The last minor release of the year will be taking place on the 26th of November 2021 and contains a new assignment viewer for participants, improvements to the author tool, filter functionalities for the reviewer and early release of feedback for managers and assessors. Read through the article below for a full overview on all the features in this release.
Participant
Author
Reviewer
Manager
Adjustment and Improvements
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Lockdown Browser Versions
This minor release does not include a new version of the lockdown browser. The requirements are still:
Windows: 2.0.7.07
MacOS: 2.0.7.05
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Participant
New Assignment Viewer
When a FLOWlock exam is written in the lockdown environment, participants can make use of a new assignment viewer. Opening the assignment in a new tab will provide participants with a full PDF reader which allows for annotations on the assignment.
Participants can insert annotations (underline, highlight, strike through text, etc.), shapes (freehand drawings, lines, arrows, circles, etc.) or comments directly on the assignment. It is also possible to search the assignment for certain keywords or comments (if any have been added). If an assignment consists of several pages, a panel view lets participants quickly jump to other pages in the assignment. Finally, participants can also copy passages from the assignment and insert it in the text editor.
Any annotations and comments that have been made will be saved even if the internet connection is lost during the exam as these are saved on the participant's computer. It will not be possible to access annotated assignments if a participant has to switch to a different computer / laptop during the exam.
Annotations will not be shown when viewing the assignment in the main lockdown view where participants can compose their answer.
Annotating assignments will only be available for exams written in the lockdown environment.
Minor Adjustments and Improvements
- Strikethrough is available as a formatting option in the FLOWlock text editor.
- Warning message for participants when they have been idle for a few minutes has been removed.
- When an unauthorised keyboard combination / touchpad gesture was detected twice inside the lockdown browser, participants were automatically thrown out of the lockdown browser and had to re-enter the flow.
This behavior has been altered now: If a participant performs an unauthorised keyboard combination or touchpad gesture inside the lockdown browser they will receive a warning message that an illegal keyboard or touchpad gesture has been detected by the system. Participants will have to acknowledge the message but can continue working inside the lockdown browser.
If an unauthorised keyboard combination or touchpad gesture is detected for a second time, participants will receive another warning message and will have to include the invigilator password to continue working.
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Author
Improvements to the Author Tool
The minor release will bring further improvements to the new author tool as well as a new safeguarding feature for questions that are assigned to author groups. Where sections have been allocated to author groups, authors will see a warning message if they try to save a question that has been edited by another author in the meantime. Authors will generally receive the warning message to any changes (i.e. new questions have been added) made by another author to a section.
If the author checks the box and clicks on "Confirm", changes made by another author will be overwritten. Clicking on "Cancel" will bring the author back to the editing mode of the question. If an author wants to see the changes made by another author, it is best to save their own changes and refresh the page.
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Reviewer
Toggle Columns in the Participant List
Reviewers will be able to toggle the columns in the participant list and filter which columns should be displayed. When a reviewer has been added to a flow, they will now see this icon at the right-hand side of the participant list: 
. When selected, a new window will open enabling columns to be hidden or made visible in the participant overview.
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Manager
Managers can Enable Early Release of Feedback
Managers can enable a setting that will allow assessors and reviewers to release feedback instantly to participants.
When this setting has been enabled by managers, assessors can decide if they want to release feedback (including shared annotations, comments and rubrics) to individual participants.
This functionality is available on all flows and also for reviewers.
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Adjustment and Improvements
Changes to the Service Center
The existing Service Centre will be improved and its articles will become more intuitive and user friendly. The documentation, which is currently found under the Supporter role, will be included in the new Service Centre. The new Service Center will be made available when the minor release has been successfully implemented. Many of the articles have been rewritten, especially for the roles in WISEflow (i.e. Participant, Author, Manager, etc.), so please be aware that if you have linked to articles in our Service Center, you may have to update links after November 26 to be forwarded to the new articles.
Language Improvements
This is a heads-up that we are currently working on improving the UK English language in WISEflow, and the changes will come with our March 2022 release. This language improvement project includes improvements to text descriptions and tooltips and changes to some of the high-level terminology in WISEflow. As we advance towards our March 2022 release, we will share more detailed information about language changes so you will have time to change the supporting resources you have created for the end-users at your institutions.
FLOWmonitor
- Changing or removing a device used for facial recognition or voice detection is logged in the FLOWmonitor details.
- When an unauthorised keyboard combination / touchpad gesture was detected twice inside the lockdown browser, participants were automatically thrown out of the lockdown browser and had to re-enter the flow.
This behaviour has been altered now: If a participant performs an unauthorised keyboard combination or touchpad gesture inside the lockdown browser they will receive a warning message that an illegal keyboard or touchpad gesture has been detected by the system. The second time an unauthorised keyboard combination or touchpad gesture is detected, Participants will receive another warning message and will have to include the invigilator password to continue working. The warning messages will also be logged in the FLOwmonitor. - The browser variant (Windows/MAC) is logged when a participant launches a FLOWlock/FLOWmulti and is visible to invigilators and managers in the detailed log of the FLOWmonitor.
Accessibility Improvements
The work to enhance accessibility in WISEflow continues with this release.
FLOWoral
When a FLOWoral is set up as a group type, assessors will no longer see the name of the default group slot if it has been populated with a participant group.
Users are no Longer Prompted to Acknowledge the Cookie Policy in WISEflow
Following legal counsel, we have removed our cookie policy from the privacy & cookie popup users see upon their first login. We have previously held the view that we were required to inform the users on behalf of you as our customer on the privacy and cookie policy in WISEflow. Based on several enquiries and following legal counsel, it has been clarified that we only should inform the users of our general privacy policy.
Both the privacy and cookie policy as such are part of the Data Processor Agreement/SSC and contract made between your institution and us as a supplier.
Information for Participants' Workflow on FLOWmulti and FLOWlock Exams
This message is intended as a guide and recommendation for participants and explains how to run a FLOWlock and FLOWmulti flow. We want your participants to have the best and smoothest experience with WISEflow, in what could be a stressful situation.
Based on our experience hosting FLOWlock and FLOWmulti exams, we have noticed a pattern where participants on a flow tend to start the lockdown browser very close to the participation start period. This behaviour increases the risk of the participant not being ready in time for when the flow starts for participation and makes it harder for invigilators to monitor in advance that everyone is properly set in advance.
The lockdown browser on FLOWlock and FLOWmulti exams can be started one hour before the start of the general participation period. We recommend that you instruct participants in starting the lockdown browser well in advance (ideally 10-15 minutes) to ensure that verification processes are concluded and that everything is working as intended before the participation period starts. This ensures that time for the majority of unexpected scenarios can be resolved in due time (ie. updating the required browser).