Version 2.26 Release Note

v2.26 Release Note

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Welcome to v2.26 of RM Unify RM Unify v2.26 is here, and there are a number of useful new features to tell you about which we have detailed within this Release Note. New features in v2.26:

1. New National and Local Authority Launch Pad views for schools across Glow. This feature allows Admin users of the Scottish Government Establishment or Local Authorities to more efficiently share Apps and Shared Link Tiles with users across Glow. Tiles can be deployed more quickly across an entire group of schools (including nationally and across an LA) in a couple of clicks, rather than on an individual Establishment basis.

2. Changes to the RM Unify and Glow login page that improve password protection. Users can now more clearly see when the ‘show password’ flag is on, so to not accidentially display their password to others.

3. General release of the RM Unify MIS-Sync features for Capita SIMS and RM Integris in

England and Wales. We have successfully field-trialled a number of features which allow MIS data such as classes and registration groups and parent details to feed into RM Unify.

Coming this summer Throughout the summer we will begin deploying a set of features to improve device integration across England and Wales for RM Unify via single sign-on through school-networked devices (device single sign-on), including Google Chromebooks. You can keep up to date with the progress of these features via the public RM Unify Trello board.

Release Headlines for v2.26

1. New National and Local Authority Launch Pad views Page 1 to 7 Distribute Apps and Shared Link Tiles to multiple establishments, either nationally, or to all schools within a specific Local Authority. Centrally procured App tiles such as Glow Blogs can be installed much more quickly now.

2. Improved visibility of ‘Show Password’ cues on the login page Page 8 to 9 It is now clearer when the ‘show password’ flag is active on the RM Unify login page. Passwords are less likely to be displayed by mistake

3. General release of the RM Unify ‘MIS Sync’ tool for England and Wales Page 10 Sync MIS data from Capita SIMs and RM Integris into RM Unify to populate class data, registration groups, and Parent information. Field trial successfully completed and now deployed for general release.

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1. New National and Local Authority Launch Pad views As an RM Unify Administrator within a Local Authority (LA) or Glow national establishment, you are now able to install Apps and Shared Link tiles onto the Launch Pads of selected roles in Establishments underneath yours (e.g. schools within your LA, or all schools across Scotland if you are an Education Scotland Establishment Administrator). Installing tiles to multiple Establishment’s Launch Pads is now much quicker as a result. Previously there were two Launch Pad types: Personal, and Shared. This 2.26 change impacts the Shared Launch Pad type only. Shared Launch Pad has been divided into three views: an Establishment-only view of Apps that have been installed by your establishment only, an LA view where Apps have been installed across all schools within it by an LA Admin, and a national Launch Pad view, where the same App tiles can be seen across all of Glow. Centrally procured Glow content such as Glow Blogs and Glow Wikis can now be shared and promoted more easily, whilst still retaining the individual user-centric option of Personal Launch Pads. If you’re an LA Admin, you’re now able to share new and popular content across all of your schools more quickly, including content within Office 365 using Shared Link Tiles. Note: National and Local Authority Launch Pad views are only available to Glow users in Scotland. Existing Apps on Establishment Launch Pads and Personal Launch Pads are not impacted by these new Launch Pad types, i.e. if a Tile is already installed on an Establishment’s Launch Pad, it can’t be installed by an LA Admin again. As any user, to view the Shared Launch Pad you wish to access, simply click the new dropdown on the Shared Launch Pad button.

Fig 1.0: Branding has been added to the Management Console Dashboard The now visible ‘New’ icon is displayed when new Apps or Shared Tiles have been added to a Shared Launch Pad of an Establishment. Users will be able to select the Shared Launch Pad they wish to view. Launch Pad views are clearly labelled. The Establishment only Launch Pad is displayed by default, and remains at the top

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of the list, as we expect this to be used most frequently. LA and national Launch Pads can also be selected.

Fig 1.1: User can select the Launch Pad they wish to view An Establishment’s Shared Launch Pad will carry the name of the Establishment e.g. St Mary’s School’s Shared Launch Pad will be named ‘St Mary’s school Launch Pad’.

Fig 1.2: The Shared Launch Pad for a specific Establishment only

RM Unify Launch Pads will continue to consider the role of the user when displaying App Tiles. This means if you wish to install an App or Shared Tile that is only relevant/suitable for selected users, you are still able to install it to selected users Launch Pads. This level of granularity has not been removed in 2.26.

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How to use National and LA Launch Pads to install Apps across multiple Establishments This feature makes use of the hierarchical structure of the RM Unify Establishment database: LAs sit under national Establishments, and schools sit under LAs. Establishments sat under other Establishments are known in RM Unify terms as ‘Child Establishments’. You can view (and manage) your Child Establishments in the RM Unify Management Console. There are two new actions available with this feature from an App installation perspective:

1. Administrator users of the Education Scotland Glow Establishment can install App Tiles to all Glow Establishments within the App Library through the ‘Scotland’ Launch Pad. Every Establishment in the Glow Community is a Child Establishment of the Education Scotland Establishment.

