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| Browser | Fully Supported | Supported, Not Tested | Not Supported |
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Chrome | 50.x | 50.x > version >= 42.x | < 42.0.2311 |
| Firefox | 46.x | 46.x > version >= 37.x | < 37.x |
| Safari | 9.x | 9.x > version >= 8.x | < 8.x |
| Internet Explorer | - | 11.x | <11.x |
| Microsoft Edge | - | 25.x | <25.x |
5.1.1 - 12th October 2016
Improvements
Log in and SSO
Added the ability to customise the various text information when using SSO integration. It is now possible to customise text of the Login Button, text of the Link for users who do not have SSO login with the organisation as well as welcome text on the left side of the logins screen. This provides compete customisation of the login screen for the customer.
5.1.0 - 10th October 2016
New Features
Filtering and searching within Practique has been overhauled, with a new unified design for filtering the Item Bank, Item Sets, Resources, Exams, Candidates, Examiners and Users.
The filtering design:
- Filters can be applied or removed easily, and allow for filtering based on Blueprint Dimensions, as well as dates and users.
- It is possible to add multiple filters - these are added using AND logic. This means that an item (or resource/candidate etc) must meet all of the criteria set in the filters. It is also possible to select multiple categories within the same dimension - this will use OR logic, where an item must be either in one of the selected categories.
- Similar to existing usage, it is possible to filter items based on their review state
- It is also possible to filter based on the type of Item (or resource etc)
- It is now easier to sort through the filtering results.
- As well as filtering by Blueprint Dimensions, it is possible to filter by the date that an item has been created or updated, as well as the user that created the item.
Example usage:
Improvements
VSAQ Improvements
PRAC-1009 There have been significant improvements to the workflow of marking VSAQ responses
- Candidates can no longer have differing marks for the exact same response. If two (or more) Candidates have responded in the same way (including case and punctuation), they now have to be given the same mark
- Identical Candidate responses are now collapsed in to one row in the responses table, meaning that it is now much quicker to mark Candidate responses
- When viewing a VSAQ item in the Item Bank, the possible responses are now shown alphabetically
- When creating a VSAQ, it is now possible to delete responses in the answer form, and no longer possible to add repeated identical possible responses
- VSAQ answers can now have scores other than 1. It is now possible to actively mark a response 0 if it is a common wrong answer, for example.
- It is now possible to add new answers to VSAQ items retrospectively, so that over time the quality of the responses and the marking time improves. This creates a new version of the item.
User Groups
Roles have been renamed to User Groups, as this more accurately reflects how they are used in Practique. We have simplified the user interface, so that it is now easier to see which User Groups a User is part of. We have also removed the 'Senior Administrator' role from all users exept Fry-IT administrators.Existing 'Senior Administrators' will be moved to Administrators. This will not affect any users abilities on the system.
Fixes
PRAC-1024 Examiner ID Validation Error
Previously it was possible to create an examiner with any ID. It is now only possible to have an Examiner with an alphanumeric ID
PRAC-1073 Exam duration and Item title are should mandatory when creating an OSCE station
When creating/editing OSCE station user could omit information about Exam duration. Such OSCE station - if scheduled - would cause problems during scheduling. Both Exam duration and Item title field has been made mandatory in order to prevent such errors.
5.0.0 - 3rd October 2016
New Features
User Interface Update
The new User Interface will likely be the most prominent change in Practique 5.0. The primary driving force behind this is to provide a better and easier experience for people using Practique on a day-to-day basis. There will be some noticeable changes to the system in some parts in order to standardise the design. However the core workflows within Practique have not changed, unless documented below.
The new design also conforms better to the W3C AA standard, meaning that the system is significantly easier to use for people with accessibility requirements. The new design lays the foundation for further improving accessibility, with Practique aiming for 100% AA coverage and aspiring to AAA coverage in the future.
- Navigation
Navigation within the system has been standardised, and added to the top navigation bar.
