What's New in 4.39?
Welcome to ebs release 4.39, our second release of 2022. As is tradition for ebs, this summer release primarily focuses on updates to statutory returns for regions operating on a September to July academic year.
This release sees updates to the CDR (Northern Ireland) including additional fields for GCSEs, care leavers, destination, employment, and higher education codes. The LLWR (Wales) now includes the Individual Development Plan, with a new reference data screen added to manage this. The ILR (England) and HESA Alternative (higher education) have also been updated for the new funding year.
The new Ontrack Parent Hub has had considerable updates, including the option for parents to view a learner’s timetable and exam timetable. Attendance and punctuality charts have also been added, providing the parent with at-a-glance data on their child’s time at college.
Changes in the database include new tables for Ontrack Safeguarding, which will be released in 4.40. There is no early adopter process for this module. Interested users are encouraged to join the Communities group, where specifications, wireframes, and user process mapping are shared.
Engage users will note additional Edge roles available in ebs. These new roles will enable staff roles with bespoke staff quick links when this functionality is activated by the Engage product team later in the summer.
As with the previous release, users of ebs: central will be prompted to view the release notes post-upgrade. All changes are documented in the release notes, which we recommend all customers read as they contain key information with regards to product updates and how you can make use of them.
As ever we express our gratitude to our beta testers for their input on this release. Beta testers have the first opportunity to review, test, and give feedback on new product development. Many of our beta testing customers prioritise testing modules or functions where they have a special interest, and we encourage all sites to consider beta testing some or all of a new release. Sign up to the ebs Digest or Tribal Communities for more information.
This is the second of three releases in 2022. Each release contains vital updates to functionality, performance, security, and usability, and we encourage all customers to adopt the new release as soon as possible. If a site has not updated their release packs in some time, we recommend you speak to your customer success contact or account manager to review your current functionality and ensure you get the best value from your ebs and Ontrack suite.
I would like to thank all the customers who have provided feedback, feature requests, testing, and insight into the needs and ambitions of their institutions. As ever, I welcome your feedback on this release.
Gabi Walshaw, Product Manager for Vocational Learning