2. Administrator users of Local Authority Establishments can install App Tiles to all

Establishments underneath them within their LA. If you are an Administrator user of either the Education Scotland Establishment or any Local Authority Establishment, you will now see an additional tab in the RM Unify App Library named ‘Child Establishments Apps’, as seen below. Previously, the only tabs available were: ‘All Apps’ and ‘My Establishment’s Apps’.

Fig 1.3: A new ‘Child Establishments Apps’ tab has appeared in the RM Unify App Library

Click on the ‘Child Establishments Apps’ tab to install Apps and Shared Link Tiles, and manage existing ones on behalf of all of your Child Establishments.

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You’ll now see all the Apps and Shared Tiles which can be managed on behalf of your Child Establishments, as shown below.

Fig 1.4: See which apps have already been installed to your Child Establishments by looking at the ‘Installed Status’.

Any Apps or Shared Link Tiles that have already been installed onto Launch Pads for selected users of your Child Establishments will be displayed in the ‘installed’ view. See the ‘Installed Status’ options list on the left of the screen to toggle between views. You can manage Apps and Shared Link Tiles here, including uninstalling Apps and Shared Link Tiles from Launch Pads or installing them to more. Adding Apps and Shared Link Tiles to your Child Establishments Launch Pads Click on the ‘Not installed’ option on the left to see the Apps that have not yet been installed to Child Establishments Launch Pads. Click on an App Tile or Shared Link Tile to begin the install process. An additional option is now provided: ‘Install for My Child Establishments’, as shown below:

Fig 1.5: When creating a new Shared Link Tile, or installing an App, you can now install it for

selected roles across your Child Establishments.

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Click on the ‘Install for my child establishments button’ to install the App or Shared Link Tile to user Launch Pads across your Child Establishments. The App or Link Tile will be installed to the selected roles at the child Establishments that don’t already have it installed. Note: Establishments that the install is applied to will lose the ability to control the enabled roles for the app themselves (i.e. it can’t be uninstalled). Establishments that already had the app installed will retain the ability to manage the enabled roles for the app at their establishment (i.e. they can uninstall it). Also note: It takes up to 1 hour to install App Tiles across 100 Establishments. Before installing Tiles to your Child Establishment’s Lauch Pads, you’ll be warned that you won’t be able to make changes to the roles that the Tiles are installed to until the request has been fully processed. Please check that the roles are correct before proceeding. To create a new Shared Tile to immediately share across your Child Establishments, either click ‘Add’ on the LA or Scotland Launch Pad (depending on your access), and create a Link Tile as have done before, or click ‘Add Tile’ at the bottom right hand side of the screen in the RM Unify App Library. Once the Tile has been created (Title, URL, image etc.), the installation process is the same as described above. It is not possible to install apps to specific groups of Child Establishments, e.g. all primary schools. Installs are managed on all ‘all Child Establishments’ basis. Apps not compatible for Child Establishment installs Not all Apps can be installed across Child Establishments. Those that can’t include:

• Apps which require and RM Unify licence • Saved Password Apps • Apps that support brownfield user matching and licence connectors.

If you have any queries about the use of this new feature, please contact the Glow HelpDesk for support.

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2. Improved visibility of ‘Show Password’ cues on the login page

On the RM Unify login page, users are provided with an option of ‘show password’ when typing their RM Unify password into the password field. When doing so on a large public screen e.g. a whiteboard in front of a class, the user may not have been aware that the option had been set, and so the potential was there to inadvertently display a password to others. This may have presented a security risk. We have made some changes to make it clearer to users when the “show password” option has been set, preventing such events from occurring. By default, the RM Unify login page will not display password characters. A user can choose to show their password by clicking on the eye icon to the right of the password field. When they did this before, the diagonal line was removed from the icon. The image below shows the default mode.

Fig 1.6: Passwords are not shown by default on the RM Unify login page.

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The images below show the previous ‘show password’ cue (on the left), and the new cues for this Release (on the right):

Fig 1.7: Before (left) and after (right) differences for the ‘show password’ visual cues on the RM Unify login page.

A warning message is now displayed in red.

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3. General Release of the RM Unify ‘MIS Sync’ tool for England and Wales

RM Unify has a set of built-in tools to allow Administrator users to sync MIS records with RM Unify user data. This data sync matches user data already in RM Unify e.g. usernames, passwords, year groups (most likely synced through the AD Sync tool), with additional data such as classes groups, registration groups and parent/guardian information held in the school MIS. This additional data can be used within RM Unify itself for improved account management e.g. a teacher re-setting a password for an entire class (if not AD sync Establishment), for more accurate user name data (forename, surname), and also for passing class data through to RM Unify apps such as Show My Homework to enable more easy distribution and sharing of content out to classes. RM Unify MIS Sync is currently only available for schools using Capita SIMs and RM Integris (Glow schools are also not impacted by this feature). A Groupcall Xporter task is required to sync MIS data with RM Unify in the first instance. MIS Sync tasks are carried out in the RM Unify Management Console on the ‘MIS Sync Settings’ page. Full instructions can be found in this previous Release Note: http://rmunify.blogs.rm.com/RM-Unify-Blog/welcome-to-v2-16-of-rm-unify-introducing-mis-sync-and-parent-accounts/ For the latest information on the newest improvements to RM Unify and the addition of new apps,

follow RM Unify on twitter: @RMUnify, or visit the Trello Board.