This will allow users to access all parts of the system from whatever page they are currently accessing, rather than going back to the dashboard each time. A new 'Help' section has been added, with ways of accessing the different types of support that we offer. The Settings drop down has been extended to detail all system-wide settings. These include all OSCE Marksheet settings (Global Observation Criteria, Sections and Schemas), management of Examiners and Candidates, Practique User account management and permissions, and device management. - Colour Scheme
The colour palette of Practique has changed, including the main theme colour of Practique. The new colour scheme provides a much higher contrast, and a standardisation of colours for the function of buttons - Standardisation of Item Bank, Item Sets, Resource Library and Resources
The design of the Item Bank, Item Sets, Resource Library and Resources Library (formerly Asset Library) has been improved and standardised. This will enable quicker navigation and use in future. - Forms
Forms styling within Practique has been standardised, which now provides a better layout for showing help text for each field. Optional fields are now marked as such. - Application Information
Application information has been moved in to a new page footer, which is helpful for debugging the application.
- Dashboard
The design of the dashboard has changed significantly in the new release. The main navigation buttons have been moved to the top bar, and we have moved unpublished exams to a new 'Exams' page. This means that only exams that are currently pushed to iPads will show on the dashboard, in the Exams in Progress table.
- Exams
The new Exams page shows all exams throughout the preparation workflow. New exams are created from this page, current exams are viewable here, and complete exams are also shown. This brings exams into the same layout and presentation as other elements in the system, which will allow for easier use. There has been no change to the workflow of exams - the steps needed to create, prepare, run, set standard and publish exams are still the same. Exams can now only be hidden from this screen and results processing (by going to Advanced > Hide) if they are not currently on pushed iPads and the exam has not finished.
DICOM Image Support
Practique now supports the use of DICOM images (including multi-slice images) on the back end. DICOM image support is currently limited to black and white images only. Currently DICOM images can not be used in exams - this feature is in preparation of the upcoming Practique desktop client. The ability to pan, zoom, rotate, window and move through slices will be the same in the desktop client as it is in the back end.
Single Sign On Integration
Practique can now integrate with SSO services (SAML2/Shibboleth), meaning that it is possible to use your institution-wide account (eg university account) to access the Practique Server. This has the advantage of having the same username and password as all other institution services, and bespoke password and username policies can be enforced.
It is possible to have both SSO and non-SSO users within Practique, and to configure whether a user has to use SSO to sign in or not. This setting can be configured by going to Settings > Practique Users > (Select a User) > Edit.
Use of SSO requires coordinated set up from both the Practique Team and institution IT services. Please get in contact if you would like to start using SSO to access Practique. As well as using SSO to authenticate users in Practique, it is now also possible to use the SSO to fetch user permissions and groups from central institution user data.
Session Expiry
We have introduced session expiry in to Practique. User session will expire after a given period of inactivity, a user will be logged out of the Practique Server. Inactivity period is a configurable length of time, and defaults to unlimited length making Session Expiry switched off by default retaining current behaviour.
Session Expiry is useful as a security measure to ensure that users do not accidently leave an unattended computer logged in to Practique. To set Session Expiry up, please contact the Practique Team.
Multiple Concurrent Exams
It is now possible to run multiple exams at the same time in Practique. Exams are pushed at a block level, meaning that it is possible to push multiple blocks, and their respective sessions, to the iPads simultaneously, including if the exams run across multiple days.
This will make the scheduling of exams considerably simpler - before where an exam had to be set up with multiple days, blocks and sessions, can now be set up as multiple individual exams. The process of preparing and pushing an exam remains the same, with the addition of being able to start multiple sessions simultaneously.
This inevitably has an impact on the iPad application, insofar as it must be recording information for the correct exam. When multiple exam sessions are synced with an iPad, the examiner or marshal logging in is presented with the option to select which exam session they would like to log in to. This mirrors the similar current functionality of logging in to an exam session when the iPad is offline. This relates to the improvement of being able to have custom names for sessions and blocks, as it will be easier for an examiner to select a correct session called "Hospital Building A - afternoon session" rather than "25th November 2016 - Session 5". Further information on the selection and use of multiple sessions is available on the iPad release note page.
- Multiple Venue Exam Example:
Lets say we have an exam running across two venues, Hospital Building A, and University Building B. We are running this exam across two days, and each day has a morning session and and afternoon session. The two days will use different Item Sets.
Previously this would not have been possible in Practique, however now we can set this up with multiple exams. We set up one exam per venue per day, so a total of four exams. We schedule a Day 1 and Day 2 exam for Hospital Building A, and University Building B. The four exams each have two sessions AM and PM. By scheduling each exam separately, it allows us to completely control who examines where and when - for example some examiners may only be able to travel to University Building B.
