete board" button to the right
• [Fix] Presenter sometimes sees the "Waiting for presenter" popup when entering the room
• [Fix] Screen sharing tooltip language is localized only after refreshing the page
• [Fix] Remove deleting option for files in document and video library
• [Fix] User sees own text typed in text tool on a wrong tab when another user switches tabs during typing
• [Fix] Previous private chat history is not accessible to user after re-entering the VC
• [Fix] Users sometimes cannot close screensharing tab if they move between rooms without turning screensharing off
• [Fix] Text tool area doesn't increase when user types in several lines in Firefox
• [Fix] User needs to click Enter twice in the same line to get to a new line in Text tool
• [Fix] Recording button should not be clickable in rooms with isRecord=3
• [Fix] User sees new board content on a wrong tab if new content was placed while VC's browser tab was not active
• [Fix] User in safari does not see list of available devices
• [Fix] User doesn't see mic indicator in Settings in Mozilla and Safari
• [Fix] Safari 12.1 ignores devices saved in local storage
• [Fix] Unexpected behavior when teacher switches document pages while student's VC tab is inactive
• [Fix] Unexpected behavior when user types in text tool in several lines and switches tabs
• [Fix] Video quality reduces from high to standard when leaving from enlarged mode to expanded mode
• [Fix] User cannot turn 16:9 aspect ration on
• [Fix] Auto select speaker icon in enlarged conference screen doesn't work sometimes
• [Fix] There is no sound for finished library videos re-played after recording starts
• [Fix] Line breaks in text tool are ignored when user stops typing on Android devices with Gboard
• [Fix] Users HD stream has SD bitrate if another user receives the HD stream
• [Fix] Incoming audio bitrate is not calculated properly in Info popup
• [Fix] Sometimes text from text tool appears on the wrong tab for attendees if the tab is switched during typing
• [Fix] Snapshot appears atop of the video when teacher makes a snapshot of student's video in collapsed or expanded video chat
• [Fix] Scrollbar in tabs panel should be thinner in Firefox
• [Fix] Newly opened popup window should overlap previously opened popup window
• [Fix] Investigate abnormal sound on few user recordings
• [Fix] Forbid recording in Safari 11 and less (These versions won't work correctly, because they are outdated)
• [Fix] If user uploads images in chat during recording, the recording file comes out damaged
• [Fix] Safari: recording doesn't start if there is a video playing in video tool

New Feature

Adobe has stopped supporting its iconic flash player starting December 31, 2020 and has blocked Flash content from running in Flash Player beginning January 12, 2021.

Owing to security reasons, we no longer support uploading Flash content in the content library or using Flash interactive content in your courses.

Update

We have rolled out a new update to our Virtual Classroom platform. The new update comes with 4 major performance improvements, 11 major bug fixes, and some minor bug fixes.

Performance Improvements

• [IMPROVEMENT] Recording improvements for faster processing
• [IMPROVEMENT] Better optimized audio & video performance with iOS devices running Safari 12+ browser
• [IMPROVEMENT] Seamless connectivity and better performance even when there are more than 100 attendees in a room
• [IMPROVEMENT] Improved connectivity test results

Bug Fixes

• [FIX] User's placeholder background in attendee list briefly disappears when user enters the VC
• [FIX] Chat panel icons are upside down when the panel is collapsed in right-to-left interface
• [FIX] User cannot upload files from cloud services
• [FIX] The teacher(s) should always be at the top of the attendee list
• [FIX] Content in Latex tool is misplaced in right-to-left interface
• [FIX] Wolfram alpha examples button is overlapped by text in right-to-left interface
• [FIX] Expanded mode videos are misplaced in right-to-left interface
• [FIX] VC board interface breaks when users try to draw on the board before the board is loaded
• [FIX] Student-presenters cannot scroll whiteboard inside Breakrooms
• [FIX] Change code editor tooltip style
• [FIX] Recording does not start automatically for the second teacher when the first teacher leaves the room

Fix

Facebook had blocked sharing of BrainCert instructor's course links as a false positive from their automation. This has been resolved by working with their business support team.

When sharing a course link in Facebook, you will notice few details that auto-populate through Open Graph (OG) metadata. BrainCert uses Open Graph meta tags to ensure the Facebook Crawler scrapes useful information, such as course title, description, course URL and preview image, about your course.

Update

We're excited to announce the launch of a head-to-toe complete redesign of our E-Learning platform that provides customers with a clean design, ease of navigation, and seamless user experience across all products. The responsive design has been enhanced for better experience in mobile, tablet and desktop viewing.

Platform users can now easily navigate and connect courses, tests, classes, and data with a single, connected system. The enhancements we have made to our platform will provide a more role-based web experience, making it even easier for our learners and instructors to navigate and stay productive.

Core updates include:

Seamless user experience and ease of navigation

Our UI is improved to a great extent enabling greater user ability. Users can now navigate easily with a smooth, intuitive, and user-friendly interface.

Improved analytics and reporting

Our analytics and reporting feature is improved to a great extent with support for very large data sets. Earning graph overview is displayed on the Instructor dashboard with details on total courses and tests sold.

Role-based dashboards for students and instructors

Now our instructor and student have a role-based individual dashboard with improved features.

Improved social profiles

Improved social profiles with the informations about the profile followers and number of contacts displayed on the profile homepage.

Improved profile privacy settings

Improved profile settings where profile can be restricted to contacts, public and site members.

Easy navigate between BrainCert products

With an intuitive menu system, customers can now easily navigate between BrainCert platform and products making it easy to consume different products all in one place.