Multiple Blueprint Tagging
Practique 5.0 has introduced multiple blueprint tagging. Previously it was possible to tag an item or observation criterion with only one category per Blueprint Dimension. With the introduction of Blueprint Maps, we have enabled items and observation criteria to be tagged with unlimited number of categories. For example, previously for a Domain blueprint dimension, with categories 'Communication', 'Patient Safety', 'Differential Diagnosis' and 'Data Interpretation', it would only have been possible to say that a question is one of these. It is now possible to add a blueprint map, and add a 'Communication' coordinate and a 'Patient Safety' coordinate. This is also possible for individual markseet criteria as before.
As well as adding Blueprint Maps, we have introduced versioning and an audit trail to the Master Blueprint. Dimensions can now be archived, and Blueprint Maps go through the same submission workflow as items, resources and item sets.
The way that examiners and candidates can be blueprinted has not changed, however we have now added this method of tagging to resources. Previously, resources (assets) only supported simple tagging, with little control and flexibility. Now the same way of tagging has been added to resources, where a blueprint dimension can be defined as applying to items, candidates, examiners and resources.
Improvements
PRAC-957 Performance improvements for incoming mark submissions
In order to improve experience during large exams (hundreds of students sitting one exam) changes as been made to processing of the received marks by the Practique Server. Server now queues incoming marks for processing instead of immediately processing the marks to allow better & more stable performance during peak periods.
Due to this change there may be slight delay (up to 10 seconds) between the time when mark is visible (and re-distributed to the Marshal iPads) on the Practique Server and the time when Practique Server received & en-queued mark for processing. This behaviour is correct and does not affect normal exam workflow as times will rarely reach 10 second delay.
Consistency of language throughout the system
(PRAC-921, PRAC-604, PRAC-600, PRAC-934, PRAC-914, PRAC-907, PRAC-919, PRAC-389)
Some of the language for approving items, item sets, resources and blueprint maps has been changed so that it is clearer what each action is doing
Pass mark when viewing candidates marks has been renamed to passing score. This is so that it is consistent with the rest of the system
'Consulting Room' has been renamed to 'Room' when generating PDF of Candidate Schedule
'Results Download' has been renamed 'Download Results'
When making changes to an Item Set in a preparing exam, 'Tweak' has been renamed 'Modify'
Changed wording of success message when an Item Set is added to an exam.
Fixed spelling of 'Threshold' when setting the Levenshtein Threshold for a VSAQ answer.
Removed references to Palette and Diet, in favour of Item Set and Exam, respectively
Renamed 'Value' in VSAQ answer creation to 'Mark'
Exam Overview has been renamed to Reports
Changed Marking Schedule label to Marking notes for examiners
PRAC-965 Exam Block name and Session name are now editable
With introduction of the Multiple Concurrent Exams it may be beneficial to change standard Exam Block name or Session name so that it's clear for iPad users which Exam/Session/Venue they should pick from the available list. Exam team may use ability to rename blocks and sessions to indicate for example distinction of one exam in multiple venues (eg. naming OSCE Year 3 - Hospital and OSCE Year 3 - University) or provide special names for Sessions instead of standard Session 1, 2, 3, etc...
You can change Exam Block and Session name using View Sessions screen.
Added Practique version and iPad app version to status page
Practique Server status page (used for automatic monitoring) has been updated to show the version of Practique being used, as well as the version on the iPad. This can be accessed by http://<practique URL>/status?format=full page. This will allow for quicker support from internal institution IT, as well as in the case that you need support from the Practique Team. More details can be found on the Practique Server Monitoring page.
PRAC-872 Performance Improvements to the way the examiner z-score report is plotted
Improvements have been made to the report introduced version 4.3.5. The content of the report has not changed, but it should generate more quickly.
PRAC-873 Simplified the synchronisation of written exams with the iPads
Performance of the synchronisation of lager written exams has been significantly improved to reduce time necessary for an exam to be synchronised onto the iPad.
In the past Practique has synchronised exam schedule/question order of all the students to each and every iPad which meant all devices had exactly the same set of information. This strategy is necessary in OSCE scenario where each student/examiner has unique schedule but with Written exams it is unnecessary as each student sits the same exam and order of questions is the same or random.
For OSCE exams there are no changes in behaviour. For Written exams Practique currently synchronises list of questions onto the iPads and each iPad is then responsible for presenting the exam questions in correct order.