Improved Virtual Classroom experience

Built upon scalable, secure and reengineered architecture, BrainCert Virtual Classroom offers end-to-end encryption and stable connectivity across 10 global datacenter locations.

• Upgraded core infrastructure for fastest WebRTC connectivity
• Improved processing of MP4 recorded files
• Background ambient noise reduction
• Superior support for VP8 codec in iOS 14+ devices
• Optimized user interface for Android and iOS mobile users

Improvement

We have rolled out an update to our Virtual Classroom build. Below are the fixes and improvements.

• [IMPROVEMENT] We have now drastically improved our content library for the optimum performance.
• [IMPROVEMENT] We've now greatly lowered the CPU utilization.
• [FIX] Color-pick pop-up disappears for users after certain actions of other users.
• [FIX] Media player is not automatically closed for students when teacher ends class.
• [FIX] Tooltip does not disappear if user manages to hover over it.
• [FIX] Change tooltip for fullscreen button when fullscreen is on.
• [FIX] Hide students' cursors if they do not have an access to board.

Improvement

We've rolled a Virtual Classroom patch with the following fixes and improvements:

• [IMPROVEMENT] We've added noise reduction feature to greatly improve the audio quality for Chrome and Firefox users. We haven't made any changes for Safari browser, because it doesn't support such functionality.
• [IMPROVEMENT] We've updated enlarged mode and it looks better now.
• [FIX] We've fixed the issue with the right panel which sometime doesn't open
• [FIX] Board content disappears after user 'undo' the last action if copy or cut functionality was used
• [FIX] Student can still use Select and Text tool after a tab was locked again
• [FIX] Big videos in Enlarged mode get green borders even when small videos are not being dragged
• [FIX] Students should not be able to use keyboard shortcuts to delete objects on the whiteboard when the tab is "unlocked" by the presenter

New Feature

We have now upgraded our new Virtual Classroom build across all global datacenter locations. We are introducing some of the new and exciting features from our roadmap. There is also great improvement on the audio and video to offer superior performance.

1) Supports 10 concurrent video streams

Collaborate face-to-face with your attendees in real-time with enlarged video conference mode that now supports upto 10 concurrent video streams with automatic speaker detection. There is no limit on audio conferencing and it is based on your subscription package.

2) Improved audio/video connectivity

We have now greatly improved audio/video connectivity with much quicker connection time and overall performance improvement in larger groups.

3) Lock/unlock whiteboard for students

With this new version, Instructors can either lock or unlock whiteboard for students to meet compliance requirements. This feature is specifically designed for younger students where they do not access to all the whiteboard tools such as eraser tool but can collaborate with pen tool with the instructor and other students.

If an Instructor locks the whiteboard students will not be able to write or draw anything on the whiteboard area. Instructors need to enable unlock option for the whiteboard if he/she wishes students to write or draw on the whiteboard.

Also, the existing whiteboard access permission for the student under the attendee list is still available. This feature can be used to promote additional instructors or moderators giving them full whiteboard access.

4) Annotate on top of screen sharing

Instructors can annotate on top on screen sharing. They can also allow students to annotate by unlocking screen share whiteboard for students.

5) Improved document viewer and whiteboard performance

We have now improved the document viewer functionality. All uploaded contents will be processed much quickly and displayed on the whiteboard with appropriate zoom level for easy readability.

6) Faster WebRTC connection

This version is equipped with faster WebRTC connection that enables the quick real-time communication with larger rooms that has over 500 participants and improved WARP algorithm for better congestion control and low-latency performance.

7) Optimized layout for Mobile & Tablet devices

Optimized layout to access tools quicker and maximum viewing area in tablets and mobile devices.

8) Recordings now includes uploaded audio and video files

All Audio and Video files streamed using media player from the content library inside Virtual Classroom will now appear in class recordings with the exception of for YouTube and Vimeo links shared. YouTube has changed their API and forbids playing videos on recordings, so there is no official way to bypass it.

9) Remember selected microphone and webcam devices

With this feature, the microphone and webcam devices selected in a VC session will be remembered when joining the next session.

10) Improved processing of recordings (backend)

We have now greatly improved the processing time of our 720p MP4 HD recordings for both standard and enhanced recorder options.

11) Remember the stroke & fill colors and active whiteboard tool

The active stroke and fill color selection will be remembered along with the active whiteboard tool when the browser is reloaded or when the instructor rejoin the session.

12) New broadcast message design (for BreakRooms)

We have now changed the design of broadcast messages to all attendees in BreakRooms from the chat area.

Bug Fixes & Improvements:

We have also have fixed other minor issues listed below:

• [FIX] Videos cannot be viewed in full screen on iOS devices
• [FIX] Sometimes the camera icon appear to be turned on when only microphone is on
• [FIX] Hide rotate button for documents for students with only teacher's tools access
• [FIX] Student's screensharing is overlapped by whiteboard if student starts it without presenter
• [FIX] Fix Audio/Video connectivity issue with Safari browser on Mac OS
• [IMPROVEMENT] Increase text tool's initial text area in Firefox
• [FIX] "Undo" does not work for "delete"
• [FIX] Copying/pasting with hotkeys doesn't work after copying with context menu
• [IMPROVEMENT] Relocate camera snapshot icon next to name over videos
• [IMPROVEMENT] Zoom uploaded documents x2 to fit whiteboard width
• [IMPROVEMENT] Show context menu for a selected element by long tap on mobile devices
• [FIX] Video statistics are not calculated correctly in Safari and Mozilla
• [FIX] "Allow attendees to control video playback" toggle doesn't work sometimes