Added help texts throughout the system
This will allow for more intuitive use of Practique, and will reduce the need to cross referencing the Practique Knowledge Base. Help text within the system will be presented in two ways. Definitions of terms, and short contextual information will be presented with hover-over question marks like this? (this link will not work here). Longer format information will be presented in panels. This will be for general instructions and information on how to use Practique. Information on generic processes that cover many parts of Practique (e.g. submission workflow process) will continue to be held in the Knowledge Base.
Changes to own user account have been limited
It is no longer possible for a user to disable themselves from Practique, or to change their own username.
Item information authoring & HTML markup changes
This Practique Server imposes certain restrictions onto the HTML markup which is available via Rich text editor when editing Item information and/or Answers. Previously it was possible to use variety of rich text formatting tools using the editor as well as copy & paste content from other text editors such as MS Word or Apple Pages.
This benevolent settings lead to a lot of problems mainly during reporting, data exports and so on without adding any real benefit and value to the use of the system or Item content. In order to minimise problems with rich text following changes and restrictions has been put in place:
- Allow following text markup to Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Superscript, Subscript
- Allow Unordered & Ordered lists
- Enable Format > Clear Formatting option to quickly remove all formatting
- Enable Edit > Paste as text to be default option when Pasting
These changes are most useful in case that content is Copy & Paste from MS Word and other text editors which introduce enormous amount of unnecessary (and for user invisible) markup which influence both Practique Server & Practique iPad.
With new behaviour you can Copy & Paste content safely and it will by default be pasted as plain text without any formatting. You can then use features of the Rich text editor to re-format you content.
You can also turn off Edit > Paste as text option. In that case if you Copy & Paste Rich text editor will remove all unnecessary markup while keeping allowed elements mentioned above.
Written questions can now have item titles
All Written exam question type Items have Title field now as the OSCE stations have. Item title (Written or OSCE) is included in the Full text search. All screens dealing with the Written exams has been updated to display the Item title in the same manner as OSCE stations.
Fixes
PRAC-604 Inconsistency of Pass Mark and Passing Score
A different marker method was being used for Set standard (correct) and for Candidate list (wrong) when viewing the passing score for an exam
PRAC-875 Broken URLs when an examiner is manually assigned to a given session date
This was allowing only exams with IDs of single digits to have manual changes made. Any exam ID can now have changes made to it
Fix for Failed on CSP alert message on candidate list page
Fixed redirection to next page when changing the dates of an exam
This now returns the user to the continue preparations screen
PRAC-979 Unable to add examiners to Make Manual Changes
Examiners that had not previously been allocated to the exam (by manual, CSV or random allocation) were not able to be added to an exam when making manual changes. Now any examiner in the system can be added to an exam manually
PRAC-978 Item Cut Score report does not work if there is not a borderline marker set
The report is now able to be run when there is not a borderline marker set up on the item. However a warning message is displayed explaining that a borderline marker is not set up.
PRAC-829 related: View logins page displayed incorrect information when candidate starts on a rest room
Fixed so that View logins page works correctly, and the examiner with no candidate still shows the room where they should be
PRAC-973 An error is raised when trying to allocate examiners in existing exams
Fixed so that an examiner is created if they do not already exist when they are uploaded
PSD-219, PRAC-953 Blueprint dimensions show on Item list even if they dont apply to Items
The UI of tagging Items with blueprint dimensions has changed in the new version, Which has removed this bug.
PRAC-982 Stopping a session where some candidates are absent asks you to force stop the session
If a session has candidates that are marked as 'Did Not Attend', when you try to end that session you are asked to force stop the session, with a warning that some marks may not be submitted. This is no longer required, and the session can be stopped normally.
PSD-260, PRAC-996 Error when allocating an examiner with a special character in their name
Examiners with full unicode names can now be used in the system, and will not have allocation problems.
PSD-304, PRAC-1082 Cannot export candidate responses when response contains special character
When written exams have responses with special characters, this prevented the exam results from being exported
Report title was uneditable
It is now possible to edit the title of a report template once it had been created.
PSD-317 Error in uploading OSCE schedule when file has incorrect MIME type
This error was caused by inconsistencies with opening spreadsheet files between Windows operating systems and macOS
4.3.9 - 19th July 2016
Improvements
PSD-279, PSD-287, PSD-291 : Ability to set Cut score per station
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PDF generator has been updated to ensure that the section header is not separated from it's content.
Fixes
PRAC-963: WRITTEN - Fixed Unicode error on (V)SAQ mark edit screen
4.3.8 - 14th June 2016
Improvements
PSD-257: Removed Pass mark & Pass/Fail columns from analysis part of Candidate feedback report
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These two columns have now been removed.
Fixes
PSD-254: Unable to generate Examiner report for exam with has excluded stations
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4.3.7, 4.3.6 - 3rd June 2016
Improvements
PRAC-520 Improved scheduling of Candidates and Examiners
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- It is possible to allocate Examiners/Candidates to Session, Circuit, Room
- It is possible to upload complete schedule for Examiners/Candidates via CSV/XLS to allow external preparation of schedule
- It is possible to adjust uploaded schedule for Examiners/Candidates
- It is possible to manually prepare schedule for Examiners/Candidates
- It is still possible to let Practique generate schedule automatically
4.3.5 - 20th May 2016
Improvements
PRAC-971: Keep order of items when combining exams
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Examiner report now groups examiners per station they have examined during the exam. Also for each examiner report shows the Z-Score, Mean score and Standard deviation, this information is also presented in a graph for easy comparison.
4.3.4 - 10th May 2016
Fixes
PRAC-969, PSD-231: OSCE - Unable to change Station with special characters in it's title
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This has now been fixed and it is possible to change stations even if they contain special characters.
4.3.3 - 10th May 2016
Improvements
PRAC-967: OSCE - Role player scheduling improvements when scheduling Role players to multiple sessions
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- Copy and Rotate circuit: Role players are copied to other sessions and rotate circuits as well
- Copy and keep Circuit: Role players are copied to other sessions but stay on the same circuit
- Don't copy: Role players won't be copied to other sessions
4.3.2 - 5th May 2016
Fixes
PRAC-968: OSCE - Global observation criteria does not allow to set Borderline marker
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It is now possible to create new observation criteria and mark it as Borderline marker.
4.3.1 - 4th May 2016
Fixes
PSD-217, PRAC-947: OSCE - Candidate/Examiner import from LDAP does not specify dimension type
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Standard setting screen has been updated to indicate how many Fails is due to CSP.
4.2.2 - 12th April 2016
Improvements
PRAC-903: Written - Improve sorting of (V)SAQ answers wile marking
SAQ and VSAQ answers are now sorted by given response with the most frequent answers first which allows quicker marking.
Fixes
PRAC-650, PRAC-845: OSCE - Export OSCE results not transferring text feedback
When exporting CSV with OSCE exam results (via View Candidates screen), provided CSV does not include text feedback from Examiners they submitted.
This is now fixed and CSV exports now include text feedback.
PSD-205: OSCE - Examiner IDs showing on the Marshall scheduleWhen Examiner or Candidate is entered/imported into the Practique without first or last name then the data provided for the Practique for iPad application contains Examiner/Candidate ID in place of the missing field.
This is now fixed and Practique will not include the Examiner/Candidate ID if first/last name is omitted.
4.2.1 - 5th April 2016
Fixes
PRAC-624: ASCII error when downloading results from View standard screen
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4.2.0 - 31st March 2016 (requires Practique for iPad version >=4.1.0)
New Features
Combining exams
Combining exams feature provides means how multiple OSCE or Written exams (more specifically exam blocks) can be combined into single exam of the same type to allow desired results processing.
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Practique now separates Examiner/Candidate IDs from iPad passwords. New field Password is now available for Examiners/Candidates. You have also option to import Examiners/Candidates with new 'password' field which should be populated with desired iPad password 'as is' should you wish to have different passwords from Examiner/Candidate IDs. If you wish to have iPad passwords same as Examiner/Candidate ID you omit 'password' field from your import files or won't set it during editing and Practique will use ID as password.
Improvements
PRAC-705: Show assigned Blueprint Dimension Category including whole breadcrumb trail
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This has been now improved and users can indicate the desired feedback during creation of the Observation criteria.
Fixes
PRAC-865: Candidate drop down select for Reporting is not sorted in any way
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- Fixed PRAC-623 Drag & Drop on view starting rooms not working properly
- Fixed PRAC-733 Station Cut score report - regression graph does not start from min value
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